Hats Off to Christy Heiskala, Child Abuse Victim Advocate

We’re dedicating today’s blog to our former client—and super mom—turned victim advocate Christy Heiskala. Words can’t express how proud we are of her for all the work she’s doing to prevent child abuse and molestation. But we’ll try.

After an incident in 2007 when Christy’s daughter came home from elementary school and told her mother that her teacher had touched her inappropriately, Christy took immediate action. Unfortunately, she found that simply reporting the teacher’s behavior was not enough. She met with the principal, who sent her to meet with Carlsbad Unified School District officials. When the district’s lawyer asked her what she intended, Christy replied, “What do you mean? My intention is to get this teacher out of the class.”

The teacher, Raymond Firth, was put on leave, and officials assured Christy they would report the incident to authorities.

Taking matters into her own hands, Christy went to authorities herself. The police questioned her about why a teacher would do what he did, leaving an angry mother to wonder why she was meeting so many barriers to justice for her daughter. When a district attorney was finally assigned to her case, Christy was told that she would have to wait for other victims to come forward before Firth could be charged with a crime.

Finally, in 2008, two other victims came forward and Firth was prosecuted for his crimes. In 2010, Firth took a plea deal and was sentenced to three years and eight months in jail. He ended up serving only 22 months before being released with sex offender status. Christy filed a civil lawsuit through our firm and was awarded a multi-million-dollar settlement by a jury.

A tireless advocate for children

Christy has not ended her—or her daughter’s—story. In fact, she has turned the conversation around and now dedicates her time to advocating for victims and providing child sexual abuse and molestation training to local schools and organizations.

Her business, Educate to Eliminate, teaches parents and guardians to recognize the signs of predator grooming and how to teach children about consent. She stresses the importance of teaching children to have autonomy over their bodies, and to understand when their consent is being violated: “Kids need to know they are in charge of their bodies,” she said.

Christy also offers guidance on reporting these crimes to authorities. After her frustrating experience with her own daughter’s abuse, she emphasizes the importance of parents making their own reports and not relying on someone to do it for them. She is working to make changes to the system to provide better training for educators, Title IX administrators, as well as recommending guidelines for how school staff should interact with students. She hopes to see a more centralized method implemented that can catch repeated complaints about an abuser and have them reported to authorities.

Time to take back control, to do better for our children

What Christy has done so far is extraordinary, and an invaluable tool in the fight against sexual abuse in schools. As her attorney Dave Ring explains, “Way too often [schools] are not reporting it to the authorities … They go about investigating it themselves. They ask the teacher about it and he denies it. Don’t wait for the district to do the right thing. Go to the police and have them write a report.”

We thank Christy for her tireless work for children. It is much needed, and we are proud to fight alongside her.

Child sexual abuse is a devastating crime. When it happens under the trusted eye of your school or an authority figure, it can shatter your trust in the system. The attorneys at Taylor & Ring in Los Angeles are on your side and will fight for justice for your child. Call us today at 310.776.6390 or complete our contact form to schedule a consultation.