by Geoff Fox
Over the last few years, members of Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) came to Hancock Middle-Senior High School as part of the annual child abuse awareness assembly with multiple agencies, but this year was different. This year, they had the stage to themselves.
Led by Dogg, president of the West Virginia Chapter of BACA, the bikers took an informal approach to the assembly.
Hancock has kind of adopted BACA, Dogg said.
He said BACA would be there until the school no longer wanted them there; they’d be there for the children.
Dogg talked about cases in Arizona and how things are done in Europe.
After a short video, Dogg and Monk opened up the floor to students to ask questions.
Students asked a variety of questions ranging from what BACA does to some of the cases they’ve had.
One student asked how Dogg got involved with BACA.
Dogg said he had to first go through an FBI level background check that said “Dogg’s okay to visit children.”
Members of Bikers Against Child Abuse were at Hancock Middle-Senior High School last Friday for the annual child abuse awareness assembly.
He also talked about seeing a child in Richmond and thinking how cool it was.
“I got down on my knees and said good bye to him and he walked up and hugged me and said, ‘Thank you Dogg for coming today. I love you,’” he said.
Dogg said the little boy didn’t know him but understood he was there to make him feel safe.
“That there sunk into my heart that day,” Dogg said.
Monk told students of a case where a kid in this area was being abused and it was a student that had attended one of the assemblies at the school who told the child to contact BACA.
“That kid today is doing amazingly because of somebody in this room,” Monk said. “It wasn’t a teacher. It wasn’t a cafeteria person. It wasn’t a guidance councilor. It was one of you guys sitting in this room that said, ‘call those bikers,’ and we showed up.”
“That’s what we do, is we show up,” he said. “When everybody else doesn’t, we’re there.”
Monk said it doesn’t matter what time of night they get a phone call, they’ll show up to help that child.
It’s because of the kids is the reason BACA is there.
Monk told the kids not to worry about what is going to happen to them if they report the abuse, worry about what’s going to happen to the abuser now that someone knows.
He added since the kids are sitting at the cafeteria eating together, doing stuff, and don’t understand why someone is quiet or banging the wall.
People just think the person is having a bad day or bad attitude.
“Instead of saying, ‘Oh he’s got a bad attitude,’ say something because it might be you that saves him,” Monk said.
Dogg said the best way a child can get in touch with BACA is to first tell a teacher or someone in authority. They can also go to BACA’s website as well and look up the right chapter.
They also get referrals from police and child protective services.
