It Will Fade Away

Nurse Tonya discovers that six-year-old Yuri has been sexually harassing her three-year-old daughter Isla in kindergarten. When she learns that he has also molested two other children, but the parents were not informed for months, she questions the limits of children's sexual exploration. The values of compassionate education and inclusive difference that led her to put her daughter in a subsidised kindergarten show systemic cracks when the repeated violence fails to subside. It turns out that three other children have been sexually harassed in the space of three months, despite the knowledge of the kindergarten. As Yuri is of mixed complexion and his behaviour was imitated by a boy of dark complexion, the situation inadvertently takes on a racial connotation. In an attempt to understand the situation, the author explores how the institution helps the children who are victims of the perpetrator and how it helps the perpetrator himself. In the face of vague explanations and delayed responses, she wonders whether institutions are closing in on themselves even when it comes to children.