Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Preventing Child Sexual Abuse

As a member of the Legislative Task Force on the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse I was encouraged by the State House briefing we had today because the task force has been actively collecting data and building frameworks and other tools that will help us protect children.

Representative Brad Hill and I volunteered to go first in inviting the Task Force to begin community meetings across the state. I will keep you posted when we schedule a session on Cape Ann.

Here is what we know now- a pedophile averages more than 200 victims in our state, one in five girls and one in 10 boys are sexually abused before 18, and children with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be sexually abused.

These statistics are alarming and they are the underpinning of why we legislatively created a task force; we need to empower those who care about the wellbeing of kids with the tools and resources they need to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

Our Task Force will raise public awareness and develop strategies that will help professionals, volunteers, and others working with kids identify signs of abuse. We have a lot of work to do but we cannot fail, we must ensure the safety and protection for our children.