It can be a tough world out there for kids.
And that’s not counting the threats of gun violence in schools or the angst that comes from just simply being that age.
If you’re a parent, or someone else who has been entrusted with the care of a child, you already know that.
Last year, at least 1-in-7 children suffered some form of abuse or neglect, according to numbers culled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“At least,” the CDC qualifies, because many such cases go unreported.
One statistic, though, the agency noted, couldn’t be more grimly definitive, or more grimly telling.
In 2020, that high-stress year of the pandemic, a total of 1,750 children across the U.S. died.
Victims.
Beaten — and beaten down.
They were killed outright by the hands of their abusers.
Or, they wrenchingly succumbed from the ravages of neglect.
Either way, they were taken away.
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and in Morgantown, the Monongalia County Child Advocacy Center is helping lead off the annual awareness campaign with a session it calls, “Child Safety 101.”
The gathering will be from 4-6 p.m. April 14 at the Mon County Center in Mylan Park.
Look for a bevy of educational materials and a talk by Diane Tarantini, a survivor of child abuse who grew up to become a child safety expert and acclaimed author.
Her book, “The Brave Knight,” tells its young readers how to spot and avoid sexual predators.
There’s no pre-registration for the session, which is free, said Taylor Shulz, the child advocacy center’s director of awareness and development.
“It’s about advocacy and it’s about awareness,” she said. “We want to see as many parents and caregivers as we can on April 14.”
Contact her at 304-598-0344 or tshultz@moncocac.org if you have additional questions about the event.
Questions, the kind that have to be voiced during investigations, are in part why the Monongalia County Child Advocacy Center was created nearly 20 years ago.
Call it a matter of compassionate protocol.
That’s because the center is ground zero in its pursuit of bringing abusers of children to justice.
Instead of being shuttled from one agency after the other to recount painful events over and over, young victims are interviewed in one fixed location at the advocacy center.
The interviews are monitored and shared with the appropriate authorities who are also there for the sessions.
From its home on Green Bag Road, the center last year conducted 1,195 such sessions for children.
Of that number, 44% were between 7-12 years old.
In April 2005, when the child advocacy center opened, there was still a story making the rounds in West Virginia that many found unnecessarily cruel, even with the good intentions that surrounded it.
One particular child abuse victim in the southern part of the state, that story went, had to be interviewed 19 separate times — as police and other authorities worked to make a case.
The MCCAC keeps that from happening here.
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