Stop abusers like Dr. Nassar from hurting more children
The conviction and sentencing of Dr. Larry Nassar, physician for the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team, caught the country by surprise last week as many of his victims publicly spoke in detail of his decades of abuse.
Many are asking, “How could this have happened?” Sadly, sexual abuse, and the broader problem of child abuse, is a widespread and pernicious threat to both our kids and our country’s well-being.
Cities around the country are reporting that crime is at a record low, touting statistics that harken back decades, but crimes against children continue to rise. The number of child abuse victims in our country increased for three consecutive years, according to the most recent report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families.
Here in the Bay Area, there have been no substantial fluctuations in child abuse allegations, which hover around 60,000. That’s more than one report every 10 minutes. Though not all reports are verified, not all incidents are reported and far too many children continue to suffer in silence with no one ever knowing. It is likely that the actual number of child abuse victims in the Bay Area is far more.
We know that child abuse is preventable. And, it takes the efforts and will of an entire community to keep kids safe. Safety lessons that empower children to speak up and tips to help parents identify signs of abuse are part of this effort.
But there is also a broader community responsibility that cannot be ignored. Our institutions — especially those that serve children like schools, hos- pitals, sports leagues, places of faith — must share in our collective responsibility to protect children.
How can our institutions do their part to protect kids? Here are three steps to get started:
• Adopt a code of conduct that meets child safety best practices (such as not being alone in a room or text messaging with a child).
• Host a training to educate employees on child safety, tips to identify child abuse and how to report it.
• Establish a child abuse reporting policy that outlines who should report abuse and how, and clearly states that children should be trusted and believed. And create accountability structures to ensure it is followed.
Child abuse affects each of us. The harm and trauma of child abuse lasts far past the act, following children into their future. More than that, the impact of abuse reverberates throughout society.
We see it in the Bay Area every day as we pass our homeless neighbors and as our prisons continue to be overcrowded because victims of child abuse are more likely to be homeless and incarcerated.
Child abuse means an in- crease of risky behavior, it means a greater need for physical and mental health care and special education services. It shows itself in our overburdened child welfare system.
To put a number to it, the economic cost of child abuse to the Bay Area community for the 6,863 verified cases in 2015 was $2.2 billion, based on research from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Safe & Sound. This same amount of money could put nearly 22,000 kids through college.
If every organization held itself accountable for the well-being of children, there’s no doubt that Nassar would have been brought to justice much earlier. Now, we must work to activate our community to ensure that travesties like this never happen again.
Until we take a stand against child abuse as a community, innocent children will continue to be hurt, and our society will continue to suffer.