Children Plant Pinwheels to Represent 483 Child Abuse Victims in the County

Little hands planted some 483 shining blue and silver pinwheels on the courthouse lawn Tuesday noon as part of an annual ceremony held by the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) to mark the beginning of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

This year marks the first year ever hundreds of students flocked to the lawn to take part, says CAC Executive Director Heather Ward, but the center wanted to get the children involved. “It’s great to see the community to come out,” she said. Ward relayed that she’d noticed blue ribbons and other handicrafts popping up around town. “It’s great to see people making it their own.”

The pinwheel ceremony has been taking place since 2005, with each pinwheel representing on child victim of abuse. In 2012, Tom Green County saw a total of 427 confirmed cases of child abuse; in 2013, that number jumped to 483.

Police Chief Tim Vasquez explained the gravity of this number Tuesday afternoon by simple comparison. “Let me put that in perspective for you,” he said. “That is more child victims in our county than students in some of our larger elementary campuses in San Angelo. That entire school in the city of San Angelo and every child there being a victim.”

Compared to the state average, Tom Green County’s rate of confirmed child abuse victims is alarmingly high, coming in at 17.9 victims per 1,000 children. The state average is 9.3 for every 1,000. Further, Vasquez says the number of children abused in the state on an annual basis averages out to one child becoming a victim every eight minutes.

“You never want to think these things happen to children. We hear some of those horrific cases and you don’t want to believe it happens, but it does, it’s a reality, so what we try to do is rally the community to prevent it and to protect children,” Ward said.

The pinwheels are meant to serve as a visual representation to the community on the problems facing children within the county. Throughout the month, the CAC will be promoting awareness and prevention via various activities in the community.

“I just hope that people become more aware—more educated—on how to report, things to look for, stuff like that,” Ward said. “It is preventable and a lot of times you’re the one person that has taken the courage to report. Sometimes people think that other people will report it or they don’t want to get into other people’s business, and things like that, but the reality is, those children need you to.”

Chief Vasquez reiterated Ward’s words, stressing that abuse is preventable and that child victims will often need an adult to come forward and advocate for them.

“Everywhere on the child abuse continuum we have programs,” Ward explains of the CAC. The program leaders and staff work together with children, families, law enforcement and other agencies to take care of children who have been victims.

The CAC offers training for any group on what to recognize and how to report it. Those seeking informational materials can pick them up at the center.  Reports of abuse should be made to the CPS hotline at 1-800-252-5400, or to the police.

Child Abuse Prevention Month will run through April.   Throughout the month, every Friday is "Go Blue Friday" Blue is the national color for child abuse awareness.

The CAC is hosting Picnic in the Park on April 13 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Kirby Park. The event is sponsored by the CAC to promote healthy and nurturing families with games, music, food and fun, and is free and open to the public.