November is Child Safety & Prevention Month

Most stories and blogs about Child Safety & Prevention Month deal with installing safety gates for children, making sure that there are no exposed outlets, keeping dangerous objects locked and otherwise making homes childproof.

But there are other aspects to keeping children safe, like from abuse. A recent article in the New York Times was about children being beaten to death and the child protection agencies and police personnel in New York City not doing their jobs to protect them. The article made note of the “difficulty” in telling the difference between an injury from a child being beaten at home and child falling down or having some other type of accident.

There is no simple way to address this horrible problem. Child protection agencies and police departments are overwhelmed, particularly in these Covid times. But, that doesn’t excuse laziness, negligence and “mistakes” the cause great harm, including death. Anyone who sees or suspect child abuse should “say something” to the police, school authorities, or anyone else with the potential to help, even if it is done anonymously. You could be saving a child’s life – or soul.