State Program Will Focus on Child Abusers

The nation’s first statewide program to train schoolchildren and parents on how to deal with child abusers has begun in California.

State Social Services Director Linda McMahon said that more than 1 million schoolchildren a year will receive instruction under the $10-million-a-year Child Abuse Prevention Training Program.

“This program is the single most important step we have taken in the prevention of child abuse,” McMahon said. “Its positive effects should begin almost immediately and continue for years.”

The Department of Social Services said there were 151,575 reported cases of child abuse in California during the one-year period ending last Sept. 30. But since studies indicate that only 20% of such offenses are reported, the actual number of child abuse cases could exceed 750,000 a year.

The department recently contracted with 82 local groups and agencies to conduct the prevention program at public schools. For the most part, they are private nonprofit organizations like women’s centers and rape crisis groups. In some instances, schools conduct the programs.

Bruce Kennedy, chief of the department’s Office of Child Abuse Prevention, said the program is aimed at educating three groups of people--children, teachers, and parents.

Under the program, youngsters in kindergarten through high school as well as those in about 800 state-funded preschool centers will be taught what abuse is, how to minimize or avoid abuse and whom to tell about it.

Teachers are instructed on how to spot a child who is a victim of abuse, techniques for helping the child, and reporting such cases.

Parents will learn what to do if their child tells them that he or she has been victim of some form of abuse, including sexual. The parents will be given a preview of the program’s curriculum, and they can have their children excluded from the program.

Kennedy said schools participate on a voluntary basis. But he added: “Historically, very few schools ever say no. There is no cost to the school and the program takes up very little classroom time.”

The program for children involves one or two classroom sessions--each about 30 minutes to an hour in length.

Kennedy said there are at least a few schools in every state that offer a child-abuse prevention program.

But he said California “is the first state that has made it a statewide program. Our program is, far and away, the largest in the nation.”

Some schools in California were already offering their own programs before the start of the state-financed program. Kennedy said the state program, which is offered on a school-by-school basis, has already been put into effect in some areas of California.

He said that about a fourth of the 4 million public school students in the state will receive the training each year, meaning that each student could receive such instruction once every four years.

Kennedy said the Office of Child Abuse Prevention also provides training for the local agencies and organizations that will conduct the programs in schools.

Gov. George Deukmejian last year signed a bill authorizing the program.

The measure was written by Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who said when unveiling the measure:

“America is a country that claims to love children. At the same time we make this claim, we are allowing children to be attacked physically and sexually every day. It has gotten out of hand.”