ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Excellent CAST-ing

When Orange County declared bankruptcy and started searching for ways to save money, the South County Child Abuse Services Team (CAST) suffered a double whammy. The district attorney’s office withdrew the prosecutor assigned solely to the CAST offices in Orange and Laguna Hills, and the county said it could no longer afford the $80,000-a-year rent on the Laguna Hills office. If a fund-raising effort fails, the two CAST offices will have to be combined in Orange.

The Laguna Hills office opened a little more than three years ago in response to increasing cases of child abuse. Both CAST offices provide comfortable areas that permit joint interviews by police, social workers and counselors, avoiding the need for an abused child to repeatedly suffer through the relating of traumatic incidents. Parents who have taken children to the offices have praise for the sensitive treatment of the youngsters. County officials deserve credit for keeping at least one of the CAST sites open; the Orange facility handled 700 sexual abuse cases last year.

Workers at the Laguna Hills site are raising money in an effort to keep that office operating. That is good. Even if they fail, they will have helped publicize the fact that abuse can occur anywhere, in rich communities like Laguna Hills as well as poor ones. They will also have alerted residents to what the county does to help in such cases. Supervisor William G. Steiner says he hopes that if the office closes, it will reopen “when the bankruptcy passes.” So do we.