I’m quite sure the realization of magnitude does not help with the isolation many victims of sexual abuse feel, but I wonder while these stats set my mind on fire, and I look into faces full of wide-eyed wonder in my son’s preschool classroom, why the hell aren’t we talking about this more?

Multiple children in our little preschool have either already been or will one day be sexually abused, and who is it that will make prey of these precious little ones? Well, according to research, 90 percent will be abused by someone they know, either a family member or a trusted family friend will take it upon themselves to create secret, intimate moments with your child or my child.

The next time you’re at a ball game, a high school sporting event or a child’s birthday party, look around and wonder who is keeping secrets, and who should be headed to jail? This isn’t the stuff that happens to someone else. It’s not the bad dream of poverty or the shrug of the educated elite; it’s in your neighborhood and mine. It’s in your school and mine. It’s in your church and in my park. It’s in our playgroups and our peer groups. For God’s sake, it’s in our families and in our homes.

The statistics hurt:

• 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 18.
• 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18.
• An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exist in America today.

Thanks Danielle for sending me the link to the following information…

Darkness to Light is a non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse by shifting the responsibility of prevention from children to adults. The mission is accomplished through an award winning media campaign that raises public awareness and directs adults to educational tools. The tools teach adults how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse and include the 7 Steps to Preventing Child Sexual Abuse and the consciousness training based Stewards of Children curriculum. For more information on how you can help prevent child sexual abuse, please visit www.darkness2light.org.

If you’re a blogger, won’t you consider joining me by adding this graphic and link to your sidebar?

There’s lots to gain and nothing to lose by increasing awareness, education and participating in the conversation. Can I count on you?

Here’s the code:

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