Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 64 / Thursday, April 3, 1997 / Presidential Documents 16035

Proclamation 6981 of April 1, 1997

National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 1997

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

We live in a Nation blessed with liberty and prosperity. Yet, many of

our children still suffer the horrors of child abuse and neglect, knowing

no happiness, and sometimes even losing their lives. And, it is a problem

that grows worse. Last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services reported that an estimated 3 million American children were abused

or neglected, twice as many as 5 years earlier. Almost half a million of

our children were seriously injured because of this mistreatment, quadruple

the number from the previous report. Tragically, more than 1,100 abused

children died last year—an incomprehensible 80 percent of them at the

hands of their own parents. We must not let this senseless suffering continue.

My Administration is continuing its efforts to make our children safer.

Already, we have developed new family-based prevention services to work

with families at risk, and we have said to those who would prey on our

children in public housing that one conviction for drug dealing or a violent

crime will result in expulsion from public housing. We are working to

establish a national registry for sexual predators, and we have preserved

the Federal investment in child protective services so States have the resources to help children in danger. We have taken guns off the street

by banning 19 deadly assault weapons, and we are putting 100,000 more

police officers on the streets to patrol our neighborhoods. And my Administration has developed a plan that aims, by the year 2002, to double the

number of children placed in adoption or permanent placements from the

public foster care system.

During this month of April, we pause to recognize and praise the work

of those parents and other caretakers who see that the physical, mental,

emotional, educational, and medical needs of our children are adequately

met. I commend the efforts of the dedicated and compassionate men and

women who assist families in crisis and enable these families to prevent

child abuse. Without the commitment, knowledge, and skill of these men

and women, many more children would find themselves the victims of

abuse and the lives of many children who are abused and neglected would

never improve. With their involvement, the lives of our most vulnerable

children are immeasurably enriched. This month reminds us that every

child is entitled to live his or her life to its fullest, free from fear and

want. As Thomas Jefferson stated so eloquently, ‘‘The Giver of life gave

it for happiness and not for wretchedness.’’ We hold our children’s future

in trust. Let us not fail them.
16036 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 64 / Thursday, April 3, 1997 / Presidential Documents

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution

and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 1997 as National

Child Abuse Prevention Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this

month by demonstrating our respect and gratitude for those who devotedly

and unselfishly work to keep children safe, by learning how we can help

keep children from harm’s way, and by taking responsible actions to protect

our precious children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of

April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred

[FR Doc. 97–8736

Filed 4–1–97; 8:45 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

and twenty-first.

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