Recognizing the need to better educate children about their personal safety, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon voted for a bill that urges primary and secondary schools to implement comprehensive child safety education programs. The bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday, expresses the sense of Congress that states should encourage their primary and secondary schools to implement quality child safety curricula so each child receives instruction that is positive, comprehensive and effective. Teaching kids how to protect themselves should be an integral part of their overall education.
People do bad things, and, unfortunately, children are often the targets of that bad behavior.
More than 1,000 children in the United States die each year as a direct result of child abuse and neglect, with more than 3 million U.S. children reported annually as suspected victims of child abuse and neglect, according to estimates. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 52 percent of all substantiated child abuse victims in 1996 suffered neglect while 24 percent suffered physical abuse. About 12 percent of those victims suffered sexual abuse. Those same statistics revealed that 77 percent of the people who abused those children were parents and an additional 11 percent were related to the victims. And in 1999, there were 867,129 people reported missing, with 85 to 90 percent of those people being children.