The statistics are overwhelming.
Of the approximate 3.6 million referrals made to child protection agencies nationally, nearly 700,000 are found to be actual victims of child abuse.
To put that in perspective, said Ali Kern with Tinker’s Family Advocacy Program, the number of child abuse victims in the United States annually would fill the University of Oklahoma’s 86,112-seat football stadium roughly eight-and-a-half times.
“So if you’ve ever been to an OU game and it’s jam packed and you think ‘wow, that’s a lot of people,’ imagine those being victims and kids of abuse,” she said. “That is just crazy to me. We don’t talk about it because it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have, but we have got to talk about it.”
The statistics are overwhelming.
Of the approximate 3.6 million referrals made to child protection agencies nationally, nearly 700,000 are found to be actual victims of child abuse.
To put that in perspective, said Ali Kern with Tinker’s Family Advocacy Program, the number of child abuse victims in the United States annually would fill the University of Oklahoma’s 86,112-seat football stadium roughly eight-and-a-half times.
“So if you’ve ever been to an OU game and it’s jam packed and you think ‘wow, that’s a lot of people,’ imagine those being victims and kids of abuse,” she said. “That is just crazy to me. We don’t talk about it because it’s an uncomfortable conversation to have, but we have got to talk about it.”