It was a cold and windy evening along the Henderson riverfront Friday evening, but that didn t stop the community from gathering for an important cause.
It appears they were right.
According to local child advocates, the number of forensic interviews conducted due to abuse investigations is up 40%. That increase is for the period of July 1, 2020, through March 30, 2021 and is compared to the same time during the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
Allegations for neglect within the same time frame are up 85%, officials said. We expected that since children weren’t in schools, churches for a while not in daycares and weren’t around trusted adults, then they wouldn t have the opportunity to make a disclosure, said Samantha Sigler, executive director of the local Children s Advocacy Center, the agency which provided the numbers.