Abused children honored at vigil

A crowd sought shelter from the rain Thursday night as 57 T-shirts swung dripping on a clothes line outside. The small shirts featured words such as “gunshot,” “neglect” and “beaten.” They represented the 57 children who died as child abuse victims in the state of Indiana during 2005.\nCommunity leaders, law enforcement officers and concerned citizens gathered for a memorial led by the Monroe County Department of Child Protective Services. Driven indoors to the Monroe County Courthouse, 100 W. 5th St., spectators held signs and battery powered votive candles, advocating safety for all children. All held the concern of the welfare of Indiana children in their hearts.\nLocal resident and foster parent Dan Scholm was among the crowd and, along with his wife Jennifer, hopes to ensure a safe environment for his family.\n“It’s a good practice to treat your children kindly,” he said. “It will help them become better people when they grow up to have families of their own.”\nDavid Welch, Indiana circuit court judge, spoke to the crowd and hopes child abuse cases will no longer be present in Bloomington courts.\n“Some say it takes a village to raise a child,” he said to the crowd. “Some say, no, it takes a certain kind of family. I say that definitions don’t matter to a child who is hurting, a child who is cold, a child who is alone.”\nWorking together to promote April as National Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month, Welch said the community is responsible for making Bloomington and all of Monroe County a safe haven for children to live.\n“I think there was an extraordinary turnout, which is very indicative of the value Monroe County places on its children,” he said. “As a community, we need to be involved in the correct circumstances. The message is not about intervention, but about proper intervention.”\nLindsay A. Smith has been director of the Monroe County Department of Child Services for 11 years and said that he has never seen such a high number of community supporters for the annual April campaign. The vigil, which was a first for the department, was the final initiative to proclaim the month a success, following the positive response to the Blue Ribbon Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Campaign, which has been in full swing for the duration of the month.\n“We are elated by the response by the community,” he said. “We are working to get our message out and that everyone needs to assume the responsibility of the welfare and safety of our children.”\nSmith calls Monroe County a place where children are valued, proven not only by Thursday’s crowd, but by the fact none of Indiana’s 57 child abuse-related deaths in 2005 were inside Monroe County.\nAlthough he is pleased with the Bloomington area’s lack of statistics in this regard, he is nonetheless concerned about the well-being of its children. Currently, a new approach to working alongside parents in all different situations has been put into place, and he says it could be the answer to a large portion of abuse cases.\n“Providing proper counseling and training to parents will be our biggest help to the children of this state,” he said. “Even with the most difficult child, we need to teach the parents that the solution is not to just avoid the problem and resolve it in another way. We will continue to hope that our efforts will make a difference in the lives of the children of Monroe County.”