As we witness the unspeakable revelations about crimes and sins that have been committed against our children and youth over decades, we are all probably feeling some combination of shame, disgust, and sadness, because ultimately these discoveries reflect our inability to protect our young people from the predators of this world. These despicable revelations are an indictment against us as adults because we’ve failed to shield the children when they’ve been most vulnerable. We’ve failed in our capacity to insulate and isolate them from those whose aims are to harm them and stifle their dreams and aspirations. We’ve not fulfilled our mandate to provide the right kind of sanctuaries for them as they engage and discover their talents and abilities in school, at home, and in their surrounding neighborhoods and communities. Whether as parents, guardians, school officials, or adult stewards, the grownups are responsible for creating safe havens for our young people, so that they are not shackled by fears or insecurities associated with an adult who has taken advantage of their trust and innocence.

The range of child abuse cases surfacing over recent years seems to indicate that there’s much work to be done related to how to detect child abuse, how to weed out and eliminate predators from employment, how to monitor adult interaction and behavior in youth-centric contexts, how to help youth understand and report incidences of abuse and abuse-like behaviors, and how to effectively punish offenders. It’s patently clear that the systems, cultures, policies, and procedures of many schools and other facilities occupied by young people need to be overhauled, if the adults intend to get serious about addressing the abusive behaviors that are threatening and seeping into the ranks of schools and related entities. We can’t wait for more incidents to be uncovered, we must act now! We must tune our ears and focus our eyes when we hear and see adult-child interactions and behaviors that appear abusive or inappropriate. Until we can get things right and safeguard our children and youth from the predators lurking around them, we have to be more vigilant, which means we must error on the side of overreaction.