Solutions Needed For Child Safety

It’s after dinner. What to do? You can watch “The Simpsons” or “Rescue 911.” You can go for a walk, a bike ride. You can read a book. Or ease into some much-needed relaxation after a busy day.

Tonight, however, we invite you to change your plans and help make our community a safer place for children. We invite you to a public forum in the Shadle Park High School auditorium from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The newspaper is sponsoring the forum. The theme is protecting our children.

We are doing this because of Rachel Carver, the 9-year-old girl who was killed last June. The crime rattled the community to its core. When Rachel - bright, perky, good-spirited Rachel - failed to show up at Ridegeview Elementary School, hundreds of people searched and prayed. Many knew her; many did not.

The searchers and those who prayed felt shattered when Rachel’s body was discovered. Her uncle, a sex offender, has been charged with the murder. Rachel’s death prompted many people to question the laws that guard children against sex offenders and to ask how Rachel’s death could have been prevented.

At the forum, you will hear from several men and women in our community who deal with child protection issues all the time, such as Dee Wilson of state Child Protective Services and Sue Hille, coordinator of the Spokane Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Center. They will offer their insights about how our children can be safer in their homes, schools and neighborhoods.

Interactive Editor Doug Floyd, who will moderate the forum, said: “This won’t be a place for people just to get information and then go home and think about it. Come prepared to work out solutions and think up strategies to protect children like Rachel.”

We sometimes think solutions to complex social problems lie outside us. With experts. With legislative bodies. With the schools.

But we hope men and women will trust their own knowledge and experience and share that at the forum. How do you keep your own kids safe? How did your parents protect you? How do you look after the children in your extended family, your neighborhood?

Remember, the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery was begun because some community members were appalled when Vanessa, age 2, was killed by those who were supposed to protect her.

The expression “it takes a village to raise a child” has evolved into a cliche. But wisdom resides within those words. Come tonight and be part of the village.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board