PENNSYLVANIA
Your4State
[with video]
ERIE, Pa.
Child abuse is an ever growing problem, especially in Pennsylvania, where it’s believed to go vastly under reported.
The “Protect our Children” committee said the commonwealth has one of the lowest rates of reported child abuse in the nation.
“There are predators out there who have focused on children and had multiple victims. It was kept quiet,” Janet McKay, executive director of the Victims Resource Center in Wilkes-Barre said.
Advocacy groups allege Pennsylvania has developed a culture of cover-ups. High-profiles cases like in Altoona-Johnstown, where a grand jury found Diocese members abused hundreds of children, and a similar scenario involving Penn State’s football coach Jerry Sandusky highlight the issue.
In both cases, people high up in the organization allegedly knew of the child abuse and did what they could to conceal it from law enforcement and school administrators.
The cases have inspired a recent push for legislative change in the commonwealth. Advocates hope to change the statute of limitations on child sex-abuse claims.
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