State Senator Bob Duff
April 2, 2008
Norwalk Students Raise Awareness, Memorialize Child Abuse Victims With Display at State Capitol
A student from Brien McMahon High School’s Senators Community Foundation in Norwalk helps to arrange a line of paper lunch bags on the lawn of the State Capitol in Hartford. (April 2, 2008)
Paper lunch bags--9,422 in total--adorned the State Capitol's South Grounds today, as twenty students from Brien McMahon High School's Senators Community Foundation in Norwalk memorialized all victims of child abuse in Connecticut last year. Joined by local and state lawmakers to kick off National Child Abuse Prevention Month and raise awareness of child abuse in the state, the students wrote a name and age on each bag to recognize each victim under the age of 12.
"We stand before you today not as one voice, but as the voice of 197 students at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk who want people to think about the steps they can take to help prevent child abuse in Connecticut," said eighteen-year-old Ruhana Da Silva, a senior. "Many people do not realize that somewhere in Connecticut a child is abused as they watch their favorite one-hour show on television, that two children will be abused during the UConn women's basketball game tonight, or that three children will be abused during my SAT exam. We're here today to remind people that they can do something--that they must do something--to help prevent child abuse."
"The dedication and conscience of these students is commendable and should serve as an inspiration to us all," said Senator Bob Duff (D-Norwalk). "It's truly tragic that more than 9,000 children in our state last year suffered from abuse. My sincerest hope is that, through the efforts of these students and the awareness that they've raised today, next year we will not have to see 9,422 paper bags on this lawn here in Hartford."
"Child abuse is a horrific act of cruelty upon the innocent that weakens us as a society," Representative Chris Perone (D-Norwalk) said. "The students of Brien McMahon High School are improving the quality of life in Connecticut by bringing this issue to people's attention in a powerful and thought-provoking way. I am honored to have the opportunity to help these students in their effort to end this terrible crime."
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