Every child is subject to child abuse

Speaking at a news conference on Silent Tears, a report on child sex abuse in South Carolina prepared by the National Child Protection Training Center, Gov. Nikki Haley bravely spoke up about her own experience of child abuse and offered a noteworthy warning to parents.

“It doesn’t matter your background, it doesn’t matter your education, it doesn’t matter the wealth of your family,” Haley said. “Every child is subject to child abuse.”

The Washington Post has more:

In her book “Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story,” Haley wrote about living in a trailer in Bramberg and being watched by a nearby couple while her mother worked...

“When it happened to me, my parents didn’t know what to do,” she said Monday. “They didn’t know who to go to. No one knew how to handle it.”

Although no one likes to talk about it, child sexual abuse is something of a national epidemic.  According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse in America.  This puts the rate of sexual assault on par with childhood obesity, yet the latter gets much more widespread public attention.

Props to Haley for speaking so frankly about an important issue mostly overlooked by society.