District attorney's office staff plant pinwheels to bring awareness to National Child Abuse Prevention Month

Tomeka Sinclair, The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C.
·3 min read

Apr. 21—LUMBERTON — Dressed in royal blue, Robeson County Courthouse staff took part in some spring gardening Tuesday, but pinwheels now line the court steps instead of flowers.

The blue pinwheels, and a banner, were installed to bring awareness to National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which runs through April. The pinwheels represent playfulness, joy and childhood, Assistant District Attorney Joe Osman said.

The District Attorney's Office planned the event attended by District and Superior Court judges and representatives from the county Department of Social Services and the Guardian ad Litem program. Child abuse continues to be a major issue in the county, a fact that prompted the District Attorney's Office to make people who enter the courthouse and motorists who drive by each day aware of the problem.

"We have a lot of child abuse cases in Robeson County in our office," Assistant District Attorney Krystle Melvin said. "On the criminal side we have a lot of child sexual abuse cases, child physical abuse, and it's the type of issue that we need to engage the community and bring more awareness so that people are willing to come forward and prevent it. Realizing all of that, we didn't want the opportunity to pass to try to bring the community into it, to bring our partners together and let the public know what going on."

"People say 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' That's exactly what this is about," said Matt Scott, Robeson County district attorney.

It's up to the community to "fix the ailments" that plague Robeson County, he said.

"The kids that face this abuse — not only mental abuse but physical abuse — are two times likely to have heart disease, have a life expectancy of 20 years less than the average person and are 70% more likely to be a defendant or a victim," Scott said. "We can't address that in our courthouse."

It's something that needs to be addressed in the community, in homes and in the school system, he said.

"Until we do, we're going to have a lot of crime in our community," Scott said.

Chief District Court Judge Angelica Chavis McIntyre swore in a court counselor before Tuesday's awareness event and presented the new counselor with a small guardian angel figurine, which is how she considers all who work in various roles dealing with children.

"The best services to a child that has been a victim of any kind of abuse or neglect, those services that are closer to them, are the most important," McIntyre said. "They deserve to have our full, devoted attention, not our divided attention and the only way we can do that is all of us together."

One of the greatest indicators of a society's character is how its children are treated, the judge said.

"I think all of us strive every day to make sure our children are safe, that they are protected 'cause they are the most vulnerable and most precious in our society and they are our future," McIntyre said.

Education is key to preventing abuse crimes in the future, Chief Resident Superior Court Judge Greg Bell said.

"Education and prevention is better than the condition," he said.

Organizations like Guardian ad Litem devote time to being advocates for children in need, and representatives from the program said so on Tuesday.

"We just want to be that child's voice in the community and in the court and make sure that permanence is achieved," said Amy Hall, district administrator for the Guardian ad Litem program.

Volunteers are needed for the program. Individuals interest in becoming a Guardian ad Litem can do so by calling 910-671-3077.

Tomeka Sinclair can be reached at [email protected] or 910-416-5865.

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