[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 64 (Thursday, April 3, 1997)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 16035-16036]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-8736]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 64 / Thursday, April 3, 1997 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 16035]]


                Proclamation 6981 of April 1, 1997

                
National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 1997

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                We live in a Nation blessed with liberty and 
                prosperity. Yet, many of our children still suffer the 
                horrors of child abuse and neglect, knowing no 
                happiness, and sometimes even losing their lives. And, 
                it is a problem that grows worse. Last year, the U.S. 
                Department of Health and Human Services reported that 
                an estimated 3 million American children were abused or 
                neglected, twice as many as 5 years earlier. Almost 
                half a million of our children were seriously injured 
                because of this mistreatment, quadruple the number from 
                the previous report. Tragically, more than 1,100 abused 
                children died last year--an incomprehensible 80 percent 
                of them at the hands of their own parents. We must not 
                let this senseless suffering continue.

                My Administration is continuing its efforts to make our 
                children safer. Already, we have developed new family-
                based prevention services to work with families at 
                risk, and we have said to those who would prey on our 
                children in public housing that one conviction for drug 
                dealing or a violent crime will result in expulsion 
                from public housing. We are working to establish a 
                national registry for sexual predators, and we have 
                preserved the Federal investment in child protective 
                services so States have the resources to help children 
                in danger. We have taken guns off the street by banning 
                19 deadly assault weapons, and we are putting 100,000 
                more police officers on the streets to patrol our 
                neighborhoods. And my Administration has developed a 
                plan that aims, by the year 2002, to double the number 
                of children placed in adoption or permanent placements 
                from the public foster care system.

                During this month of April, we pause to recognize and 
                praise the work of those parents and other caretakers 
                who see that the physical, mental, emotional, 
                educational, and medical needs of our children are 
                adequately met. I commend the efforts of the dedicated 
                and compassionate men and women who assist families in 
                crisis and enable these families to prevent child 
                abuse. Without the commitment, knowledge, and skill of 
                these men and women, many more children would find 
                themselves the victims of abuse and the lives of many 
                children who are abused and neglected would never 
                improve. With their involvement, the lives of our most 
                vulnerable children are immeasurably enriched. This 
                month reminds us that every child is entitled to live 
                his or her life to its fullest, free from fear and 
                want. As Thomas Jefferson stated so eloquently, ``The 
                Giver of life gave it for happiness and not for 
                wretchedness.'' We hold our children's future in trust. 
                Let us not fail them.

[[Page 16036]]

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim April 1997 as National Child 
                Abuse Prevention Month. I call upon all Americans to 
                observe this month by demonstrating our respect and 
                gratitude for those who devotedly and unselfishly work 
                to keep children safe, by learning how we can help keep 
                children from harm's way, and by taking responsible 
                actions to protect our precious children.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                first day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of 
                the United States of America the two hundred and 
                twenty-first.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 97-8736
Filed 4-1-97; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P