[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 14 (Monday, April 7, 1997)]
[Pages 441-442]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6981--National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 1997

April 1, 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.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by

[[Page 442]]

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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 2, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April 
3.