Los Angeles is going through a crisis of confidence in the capacity of the Los Angeles Unified School District to protect children from sexual abuse by trusted adults: their teachers. In the span of a weeks time, 4 adult teachers were arrested for alleged sexual abuse of students and one entire school—Miramonte Elementary—was emptied of its entire faculty and administrative staff and replaced with a whole new team.

That’s how low the trust level had fallen.

My agency, Peace Over Violence, a Los Angeles–based 40-year-old sexual and domestic violence prevention center and 1in6, the organization for male survivors of childhood sexual abuse, are collaborating on a national child abuse prevention initiative project funded by the Ms. Foundation for Women. POV and 1in6 have been partners for a few years now and when the Ms. Foundation initiative opportunity came up, we jumped at the chance to work together. I am a member of the Board of Director’s of 1in6 and Steve LePore the founder of 1in6 is on POV’s National Advisory Board.

This initiative’s ultimate goal is to revitalize a child abuse movement—locally, within communities, but also nationally. There are 11 collaborations funded from across the country. There was a period in the 1980s when there was a very energized movement along with funding to focus on the prevention of child sexual abuse. Little by little, priorities and support for prevention went out the window. The focus once again resorted to dealing with the aftermath and arresting offenders. Often those offenders were the ones who represented the “stranger danger.” Preventing this category of offender from having easy access to children doesn’t address the fact that the majority of abuse of children that is committed by known persons, including family members, coaches, clergy, teachers and so forth.

At the moment, serious questions are being asked in our wider Los Angeles community and across the country about why these children whose numbers have grown to about 30—including boys and girls—were not protected and if warning signs were ignored by the people in charge. Parents are outraged and scared and some have withdrawn their children from school. I saw more than one media spot where parents were told to protect their children by making sure they “don’t talk to strangers!” This in the wake of a school-wide scandal whereby the perpetrators are teachers—known entities to the students!

This represents how off the mark we can be in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse prevention. It is, of course, a complex issue that can’t be reduced to simple rules of “do’s and don’ts.” I hope that the Ms. Foundation Child Sexual Abuse initiative has success in organizing a groundswell of communities really caring about this issue beyond the sound bite and occasional media blitz. We need creative and thoughtful thinking about prevention. After Penn State, dare we be hopeful that this issue that holds so much stigma for its survivors will be taken seriously by institutions? Is it possible that policies, protocols and trainings will be put in place in the educational systems so that boys and girls will be supported by their communities to seek help and not suffer in silence out of fear of being blamed for what happened to them?

Change won’t happen unless communities mobilize around this issue. In the meantime, I am glad that there is a network of services that can help survivors of childhood sexual violence heal. The RAINN hotline and the 1in6.org website are critical resources that tell survivors, both male and female, “You are not alone, we are here.”

Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence: www.peaceoverviolence.org.

1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends, and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.

Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.

The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.