Child abusers are often people who are both known and trusted

Stranger danger. It’s what us adults tend to warn kids about.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Beware of the stranger in the park, who offers you candy or wants you to help them look for their lost puppy.

Beware of the weirdo driving the van with no windows. He might pull up along beside you while you are on the sidewalk and kidnap you.

Yes, these are all legitimate dangers that children need to be educated about.

However, the odds of a child being molested by a stranger is actually pretty slim.

Someone known and trusted by the child or the child’s family members, perpetrates 91 percent of child sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Sadly, when children are sexually assaulted, molested, or sexually abused in the real world it is almost always by someone that they know. It is often someone in an authority position, such as a coach, teacher, “trusted family friend,” scout leader, or clergyman to name a few.

A 1996 Knox County case illustrates this example on multiple levels.

The perpetrator, Phillip Connley, was a preacher, the victim’s scout leader, and also mayor of Barbourville at the time he got indicted for sexual abuse and sodomy.

It was a delayed reporting case where the victim didn’t notify law enforcement until years after the incidents happened.

Connley pleaded guilty to two counts of sodomy in exchange for prosecutors recommending a five-year prison sentence and dropping the remainder of the charges.

Among cases of child sexual abuse reported to law enforcement, 93 percent of perpetrators are known to the victim. Only 7 percent are strangers, 59 percent are acquaintances, and 34 percent are family members, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800) 656-HOPE in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country.

For those that think it can’t or isn’t happening here and now, one need only to read the News Journal to find out about several other alleged incidents where either teachers, and/or coaches, or a school administrator were indicted just last month.

A Whitley County grand jury indicted a now former Whitley County High School teacher and middle school baseball coach on charges of first-degree sexual abuse of a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old. The teacher is accused of sending the girls pictures of his penis and of having the girls sending him sexually explicit content among other things.

A Laurel County grand jury indicted a now former South Laurel High School assistant girls basketball coach and South Laurel Middle School’s girls basketball coach for first-degree sexual abuse, prohibited use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities, first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor, use of a minor in a sexual performance and third-degree rape.

Based on the victim’s date of birth listed in the indictment, they were as young as 13 when the incidents first began.

A McCreary County grand jury indicted a now former McCreary Central High School assistant principal on charges of third-degree rape, unlawful transaction with a victim under age 16, solicitation to commit third-degree sodomy and first-degree official misconduct.

All three men have resigned from their positions in their respective school districts. It’s fair to point out that all of these men have pleaded not guilty to their charges and are considered innocent until proven guilty.

However, I bring up these cases to point out that these type of incidents are allegedly taking place right here in this area right now.

Yes, it is good to still warn children about stranger danger, but more importantly, we need to warn them about other dangers involving sexual predators that may come from people that they already know, and in many cases, thought that they could trust.

Also, if you think that child sexual abuse won’t affect someone that you know or care about, then you need to think again.

About 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 20 boys in the United States experience child sexual abuse. These numbers are more than likely much higher when you factor in that most children wait to report or never report child sexual abuse, according to the CDC website.