Council planting pinwheels today

Staff Reports

In recognition of Child Abuse Prevention Month, members of the Family Support Council will be planting 209 pinwheels today in the lawn of the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center.

Each pinwheel represents a case of child abuse and neglect in Douglas County in 2006.

The council will be placing the pinwheels at 10 a.m. to bring awareness to the issue of child abuse.

"Douglas County reported 209 cases of child abuse last year and statewide there were more than 20,000 reported cases," said Family Support Council director Kelli Johnson. "Nevada is No. 1 in teen suicides. These are very real problems."

Called Pinwheels for Prevention, the planting is scheduled in 11 Nevada counties, where more than 15,000 pinwheels will be planted in front of courthouses, government offices, playgrounds, libraries and parks.

Chrystal Main, spokeswoman for the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services, said the increase in child abuse may be related to drug abuse.

"As a community and actually as a state now, we are really worried because the increase of methamphetamine use is directly related to the number of reports of child abuse and neglect," she said. "Methamphetamine has played a part in the environment of that child."

In Clark County, 667 children were removed from their homes due to substance-abuse issues with the parents. Washoe County reports 132 children were abused in connection with drug abuse and in rural Nevada, of which Carson City is a part, 70 children suffered because of drug use in their homes.

"In rural Nevada from October 2006 to December 2006, 55 children entered foster care; of these cases, 31 were due to drug abuse," Main said.

The pinwheel planting will begin at 10 a.m., and legislators, private citizens, Advocates to End Domestic Violence and child and family services employees will take part.