A Child Advocate's Blog

An Open Letter to Massachusetts Citizens About the Penn State Scandal and How We Can Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in Our State November 14, 2011 While the Penn State child sex abuse scandal and cover-up grab national attention, the fact is that cases of child sexual abuse continue to be exposed with unrelenting regularity in every state and community across our country.  In Massachusetts alone just in the past six months, we have learned about the decades-long sexual abuse of boys treated by renowned pediatrician Dr. Melvin Levin of Children's Hospital, the revealed boyhood sexual abuse of Senator Scott Brown by a counselor at a Cape Cod summer camp, the sexual abuse of young female tennis players by former Massachusetts coach and International Tennis Hall of Famer Bob Hewitt. Many more current incidents of child sexual abuse involving less well-known abusers appear weekly in local newspapers all across our state.   Predictably, the Sandusky/Paterno case has prompted the media