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THOMASVILLE
COMING
SATURDAY
Guest Columnist Larry
Murdock shares this
week's This-n-Thats.
119th Year - No. 123 50 Cents
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iVJVi^L^D
No Secrets, No Shame
Sexual abuse
statistics paint
frightful picture
BY ELIOT DUKE
Staff Writer
I n looking at the numbers alone, I
one would be hard-pressed in say
ing crimes against children aren’t a
huge problem.
Considering that in the past six I
years, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office has
made 279 charges of indecent liberties with
a child and ThomasvlUe Police Department
received 28 Incident reports since last Janu
ary regarding statutory sex offenses against
juveniles, the numbers speak for themselves.
There are dozens of registered sex offenders
living within a five-mUe radius of virtually ev
ery school in ThomasvUle, and Sheriff David
Grice says his office receives at least one call a
day regarding sex offenses against children.
Law enforcement’s role is to protect the pub
lic, but often tunes police are faced with the
difficult task of Investigating these crimes and
finding enough evidence to warrant charges.
When the victims are children, obtaining that
information becomes that much more diffi
cult.
“Kids don’t generally lie about things like
this,” TPD detective and Lt. Kim Sebastian
said. “The adults, that’s a different story. We’re
going to foUow it through as far as we have to
go because it’s all about keeping these kids
safe and making them feel safe. If they don’t |
feel safe, it’s hard for them to open up to us.
They’re threatened at tunes and they get talked I
into thinking this is OK. They’re told they’ll be
taken away. If whoever the perpetrator is tells |
the child that If they say anything they’re go
ing to be taken away, there’s almost no chance |
the child will talk to us.”
Once an investigation into chOd abuse or ne
glect begins, Sebastian said the first job is to ]
find out whether the claim is valid. Parents are
often Interviewed first, but If police sttU have
unanswered questions, the children are then
questioned. But finding out the truth from a
child victim takes a different strategy, one that
is buUt around trust. When a chUd has had its
trust betrayed, bridging that gap is key to the |
investigation.
“We go about interviewing children in a dif
ferent way,” said Sebastian. “They’re scared as |
obviously they would be in these situations.
See ABUSE, Page 4 I
Registered Sex Offenders Living Near Schools
School
1 mile
3 miles
5 miles
Liberty Drive Elementary
16
56
88
Thomasville Primary
13
57
88
Thomasville Middle/FHigh Schools
16
55
87
Fair Grove Elementary
5
45
73
Pilot Elementary
5
28
69
Brown Middle
3
37
75
East Davidson High
3
39
75
Hasty Elementary
2
43
103
Waliburg Elementary
0
9
39
Friendship Elementary
0
3
20
Ledford Middle/High Schools
1
2
19
• Information provided by the N.C. Department of Justice Sex Offenders Registry.
http://sexoffender.ncdoj.gov/search.aspx
One in £our girls
and one in six
boys will be
sexually abused
before their
18th birthday
Victims wary of coming forward
BYERINWILTGEN
Staff Writer
C hildren keep a variety
of secrets from their
parents - how many
candy bars they actu
ally took for snack,
whether they or the dog broke the
living room lamp, the actual grade
on a so-so math test. But certain
secrets aren’t quite so harmless.
And they also happen to be the
type that are the most difficult to
disclose.
More than 30 percent of victims
of sexual abuse never teU anyone
about their experience, according
to Darkness to Light, a Charles
ton, S.C.-based awareness and
educational advocacy group for
abuse. Almost 80 percent of vic
tims hesitate to disclose, and 75
percent of those who do tell, do so
by accident.
“Most children don’t teU, so
for a chUd to teU is a really brave
thing,” said Jolie Logan, chief
operating officer for Darkness to
Light. “It’s such a secretive thing
that children often think that
they’ve done something wrong.
and never in their mind does it
occur to them that someone did
something bad to them and they
should teU somebody”
The Importance of abuse disclo
sure is paramount, however, espe
cially given the traumatic effects
such Incidences can have.
on a physical level, children
who have fallen victim are more
likely to experience headaches,
symptoms of PTSD, depression,
eating disorders and academic
problems.
See VICTIMS, Page 4
2 volunteer firefighters charged with arson
BY ELIOT DUKE
Staff Writer
Two Thomasville volimteer
firefighters were arrested Tues
day for allegedly starting a fire
at an abandoned house on Low
er Lake Road.
■ According to a Davidson
County Sheriff’s Office press re
lease, Benjamin Dean Wagner,
19, of 213 Park Ave., and Chris
topher Lee Burnett, 19, of 480
Saddle Tree Road, are charged
with burning certain buildings,
a class G felony, following their
arrest on Tuesday. Burnett and
' Burnett Wagner
Wagner were volunteer fire
fighters with the Pilot Fire De
partment.
“It seems they were young
men who created a fire so they
could go on a fire call,” David
son Coimty Sheriff David Grice
said. “We don’t want to lose
sight of the fact that there are
more than 2,300 volunteer fire
fighters m Davidson County
who go out m the middle of the
night, ram, cold, whatever, for
no pay to fight our fires. Some
times this happens and it hap
pens *m almost every jurisdic
tion and they u^ed extremely
bad judgment.”
Firefighters with PUot Fire
Department were dispatched to
a call at 4386 Lower Lake Road
at 2:41 a.m. Tuesday morning
See ARSON, Page 12
Incentives approved
for startup company
BYERINWILTGEN
StaffWriter
LEXINGTON -- After a
month-long recess, Davidson
County Board of Commis
sioners approved an Incen
tive grant for a startup com
pany eyeing the area at its
meeting Tuesday
The company, code-named
Project M, wfil invest $2 mil
lion m plant, machinery and
equipment, as well as create
15 jobs above the county av
erage wage of $14.37 an hour.
In return, the county wfil
provide an incentive grant
each year for five years - pro
viding the company also
meets the requirements.
The grant would be .0027
tunes the Investment in real
property each year for five
years and .0054 times the In
vestment m machinery and
See COMPANY, Page 12
Community Sponsor
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