Ed Smart: Children need more protection from predators

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So many U.S. children are the victims of predatory adults that it’s time for society to address the problem in a different way, says Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 in 2002 when she was kidnapped from her bedroom in her family’s home in Utah. She was held captive for nine months before being found.

Ed Smart spoke Friday about Jaycee Lee Dugard, 29, who was freed this week from a couple who kidnapped her outside her home in South Lake Tahoe 18 years ago.

“It brings a lot of happiness to me to hear another girl has been returned,’ he said. ‘The nightmare has ended for her and her family. I say that knowing that she, with her two children, are going to have a new life. Hopefully, it will be a very different life than the one she has been living for the last 18 years.’

Elizabeth Smart is now a college student and ‘refuses to be defined’ by her ordeal, says her father. Ed Smart is the president of an organization he formed with other parents to re-shape how society deals with child abuse and trauma. The nonprofit group, the Surviving Parents Coalition, aims to stop predatory crimes and raise awareness about threats to children. The group is pushing an initiative called It Takes a Community to teach children and parents how to be aware of dangerous situations and how children should respond when threatened.

It’s time to stop pretending that child kidnapping and sexual abuse doesn’t happen and teach all children skills to ward off threats from others, says Smart.

“I feel strongly that we as a society don’t prepare our children for what is out in society. So many pieces of legislation and the efforts that law enforcement make (regarding child kidnappings) are reactive instead of taking a proactive approach. I think we, as a society, have to change that. In a time of budget cuts and financial crises, that is hard. But I think we need to put into our schools programs that develop life skills to show kids where is the point where an adult steps over the line.’

A school-based program created by the organization “empowers the child so that they have choices when they are faced with these situations,’ Smart says. ‘Not that there are any guarantees.’

- Shari Roan