Norwalk High Schoolers Protest Against Child Abuse

Tuesday April 28, 2009

Nine girls from Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk were on the Capitol grounds at 6:30 this morning setting up what has become an annual demonstration against child abuse. They scattered more than 1,500 donated stuffed animals around the Capitol’s south lawn, to commemorate the 1,531 children who were abused last year in Fairfield County alone.
In all, 8,544 kids were abused last year in the state, which breaks down to one every 61 minutes.
Sarah Pasqualini, a junior and Stefania Difortunato, a senior bound for the UConn Waterbuy campus in the fall, said the teddy bears, Beanie Babies and other stuffed animals were collected over a period of months by the schools chapter of the Center for Youth Leadership, in preparation for National Child Prevention Month.
Last year the group used tied-down brown paper lunchbags to mark the abused kids, but a high wind that day tore away hundreds of bags, sending them cartwheeling along Capitol Avenue.
After this year’s event, the toys will be donated the children’s hospitals, family shelters and even the Norwalk Police Department, which will use them to help settle down kids involved in abuse cases.

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