PUEBLO — The Pueblo County Sheriff's Office is investigating multiple cases of child abuse, some involving students. According to the sheriff’s office, they have made at least four arrests for child abuse this month.
Crime
A Pueblo woman has been arrested on three counts of child abuse
Statistics from the CDC show one in four girls and one in 13 boys in the United States have been a victim of child abuse. In Colorado, eight children out of every 1,000 were victims of abuse or neglect.
Several child advocates in Pueblo said to end child abuse, everyone must work together.
“I think it's everybody's job to report, it's everybody's job to help protect kids,” said Zane GrantExecutive Director of CASA of Pueblo. “Our partners in law enforcement and our partners at the departments of Human Services can't do this without the community's help."
“We specially train volunteers that are appointed by a judge to advocate for abused and neglected children involved in the civil court process,” said Grant.
In 2023, CASA of Pueblo worked with 366 children. In 2024, that number grew to 380, with 204 of those being new cases.
“The majority of cases that we work with tend to be more of the substance abuse and neglect cases, but we do have cases that involve sexual abuse on a child, physical abuse, as well as other factors that that just lead the court to be concerned about a child's welfare,” said Grant.
He said overall, child abuse reports have been on the rise since COVID.
“As the world opened back up and more eyes were on children, we expected to see, you know, those numbers start to increase again, because people will obviously share their concerns,” said Grant.
Across town, The Pueblo Child Advocacy Center works with law enforcement and child protective services to do forensic interviews for child abuse investigations.
“It has been almost overwhelmingly busy, and we have had an uptick in cases this year,” said Christine Casillas, Resource Development Coordinator at The Pueblo Child Advocacy Center.
Casillas said they are seeing more cases from eastern Colorado.
“Like in La Junta, Lamar, Cheyenne Wells areas,” said Casillas.
She said signs of abuse are not just physical, but also behavioral changes in children can be a sign of abuse.
“If something feels off, it probably is. It is better to at least report it than not,” said Casillas.
Grant said ending child abuse starts with the community.
“Everybody has an obligation. Everybody should, you know, be reporting if they do have legitimate concerns about a child's safety,” said Grant. “Sometimes they might be minimal, and that's still okay. It's not our job to be investigators out there. Our job is to report our concerns about a child's welfare to the proper authorities.”
He said it's easy to make a report and details matter. You can call the Colorado Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 844-CO-4-Kids. Call 911 if there is an immediate threat.
___
A family in Colorado City says illegal dumping near their home is becoming a safety issue
One official told News5 the trash piles could be infested with rats or other dangerous factors, so they are waiting to work with the health department to remove trash from the area.
____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
