Friday AM ZONE: Kids AT Risk, Bullying Update, and Child Abuse

Today is Kids-At-Risk day on the Morning Zone, the on-going series where our local experts and national pundits explore those things i our community, our state and our nation that continue to put our children and families at risk.

7:07AM MDT: John Frentheway, Wyoming child advocate attorney, and Renee' Hanson, local Licensed Professional Counselor from Hanson and Associates, specializing in counseling kids and families, join host Dave Chaffin to discuss a new article that shows unmarried couples who live together are increasingly likely to have children, with the rate nearly doubling since 2002, according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Twenty-two percent of first births from 2006 to 2010 were to women in a cohabiting couple, up from 12 percent in 2002, the study by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said. The increase is important because children born out of wedlock generally suffer more instability and grow up with fewer resources.

8:00AM MDT: Marvin Nash from Bullying Hurts and The Nash Foundation will join Dave and talk more about his work to help kids and families struggling to get solutions to severe school bullyng.

8:37AM MDT: April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month...and the facts are:

*   Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year
*   In more than 90% of child sexual abuse cases, the child knows the person who commits the abuse
*   In the United States, researchers estimate that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused by the age of 18.

Laurel Hall, former educator, these statistics are frighteningly real. Over a span of four years, starting at age four, Hall was sexually abused by a group of older neighborhood boys. She carried her secret for decades, fearing she was the one to blame. Hall buried her shame along with her childhood, forcing her latent emotions out through angry outbursts, anxiety attacks, and irreversible mistakes.

9:07AM MDT: We'll continue to explore issues of child abuse right here in our own community with Lynn Huylar, Executive Director of Safe Harbour, an organization working to help victims and their families.