ONLY ON ABC-7: How to solve the issue of child abuse in Doa Ana County?

It takes a village to raise a child.

It will take much more than a community of concerned parents, prosecutors and police officers to solve the issue of child abuse in New Mexico, but a panel of Doña Ana County experts gathered on Wednesday to discuss how to fix the crisis and answer the public’s questions about reporting child abuse.

“I was sexually abused growing up,” Katrina Coombs told a crowd of strangers. “The person who abused me had been sexually abused.”

The young woman told ABC-7 that educating children, parents and educators could help break the systematic abuse.

“I’ve found that it’s this ugly cycle that just keeps going and going,” Coombs said.

“We know adult offenders actually started offending at a very young age, almost always,” said Stacy Clark, executive director of La Piñon Sexual Assault Recovery Services.

The panel of experts included representatives from La Piñon, the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department and the Las Cruces Police Department.

According to New Mexico state data, 1.7 percent of New Mexico children were abused in 2016. Prior to that year, the numbers had steadily risen for five years.

“I like the idea of talking about it,” Coombs said. “I think as a community, we have to be open. We have to be willing to bear our ugly scars that we have and share our stories with others, so they can be aware to help their children.”

The group is planning multiple panels in the future to focus on tackling the issue of child abuse in Doña Ana County.

“We’re on the right track to addressing the child abuse issues in our community,” said Suann Kenney-Noziska, who organized the event.

If you would like to report child abuse in New Mexico, please call #SAFE or #7233.