Those cruising past Warren G Harding High School or Boardman Park this month cannot help but notice the gargantuan garden of colorful pinwheels planted firmly in the ground and spinning whimsically in the wind.

That plethora of 2,500 total pinwheels is designed to grab attention to a noble but challenging cause: preventing child abuse and neglect in our community, state and nation. The symbolism of the pinwheels is stark and heart-rending as each represents a case of abuse or mistreatment of a child in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in 2025.

As April has been declared Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month by Gov. Mike DeWine, such attention those pinwheels attract is well deserved. After all, attention and awareness, followed up with action, remain key to lessening the scope of these appalling and despicable crimes against children.

And those on the front lines of child abuse report both good news and bad this year.

Statewide data point to a slight decline in the number of abuse and neglect cases reported, though pockets of the state — including the Mahoning Valley — have not witnessed such reductions. In Trumbull County, for example, Children Services officials report the number of child abuse or neglect reports rose by 71 cases in 2025.

Nonetheless, all indications point to a strong and increasingly cohesive and interconnected network of agencies and individuals strengthening the fight against all forms of child abuse on all fronts in our region.

Strong partnerships have emerged among children services departments, the juvenile court system and law enforcement agencies to better wage war on such crimes. In fact, Mahoning County’s Children Services agency has won honors as the No. 1 such agency in the state for completing timely child abuse and neglect investigations.

But the bad news remains that any case of exploitation through physical, sexual or psychological abuse of children remains a serious problem that demands full-throttle action to combat and eliminate. Such a herculean task, however, also demands a multi-pronged attack on both public policy and personal fronts.

On the former, room for optimism abounds as a thick ream of legislation is pending in the current session of the Ohio General Assembly targeting a wide variety of aspects surrounding child physical, sexual and mental abuse. That bounty indicates that state lawmakers have been listening to the impassioned appeals of children services advocates on the need for added weaponry to combat the disgusting plague.

Here are but a few of the pro-child measures our state lawmakers should work to carry to the finish line by the end of its session in December:

• Child Protection Reform Act (House Bill 635): A comprehensive reform bill that requires weekly in-person visits for children under age 5 in agency custody and creates a public electronic dashboard to track child placement data. It also establishes whistleblower protections for employees who report child welfare concerns.

• V.J.’s Law (House Bill 346): This measure updates mandatory reporting guidelines by requiring immediate notification of both law enforcement and children’s services in suspected cases. It also shortens the window for children’s services to notify law enforcement from seven days to 48 hours.

• Child Care Fraud Prevention Act (House Bill 649): This bill aims to improve safety in publicly funded child care centers by requiring video surveillance and establishing investigations for allegations of abuse or fraud.

• Trey’s Law (House Bill 723): This recently introduced bill would prohibit the use of nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements that silence survivors of child sexual abuse. The bill renders any contract preventing disclosure of such abuse void and unenforceable, aiming to ensure perpetrators cannot use legal loopholes to avoid accountability and transparency.

On a personal front, individuals can do their part to fight child abuse and neglect by recognizing signs (unexplained injuries, fear, behavioral changes), supporting families by reducing stress and mentoring at-risk youth.

Most importantly, as Trumbull Children Services Executive Director Marilyn Pape emphasized at its recent Pinwheels for Prevention event, “If you see something, say something.”

That slogan empowers community members to act as a critical safety nets for vulnerable children, transforming them from passive bystanders into proactive protectors of young ones. Reports can be made to local child welfare agencies, police or by calling this toll-free abuse reporting number of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services: 1-855-642-4453. Tips there can be made 24/7 and anonymously.

To be sure, the task of lessening the scope of child abuse in our region and in our state will neither be easy nor struggle-free. But considering the devastating lifelong injuries such abuse inflicts, Ohioans of all ilks should enlist in the fight to guarantee maximum protection to our state’s greatest resource: its children.