To the Editor:

I’m writing in regard to your editorial of June 13: “Protect all children as your own.”

Your open and direct attitude towards protecting children is to be respected. 

Times have changed; attitudes towards children’s rights have changed. In the past, children were viewed as our wards. They were to be raised — directed to follow an adult’s lead.

Now society — that’s you, me, and every reader of your paper — knows we need to protect our children, not only from disease or poverty but from danger. Abusers and predators are in all environments, schools, home, anywhere a child may live or play.

While the subject may be unattractive, we are bound to look after our children. Talking to them, teaching them, even warning them. Now that has become the norm.

So  I won’t congratulate you for being right, since we all need to be right, but I respect you greatly for standing up and reminding all of us.

Richard Tollner

Rensselaerville

Editor’s note: Richard Tollner is the chairman of the Diocese of Rockville Centre Diocese Bankruptcy, representing sex abuse victims. He serves on the board of CHILD USA, the leading children’s civil rights think tank in the United States.