EDITORIAL: 'Walk away': Sheriff offers simple but powerful advice to prevent child abuse

May 25-Sadly, hurting a child isn't unimaginable. It's as imaginable as any act of violence that flows from rage and impatience.

Those who wonder how anyone could beat a toddler or strike an infant perhaps haven't spent much time around children. If they have, perhaps they have forgotten their moments of frustration - moments that didn't, as they shouldn't, escalate to violence.

It's not meant as glib or callous to acknowledge that children cry - often a lot - and that these challenging emotions and other things they do can irritate adults, even those caring for them. Children can exhaust adults, get on their nerves, wear their patience thin until the adults are tempted to ... but they don't.

Thankfully, most adults maintain their senses and self-control before doing something they can't take back, always mindful of the line between frustration and assault.

Imaginable is not excusable, but imagining - even understanding - how some people surrender to a tempting belief that getting physical will bring psychological relief can be useful in preventing such violence, especially for those under stress.

It's with that concept in mind that we appreciate and commend Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar's recent effort to prevent child abuse, offered in the form of sincere advice that should be heeded.

"Walk away," Salazar said, speaking as the county's top law enforcement officer and as a parent who has experienced the frustration of trying to calm a crying baby. "There's nothing wrong with setting down the baby and walking away and let the baby cry in another room if need be."

His advice follows the recent arrest of a 21-year-old man who reportedly confessed to squeezing his 2-month-old son's leg hard enough to break the femur because the toddler wouldn't stop crying. He was charged with injury to a child and released from jail after posting a $75,000 bond.

Before reaching that point, Salazar suggested, call a family member or friend as another tool for managing stress.

This isn't merely sound advice for someone losing their cool with a child but for any situation in which frustration and anger threaten to escalate to violence - or even words - that will be immediately regretted.

For decades, Bexar County has been plagued by rampant child abuse and neglect. It's consistently at the top of or among the leading major metropolitan areas in Texas for the prevalence of violence against children.

In 2025, 13 children died from child abuse or neglect in Bexar County, up from five deaths in 2024. According to Child Advocates of San Antonio, an average of five children enter foster care each day in Bexar County because of abuse or neglect.

And these are only the cases that have been reported.

While perpetrators of child abuse can be any age, a look back over three decades shows that children who died from such abuse were beaten by very young parents.

Salazar's advice to "take a walk" can save a child from injury or death, so it must be amplified. The mission to prevent child abuse and neglect must continue to be a community endeavor in which all are encouraged to stay vigilant and say something if they suspect a child is being mistreated.

Babies will always cry, but it's never justification for hurting them.

Moreover, such harm is often preventable. Child abuse should be reported to 911. Or call the Texas Abuse Hotline at 800-252-5400. The sheriff's office can be reached at 210-335-6000, and the San Antonio police nonemergency line is 210-207-7273.

It's a relief that the 2-year-old who was injured was not killed, but the pain he suffered from a broken bone is hard to imagine. We pray for his recovery and, more importantly, that he's kept safe from further harm.

And we pray for a community that learns to walk away or to say something when others don't.

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This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 11:10 AM.