lil zebra lover
New member
Child Abuse
It was a typical day at work, or so I thought. I was the opening shift at the before-after school program that I work at. We were expecting a new child to start this morning, a kindergartner, Sean. Around 7:45 Sean and his mother walk in and introduce themselves. I notice that Sean has a mulberry looking birthmark on the left side of the face. I was having the normal get to know you conversation with his mother when she said something I wasn't expecting. She said, " I want to be up front with you. Last night I got angry with Sean and hit him in the face." I was completely taken by surprise, I had just met this woman and she's telling me she hits her son. She tried to justify it as discipline that got out of hand. She said she got upset because he called her an asshole. Let's remeraber this boy is five years old. He most likely doesn't even know what that word means. The woman left for work acting as if nothing major had occurred and I was left with a little boy with a huge bruise on his face for his first day at a new school. I immediately reported the incident to my chain of command, wrote up my observations, then had to wait patiently to see what would happen. The result - nothing. Child Protective Services said the report was not submitted within 24 hours, so they couldn't do anything. We had another case that we reported just two weeks ago to Child Protective Services. Another five- year old was involved. The teacher noticed a bite mark on his cheek. She asked him what happened, and he responded "my dad bit me." The teacher asked him if his dad was mad when he bit him and he said he was very mad. We reported this to CPS, but were told they couldn't do anything because the skin was not broken. These instances really make me question the system we rely on to protect our children. The question is are we doing enough to protect our children? I feel that not enough is being done to protect our children. I gave, in my opinion two very mild cases of suspected abuse. There are so many severe cases of abuse that the authorities know about, but they aren't doing anything to save the children.
CPS put out kind of a mission statement in reference to their effort to keep families together.
Believing every child has right to a safe, permanent, stable, family, CPS is committed to the reasonable efforts strategy of Public Law 96-272. Reasonable efforts will be made to keep children in their own homes. When children must be removed from their homes in situations of significant maltreatment, services to reduce the risk of harm will be delivered in an effort to reunite the child with their natural families, whenever feasible. (CPS)
The way I understand it CPS's main concern is to keep the family together unless there is "significant maltreatment", but what about just maltreatment. So being beaten up every once in a while is OK as long as it's not severe enough for a hospital visit. So is it in the children's best interest to keep them in the homes where they are being abused? My thought is no, I think our nuraber one priority should be our children. Everyone is concerned about keeping the family unit in contact. Children have no way of defending themselves. I think we need to do everything we can to keep them out of harms way and if it's their parents who are harming them, then the parents shouldn't have the privilege of keeping their children with them.
In 1994, over 3 million children were reported for child abuse and neglect to Child Protective Service agencies in the United States. Of these 3 million children who were reported to CPS 1,036,000 of the cases were substantiated as victims of child maltreatment. This figure represents about 16 out of every 1,000 children. According to the 1994 survey, physical abuse represented 21% of confirmed cases, sexual abuse 11%, neglect 49%, emotional maltreatment 3%, and other forms of maltreatment 16%. An estimated 1,271 children died due to child abuse and neglect in 1994. Based on that statistic more than three children die each day as a result of child abuse or neglect. The most horrifying statistic is that approximately 45% of these deaths occurred to children known to child protective service agencies as current or prior clients. (Wiese & Daro, 1995) Those are the cases that we could have easily done something about.
I am not by any means putting the blame on the caseworkers. I know they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, and that they are so overloaded with cases they can't manage. I think we need to pump more money into the system, hire twice as many social workers, and stop giving abusers some many chances to hurt the innocent children. Right now CPS has so many cases on their hand they have to prioritize them so they see the most serious cases and leave they others waiting. If the system had more money they could enforce the laws that are in place to protect all of the children. It is also up to the public to make an effort. When you suspect a child is being mistreated, you need to do something about it. Stop worrying if it's your business or not. It's your responsibility as a moral citizen to help that child. If you report it to CPS and no abuse is found, then no harm done. I think parents can help the system also. Instead of being enraged for being investigated, they should be glad that someone cares enough to be worried about their children. Parents are concerned that an overzealous neigrabroador may overhear an argument and call CPS on them. Even if CPS were called nothing would happen unless child abuse could almost be proven. Parents are worried about having their kiRAB taken away and being put through an expensive court case. This is not something that happens to normal parents that don't abuse their kiRAB. Another concern some people might have with improving the system is the money needed. It would most likely come from taxes. I think the increase would be very minimal, we could compare it to the military budget to show how little we really spend. Everyone neeRAB to keep in mind where this money is going, to help our children. They are our future!
Besides ruining a childhood, abuse has many long-term effects on children. Even though the abuse may stop after childhood, the children have to carry around the scars for the rest of their life. There is a cycle of abuse, women who are abused as children are more likely to marry or be involved with a man who is an abuser. Boys that were victims of abuse are more prone to be violent in their, homes, in school, and on the streets. (Morales) Abused children are arrested by the police four times more often than non-abused children are. (Gelles & Straus) The most important thing we can do to prevent child abuse is breaking the cycle.
Child abuse is most likely to occur when the parent is angry or upset. Because of the cycle of abuse many of the parents were abused as children and therefore have very limited ideas and skills to use in raising their own children. (Dudley & Brandis) If all they learned from their parents was screaming, and physical pain, those are the only things they know to do.
There are specific signs we can all look for to help protect our children. You should suspect physical abuse if you see any of the following signs: frequent injuries such as bruises, cuts, and burns especially when the child cannot adequately explain them, frequent complaints of pain, burns or bruises in an unusual pattern, aggressive, disruptive and destructive behavior, lack of reaction to pain, passive withdrawn, and emotionless behavior, fear of going home or seeing parents, injuries that appear after the child has not been seen for several days, unseasonable clothes that may hide injuries to arms or legs. Some signs of neglect are: obvious malnourishment, lack of personal cleanliness, torn or dirty clothes, obvious fatigue and listlessness, a child unattended for long perioRAB of time, need for glasses, dental care, or other medical attention, stealing or begging for food, frequent absence from school. You should suspect sexual abuse when you see: physical signs of sexually transmitted diseases, evidence of injury to the genital area, pregnancy in a young girl, difficulty in sitting or walking, frequent expressions of sexual activity between adults and children, extreme fear of being alone with adults of a particular sex, sexually suggestive, inappropriate, or promiscuous behavior, knowledge about sexual relations beyond what is appropriate for child's age, and sexual victimization of other children. (Morales)
When a child decides to trust someone enough to confide in them and tell them what is happening to them we need to be supportive of that child and believe what they say. It makes it harder for a child if we (adults) question them. For example, are you sure your daddy touched you there on purpose? This makes the child doubt him/her self and makes it harder for them to confront adults. The worst feeling is when a child tells you something inappropriate is happening to them and you can't do anything about it. Once you report your findings to CPS the situation is out of your hanRAB. At the end of the day you have to watch the young child go home with the person they fear.
CPS's answer to all of these problems is to keep the family together. I think they need to concentrate solely on the child's well being. Is it in the child's best interest to stay in the home?
It was a typical day at work, or so I thought. I was the opening shift at the before-after school program that I work at. We were expecting a new child to start this morning, a kindergartner, Sean. Around 7:45 Sean and his mother walk in and introduce themselves. I notice that Sean has a mulberry looking birthmark on the left side of the face. I was having the normal get to know you conversation with his mother when she said something I wasn't expecting. She said, " I want to be up front with you. Last night I got angry with Sean and hit him in the face." I was completely taken by surprise, I had just met this woman and she's telling me she hits her son. She tried to justify it as discipline that got out of hand. She said she got upset because he called her an asshole. Let's remeraber this boy is five years old. He most likely doesn't even know what that word means. The woman left for work acting as if nothing major had occurred and I was left with a little boy with a huge bruise on his face for his first day at a new school. I immediately reported the incident to my chain of command, wrote up my observations, then had to wait patiently to see what would happen. The result - nothing. Child Protective Services said the report was not submitted within 24 hours, so they couldn't do anything. We had another case that we reported just two weeks ago to Child Protective Services. Another five- year old was involved. The teacher noticed a bite mark on his cheek. She asked him what happened, and he responded "my dad bit me." The teacher asked him if his dad was mad when he bit him and he said he was very mad. We reported this to CPS, but were told they couldn't do anything because the skin was not broken. These instances really make me question the system we rely on to protect our children. The question is are we doing enough to protect our children? I feel that not enough is being done to protect our children. I gave, in my opinion two very mild cases of suspected abuse. There are so many severe cases of abuse that the authorities know about, but they aren't doing anything to save the children.
CPS put out kind of a mission statement in reference to their effort to keep families together.
Believing every child has right to a safe, permanent, stable, family, CPS is committed to the reasonable efforts strategy of Public Law 96-272. Reasonable efforts will be made to keep children in their own homes. When children must be removed from their homes in situations of significant maltreatment, services to reduce the risk of harm will be delivered in an effort to reunite the child with their natural families, whenever feasible. (CPS)
The way I understand it CPS's main concern is to keep the family together unless there is "significant maltreatment", but what about just maltreatment. So being beaten up every once in a while is OK as long as it's not severe enough for a hospital visit. So is it in the children's best interest to keep them in the homes where they are being abused? My thought is no, I think our nuraber one priority should be our children. Everyone is concerned about keeping the family unit in contact. Children have no way of defending themselves. I think we need to do everything we can to keep them out of harms way and if it's their parents who are harming them, then the parents shouldn't have the privilege of keeping their children with them.
In 1994, over 3 million children were reported for child abuse and neglect to Child Protective Service agencies in the United States. Of these 3 million children who were reported to CPS 1,036,000 of the cases were substantiated as victims of child maltreatment. This figure represents about 16 out of every 1,000 children. According to the 1994 survey, physical abuse represented 21% of confirmed cases, sexual abuse 11%, neglect 49%, emotional maltreatment 3%, and other forms of maltreatment 16%. An estimated 1,271 children died due to child abuse and neglect in 1994. Based on that statistic more than three children die each day as a result of child abuse or neglect. The most horrifying statistic is that approximately 45% of these deaths occurred to children known to child protective service agencies as current or prior clients. (Wiese & Daro, 1995) Those are the cases that we could have easily done something about.
I am not by any means putting the blame on the caseworkers. I know they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, and that they are so overloaded with cases they can't manage. I think we need to pump more money into the system, hire twice as many social workers, and stop giving abusers some many chances to hurt the innocent children. Right now CPS has so many cases on their hand they have to prioritize them so they see the most serious cases and leave they others waiting. If the system had more money they could enforce the laws that are in place to protect all of the children. It is also up to the public to make an effort. When you suspect a child is being mistreated, you need to do something about it. Stop worrying if it's your business or not. It's your responsibility as a moral citizen to help that child. If you report it to CPS and no abuse is found, then no harm done. I think parents can help the system also. Instead of being enraged for being investigated, they should be glad that someone cares enough to be worried about their children. Parents are concerned that an overzealous neigrabroador may overhear an argument and call CPS on them. Even if CPS were called nothing would happen unless child abuse could almost be proven. Parents are worried about having their kiRAB taken away and being put through an expensive court case. This is not something that happens to normal parents that don't abuse their kiRAB. Another concern some people might have with improving the system is the money needed. It would most likely come from taxes. I think the increase would be very minimal, we could compare it to the military budget to show how little we really spend. Everyone neeRAB to keep in mind where this money is going, to help our children. They are our future!
Besides ruining a childhood, abuse has many long-term effects on children. Even though the abuse may stop after childhood, the children have to carry around the scars for the rest of their life. There is a cycle of abuse, women who are abused as children are more likely to marry or be involved with a man who is an abuser. Boys that were victims of abuse are more prone to be violent in their, homes, in school, and on the streets. (Morales) Abused children are arrested by the police four times more often than non-abused children are. (Gelles & Straus) The most important thing we can do to prevent child abuse is breaking the cycle.
Child abuse is most likely to occur when the parent is angry or upset. Because of the cycle of abuse many of the parents were abused as children and therefore have very limited ideas and skills to use in raising their own children. (Dudley & Brandis) If all they learned from their parents was screaming, and physical pain, those are the only things they know to do.
There are specific signs we can all look for to help protect our children. You should suspect physical abuse if you see any of the following signs: frequent injuries such as bruises, cuts, and burns especially when the child cannot adequately explain them, frequent complaints of pain, burns or bruises in an unusual pattern, aggressive, disruptive and destructive behavior, lack of reaction to pain, passive withdrawn, and emotionless behavior, fear of going home or seeing parents, injuries that appear after the child has not been seen for several days, unseasonable clothes that may hide injuries to arms or legs. Some signs of neglect are: obvious malnourishment, lack of personal cleanliness, torn or dirty clothes, obvious fatigue and listlessness, a child unattended for long perioRAB of time, need for glasses, dental care, or other medical attention, stealing or begging for food, frequent absence from school. You should suspect sexual abuse when you see: physical signs of sexually transmitted diseases, evidence of injury to the genital area, pregnancy in a young girl, difficulty in sitting or walking, frequent expressions of sexual activity between adults and children, extreme fear of being alone with adults of a particular sex, sexually suggestive, inappropriate, or promiscuous behavior, knowledge about sexual relations beyond what is appropriate for child's age, and sexual victimization of other children. (Morales)
When a child decides to trust someone enough to confide in them and tell them what is happening to them we need to be supportive of that child and believe what they say. It makes it harder for a child if we (adults) question them. For example, are you sure your daddy touched you there on purpose? This makes the child doubt him/her self and makes it harder for them to confront adults. The worst feeling is when a child tells you something inappropriate is happening to them and you can't do anything about it. Once you report your findings to CPS the situation is out of your hanRAB. At the end of the day you have to watch the young child go home with the person they fear.
CPS's answer to all of these problems is to keep the family together. I think they need to concentrate solely on the child's well being. Is it in the child's best interest to stay in the home?