Disgression is advised for the following stories and examples of abuse-my apologies in advance-I DO have a point!:
Have you seen my kitten?
Brothers, aged 6 and 3, were playing outside when they agreed to help their neighbor search his apartment for the kitten.
Tom was a friend to all of the children in the apartment complex. He was also a registered sex offender, but no one knew. Sammy and Tommy were lured to his apartment with the kitten story, sexually assaulted and tied up. An intense search for the boys by law enforcement and neighbors saved their lives.
Neglect - Feb. 2009 - A mother in Dallas, Texas, was charged with neglect after her nine-year-old died from complications of diabetes after she failed to help her manage her disease.
Physical Abuse - Feb. 2009 - A mother and her live-in boyfriend in Janesville, Wisconsin, were charged with abuse after repeatedly hitting her three-year-old daughter to the point that she required emergency brain surgery.
June 1011-A father abandoned his 4-year-old son along a West Texas highway, and the injured boy spent hours alone in the dark before a passing motorist picked him up, police said. Carlos Rico, 22, stopped his car along a cactus-lined stretch of Interstate 20 near Sweetwater about 3am Tuesday and "threw the boy out of the car like a bag of garbage," a police chief told the Abilene Reporter-News Tuesday.
The boy was picked up about three hours later and taken to a hospital, where doctors removed at least 500 cactus spines from his body. The boy was in the state's custody yesterday. Rico told investigators that God told him to choke the boy and expel him from the car, the chief said. "I've seen a lot of bad things," he added. "I've never seen a 4-year-old angel left on the side of the road for dead. He's such a sweet little boy."
As I research and read stories like this, I feel sick to my stomache and can't help but tear up. There's no better way to describe the way I or others feel about child abuse than the following: "the abuse of a child awakens in us an intensity and breadth of emotion that is beyond adequate expression." (beta-newsroom.lds.org/official-statement/child-abuse)
So why would I blog about something like this? Well, because truly, I am passionate about children and their safety. I absolutely, CANNOT, even imagine what a parent, or any adult for that matter, could possibly be thinking when they abuse a child in any way shape or form. As bad as this sounds, it's even hard for me to make an exception if a parent is schizophrenic or bipolar or something, because child abuse is absolutely NOT OK!
So, turning from the negative side of this, allow me to explain some things I've learned that can predict or help stop child abuse all together.
- Child abuse is something that can be recognized ANYWHERE children are present; grocery stores, classrooms, local park, etc.
- Educate yourselves! At least be able to define each and every kind of child abuse that can happen.
- REPORT IT! Research your state phone number for CPS and report any kind of abuse you see. If something is not right, don't hesitate to make a call. It can be anonymous.
5 children a day, die from child abuse. A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds. Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4.......I think you catch my drift.
Let me close this blog with a different point of view. Most or all of you that read this, are probably members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So let me teach a simple principle from the latter day saint point of view. In Matthew 18:6 it says, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." If there's anything God does NOT accept with his 'little ones', it is harming them. Those who hurt his little ones, will suffer consequences beyond their imagination. I don't mean to speak "for God", but its seriously true-He, as well as His members of the church, should and don't EVER tollerate child abuse.
I pray that we all keep the spirit with us so that we are in tune enough to be observant in the event that child abuse happens in our presence, whether it's someone we know or not. Pray to know how you can help because (in the words of Dr. Suess), "A person's a person, no matter how small!" I know this is true and I hope we can all realize the importance of keeping everyone of God's children safe.
Rachelle, I applaud your efforts to speak out against child abuse. When it happens, its impact is felt for generations, but we can choose to stop it one interaction at a time.
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