Brandi Neal's In the Know: "License to parent" (Printed Jan. 18, 2008)
Father throws four children off bridge. Mother accused of killing four children she claims were possessed by the devil. Father beats 4-month-old daughter to death because he wanted a son. These are just a few of the headlines I have seen during the past week and they are shocking and infuriating to say the least.
Today people need a license, or some type of training, to do just about anything — drive a car, own a dog and even catch a fish. But anyone can be a parent, and apparently no one is looking out for these children.
I don’t understand how some parents can treat their own flesh and blood with such indifference and hate. For a father to stop his car and knowingly fling his children (ages 4 months to 3-years-old) off a bridge, and most certainly to their deaths, is something I can’t even imagine.
The mother, who claims her children in Southeast Washington, D.C. were possessed by the devil, allegedly withheld food from the children for an extended period of time before she beat them with blunt objects and stabbed them. A neighbor finally called the city after he suspected the foul odor was coming from a dead rat, not four helpless decomposing children.
The third man was apparently so distraught and angry that his child was born a girl that he beat her every day until she finally succumbed to her injuries Christmas Day. I guess he got what he wanted for Christmas after all.
With so many children in harm’s way social workers are often overburdened with case loads and many of these kids slip through the cracks, allowing the ones who do survive to repeat the samecycle of abuse they themselves experienced.
Every day when I eat my lunch I browse CNN.com and catch up on the latest headlines. Now being in the newspaper business,I know better than anybody the old saying, “if it bleeds it leads.”But, the sad thing is that for every one of these tragic cases that is reported there are dozens we never hear about, and thousands of helpless children who suffer in silence.
I don’t claim to know the answer to this problem. Should we implement mandatory parenting classes? It doesn’t seem to have done any good for Britney Spears. Should social workers be making more visits to high-risk homes? And if the answer to this question is yes, then who is going to pay to hire more social workers so children,like the ones I mentioned above, don’t fall through the cracks?
Shouldn’t people just know better? One would think. Though it won’t solve all cases of child abuse, the Child Abuse Prevention Council of York County works to try to help some of these children before it’s too late. The non-profit organization has many school-based programs that try to give children the help and education they might not receive at home.
Program like “Break the Silence” and “Baby Think itOver” helps children, some who may be experiencing abuse themselves, toask tough questions and come to even tougher realizations. According tothe Child Abuse Prevention Council hundreds of children in York Countyare affected by the different forms of child abuse and neglect. “Break the Silence: Kids Against Child Abuse” talks with children about thedifferent types of child abuse.
The middle and high-school program utilizes thenationally recognized “Baby Think it Over” computer simulated babies asa strategy to teach child abuse prevention. These 50-minutepresentations include discussion and information about the differenttypes of abuse, Shaken Baby Syndrome, risk and protective factorsassociated with child abuse and neglect, stress identification and safebaby care.
Maybe the perpetrators in the aforementioned casesnever took a class like “Baby Think it Over,” maybe they didn’t knowwhat to expect from an infant. Even so, tossing children off a bridgeisn’t the answer. Reading headlines like these make me cringe and feelsick, which I suppose is the appropriate response.
I’m glad the children of York County have someonelooking out for them, but as we know all to well some children willslip under the radar. Every school should be taking advantage of thesefree classes offered by the Child Abuse Prevention Council. Maybeeducation could have prevented one of these terrible tragedies fromhappening.
For more information about the Child Abuse Prevention Council visit www.kidsfreetogrow.org.
— Brandi Neal
Today people need a license, or some type of training, to do just about anything — drive a car, own a dog and even catch a fish. But anyone can be a parent, and apparently no one is looking out for these children.
I don’t understand how some parents can treat their own flesh and blood with such indifference and hate. For a father to stop his car and knowingly fling his children (ages 4 months to 3-years-old) off a bridge, and most certainly to their deaths, is something I can’t even imagine.
The mother, who claims her children in Southeast Washington, D.C. were possessed by the devil, allegedly withheld food from the children for an extended period of time before she beat them with blunt objects and stabbed them. A neighbor finally called the city after he suspected the foul odor was coming from a dead rat, not four helpless decomposing children.
The third man was apparently so distraught and angry that his child was born a girl that he beat her every day until she finally succumbed to her injuries Christmas Day. I guess he got what he wanted for Christmas after all.
With so many children in harm’s way social workers are often overburdened with case loads and many of these kids slip through the cracks, allowing the ones who do survive to repeat the samecycle of abuse they themselves experienced.
Every day when I eat my lunch I browse CNN.com and catch up on the latest headlines. Now being in the newspaper business,I know better than anybody the old saying, “if it bleeds it leads.”But, the sad thing is that for every one of these tragic cases that is reported there are dozens we never hear about, and thousands of helpless children who suffer in silence.
I don’t claim to know the answer to this problem. Should we implement mandatory parenting classes? It doesn’t seem to have done any good for Britney Spears. Should social workers be making more visits to high-risk homes? And if the answer to this question is yes, then who is going to pay to hire more social workers so children,like the ones I mentioned above, don’t fall through the cracks?
Shouldn’t people just know better? One would think. Though it won’t solve all cases of child abuse, the Child Abuse Prevention Council of York County works to try to help some of these children before it’s too late. The non-profit organization has many school-based programs that try to give children the help and education they might not receive at home.
Program like “Break the Silence” and “Baby Think itOver” helps children, some who may be experiencing abuse themselves, toask tough questions and come to even tougher realizations. According tothe Child Abuse Prevention Council hundreds of children in York Countyare affected by the different forms of child abuse and neglect. “Break the Silence: Kids Against Child Abuse” talks with children about thedifferent types of child abuse.
The middle and high-school program utilizes thenationally recognized “Baby Think it Over” computer simulated babies asa strategy to teach child abuse prevention. These 50-minutepresentations include discussion and information about the differenttypes of abuse, Shaken Baby Syndrome, risk and protective factorsassociated with child abuse and neglect, stress identification and safebaby care.
Maybe the perpetrators in the aforementioned casesnever took a class like “Baby Think it Over,” maybe they didn’t knowwhat to expect from an infant. Even so, tossing children off a bridgeisn’t the answer. Reading headlines like these make me cringe and feelsick, which I suppose is the appropriate response.
I’m glad the children of York County have someonelooking out for them, but as we know all to well some children willslip under the radar. Every school should be taking advantage of thesefree classes offered by the Child Abuse Prevention Council. Maybeeducation could have prevented one of these terrible tragedies fromhappening.
For more information about the Child Abuse Prevention Council visit www.kidsfreetogrow.org.
— Brandi Neal
Child abuse prevention is certainly difficult. But when it does happen, there's no reason we can't detect it sooner. One way is to train our teachers better. Teachers are often the first ones to notice signs">http://www.hownottotalk.com/abuse">signs of child abuse. Yet many teachers don't know what to say to a student who might be an abuse victim. A new online role-playing course lets teachers rehearse a conversation with a possible child abuse victim, getting feedback after every choice. There's a free demo, plus a CEU-credit version for teachers. Hopefully it will help teachers be more effective in their legally-required role as mandated reporters of child abuse.
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