Stop the abuse
April 28th, 2008, 4:23 pm · Post a Comment · posted by rpapandrea
At first glance, the colorful cutouts of children gathered at the corner of South Church Street and Webb Avenue look like a happy scene — one worthy of a double take.A few weeks ago, I did just that. I drove by the Burlington Fire Department, heading toward Webb Avenue, and noticed the bright blue, yellow, red and green. Then I saw the sign: “341 children were abused or neglected in Alamance County in 2006-2007.”
I looked again. The message grew clear. The cutouts were placed there by the Alamance Partnership for Children as a somber reminder that children suffer in this county at the hands of the people charged with their care.
That’s a lot of kids. It’s almost one a day, every day for the entire 2006-07 fiscal year. I am not a mother, but I do have nine nieces and nephews. I’ve worked as a full-time babysitter. I ran a children’s program for at-risk children.
I’ve rolled my eyes and covered my ears. I’ve gone home at night grateful for the silence of a child-free home. I think kids are terrific, but I also know they can be a handful. They are energetic, curious little people who are noisy, messy and drawn to fun. Sometimes they make mistakes.
They need tender treatment, love and lots of attention in order to grow into productive, caring adults. They need information, guidance, structure and stability. They need nurturing, proper nutrition and clean clothes. They need to know they are safe.
When I was a reporter at The Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C., I wrote many stories about babies who died because they were shaken, and about toddlers who will spend a lifetime with irreversible scars because their mothers, fathers or caretakers couldn’t control their rage.
A 3-year-old boy suffered third-degree burns on his legs and buttocks after his father scalded him in bath water. The child had petechial hemorrhaging — red dots from broken capillary blood vessels caused by the force applied to keep him in the water. In other words, he fought to get up but his father held him down.
In September 2006, I wrote about the severe injuries or death of six different babies. A 6-week-old boy was killed by his father. An 18-day-old girl had multiple bruises on her body and swelling in her brain. A 9-month-old boy suffered traumatic head injuries after his mother’s live-in boyfriend decided to swing him by his legs and slam his head into his crib and the floor. Those are just a few examples.
Jacksonville has a lot of young parents because of a nearby Marine Corps base, Camp Lejeune. The county’s teen pregnancy rate also is skewed because many Marines marry and start families early. While that particular anomaly doesn’t exist in this county, children are still abused and neglected here in alarming numbers.
“People don’t really think there are that many in Alamance County,” said Carrie Stone, the program director for the Alamance Partnership for Children.
For police, paramedics, social workers, emergency room nurses and doctors, guardian ad litem volunteers and foster parents who see the results of child abuse and neglect almost every day; for the innocent children who deserve more and for this reporter, 341 is a huge number.
To learn more go to preventchildabusenc.org or call (800) CHILDREN. Report incidents of child abuse in Alamance County by calling 229-2908.
