Child Abuse Persuasive

            Current news tells of an Austrian who sexually abused a very young boy in India. Another tells of a couple charged with child sexual abuse of their autistic daughter. Still another news article is about a father who was accused of misdemeanour child endangering. But despite the charges, the Austrian promised to stay away from the children after a lengthy therapy; the couple denied the charges, and; the father posted bail and was freed.

Child abuse is a reality in every place. It happens at home, in school, and in many other places. This is an issue that needs attention because the victims cannot fight for themselves and they are very vulnerable to any form of abuse.

According to the statistics presented by Iannelli (2007), there are more than 50,000 reports of child abuse or neglect every week in the United States. In the year 2002 alone, the records show that about 2.6 million reports were made which concerned the welfare of about 4.5 million children. The information included in the report called for the need of an investigation or assessment. Almost 900,000 children were found to be abused or neglected, or an average of 2,450 children per day. The majority of these cases were reported by professionals, including teachers and educators (16% of reports), social services staff (13%) and police and lawyers (16%) and medical personnel (8%) (Hopper, 2007; Iannelli, 2007).

The teachers and educators have the highest percentage from the reports perhaps because the children are studying and their behaviours can be easily monitored by teachers or by classmates at school where they are far from the abuser. Hopper (2007) reported that parents (79.4%) were usually the perpetrators of child abuse, and others were relatives (6.8) of the victim. With this statistics, it clearly calls for actions that would somehow protect children from any type of abuse.

At school, teachers are responsible to report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. According to the Michigan Education Association web site (2007), the Child Protection Law (CPL), MCL 722.621 enforces the responsibility of reporting any case of abuse to public school employees, such as school administrators and councillors. Thus, school employees are also obliged to be aware of their responsibilities as was included in the CPL. If they have reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or neglect, they must report it to the Family Independence Agency (FIA). The school employees should report child abuse especially if the abuser is a parent or anyone responsible for the welfare of the victim.

A child who has been abused may find difficulty in revealing what happened, that’s why a teacher should not be too harsh in dealing with the child. The teacher should consider the fact that abused children are scared and that they are afraid that others might not believe their story.

There are some things that a teacher should consider when communicating with an abused or neglected child. First is he should listen intently and let the child tell what happened. He should not display emotions of shock or disgust, as this may send inappropriate meaning or message to the child. The teacher should also show respect for the child’s privacy. He should talk to the child in a private place and take note of important things such as names, times and dates. Then the teacher must let the child know that he trusts him. He should avoid scolding the child.

Incidences such as child abuse will have implications in the child in the future. He may experience difficulty trusting adults again. Moreover, the whole experience will put a dent in his psychological being. Sometimes, children who are abused are traumatized, and as they grow old, they may experience hating people whom they do not trust, or being scared of people, especially those who resemble their abuser.

A teacher should not hesitate in reporting any suspected case of child abuse, as he has the responsibility of doing so. He must consider the outcome of abuse to the victim, and also be genuinely concerned for the welfare of the child.

References

Hopper, Jim. (2007). Child abuse statistics: Research and resources. Retrieved on December 18, 2007 from the Administration for Children and Families web site, http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm05/summary.htm

Iannelli, Vincent. (2007). Child abuse statistics. Retrieved on December 18, 2007 from http://pediatrics.about.com/od/childabuse/a/05_abuse_stats.htm

Michigan Education Association. (2007). Duty to report child abuse. Retrieved on December 18, 2007 from http://www.mea.org/legal/duty_to_report.html