Child Abuse not being reported due to Coronavirus Isolation (controversial, suspected, deaths)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There was a story about this today on my local PA news which said the number of calls received dropped by almost 1,000 in 2 weeks. Stay home with your abuser? Don't visit neighbors or even your close relatives? These children, and battered ADULTS, will fall through the cracks. Only deaths from coronavirus matter?
As this article states, school employees are the first line of defense in these situations. I am a retired Special Ed Para. It is much worse with special needs children who are non-verbal and cannot tell anyone what is happening to them. One little girl came into class crying her eyes out. In checking her I saw multiple bruises and cigarette burns on her body. Teacher and I reported this. She lived alone with her mother. Her father lived in another state. If we did not examine this little girl and she was isolated in her home with her abusive mother. what would have happened to her??? What is going to happen to other kids in similar situations?
I made a post about this on a different site. Nobody seemed to care. Do YOU on here care? Are you only concerned about the spread of coronavirus?
Yes, it's troubling. It's also troubling that some children will not have enough to eat because they only eat well at school and their parents don't have the time or transportation to get them to a site that is feeding breakfast and lunch to kids now (assuming they are in all areas... I know these food places are all around my area).
But what is your solution? We are in the middle of a unprecedented and severe situation. Having kids congregating at school is not really an option. So what is your suggestion for fixing this problem, keeping in mind that the most severely abused children do not to go school anyway, either because they are too young or because their parents don't send them lest someone find out about the abuse.
Yes, it's troubling. It's also troubling that some children will not have enough to eat because they only eat well at school and their parents don't have the time or transportation to get them to a site that is feeding breakfast and lunch to kids now (assuming they are in all areas... I know these food places are all around my area).
But what is your solution? We are in the middle of a unprecedented and severe situation. Having kids congregating at school is not really an option. So what is your suggestion for fixing this problem, keeping in mind that the most severely abused children do not to go school anyway, either because they are too young or because their parents don't send them lest someone find out about the abuse.
The per person SNAP benefit is $1.40 per meal or about $30 a week. That can buy a lot of eggs, milk, peanut butter, bread, beans, rice, oatmeal, generic cereal , bananas, carrots, pasta, apples, popcorn, chicken, etc.
I cannot comprehend the reliance on schools to feed breakfast, lunch and in some cases, early dinners to children. The “ food insecurity” thing seems to be self- perpetuating.
Having said the, children are not responsible for the choices made by their parents.
The per person SNAP benefit is $1.40 per meal or about $30 a week. That can buy a lot of eggs, milk, peanut butter, bread, beans, rice, oatmeal, generic cereal , bananas, carrots, pasta, apples, popcorn, chicken, etc.
I cannot comprehend the reliance on schools to feed breakfast, lunch and in some cases, early dinners to children. The “ food insecurity” thing seems to be self- perpetuating.
Having said the, children are not responsible for the choices made by their parents.
That's IF you get the maximum. Most people don't.
On the topic of abuse being facilitated by coronavirus isolation - yes, it's a big problem. I don't know how we balance the need to isolate with the need to rescue abused people/families. Anything I can think of would be a huge government overreach (house to house checkins, etc.).
The per person SNAP benefit is $1.40 per meal or about $30 a week. That can buy a lot of eggs, milk, peanut butter, bread, beans, rice, oatmeal, generic cereal , bananas, carrots, pasta, apples, popcorn, chicken, etc.
I cannot comprehend the reliance on schools to feed breakfast, lunch and in some cases, early dinners to children. The “ food insecurity” thing seems to be self- perpetuating.
Having said the, children are not responsible for the choices made by their parents.
Many families who rely on free and reduced lunch are ineligible for SNAP.
And right now, many families have one or two laid-off parents, so they're not bringing in the money they once were and might be suddenly unable to afford food. My church's food pantry had people waiting over 3 hours for food last week. (They are doing it a different way, which is to have them stay in their cars while volunteers put the bags of food in their trunks, so there were some logistical issues to work through, but the volume of people was also larger than usual.) So I can see where the free lunches in the community are filling a need.
But the most important thing is that you're right, children are not responsible for the choices made by their parents. And the kids whose parents are *for whatever reason* unable or unwilling to get them to these places with free lunch AND are not able or willing to provide food are the ones on the losing end of this.
But even so... there's no real solution (outside of having child services involved on an individual basis). Keeping schools open during a pandemic is not an option.
This is one reason I disagreed with liquor stores being kept open...lots of parents stuck at home with their kids, and naturally kids are getting bored, probably driving their parents nuts, I imagine many parents are turning to alcohol for a bit of a break...except that, alcohol rarely makes situations like this better.
There was a story about this today on my local PA news which said the number of calls received dropped by almost 1,000 in 2 weeks. Stay home with your abuser? Don't visit neighbors or even your close relatives? These children, and battered ADULTS, will fall through the cracks. Only deaths from coronavirus matter?
As this article states, school employees are the first line of defense in these situations. I am a retired Special Ed Para. It is much worse with special needs children who are non-verbal and cannot tell anyone what is happening to them. One little girl came into class crying her eyes out. In checking her I saw multiple bruises and cigarette burns on her body. Teacher and I reported this. She lived alone with her mother. Her father lived in another state. If we did not examine this little girl and she was isolated in her home with her abusive mother. what would have happened to her??? What is going to happen to other kids in similar situations?
I made a post about this on a different site. Nobody seemed to care. Do YOU on here care? Are you only concerned about the spread of coronavirus?
Our governor put out a special announcement encouraging everyone to be aware and report any suspected abuse during the safe at home or stay at home orders as children will be at higher risk. I have also seen many FB post regarding the danger of child abuse and just that many children will be confined to abusive homes.
But what can be done. My question is if the abuse is already known why is it continuing. If its known kids are in homes with no food, why hasnt something already be done. Our department of child services/family court system is inept. Abuse continues to go on and they do nothing about it.
There was a story about this today on my local PA news which said the number of calls received dropped by almost 1,000 in 2 weeks. Stay home with your abuser? Don't visit neighbors or even your close relatives? These children, and battered ADULTS, will fall through the cracks. Only deaths from coronavirus matter?
As this article states, school employees are the first line of defense in these situations. I am a retired Special Ed Para. It is much worse with special needs children who are non-verbal and cannot tell anyone what is happening to them. One little girl came into class crying her eyes out. In checking her I saw multiple bruises and cigarette burns on her body. Teacher and I reported this. She lived alone with her mother. Her father lived in another state. If we did not examine this little girl and she was isolated in her home with her abusive mother. what would have happened to her??? What is going to happen to other kids in similar situations?
I made a post about this on a different site. Nobody seemed to care. Do YOU on here care? Are you only concerned about the spread of coronavirus?
This was one of the first things I thought about when all of these "stay at home" orders starting coming. Most people only think of life from their bubbles, and don't realize the absolute horror show that these "stay at home" orders are for others.
I mentioned on another thread, forget which forum on here, where someone asked if anyone had a renewed sense of purpose because of this virus, that I felt bad for those who were stuck at home with horrible families.
I don't remember that thread being in the P&OC forum, so I didn't get into it because it's "controversial", but this is exactly the type of thing I was talking about.
Another poster responded to my post in that other thread about how domestic abuse is also going up because of these "stay at home" orders.
We are screwing a lot of people over in order to save a small percentage who would have actually got the virus, had it do a number on them, and possibly kill them.
It's that old question that you used to see in high school or maybe college about the one guy stuck on the railroad tracks and the train is coming. You can choose to divert the train, but you'll kill everyone onboard if you do, or you can choose to let the train run over the guy - who do you save?
We are living that scenario right now, and most people don't give a crap about the train load of abuse victims, or those who will lose their jobs and everything along with it, because someone is stuck on the train tracks with corona virus.
I guess you could put it the other way, though. Should saving the percentage of people in abusive homes or those who have been unable/unwilling to save money trump saving the 20% of people who will end up hospitalized from this? Remember that if the hospitals are full, that 20% is not going to get the correct treatment, and many will die. So which is better? Are 20% of people in abusive homes or starving to death because they are unable to buy food at all? Also keep in mind that the illness will disproportionately affect the poor in either case... those who have the ability to do so will still stay home and will be able to keep themselves safe(r) and those who have no choice would be the only ones working in nonessential jobs or sending their children to school.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
