Child Abuse - San Antonio & Bexar County (Houston, Mart: insurance, condo)

[Engnerd]

My heart is broken and low today after reading the article in Sunday's Express News about the number of child abuse and child murder cases in Bexar County. I can honestly say that I did not realize that it was such a problem right where we live. Please stand up for the children around you, if you think a child is being physically, emotionally or sexually abused, please be their advocate and report it to the police. If you can't handle your child please call the nearest church, fire department or police station to get help. Dominique Martez Reed is the most disgusting of them all, and I had never even heard his name before:

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[L210]

I saw the article and was disturbed, but not surprised because I've seen it with my own eyes along with CPS and SAPD's failure to take these cases seriously. There has also been a failure to deal with mental health issues as stated in the article. Child Protective Services wants to blame this on the economy, but that's not an excuse for why Bexar County has more child deaths due to abuse/neglect than Harris County along with every other county in Texas. According to the article, Houston has 3 times more children than San Antonio. San Antonio wasn't even hit by the recession as hard as most of the other heavily populated areas of Texas. My theory is that the problem stems from the teen pregnancies and generational poverty that occur independent of the economy. Also, having children out of wedlock and shacking up with anyone does not help. Many of these children are abused by their mothers' boyfriends who aren't their biological fathers.

[69GSstage1]

I read the article with a heavy heart, but I'm not surprised. Yesterday, I was washing my car at a public carwash. Next to me was a man in his early 20's. He was with a small boy no more than six years old. I'm not sure if they were a father and son, but the music blaring from his car was disgusting! I lost count of how many times I heard the word "Mother____r." All this so called music was about raping women, shooting policemen, and violence! No wonder some of today's youth is in such bad shape.

[Lordfalco]

Originally Posted by 69GSstage1

I read the article with a heavy heart, but I'm not surprised. Yesterday, I was washing my car at a public carwash. Next to me was a man in his early 20's. He was with a small boy no more than six years old. I'm not sure if they were a father and son, but the music blaring from his car was disgusting! I lost count of how many times I heard the word "Mother____r." All this so called music was about raping women, shooting policemen, and violence! No wonder some of today's youth is in such bad shape.

You must have driven by the guy I was parked at a light beside last week. 30 something male with his son between the ages of 6-8 sitting in the front seat (without a booster seat) listening to profanity laced rap. With role models like that, what do you expect the childern to grow up to be?

[Hedgehog_Mom]

I think we need to give teens easier access to birth control and teach them how to use it...our schools still teach abstinence instead of anything useful. A lot of these heartbreaking stories seem to involve teen parents, or a teen mother and her boyfriend. If you give a teen the resposibilites of raising an infant when she doesn't have the maturity or means to be a parent, it's often setting the stage for disaster. Prevention is really the cure here. We really fail our kids by not allowing the schools to teach about birth control in heath class.

I'm not suggesting that only young parents abuse their children...I think it happens in all age groups and income brackets. It's just that the ones we read about killing their children are usually the youngest parents.

And I don't think it has much to do with music...I listen to music with cuss words and it has never once given me the urge to beat a child.

[ItsTheTruth]

Loud rap music, really? I didn't know my grandmother was on here.

I'm pretty sure some swear words are an insignificant concern in the lives of these children. The real problems are teenage pregnancy, lack of education, and poverty.

[sapphire]

They sell condoms in nearly every retail store out there. It's 2012, no excuse whatsoever for an unwanted pregnancy. These kids watch shows that glamorize teen pregnancy, get ZERO encouragement at home regarding putting that off until after college, let alone high school, and too many teens are left alone after school and find themselves in adult situations. The mothers and the grandmothers of these girls just don't seem to recognize the sadness of their own situations. Craziness.

[Hedgehog_Mom]

Kids are having sex before they're old enough to have money to buy condoms. You can't exactly put it on your mom's shopping list when you're 14 and some kids don't get an allowance or spending money...I don't give my kids spending money because they waste it on bubble gum and whoopie cushions. My kids have no way to buy anything without me knowing about it. I would have no problem buying condoms if they needed them when they're teenagers, but I'd really prefer that they used the pill also. I don't think a lot of parents have the same attitude though about providing their teens access to birth control, a lot of them just seem to tell the kids they can't have sex and not to even think about it...and then they're shocked when their little darling comes up pregnant.

[WilGar]

Two weeks' ago, the EN front page article was about teen pregnancy and how many baby factories have how many offsprings before leaving their teens.

Our social workers' afternoon "feel good" sessions trying to overcome teen pregnancy are overridden with a Saturday night date with a much older male.

Where is the girl's father? Probably on his second quart of beer out trying to impregnate his daughter's boy friend's older sister.

Moderator cut: Off-Topic

[sapphire]

With or without money, they still WANT to get pregnant. No amount of sex ed in schools is going to compete with "16 and Pregnant" on MTV. Plus, they get "free baby insurance" (I've heard these words verbatim) and WIC and other assistance so they don't really feel much pain........until their friends are going out and doing the fun stuff.

They need supervision where there is NONE. We are sexual beings, of course they want to have sex. They are not taught self-control because their parents probably failed that concept as well.