Report: About 900,000 U.S. children abused

[dArKeR]

WASHINGTON - Although there has been an improvement in the situation over the previous decade, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement, “The abuse of children remains a national tragedy that demands our commitment and action.”


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Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona announced he would create a working group to focus attention on the problem and find ways to tackle it.

Statistics gathered by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System showed child protective service agencies received 2.6 million reports of possible maltreatment in 2002. Of these, 896,000 were substantiated and most involved neglect.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4647706/

I listened to Jay Inslee, from Washington, go through the list of Millions and Billions of dollars Bush has sent to Iraq to fix roads, builds shelters, put food in shelters, health care, schools... What about our tax dollars staying in our own country?

In case people don't know what's going on in CA. The roads are all tore up, everywhere. From highways to No Outlet streets (with little to no traffice.) Sidewalks are buckled and cracked all over the place. There's no money to even try to fix them. I see home owners using picks, grinders... trying to file down the gaps. The children can't even ride a bicycle on the sidewalk without wiping out. I'm talking 2-4 inch height gaps between the slabs. There are puddles in the streets all over the place too. The pitch of the curb is 'warped'. The water can't flow to the storm sewers. I live in a 500K to 2Mil neighborhood. (But it's the same all over.) I'm going out to take pics and I'll post them in a few hours.

[Kadie]

1. Why do they forget the children?

We have a big problem in this country. Abuse and neglect are very big problems. However, a lot of these situations could be avoided with programs to help out parents. Whether it be to help them get off of drugs, find a job, get out of an abusive relationships themselves, further their education, and provide affordable daycare. We need to help the children, and in many instances we can help the children by helping their parents. Maybe if we are a little more compassionate we can prevent some of this abuse.

So no one flames me, I know that there are some situations where all the help in the world won't matter, and yes those kids do need to be put into a loving home. And, even in situations where the children may be able to stay with their parents, they still may need to be removed from the home until it is safe for them to return. Speaking as a former foster mom, you have to really take a look at each individual case before making a judgment.

This is an issue that needs attention. I hope Tommy Thompson's ideas aren't just to pull more kids from the home, they need to look at it more thoroughly than that. Let's try to prevent some of this from happening in the first place.

[wicket]

2. This is so sad :(

A country as wealthy as ours and the most vulnerable members of society still suffer. *sigh* :(

[Gman]

3. The biggest tragedy is the sexual abuse

going on out there. In the last 7 months we've had to deal with 2 different cases. The first had to do with one of my daughter's 12 year old friends who we discovered was being raped by her 22+ year old step brother since she was 10. I had noticed a big change in her behavior. My wife had been saying all along that she thought the step brother was "creepy". She was right. We dug into it and found it had been reported but unfortunately the girl is getting no counseling.

The other has to do with a 12 or 13 year old girl in our religion class we teach on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday, we asked the class to draw a picture about what they thought about the topic of the day. This girl instead drew a stick figure picture of her mother and step father being hanged with herself off to the side saying "I hate you". We've suspected something was going on with this girl from the beginning of the school year. This confirmed it but, when my wife tried to get specifics out of her, she clammed up and left. My wife is going to pull her out of class Sunday and ask her some direct questions. Then we'll be able to do something about it.

What the hell is going on out there???

[Mari333]

4. The infrastructure for social programs and people to keep these kids safe

has been cut in every state thanks to the neverending blackhole in Iraq. Just listen to that sucking sound.
The BushCheney Vulcans are abusing children all over the world, in every way shape and form they can.
and becoming very wealthy as we speak on yours and my tax dollars that are being thrown into their childish but deadly Vulcan wars, and not into the coffers of social services and help for the poor and getting poorer people of the US.

[Voltaire99]

6. I agree. Great post. (n/t)

[dArKeR]

5. As promised: America's Infrastructure (The Bush Legacy) pics

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/thebushlegacy.htm

[jerryskid]

7. its funny to think...

its funny for me to think we have a president in office who claims to be a "family man," a "man of faith" yet he lets this happen in the country. though some say something like child beatings is unstoppable, i can hardly accecpt those answers. if we put importance in children as we do with the military, not only would each children never be hit but all would have a golden toilet

[newyawker99]

8. Hi jerryskid!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: