Child Protection Services and other affiliated programs should be made more efficient
- by: Samantha Bettencourt
- recipient: President George Bush, Washington State Senator, and Congress
For approximately 10 months I have been close friends with a teen boy that has suffered severely from child abuse. His abusers consist of members of his immediate family. He is neglected, physically abused, and emotionally abused. Unfortunately for him, though, emotional abuse is not considered abuse in the state of Washington where he resides. The affects on him, due to his abusive environment, are great. More strongly as a result of the emotional abuse towards him. He is degraded daily as being worth nothing and that he has no purpose. He is relied on to do things that are beyond his physical and emotional ability, and he has a hard time dealing with this. He is subjected daily to his parents alcoholism and their obsessive nature of partying with friends. On several occasions his parents have come home from drinking extremely late at night and been physically abusive. His father has threatened to kill him on numerous occasions and he has had to protect himself many times against serious injuries as a result of his fathers anger. His parents are controlling , they keep him from normal every day teenage activities. He is expected to take care of them when they are so drunk that they are irrational and even attempt suicide. On several occasions he has prevented them from killing themselves. But sadly as a result of everything that he goes through he has almost given up hope several times, he is suicidal, he has stopped eating for long periods of time, he is constantly sick and throws up often. His home life effects his schooling, attitude and all around childhood experience. And I know it will for a very long time. That is why I chose to report his situation to a child protection service.
I spent about an hour in their hoping that I could make a difference in someones life but walked out with even less hope then I had before. I spoke on my problem and expressed my concern but in the end I was informed by them that in order for them to investigate further my friend would have to come in himself and state the problem. I was extremely confused and disappointed because I knew that the victim of abuse was terified and was likely to be so fearful that he would not come in. Actually a few months prior to me reporting he had expressed to me that if I ever reported his abusers that he would kill himself. Besides being angry at that fact, child protection service also informed me that Washington state is one of two states out of fifty in the U.S. that does not consider emotional abuse as abuse. I was shocked and I can't even express how hurt I was to know that basically there was nothing that I could do to help my friend. I am even more hurt to hear many situations in the U.S. where children are taken out of their homes without hard evidence against the abuser. I just can't help wondering why their situation was dealt with harsher than it should have been and my friends goes on somewhat unnoticed.
I strongly feel that the current system of child protection should be made more efficient in order to save more childrens lives, the children that really need to be noticed. I think that emotional abuse should also be considered abuse in the two states that it isn't because in my opinion emotional abuse is one of the worst kinds of abuse. I think that more investigations should be done to take children out of homes where they are being emotionally maltreated. It effects the child all the way through their life and then into lives of the people that they come to be close to.
My favorite quote having to do with this subject is one by Don Oldenburg of the Washington Post. He says, "There is none of the bruises, blood, and broken bones sometimes found in child abuse cases involving beatings and sexual molestation that scream so often these days from newspaper headlines. Rarely does child abuse that scars only the mind makes the news. The most severe cases occationally attract attention from the authorities. But the vast majority go quietly unnoticed-exept by the victim!"
Please consider what I am saying because maybe together we can make a big enough difference to save someones life. Thank you very much!
Sign PetitionSign PetitionI spent about an hour in their hoping that I could make a difference in someones life but walked out with even less hope then I had before. I spoke on my problem and expressed my concern but in the end I was informed by them that in order for them to investigate further my friend would have to come in himself and state the problem. I was extremely confused and disappointed because I knew that the victim of abuse was terified and was likely to be so fearful that he would not come in. Actually a few months prior to me reporting he had expressed to me that if I ever reported his abusers that he would kill himself. Besides being angry at that fact, child protection service also informed me that Washington state is one of two states out of fifty in the U.S. that does not consider emotional abuse as abuse. I was shocked and I can't even express how hurt I was to know that basically there was nothing that I could do to help my friend. I am even more hurt to hear many situations in the U.S. where children are taken out of their homes without hard evidence against the abuser. I just can't help wondering why their situation was dealt with harsher than it should have been and my friends goes on somewhat unnoticed.
I strongly feel that the current system of child protection should be made more efficient in order to save more childrens lives, the children that really need to be noticed. I think that emotional abuse should also be considered abuse in the two states that it isn't because in my opinion emotional abuse is one of the worst kinds of abuse. I think that more investigations should be done to take children out of homes where they are being emotionally maltreated. It effects the child all the way through their life and then into lives of the people that they come to be close to.
My favorite quote having to do with this subject is one by Don Oldenburg of the Washington Post. He says, "There is none of the bruises, blood, and broken bones sometimes found in child abuse cases involving beatings and sexual molestation that scream so often these days from newspaper headlines. Rarely does child abuse that scars only the mind makes the news. The most severe cases occationally attract attention from the authorities. But the vast majority go quietly unnoticed-exept by the victim!"
Please consider what I am saying because maybe together we can make a big enough difference to save someones life. Thank you very much!
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