Friday, January 8, 2010

Helping an Abuse Child

Years ago I was Coordinator of the Child Care Food Program for my county. This program feeds low income children. One day one of my caregivers called me and told me that one of the little boys that she was watching was being abused by his mother. She proceeded to give me evidence. She was scared to turn the woman in. I told her that I absolutely was not scared to do it and I hung up, called Human Services, and reported it immediately!

That night I received a phone call from the child's mother. She proceeded to threaten me for turning her in. I stopped her and I told her my address. I told her that I would be outside waiting for her. I told here that when she got to my house that she wouldn't be dealing with a 12 year old boy and that I couldn't wait for her to get there. She hung up in tears.

The boys teacher corroborated the abuse evidence. Before Human Services could act (apparently they needed a court order or something that delayed taking the boy and his brother away from their mother.) the woman left town taking the children with her.

They found her a month and a half later in Michigan (I live in West Virginia). Her husband had taken the boy to the emergency room because his mother had broken his arm! I hope things have changed and they remove children immediately now so that this kind of thing doesn't happen.

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