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Home - Local News Sports Obituaries Editorial Social Archives |
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Social - April 2002 |
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Preventing child abuse May 13, 2002 - During the month of April we emphasized the need for citizens to have an awareness of child abuse, displaying photos of various citizens receiving awareness month ribbons. When U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole dropped by our office she accepted the pinning of a blue ribbon with some seriousness. “I’d better not be smiling when you take this picture,” she said. “This is about child abuse.” She sensed the seriousness of this topic. We hope the blue ribbons raised a similar awareness in others. A local story appearing in our news pages May 1 pointed out the importance of our schools in discovering child abuse. Often it is a teacher who is the first to discover the painful truth and calls on DSS protective services to investigate. But there is an even earlier line of defense in child abuse — the family, friends and relatives of the abuser. For them it is probably just as difficult — if not more so — to report incidents of child abuse. But in some cases these close acquaintances are in a position to stop it altogether through an intervention that can only occur between people with mutual respect for each other. Sometimes it’s hard to know when someone crosses the line between a disciplinarian and a child abuser. Some parents have deep-seated feelings about the importance of stringent discipline, particularly with difficult children. But most of us know what child abuse is all about. We’ve all seen too much of it. A very disturbing trend in recent years is the deadly “shaken-baby” incidents, which frequently occurs as a young mother’s boyfriend seeks to impose his own brutal punishment on a crying infant that is not his own. More and more, DSS officials, prosecutors and law enforcement officials are bringing tough criminal charges in these cases, as they should. We would urge you sisters, brothers, mothers-in-law, uncles and grandparents to help in this all-important effort at preventing child abuse. Not just in the month of April but all year long.
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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