Did social service fail to protect 4 year old Dominick Calhoun?

[chickaddict]

Stories such as these are depressing and infuriating to me. Mostly because there are thousands of wonderful prospective parents out there battling infertility issues. Any one of these people would gladly cut off an arm to receive the amazing gift of parenthood.

Yes, I did say GIFT.


As far as blaming someone, I'm sure there is more then enough blame to go around.

I have 2 adopted cousins. Both children were abused in every way possible. We only saw them at birthday parties and holiday gatherings growing up, never had any idea this was going on. As an adult looking back into my childhood the rest of us kids just thought they were really WIERD. It never occurred to the rest of us that they were being abused. The little girl was a fighter, constantly getting into fights at school. So when her class picture showed up with a black eye and a broken arm we didn't think anything of it. Just figured she picked the wrong classmate to battle.

Abusive homes are shrouded in secrecy. I don't know what the standard is in other states. But here the goal of the dept of soc. services is to help the family fix it's problems and remain a family. Removing children from the home is a last resort. Unfortunately, by the time removal occurs it's usually too late, someone has died so the others get removed.

on the other side of the coin - some neighbors are just plain mean and vindictive. I'm sure for every legitimate abuse claim they receive there is another call with a false claim made by someone just trying to make trouble.

no easy answers to this one - when children are abused - everyone pays the price

 

[PurpleChicken]

Cases like this sicken us all. How many here would have happily adopted or fostered a child like that to get them away from that situation? I know I would and most of you would too, in fact a few already do.


I'll begin by my default explanation for everything: In a country of 300+ million people things like this are going to happen. No, I don't like that answer either.


Criminals and abusers are often smart people who can get around social and family services. I'm not a proponent of more laws since they mostly don't work. In CT there are automatic protective orders being issued my the courts that are ripping apart families. Here it's gone to the other extreme.


Someone said this is society's problem and I agree completely. The best solution I have is to educate people from a young age the true definitions of abuse, how to recognize it, and how not to do it. Children can be taught these things easier than adults.