Teacher's pleas for abused child ignored
4:00AM Sunday Jun 14, 2009
By Rachel Grunwell
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett wants answers after social workers took four months to remove a wheelchair-bound boy from his home following allegations he was was being beaten, burned with cigarettes and starved.
While the mother is facing charges of assault of the wheelchair-bound boy two of the boy’s siblings are still with the mother. CYF workers had commented "poor mum she's not coping". The police took seven months to take a formal statement from the teacher.
These are the same authorities who are meant to use discretion when investigation complaint about parents using reasonable force when physically disciplining their children.
The is not the first case of authorities failing to act appropriately is cases of serious abuse. If the anti-smacking fanatics were seriously concerned about child abuse they would be comment on this case. Would I be unreasonable in thinking there may be considerable sexism the way the law is applied in cases of child abuse? They certainly looked at the situation differently when a father was involved.
Mr Key the law is not working. If you genuinely care about child abuse as opposed to scoring political points with some so called compromise you will change your criteria for having the law amended. If the police and CYF workers are too busy to look at serious genuine child abuse they should not be wasting their time investigating trivial breaches of this anti-parental correction law.
The public have a right to know what excuse police and CYF workers have for not acting sooner.
