So I'm watching Nancy Grace and I can barely stand it. This 3-year-old little boy, Blake Linton, was beaten to death in the bathtub by his mother's boyfriend. His liver and brain were lacerated in the beating. The boyfriend texted the mother that he "lost it this time." The mother met with the boyfriend and checked her son's pulse, which she said she faintly felt, and yelled his name. Then the boyfriend took the child and laid him by the side of the road to stage a hit and run car accident.
The elder daughter has had two previous broken arms and the biological father had asked for the children to be removed from the mother's care. The preacher from her church described her as fun-loving. The psych-in-a-box says that the mother had an attachment-disorder.
Um... duh.
This story just kills me.
Kills me.
It makes me so mad. So many kids are put through hell and back by their own parents and it seems like nothing gets done. It's so hard to see the signs sometimes. We have to look closely. We have to be so diligent. We have to tend our relationships with our students. We have to build trust. When we do intervene, we have to call and call and call and call and call. Be persistent. Be patient. Take notes. Don't give up. Ask questions. Pay attention.
Sometimes it takes a long time for a case to be investigated and sometimes it happens so fast.
There's my kids like T. and then there's the kids like S. S was wetting her pants almost daily in my reading group. It smelled like fish. She wouldn't run around at recess and she would waddle into reading group. The kids would say... What's that smell? It took me a while to clue in what was going on. S. was in another teacher's class. We talked it over at lunch and recess and one day her teacher encouraged S. to talk with the family specialist about what was going on at home. Apparently, grandma's boyfriend was beating up S.'s little 2-year-old brother for dropping his bottle.
WHAT THE FUCK?????
S. moved in with her other grandma last week and then they moved to a new house in a new district a few days later. Her mom has to take classes about abuse before she can see her children again.
In the meantime, T.'s struggle goes on and on and on. I wonder what the hell happens in her home. I can't figure out what is the truth and what is a lie. I don't trust anything about her mother and I just wish I knew that she was safe.
Poor Blake Linton didn't make it elementary school, so that a teacher could ever worry about him. People have great capacities.... they can be tremendously good and tremendously evil. I've worn rose-colored glasses for most of my life, but this profession has taught me one sad truth... real evil is out there and it walks among us, looking just the same as anyone else you know. Always be aware. Always be alert. Always do the right thing.
It helps. Especially when you are watching Nancy Grace just a little too late at night.
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