As the SEMissourian reports that child abuse is on the rise in Missouri. I believe there needs to be a wake up call across America. Next time we humor or participate in the whining of middle class suburban women – crying about how mistreated they are because they aren’t allowed on the front lines of war or claiming unfair compensation or how violated farm chickens are, try some persepctive. Next time you hear the whining in protest of immigrants who can’t catch a break or how their genius kid can’t get special services beyond gifted classes or how as an everyday American, they aren’t getting their lives subsidized by the government, think of children that suffer day in and day out. Next time you hear someone bitch about how they are losing their freedom and thier civil liberties as they drive around in their Escalade, take a moment to think of those that are truly persecuted for no apparent reason. Stop focusing on made-up violations and autrocities and get real. Stop turning a blind eye and face the facts. Start protecting our children and stop trying to think of creative ways to justify it or excuse it. Try doing something about it instead of being all about you or made up injustices.

Children are dying, being hurt. Pass Jessica’s Law, advocate prevention strategies, stricter child abuse penalties and monitoring. Stop the violence against children now. 

The skull cracked. Twice.

She was 2 months old on that March day in Scott County. Police say her mother, apparently upset that the child would not sleep, violently shook her baby and slammed her head into a door, fracturing the skull.

Two months later in a separate incident in Scott City, a 7-year-old boy’s feet dangled in the air. His mother’s 250-pound boyfriend gripped the boy’s throat and punched the child several times, authorities claim. The child was severely bruised and suffered a lacerated pancreas.

These young victims, who both lived through their ordeals, are two cases among hundreds that will be reported in Southeast Missouri this year. According to experts, cases of sexual and physical abuse among children are on the rise, and officials are fighting hard to stop it.

“Abuse takes place by people who know and have access to children,” said Tammy Gwaltney, executive officer for the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence. “It doesn’t discriminate.”

Beginning in 1997, the network, a not-for-profit organization based in Cape Girardeau, has seen the number of new child abuse cases reported to them each year rise from about 46 the first year to nearly 500 in a 10-county region. When the network began operating full time in 2000, it had 142 cases.

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