Thursday night's citizens police academy started on a rather emotional subject. Child abuse. I'm not talking "daddy doesn't emotionally support me" line of abuse, but the intense emotional and bruise causing abuse that sticks with a kid for life.
Officer Liehr was the presenter for this subject. I could tell that it was hard to talk about this form of abuse unemotionally and detached.
His presentation involved at one point three pictures. Each showed "wounds" on a child and we were asked to try to figure out which was abuse and which was "other". I, and a good chunk of the class, guessed wrong.
To report child abuse in Tennessee call
1-877-237-0004
I found that in Tennessee it is illegal
NOT to report possible abuse. It is the highest level of misdemeanor not to.
I asked about parents reporting abuse by the other parent as a tool in a divorce and how common was it. He said he has had that happened, and to file a false police report(on any subject) was a felony.
Next up were the chaplains. I was rather surprised that Smyrna has three chaplains, and one in training. One is always on call with their own shared city supplied vehicle, and support the police in counselling, death notifications, and other needs that arise. Smyrna police chaplains are all members of the
ICPC (International Conference of Police Chaplains). I was surprised at the level of training that is required to be a police chaplain.
Next up was Officer James Scott. He talked on Domestic violence.
Most domestic abuse runs in a cycle. Tension - Violence - Honeymoon - Tension(again), with each time the cycle normally occurs faster and faster. This cycle is perpetuated by the victim's lack of willingness to prosecute and family members not reporting it. He told of many reasons why they would not stop the violence. Religious, cultural, and financial are just a few hurdles that hurt the ability to help the victim.
FYI
A local place for help is the DV(domestic violence) program of Rutherford county
615-896-7377
and the Rutherford county Guidance Center
615-893-0770
Officer Scott ended the night with talk on Internet safety for children.
A few basic numbers show that 25% of all search engine requests are for porn and that the largest consumer of Internet porn is in the 12-17 year range.
Basic email safety was discussed like turning off HTML graphics, and never using a preview window. Also discussed was the physical aspects of security. Locking down your routers so people cannot log into your system, and changing default passwords.
With all that said the
best way to protect a child on the net is the parent. Keep and eye on what they are doing, and keep the computer out in the main part of the house. The parent is the strongest tool to protect the child on the net.
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