Trauma is *torture. Watching mom being raped is torture.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
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Four years of traumatic abuse & neglect in a toxic home is the average for the oldest child in the family.
Social workers step in to mend and guide best they can. Until then, day care workers and teachers are the only normality and safe space these poor children have. Teachers see the behaviors and often know the sadness and terror children are living with but are often not trained as first responders.
Traumatized children often have unmanageable and dangerous behaviors. Less than 60% of foster kids finish HS by 19 (compared to almost 90% of the general population)
What’s it like to be a first grade teacher frightened by an out of control little boy who kicks, punches or stabs classmates with pencils? Is the principal trauma informed? Are their teams of trauma informed teachers or sufficient mental health resources that can lessen the chances of expelling a seven or nine year old from the school? Without that help, teaching can be impossible and student and personal safety at risk.
The Opioid crisis has added tens of thousands of addicted and dangerous parents to an already overtaxed American safety net. Without early childhood programs, health and mental health services, crisis nurseries and affordable daycare, their children suffer terribly. Without the help of the larger community, these kids have greatly reduced chances of succeeding in school or leading a productive and happy life.
In McDowell County, West Virginia, almost 40% of children do not live with their parents. The data and statistics are not readily available in most counties where it is needed most.
About a third of foster children nationally are forced to take psychotropic medications. Most of those kids do not get the mental health services necessary for the safe and effective use of those drugs. Few people are aware of the laws broken and fines levied behind these statistics (biggest criminal fines ever).
This isn’t going away without the involvement of the rest of us.
Trauma is *torture. Watching mom being raped is torture.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children