Letters to the Editor
-
Sad Story, Bad Extrapolation
I'm sorry that this guy got caught up in DCFS. The laws exist because people abuse children all the time, and the policies exist because people get away with abusing children all the time, and the vigilance exists because DCFS is charged with applying policies equally, without consideration for whether the person being investigated is wealthy and insulated or poor and exposed.
And so now the author reaches out to activist groups and an "expert witness" and offers their press releases as statistical evidence that what happened to him is indicative of, what? Terrible people hysterically going on witch hunts?
Here are some other things he might have learned from this experience: DFACS in Georgia, charged with protecting children, is terribly underfunded. That's why it looks so decrepit. That's how much we care about keeping kids safe.
DFACS in Georgia is constantly under attack for not protecting children. Tens of thousands of children end up experiencing childhoods that resemble war zones or rape rooms and are permanently damaged. Perhaps the worst damage to these kids is the inchoate, life-long unfolding realization that nobody stepped in to protect them.
The author should learn the difference between nutball advocacy and statistics if he wishes to use statistics. Talking to a paid consultant who claims to "see families stripped and ripped apart" may have felt very affirming, but it doesn't match the statistical reality that there are actually so few people who have been "wrongly convicted" (many people claim "wrongful conviction" who are guilty as sin) that we remember them by name; we know every case, and these cases get endlessly recycled in stories like this. And "unsubstantiated" complaints aren't the same as false accusations. They're often first reports of abuse that pile up before a social worker can find enough evidence to remove children. Learn this stuff, or write a personal memoir.
The author wants a "system" to protect him and the "dozens" of other people like him (dozens? recent years? nationally?). He got it: it was the investigation. It was very scary for him and his family, but instead of spending his time feeling like the only victim in the room, he should have learned something. How could anybody who bothers to take even a passing glance at real sexual abuse statistics continue to express amazement that anybody would find a child's bottom sexy? And say this to a social worker, who sees it every day?
As a court-appointed advocate for abused children in Georgia and a victim advocate, I know dozens of children who have experienced the type of abuse that this author apparently cannot even imagine, and the fact that the evidence bar is set so high on protecting them, and the public is so easily swayed by overblown and frankly untrue stories of unfair persecution only perpetuates this abuse. The author might have learned this, had he looked further than his own fears. That's what it means to be an adult and a member of a community charged with protecing all children, not just one's own. I won't deny that he has been through something traumatic, but he seems to have gained no empathy or insight from it. Instead, by stoking unfounded fears about imagined rampant persecution (you can always find an "expert witness"), he's the one spreading hysteria. He should thank that photoshop worker for doing what he apparently wouldn't ever risk doing: speaking out when a child appears to be in trouble.
But hey, it's all about hanging out in France, badly channeling Camus, right?