Bert Shanas
CHILD ABUSE: A KILLER TEACHERS
CAN HELP CONTROL____
The epidemic is so widespread that every state has, in the past decade, passed or updated laws that require
the reporting of child abuse cases. Last year the national Child Abuse Prevention Act was signed into law.
Maryland - Donna S., a 9-year
old fourth-grade student at
in the nation last year. Some authorities
estimate that there are a minimum of 25
nation of her body reveals burns,
actual cases for every one reported. Two
children per day are known to be dying
Damascus Elementary School, ar
rives at the hospital dead. Exami
bruises, and scars inflicted over a
long period of time. Donna's
mother is held for premeditated
murder and torture.
New York - Richard K., a
14-year-old junior high school stu
dent in the Bronx, shows up at
school with multiple welts on
both arms, swollen wrists, and
puncture wounds on his legs and
buttocks. He is quiet, shy, and
from child abuse - more than seven
hundred deaths every year.
According to the best estimates,
some ten thousand children are severely
battered each year; 50,000 to 75,000
100,000 are physically, morally, or edu
cationally neglected.
the same treatment in our own factory
systems and turn-of-the-century sweat
tionally neglected"; and another
Child abuse is so widespread that
California ? A 13-year-old Los
Angeles youngster is forced into
incestuous relationships with her
father. She tries to take her own
life on three occasions by over
dosing medication, by strangling
or suspected abuse cases. Twenty-four
school window.
laws that require the reporting of abuse
states specifically require school person
nel to report cases. Yet it is an out-of
control epidemic. Nobody knows for
sure how many cases continue to go
unreported.
"The variation of these [reporting]
laws doesn't matter," says Minnesota
Senator Walter F. M?ndale, who spon
sored the $60 million national Child
Abuse
Prevention Act signed into law
seem, the cases cited above are far from
early last year. "What matters is that
unusual. In fact, they are typical of the
we have seen they don't work. Child
thousands of cases each year with which
abuse continues to go undetected and
teachers come in contact. Child abuse is
untreated in case after case."
a "disease" believed to be the largest
And though it may sound cruel,
killer of children in the United States
thousands of teachers across the
today.
country ? people who have dedicated
Sixty thousand cases were reported
\_jgly and revolting as they may
themselves to providing for the welfare
of children ? are contributing to the
injury and death statistics by failing to
BERT SHANAS is education editor
report cases and refusing to get involved
of the New York Daily News and a
free-lance education writer whosein the problem.
articles have appeared in a variety of Physical abuse and neglect of chil
dren at the hands of their own parents is
national magazines. He wrote some of
certainly not a new development; one
the newspaper stories five years ago that
helped bring about better child abuse
might say it is steeped in tradition.
reporting laws in New York State.
The older generation, at least, has
read Charles Dickens's accounts of the
horrors of growing up in an industrial
society; in history 'lessons we learned
that American children received much
withdrawn. When questioned by
school authorities, he admits his
herself, and by leaping from a
shoe.
are sexually abused; 100,000 are "emo
within the past 10 years every state in
the union has either passed or updated
father has been beating him.
advises the Old Testament. "She gave
them some broth without any bread/
And whipped them all soundly and sent
them to bed," says the nursery rhyme
about the fabled woman who lived in a
"Spare the rod and spoil the child,"
shops.
T
X he first court case involv
abuse in the United States ar
a century ago in New York C
little Mary Ellen, who was bei
and beaten repeatedly, was
from her bed. She was giv
outside her home after church
called the case to the attenti
Society for the Prevention of
Animals. It was after that
some "conscientious" citizen
maybe there should be a sim
for children. And so the Socie
Prevention of Cruelty to Ch
founded.
But child abuse remained something
most folks preferred not to talk about,
and it was only 10 years ago that we
began to read shocking newspaper ac
counts of children who are dropped in
tubs of boiling water, whose hands are
held over flames, and who are beaten
beyond recognition for no apparent
reason.
For most of those 10 years, the focus
was on abuse of the younger child, and
it wasn't until fairly recently that
authorities began emphasizing that part
of the problem is caused by the un
MARCH 1975 479
This content downloaded from 129.100.58.76 on Fri, 13 Nov 2020 02:29:30 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1971, 866 New York cases were re
willingness of teachers and school of
ficials to get involved. This despite the ported by teachers. In 1973 the number
fact that at least one national study, jumped to 2,120. At the end of the first
conducted in 1967, found that half six months of 1974, New York teachers
of a sample of some six thousand had already reported 2,666 suspected
abused children were over six, or of cases ? and most cases were still going
cases: students coming to
hungry, and poorly cloth
dren suffer from more s
emotional abuse. A child
is constantly drilling into
fact that he is unwanted su
school age.
"The teacher may well be the first
line of defense for the child against
child abuse," says Dr. Vincent J. Fon
tana, medical director and pediatrician
unreported.
Many teachers who want to report
suspected cases run into problems with
of abuse that may ultimate
as serious as battering and
their own principals and school adminis
in-chief, New York Foundling Hospital,
image" of the school by sticking their
head in the sand when such problems
arise. At least one county school system
always clear-cut and easy
course. It takes sensitivity
ing, and good training. I
and chairman, New York City Task
Force on Child Abuse and Neglect. He
points out that some families (especially
middle-income parents) can hide the
problem by finding private doctors will
ing to break the law and hide suspected
cases. There isn't even any assurance
that poorer youngsters will get to public
clinics, which are more likely to report
the problem.
But because of the nation's com
pulsory education laws, few youngsters
escape school these days. Teachers may
just be the fail-safe method for ensuring
that child abuse cases are reported ? at
least those cases involving school-age
children.
Unfortunately, however, large num
bers of teachers are still failing to meet
this responsibility, and there are several
reasons. High on the list is a personal
fear of getting involved ? a fear that
certainly is not unfounded. There have
been many instances of parents striking
out physically against teachers who have
reported child abuse cases. In one Cali
fornia case, a parent actually stabbed a
teacher who reported her child as a
suspected abuse victim.
School systems more attuned to the
problem have alleviated that danger
somewhat by making the building prin
cipal or another administrator solely
responsible for reporting suspected
cases. That is, the teacher reports the
case, but the same principal's name
always goes on the reporting form.
Michigan's Wayne-Westland School
District has a reporting policy that
outlines specific procedures for report
ing, including notification of school
officials, the hospital, and the abusive
trators, who seek to "protect the
in California, realizing what was happen
ing, has mandated its teachers and
school nurses to report suspected child
abuse cases even when their principals
instruct them not to do so.
In other school systems throughout
the country, there is simply a lack of
procedures for handling the child abuse
problem. Mrs. Kay Drews, a former
child abuse coordinator at the Univer
sity of Colorado Medical Center, writing
in Helping the Battered Child and His
Family, told of a survey in which
questionnaires about child abuse report
ing procedures were mailed to half of
the nation's school districts with enroll
ments of over 10,000 students. Re
sponses were received from 34% of the
districts. When asked if they had a
standard operating procedure to follow
in reporting suspected abuse cases, 49%
of the administrators answered in the
affirmative, but only 24% of the prin
cipals, teachers, and nurses said they
knew of such a procedure.
What the study implied, of course,
was that high-level administrators who
have little direct contact with children
were not making practitioners aware of
the reporting methods.
"It is not enough to concentrate just
on the academics," warns Dr. Fontana.
"A teacher can do a great deal just by
being human. Sure, there are risks in
volved in reporting child abuse cases;
but the risks are much greater if the
teacher fails to report a case she sus
pects."
It is the teacher's responsibility,
Child abuse and negl
better for a teacher who is
to have the child check
competent authority. The
danger that a teacher wi
sciously or subconsciously
lem child the victim of abu
of getting rid of him.
The American Humane
has published a list of sig
should look for as possibl
and neglect tipoffs. Among
? If the child is aggress
tive, or destructive, he co
out for attention. It could
way of calling for help, o
destructive climate at ho
tating parental behavior.
? If the child is shy,
overly compliant, he may h
ized his abuse problems and
help is a whisper.
? A child who comes t
early or loiters and hangs
school is dismissed may
escape from home.
? A child who is always
in class, is lethargic or li
suffering from family p
disrupt his normal routine
The list also includes s
for in parents as possible
abuse and neglect of their
example, parents may beco
or abusive when approached
with problems concerni
dren. They may be apa
responsive. They may be
their children as behavin
They may simply fail to ta
in their children's activities
Many teachers are relu
whether or not the principal and school
parent. It also tells teachers how to
ensure that the child is examined as
come deeply involved in p
lems no matter what the
about child abuse, and to be equipped
child abuse cases, teachers c
quickly as possible.
to spot potential cases.
New York City's system makes
teachers who fail to report suspected
cases subject to a Class A misdemeanor,
as well as "civilly liable for the damages
caused by such failure." Teachers are
actually encouraged to photograph sus
pected abuse and neglect victims, and
educators who make reports in good
faith are granted legal immunity. In
system are willing to help, to learn
T
the children's problems f
the parents. In fact, curren
child abuse treat the abusiv
X he definition of child
abuse
victim
also. varies
In a large num
abusive
parent was ab
from place to place. the
Severely
battered
or herself
a child.
children are often easy
to spotasbecause
the signs are there ? Often
repeated
thebruises
parent is tra
and welts a teacher can
distinguish
pressures
of from
a large fam
much
like
theother
teacher fac
injuries resulting from
scraps
with
30classic
acting-out
students
pupils. Then there areof
the
neglect
480 PHI DELTA KAPPAN
This content downloaded from 129.100.58.76 on Fri, 13 Nov 2020 02:29:30 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
children are not unwanted children, but
frequently the parent acts in a fit of
uncontrollable fury. In larger families an
abusive parent will sometimes single out
just one child for maltreatment.
It is not unusual to find a poor
relationship between spouses in abusive
families. As a result, mothers may look
to their young children as a sole source
of love; when the infant cries or the
older child fails to respond in a satisfy
ties, but could not find help ? probably
Sources of Information
On Child Abuse Problems
The following is a list of places for
teachers to write for further informa
tion on the child abuse problem :
1. For a list of indicators of child
abuse and neglect a teacher should
know, write for "Guidelines for
chronic problems trigger the specific
Schools" to the American Humane
Association, Children's Division, P.O.
Box 1266, Denver, Colo. 80201.
teacher sees in the classroom.
federal child abuse legislation, write
ing way, she feels rejected. These
incidents of abuse whose signs the
2. For information on the new
to the office of Senator Walter F.
\J i. C. Henry Kempe, who has been
working in the child abuse area for
many years at the University of Colo
rado Medical Center, originated the
term, "the battered child syndrome."
He now estimates that 90% of the
nation's abusive parents "are readily
treatable by reconstituting their sense of
trust and by giving them considerable
minute-to-minute support over a crucial
period of eight to nine months." In such
cases it is not necessary to remove the
abused child from the home permanent
ly for placement in a foster or adoptive
home.
The other 10%, says Dr. Kempe,
"belong to the categories of abusive
psychopaths or delusional schizo
phrenics" who use a child as a scape
goat. Dr. Kempe urges early removal of
a child from the home in these cases.
Most teachers have neither the ability
M?ndale, 443 Old Senate Office
Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20510.
3. For a copy of the New York
City Schools' procedures for han
dling child abuse, write to the Board
of Education's Office of Information
and Public Affairs, 12th floor, 110
Livingston St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
because the child wasn't physically
scarred. So she began a self-help group
called Mothers Anonymous. Fashioned
after the Alcoholics Anonymous sys
tem, it encouraged parents to meet once
or twice each week and begin to appre
ciate the fact that they were not alone.
They discussed their own problems as a
group and began to derive a great deal
of help and support from each other.
Today the organization has been re
named Parents Anonymous. There are
some six hundred chapters across the
country.
Child abuse is a phenomenon any
teacher may encounter, whether the
school is in an urban ghetto, a mid die
class area, or a wealthy suburb. It knows
no class distinction, although middle
and high-income parents can often hide
the problem better by avoiding public
health facilities.
11201. Request a copy of Special
Sometimes people with more money
can also "buy their way out" of poten
educators and general information on
getting out of the house and becoming
involved in other activities. The ability
to pay for a steady babysitter can help
Circular NO. 31, 1973-74.
4. For information on the role of
child abuse, write to the National
Center for the Prevention and Treat
ment of Child Abuse and Neglect,
University of Colorado Medical
Center, 4200 East Ninth Ave., Den
ver, Colo. 80220.
tially explosive child abuse situations by
save a child from abuse. Still, the
teacher has to recognize that no particu
lar class of parent is immune.
5. For information about child
abuse laws and reporting procedures
where you live, contact your local
social services agency, police depart
ment, and municipal and state gov
ernments.
X3y doing nothing about suspected
child abuse cases, the teacher is not only
endangering the child and furthering the
ruin of the parents, but is also con
tributing to the recycling of the prob
lem. Abused children tend to become
nor the training to recognize whether
parents fall into the 90% or 10% group.
abusive parents.
parents in the first group that "minute
tributes to many other educational
problems. Case studies have shown a
Nor do teachers have time to give
to-minute" support. But they do have
the responsibility, for the sake of the
parent and the child, to guide such
people, using channels set up by the
school, to the social and welfare agen
cies that provide such help.
Today there are a number of parental
treatment systems used throughout the
country that appear to be working out
well. At the National Center for the
Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
in Denver, a national training center run
by the University of Colorado and
directed by Dr. Kempe, four treatment
methods have been developed that are
being successfully used in various parts
of the nation.
The first type uses lay therapists,
both men and women, who work in the
homes of abusive parents, providing
support and spirit in times of need. The
second is called the "crisis nursery," a
place for parents to leave their small
The teacher's inaction also con
child when they feel the child needs a
safer place. The nursery is open day and
night, and a child may be left there for a
few hours or a few days if need be.
Next, Dr. Kempe uses a day-care
center for abused children, a place
where abusive parents can see their
strong link between abused or neglected
students and pupils who later disrupt
school activities. A study of 8,000 New
York State children abused or neglected
between 1951 and 1971 found that 35%
of them later became known to the
young children with other children and
family court as juvenile delinquents or
discuss their feelings and experiences
"persons in need of supervision."
problems.
inaction that he or she contributes to
with other parents who share their
The fourth method of treatment Dr.
But it is not only by a teacher's
Jolly K. Mrs. K. was a typical abusive
the problem. Often a teacher directly
contributes, too. Unfortunately, there
are still large numbers of teachers who
use corporal punishment as a behavior
control technique. Such teachers often
kitchen knife at her 6-year-old daughter,
way as an abusive parent. And every
child, and at various times would harass
and verbally abuse the girl.
Sensing the need to help herself, Mrs.
he is sanctioning the use of physical
abuse. He is telling the class that it's
okay to strike out physically against
another person. He is helping students
Kempe uses was actually begun in
California in 1969 by a mother now
known throughout the country as Mrs.
parent who on one occasion threw a
on another attempted to strangle the
K. went to 10 county and state facili
lose their own control in much the same
time a teacher uses corporal punishment,
MARCH 1975 481
This content downloaded from 129.100.58.76 on Fri, 13 Nov 2020 02:29:30 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
grow up with the notion implanted in
their heads.
The Brooklyn program also includes
development of a course of study for
David Gil, professor of social policy teachers, designed to train them to
at Brandeis University, is a well-known recognize child abuse and neglect at a
child abuse authority and an advocate "pre-crisis stage."
for a national law to ban corporal
However, such programs are the ex
punishment in schools. He says: "Such a ception, not the rule. Most school sys
message from the Congress could ini tems today provide very little real help
tiate a rethinking of the entire child to their teachers, and so perhaps it is up
rearing context in the country. Without to the teachers to take the initiative. In
such rethinking and without an eventual the midst of an epidemic, you can't sit
redefinition of the status and the rights around and wait for miracles. The teach
of children, child abuse can simply not er can no longer sit around and wait for
someone else to provide the solution.
be prevented."
"Unless changes are made in preven
The teacher cannot fight the battle
all alone. Many teachers, in fact, don't tion and treatment, there will be 1.5
report. child abuse cases because they million reported cases of child abuse in
feel the social agencies don't follow the next 10 years [including] 50,000
deaths and 300,000 permanently in
jured children ? most of whom will be
brain-damaged," predicts Ray E. Heifer,
a pioneer in the child abuse field from
Michigan State University.
Teachers have got to start doing their
share. It may be that the role of the
teacher in the future will have to be part
social worker, part counselor, and even
part physician in recognizing abuse
symptoms. So be it. With the exception
of the parent, nobody sees the school
age child as much as the teacher, and
teachers therefore must accept the re
sponsibility to protect children against
abusive parents. It is a teacher's job to
ensure that children are educable as well
as educated. D
them up, and thus it's a wasted effort
on their part.
What the teacher can do, however, is
work with school officials and get them
to work with the social agencies to Adah Maurer: There's a Near-Perfect Correlation
ensure that each reported case is fol
lowed through. If they have to, tenured
Between Severity of Punishment and Aggression
teachers and their organizations can > "... ethical judgments are changing
prompt such action by threatening legal
rapidly from a willingness to live with
steps or otherwise embarrassing lax of primitive punitiveness to a recognition
ficials.
that permitting one child to be battered
Many professionals in the child abuse
field are beginning to call for a complete
teacher education program that would
train the teacher, while in college, to
recognize signs of abuse, work with
abusive parents, and ensure the proper
follow-up of reports by social and
school agencies.
For their part, boards of education
should be insisting that both adminis
trators and teachers learn to recognize
is to subject all of our children to the
danger of victimization. When as an
adult, the erstwhile battered child shoots
18 people from a Texas tower, kills 14
nurses in a Chicago residence, or slays a
movie colony party in Hollywood, the
blood is on the hands of those who
would give aid and comfort to the
punishing parents who shaped these
lives without learning that corporal pun
ishment is an ethical evil.
"Children will soon become a com
the problems. They can finance in
service training programs for both
paratively scarce commodity because of
the new freedom vouchsafed women to
in the country should have specific
cesses and to bear only such children as
they wish. Scarcity increases value. The
groups. Every school and school system
policies and procedures for child abuse
reporting and follow-up.
A few school systems have recently
recognized their responsibility and have
begun child abuse programs. For ex
ample, the Montgomery County, Mary
land, school system and Community
School District 18 in Brooklyn, New
York, both received grants from the
U.S. Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare last August for child abuse
programs to begin this school year.
Both programs use special "remedial
and reentry classes" for children in
their districts who are identified as
abused. The classes are designed to
redevelop abused children's trust in
adults as well as respect for themselves.
At the same time, the children receive
special academic help to compensate for
the difficult periods they went through.
control their own reproductive pro
winds of change are blowing toward
greater valuing of fewer children. Under
these conditions it behooves experi
mentalists to confront ethical judgments
now, and social, developmental, and
educational psychologists to subject
their ethical judgments to the rigor of
careful assessment.
"Could we set aside our obsession
with control? Could we, as the pediatri
cians have developed a symptomatology
of the battered child, begin to develop a
profile of the overpunished child?
"Work in progress indicates a near
perfect correlation between the amount
and severity of physical punishment
endured by a child from 2 to 12 and the
amount and severity of antisocial aggres
siveness that he displays during adoles
cence. . . . But during the years that the
beatings are a daily diet and before the
child is strong enough to retaliate or
defend himself, he is in school and we
should be able to recognize and rescue
him. Could hyperactivity be environ
mental rather than genetic? Could short
attention span be a survival tactic devel
oped by the child in a continuously
punitive home? Are there glandular
changes, such as an increase in adrenalin
output, that permanently change the
body chemistry in the young human
under continual severe stress? Are there
fsoft signs' that point to overpunish
ment at least as clearly as signs point to
neurological handicaps? What really is
'minimal brain damage,' and can these
symptoms be induced by early brutal
ity?
"All of these have been advanced as
possible correlates of severe and pro
longed physical punishment. A first
study of the 'at risk' child sees him as
one whose apparent brightness does not
show up [in tests of intelligence]. He
is danger-oriented, tense and guarded,
visually hyperalert, lies blandly in de
fense of his parents, and seems pre
cociously 'mature'. ... Is this the
whole picture? Here, again, control
groups are needed, especially because
many grown males will claim defensive
ly that they were punished as children,
suffered no ill effects, and certainly did
not become criminal.
"These unknowns, rather than
schedules of reinforcement or even re
4 habilitation techniques, must be un
raveled before we can begin to see any
hope that the next generation will be
less traumatized and less violence-prone
than our own."
(From Adah Maurer, "Corporal Pun
ishment," American Psychologist,
August, 1974, pp. 614-25) D
482 PHI DELTA KAPPAN
This content downloaded from 129.100.58.76 on Fri, 13 Nov 2020 02:29:30 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms