Reminder of what we owe children

Editorial by Jacksonville Daily News, November 22, 2013.

The story made the rounds via social media outlets last weekend — fueling outrage, frustration and finally deep sadness; as well it should.

How else to react when reading about an 11-year-old boy found in a North Carolina community handcuffed to a porch in the cold with a dead chicken tied around his neck?

As more facts emerged, the picture didn’t get any clearer or better. It’s a case, it seems, where failure reached epidemic proportions.

The incident occurred in Union County, but the location doesn’t really matter. Tales like this one could happen just about anywhere. Not only is one of his alleged abusers someone legally charged with keeping him safe from abuse — a child protective services supervisor who was his foster mother — but law enforcement officials said Sunday the child was routinely handcuffed to a piece of steel in the house.

Authorities described conditions in the home where the boy stayed as almost unfathomable to most of us. There were feces on the floor and an accompanying smell that defied description. According to the article, neighbors spoke of rampant neglect. Two said the children from that house begged for food. A boy pleaded to stay with one of the neighbors.

At the moment, the 11-year-old and four adopted children living at the home have been removed.

Wanda Larson and Dorian Harper, the couple living at the house, have been charged with child abuse and false imprisonment. Larson has also been charged with willful failure to discharge her duty as a public official. Harper is a nurse.

How the case ultimately plays out will be up to the legal system. But it spotlights a pressing need for aggressive action from all parts of any community to keep children safe from harm. According to the Charlotte Observer, at least one of the neighbors rightly called for help after a hungry boy came to her home. A sheriff’s deputy came out but returned the child to the foster parents after talking to them.

In hindsight, he might have returned him to a dangerous situation. The neighbor acted correctly as is required by state law. Any adult who suspects child abuse is supposed to report it.

What happens thereafter is a daunting task. In North Carolina, more than 134,000 children were referred to local Department of Social Service agencies for possible abuse and neglect during fiscal year 2011-12.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the toll on children who are abused or neglected continues long after they have endured that abuse. The economic impact in terms of medical attention, mental health services, the child welfare system and law enforcement in tackling abuse and neglect was more than $80 billion nationwide last year. In North Carolina, the estimate was $2 billion.

The CDC’s Linda Degutis said recently that “no child should ever be the victim of abuse or neglect — nor do they have to be.”

We couldn’t agree more.