Christine Flowers: Ending the horror of child abuse is crucial

By Christine Flowers
Daily Times
April 15, 2017

http://www.delcotimes.com/opinion/20170415/christine-flowers-ending-the-horror-of-child-abuse-is-crucial

Angela Liddle is president of the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance.

Last weekend on my radio show, I had the distinct honor of interviewing Angela Liddle, the president of the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance, a heroic organization based in Harrisburg that lobbies on behalf of children who are in danger of being abused, or who have already suffered abuse. During our hour-long conversation, this native of York, Pa., did what so many of us have failed to do, blinded by our politics and our passions: Find real solutions to protect the most vulnerable among us.

People who have read my column in the past know full well that I have very strong opinions on child abuse, whether physical or emotional, and whether the abuser is part of a church, a secular institution or the nuclear family. I’ve railed against what I’ve viewed as disparate treatment in the courts and the legislatures, and I’ve been very outspoken about what I see as an unfair focus on the Catholic archdioceses, both nationally and in our own neck of the woods. As recently as last week, I wrote about proposals in Harrisburg which would level the playing field between public and private institutions, legislation that has created a great deal of controversy between those who care more about their pocketbooks than about due process.

Angela, and her organization, are above the partisan bickering. The PFSA doesn’t care about who can sue, and who can be liable for past harm. Well, perhaps it does at some level, but the focus of this organization is not to avenge but, rather, to protect. While a lot of the focus on child abuse has been on who can get their pound of flesh or their righteous reward (depending upon your particular, partisan point of view,) the PFSA is concerned with one thing only: Making sure that children are raised in a safe and nurturing environment. For this exceptional group of people, success is not measured in how many lawsuits can be filed and how many people can be prosecuted. It is determined by how many children grow up without ever knowing what the word “abuse” means. Prevention, not punishment, is the central focus of PFSA. Or, as the vision statement carried on its website proclaims, “Every child deserves to grow and thrive free from abuse and neglect.”

As someone who has often worked with refugees, I know how brutal and indelible the wounds of persecution can be on the adult psyche. Many of my immigrant clients carry with them the memory of generational abuse, and even when they have been granted asylum in this country, that is just the beginning of the healing process. Imagine, then, how much more difficult it is for a child who has been exposed to mistreatment at the hands, in many cases, of someone they have trusted: A teacher, a counselor, a coach, a priest or, most tragically, a parent. Once the abuse starts, the child is set on a path that often ends in unspeakable sorrow. I can attest to that, having been a witness to close friends who have been abused and had to deal with the resulting wreckage in their young lives.

That is why, much more than legislators in Harrisburg and advocates with ulterior motives and agendas, the PFSA provides such a vitally important service to the residents of our commonwealth. Angela expressed the mission and the importance of the organization during our interview, discussing the different programs that are available to both at-risk children and, more importantly, the parents who might need support in order to avoid abusing their children. As Angela noted, some parents are well-meaning and would normally never consider hurting their sons and daughters, but because of the increasing stressors of society they find themselves driven, out of frustration, to hurt the most innocent among us. That is why they provide something called “respite,” which is a modified form of temporary foster care in which a parent could drop a child off at a crisis center for a few hours to give themselves time to breathe, to regenerate, to focus, and to avoid taking out their frustrations on their little ones.

Beyond the family, though, it’s clear that one of the greatest threats to children have been their teachers. Pennsylvania has seen a troubling spike in the number of abuse cases involving a teacher having sexual relations with a child, and Angela represents each and every one of us who truly cares about young people when she demands a “zero tolerance policy” from those in positions of authority. She noted during our interview that “at any one time over the last few years, we know that through the part of the Department of Education that oversees concerns about situations that maybe require disciplinary action, there have been on average a hundred cases under review at any given time, but the vast majority of them are school personnel having sexual relations with students. This is something that has been absolutely rampant in our schools across the state, and our organization would love to see PSEA and other educational institutions really get behind this and develop a zero tolerance attitude about it, and act swiftly and immediately and have very strong policies in place so that these folks are dealt with in the very harshest way, and that they’re not around our children again.”

It stands to reason that if people are dealt with harshly the first time around, there will be no second, third, or fourth. Until relatively recently, child abuse has not been regarded as a “real” problem, possibly because of the antiquated idea that children are the property of the parents and that society needs to respect the boundaries of each nuclear family. During the interview, I mentioned to Angela that when my parents were young and growing up in ethnic neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, it was very common for an adult to discipline, feed, protect, and provide safe harbor for children who didn’t share their bloodline but who were a part of that larger community, the “village” that Hillary Clinton, to her credit, discussed many years ago. At that time, a lot of people criticized the then-first lady for her ideas that children belonged, in a sense, to each one of us, but seeing the exponential increase in cases of abuse have convinced me that Hillary was right about this one thing: It does take a village to protect a child.

It also takes noble organizations like the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance. For more information about their programs and mission, you can access their website at http://www.pa-fsa.org. To listen to my interview with Angela, click on http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/audio/christine-flowers.

There is nothing more important than ensuring the safety of children. Get involved.