You’re walking along the Chattahoochee River and glimpse what appears to be a small body in the water.
Maybe it’s a child. Maybe it isn’t. You’re unable to get a definitive view.
What would you do?
Nancy Chandler, chief executive officer of the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy, poses that scenario to people when she talks about the protection of children from perpetrators of all ilk, notably sexual child abusers.
Child-abuse scandals at Penn State and Syracuse universities have some calling for the expansion of Georgia’s reporting law. Currently, the law doesn’t apply to everyone. It lists 16 categories of professionals who must report suspicions of child sex abuse. Some want to make the reporting of suspected abuse mandatory for all adults, though the idea has its detractors.
Count Chandler, a former executive director of the National Children’s Alliance in Washington, among those who favor mandated reporting. We have a collective responsibility, she told me, to care about children, so a law that applies to all adults is a measure we should embrace.
“I would support it,” said Chandler, a native Tennessean whose state has a mandatory reporting law that includes clergy. “I really would, including making it mandatory for the clergy, and that’s a tough sell in Georgia. But they often are the people [victims] turn to. We don’t want anybody to do an investigation, but we do want them to report when they have a strong suspicion. It’s really that simple.”
Chandler is a sports fan who tunes in sports programs, rarely TV news. She’s been amazed by the traction garnered by the Penn State and Syracuse stories and credits them with making child sexual abuse a topic of conversation, less taboo.
When she worked as a clinical social worker in the 1970s, child sexual abuse wasn’t discussed at all, particularly in public domains. Nowadays, it dominates ESPN, fueled by the Penn State and Syracuse controversies.
“I love football, college and professional, and for me to turn on ESPN and they are talking about child sexual abuse — that’s pretty phenomenal,” she told me. “If something good can come out of this, it’s that people are talking about sexual abuse. It’s a concern. It is real.”
At the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy, victims arrive scared, guilt-ridden, ashamed. Boys, particularly, are reticent to discuss what transpired because they feel responsible.
“I think the healing starts when they come through our front doors,” Chandler said. “They come in scared and confused about what has happened to them, and they go out with smiles on their faces.”
So a child in your midst appears to be an assault victim. Your action should be no different than if you thought you saw a child’s body in the Hooch. Simple as that.
About the Author
