● Two big stories illustrate the enormous harm wrought by
our mad rush to enact “mandatory reporting” laws more than half a century
ago. One, from Rise, illustrates how these laws can devastate entire poor communities. The other, from NBC News, includes this
revelation: Five doctors at a prestigious hospital in Wisconsin are so afraid
of false allegations – from their own “child abuse pediatrician” colleagues --
that they fear taking their own children to their own hospital. I discuss both stories, with
links to both in this blog post.
● The Associated Press reports on still another study
documenting the harm of foster care.
● Child welfare has its own creation myth – and it’s dead
wrong. The real story is much more interesting, and teaches profound
lessons. I
wrote about it for Youth Today. Here’s a spoiler: Mary Ellen Wilson was a
foster child.
● A member of the Board of Supervisors in Yolo County,
California, is beginning to worry about the foster-care panic in that county. Here’s
his column in the Davis (Calif.) Vanguard. And here’s some
context.
● In Los Angeles County the police department is wisely
refusing to do duplicate child abuse investigations concerning allegations of “emotional
abuse.” The L.A. Sheriff’s office doesn’t understand that you can’t fight
emotional abuse by inflicting emotional abuse.
I
have a blog post about it.
● Speaking of emotional abuse, consider the lead anecdote in
this column from Vivek Sankaran in the Chronicle
of Social Change.
