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 TAKING THE FIRST STEP |
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Deciding whether or not to report suspected child abuse can be a difficult and confusing process, yet it is the important first step toward protecting a child who might be in danger. Professionals who work with children are mandated reporters. Mandated reporters include child protective services workers, law enforcement, physicians, nurses, dentists, teachers, school administrators, day care workers, firefighters, school bus drivers, recreation and camp counselors, film processors, animal control, or any professional who works with children suspecting or having knowledge of a child being abused or neglected. They are required by law to report suspected neglect or abuse. However, regardless of whether or not you are among those who are mandated to report, accurate reporting of the suspected maltreatment of any child is a moral obligation. "Reasonable suspicion" based on objective evidence is all that is needed to report. Objective evidence might be your firsthand observation or statements made by a parent or a child. Pennsylvania laws protect the reporter of suspected abuse or neglect from legal liability as long as the report was made "in good faith" and not maliciously. Unfamiliarity with state reporting laws and ignorance of the dynamics of abuse and neglect are two of the most frequent reasons given for non-reporting. Frustration with lack of response by child welfare professionals to a complaint, and an unwillingness to "get involved" are other reasons given for failure to report. Others include not wanting to "make things worse for the child," an unwillingness to provide the time-consuming court testimony that might be necessary, or a reluctance to risk angering the family. All of these reasons are understandable yet any one of them could lead to the death of a child that might otherwise have been prevented if the person with the information had only reported it.
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