For all the strict constructionists, was this what the founding fathers had in mind? The right to be left alone is a fundamental American right, and we've lost it as our state has become larger and larger and thus more intrusive.

Aren't nurses mandatory reporters? I understand not wanting to place families into unneeded stress, but children with gonorrhea or an infant with rib fractures? Isn't that enough to at least speak with your own social services department?

I don't mean to offend or anything, just was curious if anything happened or it was just treated and released.

We need licenses for everything but,children.

If I see a child with a bruise I ask them how it happened. Usually it was an accident (jumping on the bed, falling down...). If a child says they were spanked, I'd ask and usually it's something like they had bite their baby brother, done something that any parent would spank for (granted there are no bruises). On the other hand as a Mom I would get scared when my daughter would have to go to school with a bruise and usually would tell the teacher what happpened and prayed I didn't look suspicious for doing that. Accidents happen and kids will be spanked. It's when you TRULY KNOW OR FEEL there is something going on at home and you finally get concrete evidence that they are being mistreated when I make those kinds of calls. You bet I'd be PISSED OFF if my daughter had jumped off the couch and clunked her head and got a bruise and she went to school and her teacher called social severices on me. Just today, I see a bruise on the bridge of her nose; I asked her what happened and she said she and her friend were dancing and they spun around and fell on the couch and the older/bigger girl fell on her and they clunked heads. Should I be scared to death to send her to school? I hope not...if she is asked she will tell what happened and hopefully that will be that. It's when we start seeing a pattern of bruises that keep happening that should concern us.

wiskitty: well said. I know it is difficult for us mandatory reporters, but it is also difficult because we each have our own backgrounds and thoughts on this subject that don't always allow us to be objective.

I believe the current stsyem is flawed. But lets look at the other side of the coin. When I used to work Urgent Care I saw many sad situations that truly needed intervention. It is hard to be a nurse and remain objective when the sweet little 8 year old girl looking miserable in front of you has just been diagnosed with Gonorrhea. Or even the 1 month old baby that won't stop crying is found to have rib fractures. Unfortunately these cases are on the rise. Many years ago when my son was 6 he and his sister were running around the kitchen. My husband went to bring his hand up to stop them from going by the hot stove and accidently caught my son's lip. It left a bruise smaller than a pencil eraser. A teacher called social services and it took hours of talking before they believed it was the accident that it was. Was I mad...you bet, but I also know what I have seen as a nurse and know that every call has to be looked at. Do I think they go overboard at times, definitely. I think we need to work on fine tuning our system. It is far from perfect, but right now they do the best they can within their guidelines.

I think government should stay out of our bedrooms. You give it the power to take kids away from their parents for gross negligence, and before you know it you're being told your child better come to school without holes in their pants, or you'll lose your kids. That's why there's in increase in the caseload. Not that there is any more abuse, the government keeps raising the bar. They don't want to remove the child (it costs money), they want to stick their nose where it doesn't belong, and impose their views upon you.

I think they do the best they can with the limited resources available. They need more quality foster homes, and they need more social workers. If there isn't anywhere to place a child, how can they take them away? They have to save the foster placements for the worst cases and so they try to keep kids in their families if at all possible. It is very sad that so many people don't know how to parent, but usually they learned it from their parents and the cycle continues. At least our society is now recognizing abuse and doing something about it. Hopefully, we can break the cycle and protect the next generations.

prevention wrote..."People who should not have the protection of law enforcement and the government receive the most protection."
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In this day and age of numerous verified false accusations, I am curious as to how you arrived at that conclusion?
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Just how would you differentiate, especially at the initial stages, who is deserving of our constitutional rights and who is not?

I totally agree with being afraid of going to ER or the doctor because your child has a couple bruises or fell down. Just recently my daughter and I were playing "horsey" and she decided she was going to let go and I had to grab her leg before she cracked her head on the corner of the coffee table. SHe had a slight bruise from my thumb when I grabbed her. When she went for her check up the doc noticed it. I told her what happened. The whole time thinking she was gonna call CPS as soon as I left. But thankfully her doctor is very understanding and knows things like that happen. If I wouldn't have grabbed her, her injuries would/could have been much worse.

bn: I may not agree with a report being sent to you, but I definitely agree that it would be nice to hear something of the progress and safety of the child(ren) in question.

For the government having such a "huge desire" in protecting the children, it does seem that there is no follow-up.

People who should not have the protection of law enforcement and the government receive the most protection. That leaves those of us who truly need it with nothing! I guess that is the true sign of this "grand" country. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to live here, I just don't quite get the backwards thinking of the political games that are played with the lives of innocent children.

I did my social work field placement (unpaid intern/externship) with the children's department of Walworth County. I did not just do the supervised visited, I was a part of the legal process. It broke my heart each time I had to deal with the court system because these children hadn't been well cared for. It's by no fault of their own, they don't know. It was really tough to teach the parents. But those kids endured, as painful as it was!

thanks evansvillehousewife! I'm going to get off the computer and hug my daughter right now!

just read some of the comments on www.fightcps.com. It sounds like some of the families were falsely accused; it's sad you can't even take your child to the ER if they fall down a flight of stairs for fear you are going to loose your child. My daughter fell off the bed while I was nursing her (remember the story of the woman who fell asleep and suffocated her newborn?) and I had fallen asleep. I was TERRIFIED to take her to the ER for fear of not being believed! I have a close family member that got a visit from social services because their oldest child told an outlandish story to the teacher. It sounded like social services "stormed their home and seperated all family members and questioned all in the home". I know that family lived with that ordeal for a long time. The school looked at my family differently.

Trust me; in the cases I report it is not because a child has said his/her Mommy/Daddy spanked them or they have a suspicious bruise. It's been in cases when the child has said they were "punched or kicked or hit in the face" by a parent because the parent was mad. In many of the cases there was domestic abuse going on between the partners/spouses also. Cops dragging "Daddy" out because he hit "Mommy" and so on... I have only had to report the cases where it's been more than a suspicion. Thank goodness I've only had about 5 cases to report but I did without doubt that it was an unsafe home (drugs, abuse...).

bn, CPS can't and won't discuss abuse cases with anyone.
It's called CONFIDENTIALITY, and it is one of the reasons CPS gets away with so much. They don't have to disclose the specifics of a case to anyone under the guise of protecting a child' confidentiality.

So your reports may have opened a case and put the family under CPS management, but they won't tell you that.
Personally, I think cases and files should be public, with a number or initials for ID protection.

I do want to let you know, however, that your reports probably have done much more than you realize, so keep up what you doing.

I totally agree; foster care may pose more of a threat (in hopefully rare cases). I don't know the answer. It just really makes me LIVID to know that a child is not safe and I've done my job to report. Wish I could take them home with me!

I'm pretty sure they have to...let me check though. Even when I called to check up on a child they told me "we can't discuss the case with you" I said, "I don't want details. I just want to know if the child is safe and if the abusive parent is out of the home". I was told, "we are working with the family on some things". About 4 years later (and 2 more children for this family) the children were FINALLY taken away for ongoing abuse. Guess those classes on parenting worked huh?!

bn1967... I agree that at first glance you think it is the best thing to do to take a child out of a home... however, a child is 11 times more likely to be seuxally molested in foster care than in their natural home.
It is easy to call CPS and try to get kids "taken away", but have you considered WHAT happens to the kids once they are out?

I urge anyone who is interested in child protection to check out
www.fightcps.com

It is about how CPS is not really about protecting children and more about profitable kidnapping.

"Fixing the child's home life without removing the child is the goal, said David Thompson, deputy director of Walworth County Health and Human Services."

While in the meantime a child could be killed or abused further for telling. Give me a break; it's hard on the case workers...I could loose my job for not reporting and when I do they do nothing. But what happens while they "work with the family" these children are left in dangerous homes?

"The main goal is to protect the child," Cotter said. "The next goal is to make sure the family unit is reunited."

Are they going to live in the home and make sure they aren't being abused? How many children are killed each year (nation wide) and how many had been cases where social services were involved and the child was left in the home? Hmmmm, let me do some research on that one.

Bn1967: Why would you expect a report to be sent back to you?

WHAT A JOKE! I've dealt with Walworth county as a mandatory reporter and "jack" has been done with several of the cases I reported; I don't even recall a time when I got a report sent back to me. In each case the child remained in the home (abusive home may I add). It surprises me now that I know how much $ it costs to actually remove a child. But children are being left in homes where they are not safe. I guess the parents have to be caught punching their children in the face before this county will do anything.

WHAT? What you posted has NOTHING to do with this story. What about the Wall Street fat cats that mismanaged their money so badly that now credit or loans are impossible to get in America today? Last time I checked it is easy to get food stamps or Badgercare, but it is near impossible to get a car loan or a mortgage now that the economy is bust.
So the welfare benefits are easy to get, and used by illegal aliens, but mortgages and car loans, which are used by middle class Americans, are hard to get. So where is your logic??

Isn't it nice how fedgov has allowed so many illegal aliens into this country and used up millions/billions of tax dollars providing "benefits" for them that could have been used to take care of our own children in need such as these.