Are Our Kids Really Safe?

Several incidences over the past few weeks have come about that really have made me start to question a few things that we as a society once took for granted.

Mainly, these incidences involve the safety of our children. Used to, a parent could feel secure sending their kids to school because if nothing else, it was a safe haven for a child filled with people who care and have their best interests in mind.

It is the mindset of many people in this day and age that it also takes a village to raise a child, assuming that the people within that village would also serve as an entity similar to the "Safe" school model.

So, my question to you is are your children really safe? Can we trust our neighbors to keep a well-meaning eye on our kids while they walk to school each day and report trouble if they see it start to happen?

Can we trust the schools to keep our child's best interest in mind over the interest of the school and its reputation?

Lately, there have been several incidences that lead me to seriously worry about the disintegration of our society and school system as a hole.

Our children are being assaulted in school and there are cases that suggest that the schools are reacting by attempting to suppress the incident rather than resolve the issue and discipline those involved for their actions.

In some areas, a child can get detention for hugging her friends hello and goodbye while in others children are getting put in jail for slapping a classmate on the rear end and risk getting on the registered sex offender list because of it.

You can read the rest of that story HERE.

Locally, one mother has come forward and reported allegations of her six year old child being sexually assaulted in the bathroom at school after being beaten and bullied by his classmates.

This assault also allegedly occurred during the child's lunch-break. Now, the facts aren't all in on that particular case and the actual events are still fuzzy and unclear.

However, warning bells should be going off all around town over something of this nature happening in an elementary school of all places and in the bathroom on a six year old's lunch hour.

First off, think back to when you were in school. What was your lunch break like? I remember mine being very short and very rushed.

I also specifically remember not being allowed to go the restroom without the rest of the class and a teacher present.

Let me clarify that. We went to the cafeteria as a class, stood in line as a class, had lunch as a class, and then went to the restroom as a class, all of which occurred with a teacher as an escort.

It was a very rare occurrence that any of us ever were allowed out of the lunchroom or classroom by ourselves to visit the bathroom.

Students just were not allowed out by themselves and left to roam a given area to their own devices.

So, I ask you. How did such an event occur at, of all places, an elementary school? Where were the teachers and aides whose job it is to monitor the activities of our children?

How is that that children so young even would have the notion or the inclination to harm someone, anyone in such a fashion?

In a case like that, there are more to blame than just the children here. If you would like to read more on that case, you can do so HERE .

There is another case where an eleven year old child was allegedly gang-raped by a group of approximately twenty boys ranging in age from 13-16, or so the story reads.

This little girl was supposedly on her way home from school when she was surrounded by the other children, hit in the head with a stick, and threatened.

The early reports of the incident state that apparently the school attempted to report the incident, and that the local police and hospital discouraged both the school's attempt and the mother's attempt at pursuing the issues further.

You can read the entire story HERE for more information on that case.

These are separate incidences, each horrific in their own way, providing they prove to be accurate.

The picture that these reports paint is not one of safety for our children. What is a parent to do in this day and age if we cannot trust that the systems will work for us?

How do we protect our children from such ordeals when we as parents must place our trust in others that our children will be safe in their schools and in our community?

I understand that the world can be an awful place. Children are abducted by people that they know and sometimes (more often than not) even trust.

Now reports are showing that we as parents may not even be able to trust in the one thing we always relied on in the past to be a safe haven for our kids, our schools.

We as parents cannot trust anyone with our children, or so these reports would have us believe.

It's up to us to try and educate our children not only about stranger danger and the bad things people may try and do to them, but now we must also teach them that they cannot always trust their peers.

How can we be expected to explain to our children that they may not even be able to trust even their teachers and in some cases, the police? Has our society really come to this?

What, as parents, can we to protect our children from the ever-increasingly dangerous world out there?