Abuse law change boils down to: Act

WHILE passing a farm east of Meeker this summer, someone noticed a boy on the property who appeared to need help. The passerby took the initiative to call the Department of Human Services hotline, and by doing so may have saved his life.

The youth was severely malnourished. At 15 years old, he weighed just 80 pounds, had several broken bones, and according to doctors was within a week of dying. Four members of the boy’s family face child neglect charges.

The prompt action by this passerby, it seems to us, is what the Legislature had in mind when it approved a bill this year requiring citizens to immediately report suspected child abuse and neglect.

The previous statute said citizens needed to report such things “promptly.” An alleged incident in 2017 in Bixby is one of the things that prompted state Rep. Dell Kerbs, and Sen. Ron Sharp, both R-Shawnee, to pursue the change to “immediately.”

In the Bixby case, four high school football players were accused of using a pool cue to sexually assault a teammate during a gathering at the home of the district’s now-former superintendent. His son was one of the players charged with second-degree rape by instrumentation.

According to prosecutors, school officials waited eight days to report what was first considered an “alleged hazing incident.”

In advancing House Bill 2259, Sharp, a former coach and teacher, noted that there have been many cases where abuse wasn’t reported “for several days or weeks after it’s discovered.” Often these have involved schools, such as the case last year in Perry where a teacher’s aide pleaded guilty to molesting 10 elementary school girls. The school’s principal resigned and pleaded no contest to failing to promptly report child abuse or neglect — prosecutors noted that she did so despite several girls telling her that the aide had touched them inappropriately.

But while the sheer number of children in Oklahoma schools makes this change one that teachers and administrators must know about and follow through on, the legislation isn’t aimed solely at education. As The Oklahoman’s Randy Ellis and Steve Gust reported recently, day care operators, church leaders, business executives and others must immediately report suspected child abuse and neglect instead of trying to handle the incidents in-house.

Child safety is the goal, and the sad truth is that too many Oklahoma children are not being protected from harm. The Department of Human Services says that during the previous fiscal year, it received 79,310 calls alleging that 133,055 children were possibly being abused or neglected. That averages out to 217 phone calls per day.

Of the total, 15,289 children were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect.

A mom spanking her child in the grocery store doesn’t automatically mean the child is being abused. And many — perhaps most — people are naturally inclined not to get involved in someone else’s business. But when adults believe in their gut that a child is in harm’s way, they need to act, law or no law.

The DHS hotline is (800) 522-3511. Use it, if you feel it’s necessary, and don’t wait.