Over the past two weeks, there has been a big story out of Texas where a YouTube video was published by the daughter of a Texas judge, showing him beating her (it's graphic and I'm not posting it here, you can read more about this case and all the horrid details here).
Texas Judge William Adams may have had his career destroyed by this video - but he's not going to be charged with child abuse, in all likelihood. Why not? The statute of limitations has expired.
Meanwhile, everyone is talking about the Penn State scandal - where a respected coach has now been charged with child sexual abuse after allegedly preying on young boys for years. You can read the Grand Jury transcript describing what happened to six victims here.
Bigger deal in the Penn State scandal is the cover up: not only did a graduate student who testified that he saw one young boy being sexually abused in the Penn State showers by this coach not go to help the boy, he ends up on the Penn State coaching staff. Oh, and did he tell anyone about what he saw? Yes. He told his dad, and he told head coach Joe Paturno ("JoPa").
So, now the PennState beloved and revered head coach is in a big scandal of his own. And it's rumored that there's another shoe that's going to drop here, the story is bigger than what's being reported even now - and it's a big, big story already.
Here's my point: I know from my years as a volunteer working with kids as well as serving as attorney/guardian ad litem in the local CPS Court that the abuse and neglect cases that get dealt with in the system are almost 100% from the lower (lowest) socioeconomic levels of the community.
Once -- ONCE -- I remember an investigation into child abuse that was in the more affluent part of San Antonio. What happened? Zip.
There are lessons to be learned from the Texas Judge YouTube video and the PennState Scandal. We need to learn them.
Kids are neglected and abused in all parts of town, but it's still a big taboo in our society to consider this kind of evil exists at higher socioeconomic levels. Why? I don't have all the answers here. Social stigma? Peer pressure? Powerful people? Approval? Money?
I don't know all the whys and wherefores. I do know one thing.
This needs to stop and one good thing that can come from these two news stories is a wake up call that child abuse happens everywhere, not just on the other side of the tracks.