Quote:
Originally Posted by snowy
I am a mandatory reporter, and mixed, in the future, you will be too.
I HAVE to report if I see something suspicious. In my mind, it's safer to report and let the system take it from there. Even if the system is broken, I have to hope that it works when we need it to work.
I have gone through training to "recognize and report child abuse and neglect." I'm probably better trained than most people I work with, because not only have I completed the state-mandated training, but also took a class on child abuse and neglect during the course of working on my degree in early childhood education. That has to be the most depressing class I've ever taken. Ten weeks of studying how people hurt children is terrible. I had to write a research paper during the class, and since I am a mandatory reporter because of my profession, I chose to write my paper about mandatory reporting laws. They are important--they really do make a difference in combating child abuse and neglect. Mandatory reporters, especially teachers, see the children they work with every day, and see the children for longer stretches of time than anyone else in their lives. Even when things go wrong--like the scenario presented in the OP--it's important that mandatory reporters still report.
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I understand completely your point of view as someone, who has to report. You might be accused of neglecting your duties, if you didn't.
Teachers shouldn't have to be social workers. Many teachers complain this. They have to spend too much time on other things than teaching. Yet at the age of six the kids here are still in preschool phase, so those who work with them are expected more care taking than those who teach older kids.
In this particular case, I wonder how close cooperation home and school has. Do teachers regularly talk about, how the kids overall are doing and tell parents their views and ask theirs.
A few years ago there was a school shooting in the country. Young adult student killed several of his schoolmates. Every school was in alerted stage, because they were afraid this might happen elsewhere.
After this incident, in another school a teenage boy made an unfortunate joke of bringing gun to school and the teachers immediately called police to take him in for questioning. Not many would have accused teachers of overreacting under those circumstances.