Child Abuse

The constitution essentially does not protect children from their parents no matter how abusive they are, however, the act of extreme child abuse should be unconstitutional.

“‘Oh yeah, kids should be the number one priority,” explained Chad Richard a history teacher here at Triton High School. “It does bum you out when the federal government kind of, skirts its duty to protect the general welfare of common people. It feels like such a no brainer that federal government make a law that says child no abuse, make an amendment that makes child abuse wrong, period.”

The laws are left up to whether or not a case is a federal case or a state case. Some child abuse cases should be left up to the federal law because in some cases they are better off at the federal level rather than the individual states concerns. In 18 states today teachers are still allowed to hit children with paddles as a punishment. They leave things  up to the whole 50 states rather than all states following by the same laws.

“The court really needs to dig into what’s going on there and what the reasons are for this reaction, some cases are so unique to each situation,” explains Richard Fisher.

There are different cases in whether a case should go directly to the court systems. Whether a child is in an argument with a parent the getting a “smarten up” slap upside the head, or wether a child is coming home to and abusive/ drunk parent, both should be taken seriously just at different levels. Levels being, there should be a more strict set of actions that get taken to protect a child from a continually abusive and unstable parent. As well as a low level for kids that have picked a fight with their parents and gotten backhanded. Both cases should be taken seriously under the law, however, there should be more intense levels for more intense cases.

Kendale Sicard said, “ [kids] shouldnt have to worry about being beaten up by someone who is supposed to be taking care of them.”

Under the 14th amendment, “ [Joshua’s mother] argued that the department had a duty protect her son under the state from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

In a case in 1989 there was an issue with the constitutional rights at home. In this case there was a four-year-old boy named Joshua DeShaney. Joshua lived with his father in Neenah, Wisconsin. His father was physically abusive. “Josh was hospitspitalized with bruises all over his body and severe brain damage.” explained in the DeShaney v. Winnebago County Social Services case. Joshua survived through this, but his life will be permanently damaged. He is paralyzed paralyzed and rendered mentally disabled.