Child Abuse Happens Everywhere, Even Here

Herald-Citizen Photo/Ty Kernea Marlene Massa,
foreground, and Danieal Hess each pin a blue ribbon up in
memory of one of the 2,158 child abuse and neglect cases
reported in Putnam County in 2008.


Greg Byram's parents were still teenagers when he was born, and while his father was away at school and work, his mother stayed home to party and see other men. One day Byram let slip his mother's actions, and his parents filed for divorce. His father got temporary custody. After that, when Byram went to stay with his mother and her boyfriend for a two-week visitation, he found only cruelty and hate there.


"They burned me with cigarettes all over my body. They punched me and they kicked me. I remember being relieved when they would leave me at home alone for hours," said Byram. "At 5 years old I had no idea why in the world this was happening. The next thing I knew, I felt excruciating pain on my right side. It felt like my skin was being ripped off my body. It was actually a pot of hot, boiling water, fresh off the stove which they had held me down and poured on me. The next thing I can recall, I woke up in a policeman's arms. (My parents) had taken me to the bus station in Indianapolis, wrapped up in a blanket, and put me in a corner in the women's bathroom."


Many people know child abuse happens in the United States, but they somehow imagine that it is not happening in their counties, cities and in their neighborhoods. In Putnam County alone, 2,158 cases of child abuse and/or neglect were reported in 2008. According to Byram, 50 percent more are not reported. That means that in Putnam County more children are abused than the number of students at Cookeville High School.


At the Blue Ribbon Child Abuse Prevention Memorial Ceremony held on the Putnam County Courthouse lawn this past Saturday, citizens gathered to hear Byram and others speak about child abuse and to dedicate a blue ribbon to one of the children affected by abuse. The blue ribbons will hang on the trees at the courthouse throughout April, which has been designated Child Abuse Prevention Month.


Abuse and neglect are associated with short- and long-term consequences that may include depression, difficulties forming relationships, low academic achievement, drug use, teen pregnancy and criminal behavior that affect not just the child and family but society as a whole.


Children younger than 1 year old account for nearly half of child abuse deaths reported each year and 85 percent are younger than 6 years old.


"When I'm working, I hear people say, 'I don't understand how anybody could do that (to a child),'" said Sheriff David Andrews, who was a child abuse investigator for 10 years. "I don't (understand) either. And I'm proud of it. Because when you can understand child abuse, you're capable of abusing a child, in my opinion.


"Anyone who knows any thing about child abuse or suspects -- you do not have to know -- call somebody. It's the law, it's the right thing to do and these children need your help to get out of these situations. They're children. They don't know how to get out of it. A lot of children who are abused do not know any different. They think it is a way of life. They think it is normal because no one has told them or shown them anything different. Don't wait, thinking someone else will call, somebody else will report it. That child's life is in danger."


To make a confidential report of abuse, call 1-877-237-0004 at any time.