OT: Pennsylvania Stinks at helping abused kids

[pittdan77]

This article popped up on PennLive this morning and is making the rounds in the news. Basically, the ChildLine Hotline for reporting child abuse went unanswered 42,000 times in 2015. Let that sink in. Even if you assume half made it through on a second attempt, that's still an appalling number of cases that fell by the wayside.

A lot of times I hear people scream, "If the kid was being abused, why didn't the family or kid report it?" Sadly, looks like even when they try, the system is failing them. It's an uphill battle all the way if you want to report abuse. There are some very public examples (clears throat).

In my eyes, this is outrageous.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/0...b72a826205ae1c43ef81#cmpid=nsltr_stryheadline

 

[crharris8892]

Disheartening. Especially when you are a volunteer and have to get training on reporting self abuse, and you see that your efforts might not even help..

 

[HailtoPitt]

Ziegler now saying that Joe tried to call this hotline and nobody answered.

 

[Pitt79]

Well, what do you expect? There is a constant push to cut spending. Do you want them to pay people to be ready and waiting to answer the phones? It's cheaper to have a labyrinth of automated questions to push you through and then force you to be on hold for 10-20 minutes to talk to the 2-3 people available or force you to leave a message. So that's what they do. So when they get the 42,000 messages the 8-10 people assigned for the whole state to investigate have to decide which few are worth investigating, so they do what they can in the time they have. I'm sure this is how it works. It's not incompetent government, it's funding priorities, like tax cuts or corporate welfare is where we would desire to spend the money before abused children, that's just what the USA is all about.

 

[FLMike]

Joe should of know about this and he should of immediately fired and then restructured the entire department! This is all his fault!

 

[9nationalchampionships]

This part was interesting:

Spurred on in part by the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case, amendments to the laws came into effect in January 2015. While they were meant to improve the safety of children, evidence showed in February 2015 that the state's systems weren't able to handle the resulting workload.

 

[rpost3]

No time to read article. It's a disheartening stat, but it doesn't tell me much. Lots of variables at play here (maybe the article touches on some, but I doubt it):

level of funding and how it compares to other states
# and locations of call centers
# of employees taking calls, their salaries, and duration of employment
etc

 

[rpost3]

Joe should of know about this and he should of immediately fired and then restructured the entire department! This is all his fault!

lol so somehow the state of PA not taking child rape seriously exonerates your hero from not calling the cops to report the several cases of child sexual assault that reached his ears.
Got it.

 

[pittdan77]

No time to read article. It's a disheartening stat, but it doesn't tell me much. Lots of variables at play here (maybe the article touches on some, but I doubt it):

level of funding and how it compares to other states
# and locations of call centers
# of employees taking calls, their salaries, and duration of employment
etc

For any long term analysis, yes, you're correct. I'm willing to assume that the largest percentage of missed calls actually tried again and were successful on the second attempt.

Anecdotally, though, this is how things get handled in PA. "We passed a law! That should shut everyone up."

 

[Panther Parrothead]

Joe should of know about this and he should of immediately fired and then restructured the entire department! This is all his fault!

Actually, Joe could've accomplished quite a bit had he simply reported Sandusky's behavior to the authorities.

After all, Joe Knew.

 

[OH Pete]

Actually, Joe could've accomplished quite a bit had he simply reported Sandusky's behavior to the authorities.

After all, Joe Knew.

I've said it before - Joe was in a unique position that if he wanted justice to be served, it would've been as simple as telling the 3 stooges "report him to the state police or I will make a statement at my next press conference telling the world what I know and that you refuse to report." That is what I would've done. Unless of course I was trying to hide it myself...

 

[pittguy81]

Joe should of know about this and he should of immediately fired and then restructured the entire department! This is all his fault!

Your attempt at sarcasm was as big of a failure as JoePa's actual response when faced with an opportunity to help stop child abuse.

 

[Pitt79]

Actually, Joe could've accomplished quite a bit had he simply reported Sandusky's behavior to the authorities.

After all, Joe Knew.

That was his biggest mistake, if he had crucified Sandusky publicly, had him jailed, as soon as he heard about incident #1, he'd still be Saint JoePa for the vast majority of Americans. His program wouldn't have been hurt, he would have been seen as a savior of children.

 

[pittdan77]

Your attempt at sarcasm was as big of a failure as JoePa's actual response when faced with an opportunity to help stop child abuse.

It's all a big joke in Happy Valley. In their eyes it never happened and that is why we need a hotline.

 

[Jeffburgh]

That was his biggest mistake, if he had crucified Sandusky publicly, had him jailed, as soon as he heard about incident #1, he'd still be Saint JoePa for the vast majority of Americans. His program wouldn't have been hurt, he would have been seen as a savior of children.

It's mind numbing that they let it gout.

Do the right thing, what any other normal person would do, keep kids safe, keep the program safe, keep it form scandal ...

 

[pittdan77]

That was his biggest mistake, if he had crucified Sandusky publicly, had him jailed, as soon as he heard about incident #1, he'd still be Saint JoePa for the vast majority of Americans. His program wouldn't have been hurt, he would have been seen as a savior of children.

This right here is why the PSU faithful just can't handle the ugly truth. The truth is, Joe wasn't close to a saint, and the old, "boys will be boys" or "the coach can handle it better than the cops", just didn't fly.