{"id":774,"date":"2009-03-20T23:34:36","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T23:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/switchingtime.wordpress.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2009-03-20T23:34:36","modified_gmt":"2009-03-20T23:34:36","slug":"karen-answers-kimberly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=774","title":{"rendered":"Karen answers Kimberly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comment by Kimberly, a neighbor on March 16, 2009 11:11 pm<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Karen,<\/p>\n

How are you? I read your story in one day and can\u2019t stop thinking of you and what you went through. If I knew a child was abused I never tell anyone because fear I would be accused. Right? I\u2019m confused after reading your story. I changed my mind and want to tell but feel bad and can\u2019t report this girls abuser. Should I talk to the ten year old and tell her I know about her and the guy that\u2019s abusing her? Or should I report what I know to the police without telling her? I hear her scream every night through our adjoining walls. I can\u2019t sleep without being startled awake by her screams.. I think she screams for only ten minutes and goes back to sleep. I don\u2019t really know. I\u2019m guessing. The girl screams at the same time of night at least four times a week.<\/p>\n

Kimberly, a neighbor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dear Kimberly,<\/p>\n

I’m doing fine. I’m glad to hear that you’ve changed your thoughts about how to handle the suspected abuse that may be going on next door to you. It’s really difficult to know for sure when to do take action to help someone. I am not a therapist and can’t give advice, but in my opinion, you might want to contact someone in your local child welfare department. \u00a0They will investigate without revealing who tipped them off.<\/p>\n

In your letter you mentioned you heard this ten year old screaming through the adjoining walls, but you didn’t mention what she was screaming. \u00a0Was she having a nightmare or did you hear something more specific that made you suspect she was being abused? \u00a0Was she crying out for help? \u00a0This is something you might want to be clear about in your own mind before you take action.<\/p>\n

It could be she suffers from repetitive nightmares, and falls quickly back to sleep without the knowledge of having them. \u00a0I can recall a few times when my own children sat up abruptly in their sleep and fell back to sleep never remembering it at all. If she should approach you and confide in you that she is indeed being abused, than most certainly call the authorities and report it.<\/p>\n

Always remember, the safety of all children must come first. If you know for sure that a child is being abused, please do the right thing.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your thoughts and questions.<\/p>\n

Karen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comment by Kimberly, a neighbor on March 16, 2009 11:11 pm Dear Karen, How are you? I read your story in one day and can\u2019t stop thinking of you and what you went through. If I knew a child was abused I never tell anyone because fear I would be accused. Right? I\u2019m confused after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}