Trinity California

Dear Future President

A letter to our future president of a child abuse solution

Dear Future President,

 "Approximately 5 kids will die everyday because of child abuse (www.dosomething.org)."  I was always taught that the children of today are our future; I hate the fact that parents or guardians are hurting the next generation, preventing the kids to go on to be a scientist or an amazing artist. Child abuse is an age old, serious problem that we have to put a stop to sometime in the near future. 

Child abuse is  when the parent or guardian of an adolescent physically, emotionally, or sexually harass the child.  If this continues to happen, it could affect the mind of the child abused.  The child could think that all parents do this to their children and proceed to do it to their children. Then their children will repeat what their parents did to them, and so on. So, child abuse can be considered like nuclear fission; once it starts it can't stop unless it runs out of materials. Child abuse can also affect those who witness it. If a naive person suddenly witness severe child abuse, they could be traumatized by the experience. 

A way you could solve this important issue is like Proposition 63, doing background checks on the parents and taking the child out of their homes and into a relative's. For example, a lot of child abuse perpetrators had a mental illness, extreme stress/helplessness, or have experienced it themselves; they take out their anger on the child. "According to NCANDS, a 2005 study showed that 79.4% of  child abusers were the parents, and the next largest pool of abusers consisted of unmarried partners of the parents of the child victim (www.psychologytoday.com)." So, when the background checks are done and someone is accused of a crime, instead of having a trail by jury we could do a lie detector test. That way, we know if they had lied; unlike a trial by jury, they might lie even if they are put under oath. You should also have the child of the accused parent or guardian take the test, too; just to confirm the results. If they are innocent, they are allowed back at home with the child. If guilty, the convicted person will have a punishment depending on how severe they abused their child. 

Child abuse, the age old problem that seems to be going on forever, needs to be stopped somehow. I can't stand to see and hear about children that are treated as if they mean nothing, when they really can change the future. So, Mr. or Mrs. President, when will you do something about it? And I know that this will cost a lot of money for doing all the background checks, lie detector tests, and imprisoning the convicted, but I really want something to be done about it now. The future depends on it.

Sincerely,

Trinity

Peterson Middle School

8th Grade ELA

Middle School students from 8th Grade English

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