Where I Stand -- Mike O'Callaghan: Some abused children live in a parent-created hell

SO MANY TIMES our attention is caught by the reporting of horror stories of abused and neglected children. These are truly stories of terror visited upon children by members of their own families. What often follows are even more brutality and terror visited upon them by incompetent social workers and selfish foster homes.

Recently the Los Angeles Times newspaper ran a three-part series leading off by detailing the despair youngsters felt when forced into the "system." The article looks into the problems of Orange County where when "abused children are taken from their homes, they enter a closed, frightening system designed to protect them."

This system, according to writer Tracy Weber, oftentimes is nothing more than a continuation of their nightmares. The Times series gives plenty of reasons to support this conclusion. Equal support can be found in horror stories coming from some Nevada group foster homes. The system is far from perfect and must be continually monitored and regulated.

An earlier report by James Rainey in the Times led with these shocking paragraphs. "Many of the nearly 5,000 foster children housed in Los Angeles County group homes are physically abused and drugged excessively while being forced to live without proper food, clothing, education and counseling, according to a blistering report by the county grand jury.

"The deficiencies exist despite generous government funding of $238 million a year and despite the purported oversight of local and state regulators, says the report ..."

This information came from a 50-page study made by a grand jury over a nine-month period. Although the numbers would be far less, there is good reason to believe the same problems have also surfaced in Nevada and most other states. The fear that the cure for some social problems is almost as deadly as the original disease is a fear many people in child protective services worry about.

Critics of the system and those working within the system should take time to read two of Dave Pelzer's books. "A Child Called 'It' " and "The Lost Boy" go to the very heart of abused children and foster home care. Pelzer's mother terribly abused and tortured him and he went through the protective child services and juvenile system in Northern California. The books, rather easy reading, will make you both cry and smile. Most important, both books will make you think and worry about the treatment of other abused and neglected children.

Especially poignant are the efforts of the abused child to protect the abuser and the belief that he deserves this treatment. His mother used both food and pain as her weapons and both scarred him beyond belief.

From "A Child Called 'It' " comes the following: " 'You've made my life a living hell!' she sneered. 'Now it's time I showed you what hell is like!' Gripping my arm, Mother held it in the orange-blue flame. My skin seemed to explode from the heat. I could smell the scorched hairs from my burnt arm. As hard as I fought, I could not force Mother to let go of my arm. Finally I fell to the floor, on my hands and knees, and tried to blow cool air on my arm. 'It's too bad your drunken father's not here to save you,' she hissed. Mother then ordered me to climb up onto the stove and lie on the flames so she could watch me burn. I refused, crying and pleading. I felt so scared I stomped my feet in protest. But Mother continued to force me on top of the stove. I watched the flames, praying the gas might run out."

"A Child Called 'It' " is about Dave's life from ages 4 to 12. "The Lost Boy" relates his life from ages 12 to 18 and is "a foster child's search for the love of a family."

Tomorrow we will take a look at the life of a foster child and the child's evaluation of the people running the system.

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