Witnesses and child abuse

MissBehave

This is prompted by something I read in another thread about JW kids getting beat because they got caught with love letters. The acceptance of physical punishment within this group is chilling. "Spare the rod, spoil the child" does not mean "beat your kid and leave bruises". Just thinking about poor children getting dragged into the back room for a "spanking" gives me the creeps to this day.

crazyblondeb

I was one of those victims. Once, I got a valentine in 7th grade from a boy. Not only did I get beat, but also had to suffer thru an elders meeting.

shelley

Nosferatu

I remember one year when I got bombarded with Valentines from all the other kids in the class. In order not to offend them, I took them home to dispose of them. My mother screamed and lectured me for even accepting them!

The next year, I was bombarded with them again. This time, I took all of them and threw them into the trash right in front of the whole class.

I look back on this incident now and it brings me such pain to think that I hurt many other kids' feelings.

OpenFireGlass

Yup, For Me it got to the point, where I would run outside to make a big scene... Eventually a neighbor would call the cops... When the cops got there and acted like there was nothing they could do, I would then proceed to do something (usually mooning the cops) to get arrested to avoid the ass whooping i would have gotten for the first "offense" + the one for getting the athorities involved...

blondie

I know of a JW teenager who reported her JW mother for beating her. The Child Protective Services investigated and pulled the girl and her brother out of the home. I guess they were black and blue all over. The mother lied to the elders and said the girl was lying. But then it hit the papers and there was sufficient physical evidence to back up the girl's accusations. Then the song the JWs sang was that it was wrong for the girl to report it to the authorities and make a bad name for God.....................

I was still an active JW and I read the riot act to several sisters. Imagine if a brother came up to them at the meeting and socked them in the face to hard it broke 2 teeth. Would they call the police?

Blondie