Written by The Seattle Times published a story today about a man held on suspected child-abuse charges. The abuse incident may have occurred in Renton, Kent or Seattle, and our police are involved in investigating. Mayor Law filled us in on this yesterday.
—–Original Message—–
From: Denis Law [mailto:DLaw@ci.renton.wa.us]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 3:51 PM
To: Don Persson; Greg Taylor; King Parker; Marcie Palmer; Randy Corman; Rich Zwicker; Terri Briere
Subject: Child abuse
Dear Council Members,
You may hear some item on the news involving the assault of a 2-year-old in the Renton Highlands. The youngster was first brought to Valley Medical Center by his mother and transferred to Harborview’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in very critical condition.
According to medical personnel, the child was suffering with severe bruising, trauma and a possible head injury in addition to other injuries. Police suspect that the victim was assaulted on multiple occasions and have the mother’s boyfriend in custody for investigation. Police are unsure where the assaults took place and are looking at locations in the Highlands, Kent and Seattle. The prognosis for the child is very poor. We’ll let you know as we learn of new details.
Denis
I will never understand how a single mom can bring an abusive boyfriend into the picture. I would think the mom instinct to love and protect your own child would be stronger than exposing the child to a loser.
One can never understand that type of situation. When the mother is a victim of domestic violence herself, added with drug abuse issues, and mental health issues, that instinct is not there. That is the sad reality of mental health professionals, domestic violence advocates, child advocates. If you ever get the change to volunteer in one of these areas do so, and while we can never understand, maybe we can help stop the madness.
Finding a way to break the cycles of violence is critical. I do a lot of volunteer work in the human services and more often than not the individuals involved haven’t had better behavior modeled for them in their childhood. I am fortunate to have grown up in a loving family. When my daughter was born and I held her for the first time, that sense of love and protectiveness for her was so intense. And she, in turn, grew up in a loving family. And I anticipate her future children will as well.