Why We Must Report Child Abuse When We See it

Straining to keep my weight supported by my legs, tears dripped down my chin as I trembled. For more than an hour I had been squatting with my face to the corner. Sweat burned my eyes as my muscles screamed in pain, still I couldn't just drop.

If I fell to the floor a beating would come. Slaps, kicks, punches, and knees would rain down on my head, and torso. I had to stay in the "Position", but at the same time my legs wouldn't stop shaking. When I heard movement behind me, I immediately tensed up, knowing what my trembling would bring me.

Sure enough a foot crashed into my testicles, and brought me crumbling to the floor. As I writhed on the carpet in agony, a large white man stood over me, his face red with anger. "God damn you fat nigga, it's just squatting, you can't even do that right!" He punctuated his words by kicking me in the back.

A regular occurrence in my daily life. The infraction that had brought upon that day's punishment? I turned up the TV while my adoptive father was on the phone. I was fourteen years old, 5'5 and weighed 190 pounds.

All over the country young boys and girls face physical abuse at the hands of their guardians. Unfortunately males have a higher likelihood of experiencing every form of physical abuse that qualifies as physical abuse, save for being choked/drowned. In this category girls are .8% more likely to have been choked/drowned than their male counterparts.