by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
The Ozarks captured on tourist postcards show hills of green spotted with the occasional rustic cabin clinging to the side of a craggy hill - and almost every scene punctuated with rippling streams where deer and possum sip lazily in the afternoon sun. And this expanse of wooded hills that stretch across much of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas is indeed beautiful in every season.
But, as someone who spent more than fifteen years working in the public schools of the region - and followed that with a decade in state child protection, I am here to relate that the area affectionately known as the "Ozarks" also has a very unseemly underbelly.
There are lots of drug issues in the Ozarks, with meth being a prime destroyer of the area's people and culture. Meth addiction seems to thrive in concentrated areas of poverty, places where people have given up hope of ever getting beyond their hard circumstances. Supporting a drug habit in an area where many (especially the drug users) are under-employed often leads into other criminal activity - and drug usage and crime invariably lead to the neglect and abuse of the area's most vulnerable inhabitants - its children.
Being retired for the past four years, I am no longer sucked into the turmoil that drug usage and crime looses on the community, but I do follow - through the local press - the events that are shaping the lives of people in this community. Sadly, those stories just keep coming. This past week the area of crime that sucked up the most printer's ink was child sexual abuse.
This Thursday (October 11, 2018) the front page of our local newspaper, The West Plains Daily Quill, featured three separate major stories on child sexual abuse, stories which took up three-quarters of the front page.
The first story involved a 53-year-old male perpetrator in Gainesville, MO, who was arrested on October 2 following allegations that he had been having sex with a young girl since she was eleven-years-old. He has been charged with two counts of second-degree statutory rape, five counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, one count of use of a child in the sexual performance, and two counts of possession of child pornography. Since the man'a arrest, more than 8,000 images and videos of child pornography have reportedly been found in his possession.
Investigators in the above case say that they have just "scratched the surface" of the case and that "months of investigation" remain. The county prosecutor handling the case has asked that court records be sealed "due to the horrific statements," and he added that people should "Please say a prayer for these children."
The second story was about three former Catholic priests who served in south central Missouri. The Catholic Church has confirmed that all three have been accused of the sexual abuse of children during their careers in the priesthood. Two have since died and one has been relieved of his priestly duties. The newspaper account contained no information regarding any law enforcement involvement with any of the three priests.
One particular priest in this story was of special interest to me because my family and I attended church at his parish in Mountain View, Missouri, in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The priest, who by that time was elderly, had supposedly been a sexual abuser of children in the decades before his service at Mountain View. While pastoring our church he became so infirm that the local bishop, Bernard Law, eventually moved him into a nursing home. (Later, as a cardinal, Bernard Law blew his chance to become the first Pope from America when it was discovered that he routinely shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish while serving as Archbishop of Boston.)
The third story focused a highway patrolman from the area who engaged in a sexual relationship with a sixteen-year-old boy. The patrolman pleaded guilty in federal court and was given a seven-year-prison sentence to be followed up with ten years of supervised probation.
Yes, the Ozarks is scenic, and on many levels, a great place to live. But the area also harbors more than its share of poverty, drugs, and crime - a milieu which places children at risk for abuse.
But it's not just the Ozarks. The abuse of children crosses geographical, economic, and social barriers - and can happen literally anywhere. If a child confides in you that he or she is being abused, believe them the first time, get them to safety, and help them to report.
Keeping children safe involves everyone.
Citizen Journalist
The Ozarks captured on tourist postcards show hills of green spotted with the occasional rustic cabin clinging to the side of a craggy hill - and almost every scene punctuated with rippling streams where deer and possum sip lazily in the afternoon sun. And this expanse of wooded hills that stretch across much of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas is indeed beautiful in every season.
But, as someone who spent more than fifteen years working in the public schools of the region - and followed that with a decade in state child protection, I am here to relate that the area affectionately known as the "Ozarks" also has a very unseemly underbelly.
There are lots of drug issues in the Ozarks, with meth being a prime destroyer of the area's people and culture. Meth addiction seems to thrive in concentrated areas of poverty, places where people have given up hope of ever getting beyond their hard circumstances. Supporting a drug habit in an area where many (especially the drug users) are under-employed often leads into other criminal activity - and drug usage and crime invariably lead to the neglect and abuse of the area's most vulnerable inhabitants - its children.
Being retired for the past four years, I am no longer sucked into the turmoil that drug usage and crime looses on the community, but I do follow - through the local press - the events that are shaping the lives of people in this community. Sadly, those stories just keep coming. This past week the area of crime that sucked up the most printer's ink was child sexual abuse.
This Thursday (October 11, 2018) the front page of our local newspaper, The West Plains Daily Quill, featured three separate major stories on child sexual abuse, stories which took up three-quarters of the front page.
The first story involved a 53-year-old male perpetrator in Gainesville, MO, who was arrested on October 2 following allegations that he had been having sex with a young girl since she was eleven-years-old. He has been charged with two counts of second-degree statutory rape, five counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, one count of use of a child in the sexual performance, and two counts of possession of child pornography. Since the man'a arrest, more than 8,000 images and videos of child pornography have reportedly been found in his possession.
Investigators in the above case say that they have just "scratched the surface" of the case and that "months of investigation" remain. The county prosecutor handling the case has asked that court records be sealed "due to the horrific statements," and he added that people should "Please say a prayer for these children."
The second story was about three former Catholic priests who served in south central Missouri. The Catholic Church has confirmed that all three have been accused of the sexual abuse of children during their careers in the priesthood. Two have since died and one has been relieved of his priestly duties. The newspaper account contained no information regarding any law enforcement involvement with any of the three priests.
One particular priest in this story was of special interest to me because my family and I attended church at his parish in Mountain View, Missouri, in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The priest, who by that time was elderly, had supposedly been a sexual abuser of children in the decades before his service at Mountain View. While pastoring our church he became so infirm that the local bishop, Bernard Law, eventually moved him into a nursing home. (Later, as a cardinal, Bernard Law blew his chance to become the first Pope from America when it was discovered that he routinely shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish while serving as Archbishop of Boston.)
The third story focused a highway patrolman from the area who engaged in a sexual relationship with a sixteen-year-old boy. The patrolman pleaded guilty in federal court and was given a seven-year-prison sentence to be followed up with ten years of supervised probation.
Yes, the Ozarks is scenic, and on many levels, a great place to live. But the area also harbors more than its share of poverty, drugs, and crime - a milieu which places children at risk for abuse.
But it's not just the Ozarks. The abuse of children crosses geographical, economic, and social barriers - and can happen literally anywhere. If a child confides in you that he or she is being abused, believe them the first time, get them to safety, and help them to report.
Keeping children safe involves everyone.
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