Feature Lead Practice #3

 The Child Abuse Coverup 

Narrative

The police in this municipality received a call at 3:45 p.m. yesterday afternoon. A woman shouted at the sergeant who answered the telephone. She said: "My son's been beaten. His teacher whipped him this afternoon, and he's all red where she paddled him. Can teachers do that? That's assault and battery, and I want her arrested." Two police officers were sent to the home. They questioned the boy, who is 9 years old. At his mother's insistence, the police officers also inspected the boy's reported injuries. They reported: "We couldn't tell that the boy had been paddled. His fanny didn't look red to us, but we did notice that his pants legs were wet and muddy. As we talked, it became obvious that he boy was lying. He finally admitted that he had stopped to play on the way home from school, forgot the time and got home late. He told his mother that the teacher had spanked him and kept him after school. His mother was there with us and heard the whole story. She said she'd take of the situation, and we're quite certain that she will, as she was very embarrassed. In fact, we could hear her giving the kid a real paddling as we left—and a hard one."

A mother of a son started to get worried. Her son hasn't come home yet. 'Where is he', She thought. 'What happened to him?' Every bad scenario has going through head and she dreaded the possibility they could be true. Later, Her son opened the door, crying. When she rushed to hug him, he told her that he was beaten. He told her that his teacher kept him after school and beat him with a paddle. She ran to the phone and told the police what she was told. But was it really the whole truth?