[Publib] parent abusing child

[Judy Anderson]

Abusive people don't have rights to privacy with regards to doctors and 
clergy, so they definitely wouldn't in this case.

Call the police.

If you witnessed other crimes in the library, like a robbery or a drug deal, 
would you hesitate to report it?


Judy Anderson
Washington
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>From: "Jennifer Inglis" <jinglis at ocln.org>
>To: <publib at webjunction.org>
>Subject: [Publib] parent abusing child
>Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 17:51:17 -0400
>
>Yes, tough subject for the day.
>
>
>
>We had an incident (not the first) where a parent was physically assaulting
>a child-not spanking, but in one instance a punch.  In today's incident, 
>the
>mother pulled a child along the floor by the arm (a bit of a distance), and
>then proceeded to twist the child's arm with both hands.  Both of these 
>seem
>a bit out of line for general discipline.  My personal opinion is that this
>is not normal behavior, but what is my (or my staff's) professional
>responsibility in this situation?  No one was comfortable just letting it
>go, but we weren't sure if calling the police was within bounds because of
>privacy issues (the mother is a patron).
>
>
>
>My inclination is to call the police, and I'm looking into a policy
>regarding abuse, but it's a line.  We do have a detailed behavior manual,
>but it doesn't deal specifically with this issue.  I'd call the police to
>find out what they want us to do, but I wanted to check with my peers about
>the patron privacy issue.  I've called them for generally disruptive
>persons, but not for this particular issue.
>
>
>
>Thanks for any thoughts,
>
>Jen
>
>
>
>***************************
>
>Jennifer Inglis, Director
>
>Whitman Public Library
>
>100 Webster Street
>
>Whitman, MA 02832
>
>(781) 447-7613
>
>
>


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