The Role of Teachers in Preventing Child Abuse :: Schools Role in Preventing Child Abuse

There are various strategies used within schools to tackle child abuse. In order to discuss the strategies fully there is a need to define what exactly is meant by child abuse. It is also necessary to be aware of what advice and guidance there is offered through Government documentation and circulars to schools on their role in preventing child abuse. Having put child abuse and the school's role into context, then the strategies used by the school as a whole and by the teacher within the classroom can be discussed. Therefore what exactly is meant by child abuse? There is a tendency to automatically assume that abuse means sexual abuse. The 1986 draft report by the Department of Social Security [DHSS], Child Abuse - Working Together defined child abuse as falling into six categories: physical abuse, physical neglect, failure to thrive, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and potential abuse. The present definition for child abuse according to Department for Education and Skills [DfES] Circular 10/95 has been narrowed down to include only four categories: Ø sexual abuse -physical signs or a substantial behaviour change Ø emotional abuse -excessive dependence or attention seeking Ø physical abuse - regular broken bones, bruises, lacerations and burns Ø physical neglect - inadequate clothing, poor growth, hunger, or apparent deficient nutrition These are the guidelines from which schools work. However, what we as a society perceive as abuse may in other cultures/societies be seen as normal practice. There are many cultures for example where young girls, twelve years of age are taken as brides. Much publicity has been given recently to the plight of Muslim women under the Taliban regime. Females have been treated as property, not as equal citizens and suffered as a consequence. The guideline produced by Liverpool City Council for its schools actually contains within it a policy on female genital mutilation [Liverpool City Council, 2000]. This form of 'abuse seems totally abhorrent to our society, but again is an accepted form of behaviour by other