…is here
The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard – the principal, vice-principal and her daughter’s teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they’d received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse – and that the CAS had been notified.
How did they come by such startling knowledge? Leduc was incredulous as they poured out their story.
“The teacher looked and me and said: ‘We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of “V.” And she said ‘yes, I do.’ And she said, ‘well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'”
I’m parent. There are few things that trigger stronger reactions in me than sexual abuse of children. I want there to be a robust system of reporting and regulation to protect children from this as much as possible.
That being said, even on my most protective day, I’m pretty sure that “second hand reports from a psychic about an unspecified child” doesn’t meet the laugh test, much less qualify as “reasonable grounds”.
But under the Child and Family Services Act, anyone who works with children and has reasonable grounds to suspect a youngster is being harmed, must report it immediately – and the CAS has an obligation to follow up.
That’s where we see the old institutional CYA effect in practice–no one is willing to deviate from policy and say “well, this is patently ridiculous, and it would be a waste of time and effort, and an insult to this woman, to do our normal investigation here”, so the whole process has to roll on, based on a second-hand report from a psychic.
This is just embarrassing.
