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The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Child, drug abuse ends with you

Published 2011-11-08T18:52:00Z”/>

opinion

Quinn Western

In a nice cookie cutter neighborhood in Chico, there sat a house covered in a camouflage mesh, rich in Halloween spirit right down to the zombies trying to escape the front lawn.

A few days before Halloween, my teammates and I did some early trick-or-treating. Except instead of looking for candy, the Student-Athletes Advisory Committee went door to decorated door collecting canned food for the Jesus Center.

As we approached the camouflaged house, it was my turn to ring the doorbell. After a few moments of silence, I began to raise my fist to knock on the door.

Before my hand could reach the door, we heard a large bang inside the house. As we stared at each other, confused, we heard screaming and what sounded like a struggle.

We heard a deep voice coming from inside the home, which we assumed to be a father, yelling and degrading what sounded like a child. The child screamed, and we ran off the property before anyone could know we

were listening.

An incident of child abuse is reported every 10 seconds, according to miles4kids.org.

But for the cases that go unreported, the abuser isn’t the only guilty one.

It’s also the people, like me, who encounter what could be child abuse and do nothing to prevent it.

If what I heard was child abuse, it’s was unexpected, like most cases. Whether they are the victims or abusers, people sometimes put on a mask and appear to be a normal, happy family. But what was going on inside was hidden by more than camoflauge deorations.

I thought about what I should have done differently and about what happened to that poor child while I was cowering in shock. I tried to trick myself into thinking that the sounds we heard could have been anything, that my teammates and I could have been jumping to conclusions.

But I’m not that foolish.

Who knows where that child’s life is going to end up and how bad of a situation they are in.

Abused children are more likely to abuse alcohol and become addicted to drugs – and one third of them will later abuse their own children, according to dosomething.org.

Almost every Chico State student witnesses alcohol abuse or drug abuse on a regular basis.

We may witness someone on the verge of overdosing at a party and brush it off.

Rather than feeling obligated to step in and stop someone – friend or not – from doing another keg stand, we trick ourselves into thinking it is not a big deal because it is common.

Preventable abuse occurs every minute, but we find ourselves either thinking, “It’s none of my business,” or too frightened to make our fingers dial 911.

Child abuse and self abuse through excessive drinking and drug use are common, but that should not be a comfort to us.

The cycle of abuse ends with us and our actions.

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<strong>Quinn Western can be reached at</strong>

<em>[email protected]</em>

 

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