Abusive behavior

[Debba Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 1589

Susan, (as well as everyone else)

First of all, I need to say hello to everyone - I just joined the group
last night and though I don't know that I'll have time to write often, I
felt compelled to say something after reading Susan's letter.

I can't agree with you more!  I am a former foster mother and the children
I had were kept in their home WAY too long!  Although I was unable to keep
'my' two girls after 3 months (I became too ill to care for them properly)
I have stayed in contact with them over the years (they've never been
returned to their birth parents) and now, as chance would have it, have
full custody of one of them - though not through foster care.  ANYWAY, what
brings me to write is that, as an elementary school teacher, I have seen
abuse that goes well beyond anything the Dursleys did to Harry - so I find
it absurd to think that anyone really believes that things like that don't
go on.

If anyone wants to read some books that present some VERY vivid
descriptions of some unbelievable forms of abuse, here are a few titles:

No Language But a Cry
A Child Called 'IT'
Little Lost Boy

The last two were written by the abused child - after he struggled to cope
in a world that failed to see his pain for an incredibly long long time -
and then how he got shuttled through the system.  I certainly began to have
a much clearer understanding of the things 'my' child has said and done
over the years.  She's 17 now but still holds out hope that her real
parents will love her and do the right thing.

With each description of Harry's living situation I cried out for someone
to save him.  The Dursleys ARE classic, unfortunately.  And I have to agree
with your assessment of how JKR is able to write so vividly about this
problem.

Debba Robinson



>I don't remember who said that the behavior of the Dursleys towards Harry was
>improbable or that what happened to Harry would be ignored at a middle class
>school.
>
>The Dursleys are classic child abusers. It is the hardest part for me to read
>because their abuse of Harry is so realistic. Locking him in the cupboard,
>not giving him food,  constant belittlement, scapegoating (treating Dudley so
>much better),   pictures of Dudley but none of Harry, making him do all the
>work, making him wear hand me down clothes, etc....
>
>It's all so realistic it's very disgusting to me. I assume that Rowlings
>either was herself abused as a kid, or knows someone very well who was abused.
>
>In addition, I'm afraid children are beat up, called names, and hurt every
>day in middle class, and upper class schools.
>
>Susan McGee
>formerly executive director of the Child Abuse and Neglect Council in
>Jackson, MI
>now director of the Domestic Violence Project in Ann Arbor, Michigan
>(http://comnet.org/dvp)
>
>
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