child abuse; was Re: FAT

[joym999 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20442

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Danette Schardt-Cordova 
<captain_debrowe at y...> wrote:
> 
> --- catherine at c... wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., JamiDeise at a... wrote:
> > > In a message dated 6/7/2001 7:12:04 PM Eastern
> > Daylight Time, 
> > > saitaina at w... writes:
> > > 
> > > << They teqnically did nothing that could get
> > Harry taken away from
> > >  them (he was feed, clothed and had a bed) and
> > while it wasn't 
> > REALLY the
> > >  best thing to do, it was all they knew to do. >>
> > > 
> > > Locking him in a room with bars on the windows and
> > feeding him cold 
> > soup and 
> > > bread once a day would get him taken away. At
> > least in the U.S.
[snip]
> I'm afraid I have to disagree with this one from
> personal experience.  The first day that my 5-year-old
> went to school the teacher called Social Services on
> me based on the fact that my daughter had 4-day old
> cat scratches on her arm and a VERY(2+ years old) old
> scar in the middle of her back.  I don't know about
> the UK but in the US system teachers are almost
> fanatical(sometimes) about CPS(Child Protective
> Sevices) and SS and about calling them in for
> "possible abuse".  Just the fact that Harry never
> seemed to have any new clothes or glasses would be
> cause for the average teacher to call CPS on neglect
> charges, let alone the fact that he was constantly
> bruised from Dudley beating on him.  The fact that
> Dudley was always better fed and clothed would have
> been a major tip-off to a teacher as well.
> 

Danette has a point, but at the same time we have to remember 2 
things:

1.  The efficiencies of agencies which deal w/ child abuse vary 
widely in effectiveness from place to place; and have changed 
considerably over the past 20 or 30 years.  The pre-Hogwarts part of 
Harrys life took place before 1991, or over 10 years ago.  Maybe 
Little Whinging did not hire its first Child Protection Officer until 
1993.

2. Much as we do not like to admit it, THE HP BOOKS ARE WORKS OF 
FICTION.  The authorities did not intervene in the Dursleys treatment 
of Harry because JKR wrote it that way.  I have said this many times 
before, but I believe that the somewhat unbelievable meanness of the 
Dursleys may be a kind of literary tribute by JKR to Roald Dahl, 
whose books are full of sadistic parents and guardians just like the 
Dursleys.  Dahl often exaggerated negative things for effect (e.g. 
the mean parents and headmistress in Matilda, and Charlies poverty in 
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

--Joywitch