Wow and that is why I have kept my kids away. I had to come to terms that my brother and sister n law were accessories to my daughters abuse because they did not report or tell me about the internet searches that showed my step das was a pedophile and actively seeking to abuse my daughter. Yet he doesn't keep his daughters away. Makes me sick.

Thanks for sharing this... We get so many mothers here wondering if they should report the abuse and there are so many reasons to do it... But it is nice to have a solid example of exactly why we all feel this way...!!!

I'm a reporting disaster - have really faced a ton of backfire
Nearly lost my job
My kids are under supervision with me
And yet, things done over again, I'd still report everything.
Why - because truth always seeks the light. One day everyone involved is going to look back on the history and say - ohhhhh sh&@.
I won't
I did the right thing
N can put my head on my pillow.
I have lost in the immediate time frame.
Those who have caused my children n me torture - will have an eternity of not being able to place their head on their pillow.
And... 3 years later it finally seems that the truth is starting to show and it seems a light is at the end of the tunnel.

My point is - if I've been through Hell and some of the most Disasterous consequences of reporting and still passionately advise reporting - then that should say something too. If my kid offends on someone now, others will have a lot of explaining... Not me.

There really is NO choice in it. The choice is NOT yours. If you know and fail to report the eternity of disaster is yours and you own it.

I too had sever consequences because of reporting it... I don't talk about it that much, but my brother's father is "connected" as they say, and after I reported the abuse as we where getting close to trial I was being followed and harrassed and even had death threats to me and my family if I should go forward with the trial... I even had my car shot at but I would not take any of it back... Given the chance to do it all again, I would still report it and suffer these consiquences even though I was terrified and I had to replace the back and side window of my car... I would do it again...!!! Because reporting is the absolute right thing to do...!!!

The truth must set us free. We must help fight this secret out loud. That is why the statistics are so high. We just cannot imagine these things happening to Us. But they do. So how can we raise awareness?

We can be the voice. I have signed up to advocate for The Mama Bear Effect which is a small non profit that produces great educational material for abuse education and prevention. I may attend a seminar in New Jersey on child abuse in April with the founder where Erin Merryn is a keynote speaker - Erin is someone putting as much voice as she can and raising awareness and lobbying for legislation to make sure that education is provided in schools. Mike Pistorino is a man who was abused as a young boy and has an amazing testimony, and he speaks and advocates constantly. If we want to see change, we must be the change.