Tennessee sees drop in child abuse reports

JACKSON, Tenn. — April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

A local non-profit is still working to spread awareness to make sure children are safe while at home.

“It’s really, really, really a scary thing,” said Exchange Club Carl Perkins Center for Prevention of Child Abuse CEO Pam Nash.

She says there’s a decrease in the amount of child abuse calls since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

“With the pandemic fear, the emotional stress that everyone is going through, financial strain and the impacts of child abuse and domestic violence are increasing,” Nash said.

According to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, calls have dropped 30.4 percent from March 1 to April 18 in comparison to last year.

“Abuse is happening. It’s not reporting as high as normally because there’s not anybody else that has eyes on it,” Nash said.

At the beginning of April, Gov. Bill Lee urged citizens to pay extra attention to children to avoid a decrease in reported allegations.

“If you see a child and they have unusual bruises around their face that you can see, and I’m talking about if you are FaceTiming,” Nash said.

If the child begins to act differently than how they normally would, make a report.

“A child who is a victim of child abuse does not see their home as a safe place,” Nash said. “And I know across the board the calls of domestic violence, I heard the sheriff talking a few nights ago, how they are getting twice as many calls.”

“Especially when this first began, that we could have an increase in domestic violence. Certainly that has happened here in Madison County, not just here, but all over the United States as well,” said Madison County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Tom Mapes.

Mapes says they are used to getting one or two calls a day about domestic violence, but now it has doubled.

“If there is domestic violence in the home, there’s child abuse in the home,” Nash said.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing child abuse, call the Carl Perkins Crisis Hot Line at 1-877-237-0004.

If you know someone experiencing domestic abuse call your local authorities to file a report.