I will say one more thing. CPS reports are confidential so the bishop would not know anything about them. The only people that know for sure are the people(s) that made the calls to CPS AND LE, and of course the family and case worker. I know first hand of three calls to CPS and LE from at least 2-3 years ago. And I can't make a comment about how many others have called (due to the fact I did not directly witness). And numerous complains to management over the years.
There is GREAT GUILT being felt by myself and people I know that wonder if we could have done more. If we could have done more to protect the children. I just want justice at this point.
Please don't beat yourself up. You did what you could for Jenise. You did more than some others did. Thank you for caring enough to try and get her and/or the other kids some help.
I have called DFS a few times and when they got out there the parents poo pooed off what had been said. DFS, I was told, even called to tell them they had gotten a call and were coming out. I will never understand that! Why not just show up so you can see the truth. sigh
SBM
IMO this is for attention. It's getting him positive attention (theoretically) because he's "forgiving" and that's generally a good quality. It's ALSO taking away some of the negative attention that has been on him for his past and his lack of supervision over his daughter.
I don't think that's fair to say unless you personally know him.
there by the grace of god.......
What I say to myself all the time.
SBM
IIRC, LE hasn't ruled out holding the parents responsible in some way.
I will be surprised if that happens. I used to always think that they should be charged. I remember following Rowan Ford's case on here and knowing that her mom brought her step dad in, then allegations about another daughter he touched and she'd told her mom, but yet he stayed. The friend of the mom and step-dads that I believe the older girl also felt uneasy, at least, around if I'm remembering correctly is convicted of the murder. I have friends that live in that area and found out donation money that was meant for other things went to her and she was driving around a newer convertible. Still, no charges for the mom's part in bringing this trash around. What I've come to realize though is I don't know what's the right thing to do..... they lost a child regardless of how they parented, and I'd never want to walk in those shoes. I think for the most part people think they have been punished enough.
As for forgiving, I can always forgive others much easier than I can ever forgive myself. For this I'm not sure how I would get there, but I loved what necco had to say about it. I think if you can forgive then it releases the power the act and person holds over you. Forgiveness to me let's the person that committed the act hold it. Me? I choose to be free from it.
While I'm very interested in the history of this guy, he was a boy in the neighborhood. It's been said that he was a "friend" of J's family. He's young and
had his whole life ahead of him. He's someone's son, brother, and grandson. He's loved. His family, I'm sure, are probably right now going over in their minds what went wrong with him, how they might have failed him (even if they didn't) and the shame of it, along with how horrendous it is.
Forgiving the perp isn't going to release him and his family from any of the pain.
JMO