Fear Mongering Won’t Help Keep Kids Safe (The Imprint)

We’ve all heard the refrain that it takes a village to raise a child. But what if your village is out to get you? Since March, the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) has been encouraging the public to call in and report anything that could be child abuse. The agency posits that, without the surveillance of teachers, there are fewer reports and fewer reports mean that there are fewer eyes on children, which means that there is a pandemic of abuse. This is a false hysteria that many news outlets have picked up on, capitalizing on all of the accompanying hand-wringing.