A 3-year-old made to eat things that make him sick. A little girl forced to sit in a tub of scalding water. A toddler bleeding so badly from vaginal injuries that she had to be sedated to be examined.

Horrific? Yes. Happening somewhere else? No. These children were abused right here in Kosciusko County.

"There's a lot of damaged kids out there," said Jan Hammaker, Warsaw Community Schools counselor and mental health therapist.

State records for Kosciusko County show that in 2002, there were 168 substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect. And those were just the ones that were reported.

Abuse can take many forms: physical abuse, such as the 18-month-old who suffered a broken leg, fractured skull, bruises and concussion; sexual abuse, including nontouching activities, such as the kindergartner who was forced to watch pornography with his parents; neglect, or failing to provide for a child's safety and health, like the sisters who went without meals so their father could buy beer; and emotional abuse - yelling at or insulting a child, or withholding affection or security.

Hammaker said she shows age-appropriate videos to elementary children in kindergarten through sixth grade. The videos mostly are about how children can keep their bodies safe from inappropriate touching.

Just showing the videos, she said, can bring about results: In one class after a video showing, three students talked to her about being abused - two physically and one sexually.

"I also have kids coming to me about other kids," she said, and many children talk to their teachers as well.

State statistics say four out of 10 boys and six out of 10 girls will be inappropriately touched.

"I think that's pretty acurate," Hammaker said.

The videos help the children realize the abuse is not their fault, but most kids blame themselves anyway, Hammaker said.

"It's how they look at things," she said. "They can only see what they can change."

Adding to that blame is the fact that a favorite weapon of abusers, to keep a child from telling, is to convince the child it's their fault they've been hurt.

Abusers also carefully choose their victims.

Warsaw Police Detective Steve Adang said a child molester once told him why he favored younger girls: "Seven- and 8-year-old girls don't talk; 13- and 14-year-olds talk too much."

On the other hand, some children who are abused in one way or another and are aware that it's abuse still don't want to tell authorities because of the alternatives, Hammaker said.

"Some kids won't tell because they know they'll be removed from the home, their family will be angry at them, they'll be separated from their brothers and sisters," she said.

Even though their parent hurts them, it's still their mother or father and the child still loves them, she said. And the child still can't believe it's someone else's fault.

"The self-blame is too big," she said. "It takes therapy to get over."

Another fear is that adults won't believe a child or that the child will be victimized a second time by the criminal justice system.

Becky Moreno, victim advocate for Warsaw, said that fear is not valid in Kosciusko County.

"In my experience in our community, (the justice system is) very much trying to find a way to not make that happen," she said.

"Definitely, the attitude in this community is to alleviate the second victimization." [[In-content Ad]]