Tampa Bay Online (TBO.com) has reported:

PINELLAS PARK – A 12-year-old boy, his body battered and burned, was kept in an empty bedroom with no furniture and only a bucket to relieve himself.

Authorities said Friday that if the boy tried to come out of the room, an ironing board propped up against the door would fall, sounding an alert. Pulled out of school last year, he was told to simply read the Bible every day. “This is absolutely the worst child abuse case I’ve seen,” Pinellas Park Police Department Capt. Michael Haworth said Friday. As the boy recovered from his injuries at a hospital, his mother and the man with whom they lived, Reginald Neil Carr, were being held at Pinellas County Jail.

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This is a story that clearly shows how child abuse is not tolerated by the more civilized socities though it is brushed aside as “simply not true” in more traditional and uncivilized socities. We have to grow up and enter the doors of civilization in Maldives, where we put children’s welfare and rights as a top priority.

The fact that the wrong that is ongoing is reported does not mean that the society is backward or uncivilized. It simply means that the society takes responsibly and acts appropriately in the face of wrong. We take months to attend to children abused in our midst, because they are not the priority.