The Bruise

You read correctly.

This morning when I was dressing the children for school, I noticed a bruise on my son's bottom. It's kind of small like finger digits and then there is a slightly larger one up a bit. It looks a bit like a palm and digits. I was infuriated.

So I drove to my doctor's office at 8:30am this morning. I showed him the bruise. My son told the truth, that his dad had taken off his clothes and spanked him because he had refused to do his homework. My daughter confirmed that she was there, and that she was begging him to stop hurting her brother, but that he wouldn't.

So we have a bruise, a story, and a witness.

Our doctor called the CAS and spoke to the case worker who is working on our already-open case. You see, in the past, we had a story but unconfirmed timelines, which apparently is useless, or we had the children saying one thing and their father saying another. But THIS time, we have a bruise, a story, a witness, and confirmed timelines.

I didn't want it to come to this. Remember all those times that CAS said "It would be different if there were a mark". I kept saying that I don't want the mark to happen. But now it happened. This is what I was afraid of all along. Why is it that the CAS will harass innocent families, but let the bad ones go undetected?

Anyhow, I called the CAS worker on my way to the office. She said that she was discussing our case with her supervisor. They agreed that my ex should not have any further access to the children until the investigation is complete. Big deal. I've been down this road before. Then I said, (OK actually, I muttered), something along the lines of "what are you guys waiting for? A black eye?" I didn't realize she heard me. But she did. She called me back 10 mins later and told me that her supervisor decided that they should contact the Victims Unit. In other words, the police.

So next, the police officer and the CAS went to my son's school to interview him, and to see his bruises. I can only imagine how humiliating it would have been for him to have been pulled out of class to speak to a cop and then to have to take his pants down for him. Poor child. I feel so bad for him. First the abuse, now insult to injury.

The officer left me a voicemail. He wants me to call him tomorrow morning. He said that he wants to talk about the children's safety and that perhaps the father should only have access to the kids if it is supervised by the CAS at a centre. I'll update this blog once I have that conversation tomorrow.