In Necedah, WI an incredible tragedy has been uncovered. A young woman, only 17, has been living under horrible abuse for the past three to seven years. N.L.D, as she is known to protect her identity, has been beaten with a PVC pipe until it broke, had her hands and feet burned by a hot iron, been forced to wear a dog’s shock collar with the remote in the hands of her vicious mother and step father, banished to live in the cold, damp and dirty basement, denied even the most basic pleasures of life and essentially turned into nothing more than a domesticated beast whose pain and suffering gives great pleasure to her masters.

But that’s not the tragedy. The tragedy is that those charged with monitoring her well-being at her local school ignored every single warning sign and allowed it to happen.

Try this. Forget everything I’ve mentioned thus far and consider the following. A school official notices what may be evidence of abuse with a young girl and reports it to the county. After a brief investigation the social worker handling the case decided there was no abuse and closed the case.

Shortly after that, the girl is pulled from school with the explanation that she will be ‘home schooled’. The required paperwork for home schooling, though, is never received. The student has essentially dropped off the face of the educational earth with no explanation.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put this one together: allegations of abuse by a school official, child is pulled from school, the required documentation for home schooling is never received, child disappears – what conclusion would you draw? Apparently nobody in the Necedah School District, nobody at Juneau County Social Services and nobody at the Department of Public Instruction connected the dots.

I am in no way saying that the Necedah School District, Juneau County Social Services or the Department of Public Instruction is responsible for the abuse. What I am saying is that they failed to recognize the situation as suspicious and follow up on it and that by their apathy and inaction they failed to do what they have been charged to do – to ensure the well-being of the child.

If the documentation requirements for home schooling aren’t used to ensure the child is being educated, why require them? If the school officials can’t see an unbelievably suspicious situation, why are they officials within the school? If nobody uses the safeguards that have been put in place to ensure the well being of a child, why have the safeguards in the first place?We have put many different systems in place to ensure that our children are growing up happy, healthy and well educated. If any of the regular ‘check ups’ are failed or are missed, we have given various organizations the authority to follow up on the situation. Again, the purpose for all of this is to ensure the safety and well being of our children.

The unfortunate truth is that parents like Lee Ann and Troy Miller, N.L.D.’s mother and step father, exist. Unfeeling, immoral and unethical monsters continue to have children despite our hopes that they won’t. Until we find a way to control who is allowed to have children and who isn’t we’ll continue to face situations such as N.L.D.’s’.

Another truth is that the educational system is our best and often only chance to catch the situation and intervene before it is too late. This is why we have such things as preschool screening, kindergarten screening, regular aptitude tests, guidance counselors, social workers and documentation requirements for home schooling.

We have done all of this to give us as a whole as many opportunities to ensure that every child is healthy, happy and is receiving care and education at a level appropriate to meet his or her needs. The brunt of this expectation falls on our underpaid and overworked teachers and other school officials. All too often we expect them to not only educate our children but also to double as parents, social workers and best friends to our children.

However, as unfair as it may be, the job is what it is.

In Madison we require that a disclaimer be read before each Pledge of Allegiance, hoping to prevent any student from feeling ‘uncomfortable’ when he or she would rather not recite the pledge for whatever reason. In Necedah we ignore all the warning signs of abuse, bypass the system of checks and balances designed to ensure safety and well being and let monsters continue to beat, burn, shock and otherwise torture a student.