All of the people involved in this program dealing with the Nelson family should
be ashamed of yourselves. It is abhorrent that when the abuse surfaced the story
should have stopped there. But instead of doing the right thing you allowed the
girl Kyle to be subjected to further verbal and physical abuse. The abuse does
not end at her, your own footage shows that the other children in the Nelson
household are clearly affected by the verbal abuse, the children covering their
ears and saying prayers is telling.From the shaping of the story there seemedto be NO consequence for the parents in the Nelson family to the physical abuse and verbal abuse that they inflicted on Kyle and the other children. Child protective service should have been called the moment you observed abuse.
The message that I get from watching your program is that it is OKAY to physically
and verbally abuse your children, BECAUSE there appeared to be no consequence.I hope that the people involved in the production of the Nelson family segment,
are found guilty of child neglect and endangerment because they failed to their
human duty to report the abuse of the children in that family.
Anyway from reading the message boards for Primetime I believe the Nelsons address is this Joe and Lynn Nelson 1166 Fletcher Farm Road Bloomingdale, NY 12913
I hope that CPS is called upon that family and that the remaining children in that family will be given a better environment to live while the "parents" get the help that they desperately need.
And I hope the Primetime segment producers gets charged and found with child endangerment.
4 comments:
Their phone number was changed. I am not surprised. The line was probably burning up all weekend.
Thanks so much for posting the address!! I was so horrified, too. The message board at primetime is just bursting with outrage. Word is, a scholarship fund is being established by grandparents and tomorrow on Good Morning America this may be mentioned in an interview with Kyle (??) Not for sure, but I hope so. And I'll be writing the abusers to tell them what I think of them.
Hey pally,
I'm rather disturbed that this sort of thing was shown on television at all and then to find out that no follow-up action was taken to turn these asswipes into the authorities is mindboggling. I hope you and several others ensured that the county and state authorities were promptly informed.
Nothing justifies abuse. Ever.
did you see this article?
New York authorities investigating beating caught on ABC News videotape
22:55:59 EDT Apr 24, 2006
DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) - Authorities in upstate New York are investigating the case of a father hitting his adolescent daughter that was caught on tape by ABC News more than three years ago and aired Friday on the newsmagazine Primetime Live.
The incident involving Joe Nelson of Lake Placid, N.Y., and his daughter Kyle was taped as part of an ABC News story on stepfamilies. With the family's permission, the network placed cameras in the Nelson home and taped hundreds of hours, many involving conflict between Kyle, her father and stepmother.
During an argument about schoolwork and Kyle's attention deficit disorder, Joe Nelson erupts when his daughter, then 15, accuses him of lying. He lunges toward her on a sofa, slapping at her with his right hand. He then lands on top of her, punches her once, then four times in quick succession.
The Primetime segment chronicles a household so verbally abusive it makes outside psychologists wince and younger children cover their ears and pray to escape from the shouting.
The violent incident occurred in December 2002, ABC said. Kyle, now 18, moved out of the household shortly thereafter and lives with her maternal grandmother.
ABC said it did not contact authorities about the incident.
"This was the only scene of physical punishment in the hundreds of hours of footage," said spokeswoman Paige Capossela. "There was no indication in all the footage that Kyle or the other children in the family were in physical danger."
However, both Joe Nelson and Kyle's stepmother, Lynn, admitted to ABC that they had struck Kyle on other occasions. Joe, a corrections officer and National Guard reservist called to active duty in Iraq shortly after this incident, and Lynn have three children.
The New York State Police, the Franklin County, N.Y. district attorney's office and child protective services are all investigating the case.
"As far as I know, (Friday's program) was the first we became aware of the situation," Capt. Bob LaFountain of the New York State Police said Monday.
ABC's airing of the incident provoked an angry response, with between 1,500 and 2,000 messages posted on the Primetime website. One e-mailer wrote of being "sick to my stomach" watching the show. Another said ABC should not profit from child abuse, and donate any advertising revenue from the show to child-abuse prevention.
The network issued a statement by three psychologists - Patricia Papernow, Scott Browning and James Bray - who were interviewed during for the newsmagazine story. They all said they witnessed the tapes in 2004, at which time Kyle was no longer living in the house and the Nelsons had undergone family treatment.
ABC said the purpose of its story was to show the tensions in many stepfamilies and address ways in which the families could understand the behaviour. The Nelsons volunteered to have their interactions videotaped in the hopes that they could salvage their relationships, the network said.
Joe Nelson acknowledged during an interview with Diane Sawyer that this wasn't the only time he had hit his daughter.
"There's very few times I've ever hit that child," he said. "I mean, in her life I can probably count on one hand. You know, and that's - being called a liar when I've done nothing but tell her the truth all her life, that was the point where it hurt. It hurt so bad that I lashed out."
Nelson, divorced from Kyle's mother, told Sawyer his anger was actually a manifestation of fear that he would lose his family.
ABC News also said it had spoken with Kyle, who said she appreciates the support she has been receiving from Primetime Live viewers.
"She wants everyone to know that she loves her father very much, that this unfortunate incident is not characteristic of their relationship and that she hopes that people will respect their privacy and not attack her father as they have been doing," the network said.
ABC said Primetime Live is working with experts to see that the family gets support.
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