MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The parents of reality TV’s Josh Duggar broke their silence with new details about the scandal surrounding their family, but it’s unclear if he helped or hurt their case.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar granted an interview to Fox News Channel after a tabloid magazine released court records showing Duggar fondled five girls, including family members when he was a teenager.
WREG did some digging into mandatory reporting laws and learned that if this happened in Tennessee, the case would be playing out very differently.
“Parents are not mandatory reporters. The law lets parents do what they think is best for their child,” Jim Bob Duggar said flat out.
That might be surprising to hear, but Duggar was right.
He raised his family in Arkansas and the laws for reporting sexual abuse are much different than other states in the Mid-South.
In Tennessee and Mississippi, any adult with a suspicion a child is being abused is legally required to report it.
However in Arkansas there’s a laundry list of mandated reporters; dentists, law enforcement, shelter employees, physicians ministers, lawyers and foster parents.
But biological parents were not listed.
“Even in states where you are not a mandated reporter, it’s your moral obligation,” Virginia Stallworth, the Executive Director of the Memphis Child Advocacy Center said.
Duggar and his reality show parents were put into the hot seat.
Illegally released police records showed he molested five girls, some of them his younger sisters, over the course of two years.
“It was after that third time he came to us is where we really felt like, you know what? We have done everything we can do as parents to handle this in-house we need to get help,” Duggar explained in the interview.
But some said Josh Duggar wasn’t the only one who needs help.
Child Advocacy Centers are focused on the victims and making sure they firmly understand what happened to them is not their fault.
“We can never forget that victims first and foremost need our special care and treatment,” Stallworth added.
Experts said if this happens in your family there’s no reason to be embarrassed, but the longer you wait, the worse it could get.
“Making a report is the only responsible answer,” Stallworth said.
If you want to learn the signs of child abuse CLICK HERE for more information about the Stewards of Children course offered through the Memphis Child Advocacy Center.