Religious Ritual or Abuse? Police Investigate Cuts on 4-Year-Old Girl

By Mike Petchenik
WSB
February 6, 2012

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/religious-ritual-or-abuse-police-investigate-cuts-/nHWW6/


[with video]

ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell police are investigating if lacerations on a 4-year-old girl's chest are linked to a religious ritual or child abuse.

Last week, the director of Children's First Learning on Elkins Road called police after finding the cuts on the child, a police report said.

The girl's parents told police that the cuts were part of a religious ritual.

Channel 2's Mike Petchenik went to the girl's apartment off Greenhouse Drive and talked to a woman who said she actually witnessed the ritual that she contends is part of the Santeria religion.

"This religion is to help people, to help people get better, to protect people," said Nadeshda Ramirez.

Ramirez told Petchenik the ritual involves carving crosses into the flesh of the participant with a straight-edged razor. She told Petchenik it's a form of self-sacrifice to the saints Santeria worships.

"The cuts represent strength," she said. "In order for you to get strength, then you need to be powerful."

Ramirez said in the 4-year-old girl's case, the ritual sought to restore her health, not to abuse her.

"They're saying you're assaulting her, hurting her, abusing her, when it's the opposite," she said. "We're trying to help her, trying to get her health better."

Another case of Santeria ritual in Miami went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the High Court ruling the sacrifice of animals was legal and protected because it was carried out because of religious beliefs.

The chairwoman of Children's Advocacy Centers of Georgia, meanwhile, told Petchenik the ritual was very concerning to her.

Jinger Robins told Petchenik, even though it was done as part of a religious ritual, police should still be investigating it as child abuse.

"That is something that in the U.S. we wouldn't look at as normal, typical behavior and it would definitely rise to the level of alleged child abuse," she said.