I will warn you - this story is extremely disturbing.

Today it was reported that a Baker (La) man brought his six-week-old into the emergency room at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. The infant was brought in with a broken leg, bruising all over his body and in his brain, and also blood-shot eyes from being slapped.

Police say that the father, Thomas Ford Sr., admitted that he had been beating the child as much as three times a day over the last three weeks. It was that abuse that led to the six-week-old to suffer a broken bone.

Why would the father do this? He told police he did it because the baby would not stop crying.

Ford, 27, initially told police that the baby suffered the injuries when it fell off the kitchen counter. He admitted he lied because he knew if he told the truth, he would go to jail. As for the mother of the child, neighbors told police they thought she was mentally disabled, but did not elaborate. Ford is currently being held in the East Baton Rouge parish prison on $100,000 bail.

Unfortunately, this story is not an uncommon one. There are too many stories about babies and children being physically abused for a whole array of reasons. The problem is that there are not enough social workers and not enough educational programs to fix the problem.

I understand why things like this happen. Don't get me wrong - I am not condoning this behavior. I am just as outraged as those reading this. It's just that I can see why this happens.

Ignorance.

Here in Baton Rouge, and I am sure in other urban areas, the main problem seems to be education. We have failing schools and a high drop-out rate among low-income and impoverished families. So many kids fall through the cracks and do not get proper education. Many times it is the parents who teach this kind of behavior. Unfortunately, they are teaching the wrong things.

I am willing to bet this man suffered some type of abuse as a child. Many times people who physically abuse their children or even their partner/spouse do so because it is a learned behavior. They simply just grew up in a house where that was the norm. We need to break this cycle.