Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Ruben Rosario: Rising Toll of Child Abuse Deaths Reaquires Attention & Action

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on October 27, 2009
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA), Public Policy and The States
. 0 Comments

Ruben Rosario: Rising toll of child abuse deaths requires attention – and action
By Rubén Rosario
Updated: 10/25/2009 01:26:43 PM CDT

As painful as this story is, I am happy to see a major newspaper printing the stories and data that shine a light into the frightening world of abused and neglected children.

The question we should all be asking ourselves is what life was like for these children before they were suffocated, burned, starved, and beaten to death.

Children forced to live in cages

Seven year old hangs himself

Murdered metro baby

It has been my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, that children spend many years being abused and neglected, often under the eye of an under – resourced social service provider. The worst abuse is invisible. The impact of abuse lasts forever. Early and extensive intervention can help an abused child lead a normal life.

I agree with Ruben Rosario, that the public has no clue about the depth and scope of child abuse. I would add that three million cases of abuse and neglect are reported each year, and only a small percentage of child sex abuse is ever dealt with openly or adequately.

This years death toll of murdered, hanged, and otherwise suicidal very young children is a powerful indicator that we as a community are failing the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Without intervention, at risk children become adolescent felons and preteen moms, perpetuating the kinds of dysfunctional families that they were born into. The cycle can only end with our help. Our schools, city streets, and newspaper headlines will be much happier if we should make that choice.

A Sad Way of Righting Wrongs

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on October 23, 2009
in Kids At Risk Action (KARA)
. 0 Comments

When child protection services fail babies, handicapped, and other at risk children, their only recourse is the courts. Yesterday’s Ohio lawsuit by two children forced to sleep in cages

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/23brfs-CHILDRENSUEO_BRF.html

also names caseworkers and county department of family family services.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I know that it is overworked, and under resourced caseworkers with giant caseloads that can’t stay on top of the building nightmare that is county child protection services and not mean or lazy people that we are reading about more and more.

State of Nevada pays for lost two year old foster child

Seven year old foster child hangs himself

Murdered metro baby

Blaming social workers for children living in cages & babies found in dumpsters is wrong. Supporting people programs and policies that help abused and neglected children is right.

Social work is is grueling, the pay is poor, the support can be non existent, and the results can be disastrous. It’s like blaming teachers for failing students, the police for the terrible crime that just happened, or the doctor for a failed medical outcome.

Without resources, without support, without help, everything is much harder.

Try being a social worker with way too many needy children to see in a week and way too little to offer them to ease the pain of growing up in a really dysfunctional family.

Try being an abused or neglected child and making your way in the world without the help of the community. It is almost impossible.

Is the only way to bring children out of the shadows and a state of chattel to sue counties and states after children have been forced to live in cages, walk thirty five miles home in sub zero temperatures (my story), or drown in bath tubs after 14 police and social worker calls to the home?

If there are attorneys reading this blog that are interested in pursuing these kinds of cases, please contact KARA with an email.

Sweden – Positive Role Models

Published
by
Mike Tikkanen
on October 13, 2009
in Health and Mental Health, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy
. 0 Comments

Our terrific volunteer researcher from Macalaster College (Lelde) has been uncovering hard facts about
abused and neglected children in Sweden.

The following are some of the more striking differences between our nations.

“converting the American figures for direct comparison with Sweden (2001), a comparative picture of the reported incidence of child abuse in Sweden and America is as follows:

Sweden – 57/l00,000
America – 4,500/100,000. ”

My note on the above; because America’s child protection systems is so overwhelmed, only the more severe cases of abuse are reported. I would estimate that the reported number of abused children could easily double if we were to honestly report just the most severe instances of abuse ( = 9000/100,000).

It has been my experience as a Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem that child protection services will not take the call unless multiple criteria are met. I have many stories from people that have told me how their report of abuse was not considered serious enough, or they were not deemed a credible source (in one case they were a family member reporting the abuse).

In 1998 comparative study of child abuse 9 years after the prohibition of corporal punishment in Sweden, 10.7% of American men and 8.2% of American women sampled stated that they had been victims of child abuse as children, compared to 3.9% of Swedish men and 0% of Swedish women in the sample. Finally, according to Joan Durrant, professor of family studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada, “Sweden went from a family violence- child death rate of 18% in 1970 to 0 percent in recent years”- a significant and congratulatory fact.

My note on the above; I have written about this at length this summer and give concrete proof that American parents are murdering hundreds if not thousands of very young children. One must include the seven year old Florida foster child that hung himself and the two year old foster child that was disappeared in Nevada.

We are better than this and children deserve more.

This is one more example of the great need for KARA’s grassroots effort to raise awareness to the needs of America’s at risk children.

Until that happens, children, schools, families and communities, will contintue to suffer.

It is a bigger step to convince people that healthy children become healthy citizens, but it is true.

Support at risk children! Become a CASA volunteer or start a KARA group in your community.

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