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Apr232015

Sherriff’s For Pre K (save our children)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Day Care and Education

Wow and thank you Hennepin, Ramsey and Dakota County Sheriffs. Sheriff Rich Stanek’s “we must make investments in early childhood education for Minnesota kids now to avoid paying far more for the cost of crime in the decades to come” took genuine political courage (thank you from Kids At Risk Action Sheriff).

In the Star Tribune article today I found it ironic that full implementation of the Governor’s Universal Pre School would cost almost as much as we spend on prisons in MN each year (the Sheriff is arguing that we will have fewer people to put in those prisons if we support Pre K education for children).

Sheriff’s Matt Bostrom, Tim Leslie, and Rich Stanek – KARA salutes you.

What follows is probably more than you want to know about the long debate from a law enforcement perspective about education, crime, mental health. Please chime in.

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Nov172017

Share Your Views On Child Protection (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, KARA News and Events

Preferred child protection practices currently allow alleged abusers opportunities to coach and intimidate children before workers can interview them individually. These include giving advance notice of the worker’s visit, and interviewing children in front of their parents as the first step in the process. Safe Passage is weighing state legislation to end these practices

We understand our proposal raises concerns about parental rights.

But consider this: there are no similar situations – such as domestic violence or sexual harassment – where alleged perpetrators are provided access to their purported victims before fact-finding is completed.

We believe keeping children safe takes priority, and that shielding children from potential intimidation gives workers the best chance to get the information needed to protect them.

We welcome your views on this issue. Please share them here.

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Jul102013

Sex With Children Not A Serious Crime In South Carolina

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

A recent study of South Carolina’s child protective services indicates that sex with children is not a crime here. There is no serious enforcement of child sex abuse laws in the state.

Trials don’t happen for years, church’s stand in the way of helping sexually abused children (South Carolina is the 4th most religious state in the nation). Raped children that are reported to child protection aren’t interviewed for weeks. Justice delayed is justice denied. It is also probably that South Carolina has few mandated reporters and that most people just don’t want to talk about it (there is very little reporting of the crime in SC compared to states that care for their children).

To be fair, the South has come a ways since the 1960’s when the age of consent was between 11 and 13. Rock singer Jerry Lee Lewis married a 13 year old (he was about 40 at the time).

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Feb62017

Serving Children (“What we do to our children, they will do to society”) Pliny 2400 years ago

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action

A recent conversation with a metro police chief opened my eyes to how failing to provide resources to officers dealing with troubled youth makes policing much harder— the results much less positive.

The chief was clear about his commitment to (and understanding of) best practices in dealing with at-risk youth. He has participated in multiple community programs that work for seriously troubled kids. He radiates his genuine desire to make policing a solution for kids and not another link in the path to prison. He has helped launch youth skill-building options and other positive approaches law enforcement can employ to meet the ever-growing need of solutions for at-risk kids.

Without these tools, many of these children become longtime state wards while making our city streets uncomfortable and unsafe, filling jails and prisons instead of classrooms and jobs.

Here’s the reality: politics and a public’s desire to punish can exceed its desire to understand and to heal.

This is a bitter pill for a concerned police chief always hoping for better outcomes. Without quality alternatives available, officers are forced to be just one more link in the chain, dragging juveniles into the criminal justice system and a dysfunctional life.

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Sep212016

September Sad Stories Part II (through September 30)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

Murder charge in Burke baby death
The Augusta Chronicle
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has charged a man with murder after the death of an infant in Waynesboro. The Burke County Sheriff’s Office …
UPDATE | Waynesboro man accused of murder in death of 6-month-old – WRDW-TV
Murder charge filed in death of 6-month-old baby – WTVM
Full Coverage
Flag as irrelevant

Woman enters mental disease plea in baby death
The Sheboygan Press
SHEBOYGAN – A Sheboygan Falls woman pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect on Monday to charges she killed her 2-year-old …
Flag as irrelevant

Parents want answers over baby’s death
Perth Now
THE grieving parents of a baby boy who died days after he was sent home from two Perth hospitals and a doctor’s surgery say they want answers over …
WA parents demand answers over baby death – NEWS.com.au
Perth baby dies after being sent home from two hospitals – Yahoo7 – Yahoo7 News
Parents blast Perth hospitals after death of baby Malakai Matui Paraone – WAtoday
Full Coverage
Flag as irrelevant

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Oct72017

September Sad Stories 2017 Part II

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

OH: Greene County in need of additional foster families

Xenia Daily Gazette – August 31, 2017

Greene County Children’s Services has seen a 22 percent increase in new children services cases from 2015 through 2016 in addition to a 65 percent increase in children being placed – but only 51 licensed foster homes.

http://www.xeniagazette.com/news/20868/greene-county-in-need-of-additional-foster-families

OR: Volunteers sought for foster care Citizen Review Board

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Oct52017

September Sad Stories 2017 Part I

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Reporting and News - US Based

37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)

12 million children a year are reported to child protection services each year and in many states, 1/3 of foster children are required to take psychotropic medicines

ALL ADULTS ARE THE PROTECTORS OF ALL CHILDREN

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