INVISIBLE CHILDREN

on January 29, 2012

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Luis Rodriguez Always Running La Vida Loca, gets it right about growing up inner city. When he was ten, his best friend died when being chased by police (an accident).

Before he was 18, Luis had seen 25 of his friends killed by violence. From 1990 to 1998 6000 LA youth died in gang related violence.

Rodriguez writes that “Gangs flourish where there’s a lack of recreation, education, or employment”.

Our nation’s continued focus on punishment over accommodation/compassion for children has created the largest prison population in the world (over 2 million-add to that juvenile justice/child protection/probation/parole, and the numbers are staggering).

Criminalizing youth that society spurns & declaring them the enemy brings huge costs and great pain to the community and the families involved.

Minneapolis MN arrested 44% of its adult black men in 2001 (no duplicate arrests – 58% of those men went on to be rearrested for a second crime within two years).

Each large American community has its own truths and statistics relating to youth well-being (or non-well-being).

America leads the industrial world in teen aged STD’s, violent crime, preteen moms, child mortality, child poverty, child abuse deaths, and youth tried as adults (25%).

The police and the courts are not equipped to solve these problems.

It is up to communities to understand the nature and scope of these issues and treat children with sufficient care and resources to end the madness as stated by MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz; “The difference between that poor child and a felon is about eight years”.

Let’s all get behind child friendly programs and politics and end the pipeline to prison & preteen pregnancies that America now promotes.

Support KARA’s effort to stop punishing children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book or donate Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

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Universal Rights Of The Child; All Talk No Action

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Continue reading ‘Universal Rights Of The Child; All Talk No Action’

on January 21, 2012

in Invisible Children, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

. 8 Comments

There are two nations (of the 196 nations in the world) that have not ratified the Universal Rights of the Child. Somalia and America.

Somalia, because it has no functioning government, and the U.S. because we will not stop training child soldiers*.

Americans are proud of and outspoken about spirituality, values, and freedom – making proclamations about human rights, women’s rights, and so on.

My twelve years in County child protection as a volunteer guardian ad-Litem (Court Appointed Special Advocate/CASA) has taught me hard lessons.

Beaten children, sexually abused children, starved and neglected children enter the child protection system every day. Three million children a year are reported to child protection services in America.

Their numbers and stories are staggering. It is so painful and so common.

We do not offer adequate help or protection to children that need it the most.

Worse, we don’t like to talk about it. There is nothing that brings cold hard silence to a conversation than talking about my experiences with child sexual abuse or otherwise traumatized children.

When there is no discussion by those in the know, few people outside the system can understand the issues which means the media and politicians that could draw attention don’t (or they are mixed up in their understanding and speaking which is actually worse).

So nothing changes. In fact, during these lean times, programs for abused and neglected children are disappearing all over our nation and things are getting worse. Our Voices Matter was powerful program that allowed foster and adoptive kids a voice has recently disappeared due to lack of support. Many truly useful organizations are disappearing today because we don’t support children that need help the most.

From the courts, social workers, CASA programs, & health and other resources, to the foster and adoptive parents that work so hard to make life bearable for traumatized youth, child protection systems throughout this country are overwhelmed and unable to provide the services these children need.

Until I became part of the system, I had no idea that that 90% of the youth in juvenile Justice came through child protection, or that over 50% of youth in juvenile justice suffered from mental health issues with fully half that number diagnosed with multiple and severe mental health problems (the same is most likely true of children in child protection).

Without professional help, how do you un-teach drug use or sex habits to a 9 year old that has been forced to practice these things at home?

My first visit to a four year old was at the suicide ward at Fairview hospital. I’ve written about a seven year old foster child that hung himself and left a note (he hated the Prozac). There is nothing like facing a very young self-hating, suicidal child to bring home the cold hard reality that the mental health services, consistent help from the county (her new parent) will not be there. Knowing that her chances of recovering to lead a normal life are very, very, slim. This has made me feel like I’m part of a crime.

As long as we don’t talk about it, no one can know about it. Social workers are trained to not talk about it. These children have NO Voice in the substance and direction of their own lives. They suffer every day all day and we don’t want to hear about it.

Whether you are an abused child, foster/adoptive parent/social or health worker; empower yourself to start this conversation (and tell your friends/family to vote for child friendly initiatives**).

LET’S START TALKING

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What Is It We Don’t Understand about fostering conditions almost ensuring criminality

Published

on January 14, 2012

in Crime and Courts, education and Public Policy

. 2 Comments

- which guarantees a public outcry for more police & prisons, acting stupid when our streets turn dangerous, and so surprised when our schools fail because these children are now in their 4^th, 5^th, & 6^th generation of dysfunctional families with terrible behavior problems that make classroom performance almost impossible (think Prozac, Ritalin, Zoloft)?

Attorney, successful businessman, & ACLU president Vance Opperman gave a spirited and informative talk at the Stone Arch DFL meeting in Minneapolis this morning. He is a very smart and insightful fellow with a terrific grasp of so many critical issues, but not this one.

Unfortunately, like 99% of the nation, he has very little comprehension of why America has 25% of the world’s prison population, charges 25% of juvenile justice youth in adult criminal court, and is the world leader with five to ten times the murder and crime rates of any other *industrialized nation (for many years now).

On the plus side, Vance did speak to the African American Men’s Study & the importance of the institutionalized racist fact that 50% of Black Men are either in prison, on the way to prison, or on parole.

But when I asked him a question about how to solve the conundrum of preteen moms and adolescent felons, he said he was not very familiar with the issues.

I had hoped that Senator Amy Klobuchar would back me up. She was in the audience and had worked in juvenile court when I was a guardian ad-Litem and she saw what I saw when she was a public defense lawyer in the court system that is child protection in our community.

Senator Klobuchar was in the Juvenile Court system when MN Supreme Court Chief Justice stated that 90% of the youth in Juvenile justice had come through Child Protective Services & the same time Hennepin County arrested 44% of the adult Black Men (2001, with no duplicate arrests). Google “Rich Stanek Resigns” to find out more about how the appointed Police Commissioner made that happen.

Unfortunately, I did not get to ask the question about preteen mom’s (Industrialized World’s Leader) and STD’s (another World Leading category for America).

If communities were to foster conditions that lead to healthy children; our streets would be safer, more kids would graduate, we’d save money on police, prisons, and insurance. It would also make for a happier and more knowledgeable citizenry, save tax dollars, and it would be the right thing to do.

* there are 24 other industrialized nations with great wealth and advanced infrastructures that the U.S. has compared itself to for many years. Recently, due to America’s poor rankings, some journalists have begun comparing this nation to third world and emerging economies.

Please send me related stories.

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It Costs Way Less To Hire & Train Social Workers;$68 Million Settlement Proposed for 10 Children Fraudulently Adopted and Abused

Published

New York Times Dec 29th article on 68 Million Dollar Settlement Proposal

on December 31, 2011

in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States

. 9 Comments

How many disabled & abandoned children would lead better lives if just a fraction of this proposed settlement had been spent providing children properly supported social workers & resources instead of charging multi-million dollar penalties to a government entity.

Like the settlement that was paid to the birth parents of the child lost forever (literally “disappeared”) in the Nevada foster care system, or the dozens of brutal deaths children have suffered over the years in this nation where inadequate child protection services exist & social workers are regularly blamed when children are brutalized when in fact they are working in conditions that almost ensure that at risk children will pay the price for a counties / states malfeasance.

It would be far less expensive (see the studies & long term costs) and the right thing to do to see that foster & adoptive parents were well funded, well regulated, and early childhood programs set up to insure that every child had a chance to have a meaningful life in America.

Until then, let’s sue the pants off of states and counties that refuse to care for children.

Please send me related stories.

Support KARA’s effort to improve support for children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book or donate Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

Continue reading ‘It Costs Way Less To Hire & Train Social Workers;$68 Million Settlement Proposed for 10 Children Fraudulently Adopted and Abused’

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Fewer Families Adopting In Denver (Agency Closing After 22 Years)

Published

on December 28, 2011

Continue reading ‘Fewer Families Adopting In Denver (Agency Closing After 22 Years)’

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I expect that the same is true all across America; families are finding it harder to support at risk children on lower incomes; http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19628951

It just seems to me that America’s children should all have a chance to have a childhood.

I find it hard to accept that on top of being abused, having special needs, or neglected, these children are punished again by us as a society. We are too cheap to make a place for them at the table.

Adoptive & foster families need more help than communities are willing to give. Kids continue to suffer in overcrowded court rooms, underfunded child protection systems, & now the families that have historically stepped forward to adopt hard to place children are being overwhelmed.

Vote for child friendly initiative; call a state representative and speak up for a child. Nothing else works (these kids can’t vote).

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30.2 % of America’s Youth Arrested Before Their 23rd Birthday

Published

on December 19, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/nearly-a-third-of-americans-are-arrested-by-23-study-says.html?_r=1&hpw

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Add this to the fact that American youth (as young as 11) are routinely charged as adults (25% nationally) and that cities around the nation arrest extremely high percentages of their minority populations (in 2001 Hennepin County – Minneapolis MN) arrested 44% of it’s adult Black Men – no duplicate arrests/58% of those men were rearrested for a second crime within two years making Minneapolis the Jail & Prison capital of the world.

Many states have funded their prison and jail systems at far greater rates of increase than their schools, daycare, or health systems, any of which could reduce the stresses driving the extreme growth in crime and courts.

A pathological lack of empathy is driving parts of our political body and ensures that generation after generation of dysfunctional families will continue to maintain the statistical truth that the U.S. has five percent of the world’s population and twenty five percent of the world’s prison population. This scorched earth capitalism is now converting jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers to money making operations with the attendant problems of brutal and illegal conditions (that have sent some judges to prison).

Add that to the mental health issues addressed in the thirty years of study conducted by Dr. Bruce Perry & his conclusion that 25% of Americans will be special needs people by the end of this generation, & the Federal Reserve Boards study and argument for investing in children begins to look like a pretty good return on capital (not to mention it’s the right thing to do).

Not addressing these issues can only continue to make our streets dangerous, schools fail, and quality of life a shadow of what it has been.

Support day care, educators, social workers and early child initiatives. Make mental health programs a mainstay of the juvenile justice system. It is a proven improvement over the punishment model.

Please send me related stories.

Continue reading ’30.2 % of America’s Youth Arrested Before Their 23rd Birthday’

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Blog Talk Radio Interview With Bill Murray; Stop Child Abuse Now

Published

Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) – 201

on December 13, 2011

in mike tikkanen speaking and Public Policy

. 0 Comments

A powerful 90 minute conversation addressing the strengths and weaknesses of today’s child protection systems and the civil rights of youth in America today.

Brutal truths and best practices. Click on the link to hear the program.

Your comments are encouraged.

MikeT

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Race To The Bottom

Published

on November 25, 2011

Continue reading ‘Race To The Bottom’

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From California, as if life for poor children were not difficult enough, State sponsored Indentured Servitude for children:

Lawsuit Seeks to Stop State Welfare Agencies from Illegally Forcing Children to Repay Money Paid to Parents MarketWatch November 23, 2011

In a lawsuit filed today in Alameda County Superior Court, two girls, 14 and 19 years old, are asking the Court to call an immediate halt to California’s illegal practice of forcing children to repay the old welfare debts of their parents or guardians.

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Penn State, Child Abuse, You and Me.

Published

on November 13, 2011

in Crime and Courts, Health and Mental Health and Public Policy

. 2 Comments

In 2005, there were 897 cases of child sex abuse reported in the state of MN. I knew this because I was a volunteer guardian ad-Litem in MN & writing a book about it, INVISIBLE CHILDREN.

I was only one of five hundred MN guardians IN 2005, and knew this number to be just a fraction of the true number as I personally counted fifty sexually abused children in my caseload & the court system I was working in at the time.

Here’s what I’ve learned about child sex abuse in Minnesota & how it applies to child sex abuse at Penn State.

1) No One Wants To Talk About It. Even trained social workers are uncomfortable with this topic and reporting it can mean the fall-out impacting them – it’s easier to let it go. I have witnessed non-reporting & under-reporting by people working in the field of policing, education, child protection & a friend who admitted years after the fact that he lived near a five year old girl that was being prostituted. I tell the story in my book of a seven year old girl that was prostituted and not taken out of the home during 48 police calls to her home.

2) No One Understands. Very few people understand the lifelong impact the rape of a child has on that child and the adult that child becomes. Suicides and dysfunctional lifelong lifestyles are common to untreated child rape victims. I have visited 4 year old’s in suicide wards & written about a 7 year old who hung himself and left a note.

3) This May Surprise You; Our courts are almost incapable of dealing with child rape. Children make a less than useless witnesses in their own defense. Brain development of a child guarantees that a good defense attorney will “confuse the witness” which destroys the case. I have attended conferences at both William Mitchell law school & Hamline University on this topic and listened to judges & prosecuting attorneys (the child’s defender) also admit to confusing the witness in these cases. *In none of the child rape cases in my caseload (about 25) were the molesters ever brought to trial (because the child is not a useful witness – no witness, no case). If it is not seen and reported (it did not happen—see the problem?)

I predict that many of Jerry Sandusky’s sodomized victims will not come forward because of the serious stigma attached to rape and sex abuse in this nation.

A friend bought me lunch when I wrote INVISIBLE CHILDREN and told me why he had never talked about and would never report his being molested by a priest when he was a young boy. He also told me what it was like to discover at age 45 the impact of that rape and how it had wrecked two marriages and three business partnerships before he realized his need for help. He began therapy at 45 & now 70, still seeing the same therapist.

Americans don’t like to talk about sex in even a healthy manner & will further punish people that come forward to talk about it. Boys almost never do, and only a small percentage of women do. The stigma is real & we fear becoming part of a messy deal. Then there’s the history of blaming the victim (even when she’s seven years old) makes reporting so much harder than it should be – see Penn State.

Children don’t have much of a chance in America.

Molesters like Sandusky destroy the lives of hundreds of children over their lifetime. The child remains severely damaged year after year until help comes from somewhere (usually nowhere). I’ve said about several of the sex abuse children in my caseload that this child has never had a nice day in her life.

Anxiety, terror, Prozac & Ritalin are predictable parts of the life of an abused child. They feel dirty and often blame themselves for the crime. Not being able to function normally in school makes life miserable and too often criminal or sexually active & a preteen mother or father. Just how does one un-teach sexual behavior to a nine year old without professional help?

Predicting the impact in human life years for each Sandusky type abuser, using my 70 year old friend as an example, if only 33 of my friends years are considered (from age 12 to 45), multiplied by just 100 victims (not a high estimate in a case like Sandusky’s) = 3300 years of damage & pain that is rarely reported and even more rarely treated.

In my 12 active years as a guardian ad-Litem, there was almost no effective therapy for the sexually abused children I worked with.

One sad family of four very young and sexually abused children, each had to be placed in separate foster homes because when they were together, the children would sexualize their behavior & at the time, nothing could be done about that. These children were terribly abused in their birth homes & again by a court system that offered them a fig leaf. The molester was left in the home and continued his evil behaviors. The pain these children suffered was immense; the molester once kicked the seven year old so hard she went into convulsions.

How many children had been victimized by Sandusky before 1998 when he was first questioned by police for molesting a boy in a shower? How many children did he molest from 1998 to today?

Child sex abuse in our communities is a huge problem that affects many of the three million children reported to child protection services in America each year. Cases like Sandusky are rarely identified and even more rarely reported.

Millions of children are impacted for life and this will continue until you and I began to better understand its impact and find our voice for reporting and helping children recover.

*I’ve had extensive arguments with a judge & my supervisor about a singular violent and extended rape of young children in a family and the cruelty of leaving this molester in the home (8 years later he was still practicing his criminal behaviors on a four year old boy).

**National Center For Victims Of Crime www.ncvc.org

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California Police Hate Kids T Shirt Campaign; You Raise Em, We Cage Em

Published

http://boingboing.net/2011/11/03/twin-rivers-police-association-stops-selling-t-shirt.html

on November 3, 2011

in Crime and Courts, Public Policy and The States

. 0 Comments

This California police T shirt campaign is an example of the poisonous atmosphere American children are being raised in.

I’ve written on the police tasering ten and twelve year olds, the growing movement to try very young children as adults, and the chronic over representation of African Americans in jails & prisons everywhere.

In my experience as a guardian ad-Litem, all children want to be “normal” and lead nice lives, but too many of them are born into toxic homes and their communities are quick to punish and incarcerate instead of nurture & enhance their lives.

How can America’s youth ever hope to lead normal lives when so many of them have serious criminal records & drug problems (legal and illegal) by the time they are eighteen?

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A Call To Action; The System Will Succeed When The Public & Private Sectors Work Together

Published

Continue reading ‘A Call To Action; The System Will Succeed When The Public & Private Sectors Work Together’

on November 2, 2011

in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States

. 0 Comments

(thank you anonymous Indiana Child Advocate)

This Indychannel.com news article points to Federal statistics showing that Indiana has one of the highest rates of child abuse and neglect in the nation.

“Some child advocates said they’ve seen some progress recently, but others said they are gravely concerned about recent abuse and neglect deaths and what they consider backsliding services”.

It was clear after talking with adoptive and foster families at their annual conference that Indiana’s failure to protect it’s children is due to the politicizing of children’s issues and not the hard work being done by foster & adoptive parents, educators, & social workers that are trying to provide homes, education, and services.

We all know that healthy children become healthy adults & contributing members of our community & that unhealthy children become preteen mothers & juvenile felons that cost our cities and states a fortune over a lifetime.

Wake up Indiana politicians. Your citizens depend on you to understand basic humanity and economics.

Citizens, wake up your politicians (the children can’t do it without your help).

Support KARA’s effort to stop punishing children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book or donate

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Occupy Wall Street For America’s Children

Published

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/27/us/california-sex-offenders/

on October 29, 2011

in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States

. 0 Comments

As states struggle, children’s issues are being politicized & our youngest citizens are being left out of the discussion in growing numbers.

Children have no lobby, no voice, & can’t fight back when a MN Governor* states that “children that are victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the State Of Minnesota”.

There’s nothing a five year old can say to the governor of Indiana about the elimination of the state’s newborn screening fund (paid for by birth fees collected from parents), or the retroactive termination of adoption subsidies to the five hundred families that adopted special need children based on the promise that they would have assistance for their special needs children.

I doubt that a nine year old could clearly explain the problem facing California foster children because 1,000 state-licensed facilities match sex offenders’ addresses;

Will Nebraska’s five or ten year old old foster children be allowed to speak to the governor or at the state house about the total collapse of the states’s Privatized Child & Family Services, or what it is like to be abandoned by your birth family and the county in the same year?

http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=21588&pageID=3

More & more states are finding it useful to abdicate their responsibility to children & blame cost savings, immigrants, alcohol, or any number of flimsy excuses for why the government should not intervene.

The other industrialized nations are far more child friendly and a significant number of American states now compare unfavorably with third world nations.

Please share your ideas with KARA, Kids At Risk Action for making a louder, clearer voice for America’s children. Pass this on to your friends & people you think should be more aware. Submit your comments about what works and doesn’t work in your community.

*Tim Pawlenty

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Nebraska’s Privatized Child & Family Welfare Collapse

Published

on October 3, 2011

Continue reading ‘Nebraska’s Privatized Child & Family Welfare Collapse’

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This is a truly sad commentary on the condition of child care in Nebraska;http://www.northplattebulletin.com/index.asp?show=news&action=readStory&storyID=21588&pageID=3

A few years ago, one of my guardian ad-Litem cases walked about thirty miles on a ten degree night when he was sent outside wearing only jeans and a T shirt at a privatized juvenile detention center.

That he did not die or suffer permanent physical damage was a miracle.

Last year, a Pennsylvania judge was incarcerated for sending youth to prison for profit (he behaved as a commissioned salesman – selling innocent youth into jail).

The following article brings to light the commonality of for profit youth prisons and I think the abundance of meanness and poor management that combine to further damage the lives of America’s youth.

Reading the Class Action lawsuit that this report is based on is moving, and deserves to be made known to a larger public audience. That this nation supports the intensity of abuse to youth that it does explains the crime rates, prison rates (13 million prison and jail releases last year) and failing schools.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.bettermsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Walnut-Grove-Complaint1.pdf

Federal Lawsuit Seeks to End Years of Physical, Sexual Abuse of Teenage Inmates

Please send me related stories.

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Save Cristian Fernanedez 12 Years Old Sign the MoveOn Petition

Published

on October 2, 2011

http://www.change.org/petitions/reverse-decision-to-try-12-yo-cristian-fernandez-as-an-adult?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&alert_id=GJYIyADOMy_iDDPglQkDX

. 25 Comments

Christian is a 12 year old survivor of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and he watched his stepfather commit suicide to avoid being charged with abusing him and a very tragic story.

Christian is being charged as an adult with first degree murder & his hearing is coming up in just a few days.

He is a boy that has been living an awful life & deserves to be treated as a child not a hardened criminal.

Sign the petition;

Read the story; Continue reading ‘Save Cristian Fernanedez 12 Years Old Sign the MoveOn Petition’

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Supporting Children, Supporting Caregivers;

Published

on September 29, 2011

Continue reading ‘Supporting Children, Supporting Caregivers;’

. 3 Comments

EMAIL KARA

Message Dear Mike, I’m writing to you in hope that you would be able to help or answer some questions.

My brother Matt has been in prison for the last 5 years. His wife is now in Anoka County jail.

She has been in and out of jail for the last 5 years. They have 2 children ages 4 and 7 who are currently living with us.

I have cared for the boys on and off for the last 5 years. The longest period of time they lived with us was in 2008 and it was for 6 months.

Mom has been in and out of jail, more times than I can keep track. I’ve tried to get social service involved because she is a drug user and doing real harm to her children.

While she is in jail the boys do not officially have a legal guardian.

The 7 year old lives with us during the school year and he is a very bright little boy.

My husband and I have tried to do the “right” thing and care for the little boys.

We have 4 biological children and at times it is very difficult to manage our household.

Just recently mom went back to jail and I wanted to become a foster care parent to our nephews.

I was seeking financial assistance in order to pay for pre-school/daycare for the boys.

I had hoped for some financial help with daycare for the boys but, there is a 2 + year waiting list.

Which brings me to today.

In order for me receive foster care assistance I have to call the police and to have the boys put into child protective services.

This sounds scary and drastic when I just need a little financial assistance to help our family afford daycare for our nephews.

Is it possible that the only way we can have help with day care is to put the boys into a police car and make them live in a group home or with a strange family?

This does not seem right.

Any advice you could give would greatly be appreciated. Sincerely, H T

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1/3 of Georgia Foster Children On Psychotropic Medication

Published

on September 27, 2011

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/georgia-launching-review-of-921678.html

. 0 Comments

A MN juvenile court judge shared the medication histories of all the very young children that passed through her courtroom over a years time. It was staggering.

The investigation in Georgia I estimate to indicate low to average use of mind altering medications for children in child protection systems.

These drugs are used to subdue children. More often than not the necessary therapies are non existent and the children suffer because of it.

I have personally experienced the fully formed thoughts of suicide delivered by psychotropic medications when I was forced to take Topamax for migraine headache.

I have visited four year olds in suicide wards, and been asked by children in my caseload to please not make them take these drugs & I have written about the 7 year old foster boy that explained why Prozac drove him to hang himself (and leave a note saying so).

There is a growing body of evidence that therapy is critical in the event children are forced to take psychotropics.

Atlanta Journal Constitution article on the overuse of psychotropic medications on foster children;

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How Bad Is It?

Published

Continue reading ‘How Bad Is It?’

on September 10, 2011

in Invisible Children and Public Policy

. 3 Comments

Matthew Degner, 14, Found Dead In Squalid Chicago Home Among 200 Animals

During a presentation to 50 social workers I commented on how long children were enduring horrible abuse before being investigated & anything could be done to remove the children from the abuse.

People commented that it was even worse than I had described it. One social worker stated that there was such a high bar set for responding that by the time she and her colleagues were granted permission to investigate, most children have spent two to three years in terrifically abusive homes and were damaged for life.

Her advice to us was to report animal abuse because animal abuse gets investigated & when it is investigated, those people see things that can trigger a social worker saving a child.

This seemed pathetic to me at the time, but now I tell people how important it is.

We are now suffering through the worst abandonment of civic responsibility to American children in my lifetime. The child that died in the Chicago home above, is another powerful example of a hardening of our hearts and disregard for the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Service providers are so over worked and under resourced that only the worst of the worst cases are being investigated. About one in three reports is investigated today where I live in Hennepin County MN.

When the 18 month old baby drowned in the Minneapolis bathtub after 14 police calls to the home, Star Tribune reporters called me to gather information on how this tragedy can happen. My related case had 49 calls to the home before the children were removed (a prostituted seven year old and her five year old sister).

Normally when a baby drowns or is found in a dumpster, social workers are blamed, much like teachers are blamed for failing students, or the police are blamed for “not caring enough” about my accident or rape.

The next time one of your friends complains about the indifferent police, problems in the courts, schools or social services, remind them that we the service providers are working harder than ever, with fewer resources, more children, and a growing feeling of abandonment.

The caseloads are so high, the morale is so low, and the failure to fund new programs and make small cost effective improvements because of budget restraints ensures that our failures and unhappiness can only grow until the demand for attention, understanding, and change is heard.

We are in this terrible place where children drown in bathtubs and die in cages for the same reason the 35W bridge collapsed and killed and injured 160 people. We think we’re saving money.

The economic reality is that maintenance of children and bridges pays. When we don’t spend the small money to save children, bridges, and our communities, we have to pay the big money instead.

Instead of saving the 5 million dollars to replace the gussets on the 35W bridge, we spent almost a Billion dollars to rebuild it (not counting the human suffering).

Instead of saving the relatively small amounts of money to make life bearable for abused and neglected children, we pay millions over their lifetime for chronic illness, the burden on schools, social workers, crime, preteen pregnancy, & prisons (not including the human suffering).

Convince yourself, your family, and your friends that not voting, or not voting for the party that supports programs that improve the lives of children is ruining young lives and destroying our community.

Don’t be confused by the fear mongering and political rhetoric. Every vote counts. Pass this article onto someone you think needs to see it.

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Reading & Math Proficiency Or Else…

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Continue reading ‘Reading & Math Proficiency Or Else…’

on August 17, 2011

in Public Policy

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The U.S. has been sliding for years from a leadership role in education & other quality of life indices to falling off the charts behind almost all other industrialized nations. Today we compare ourselves to the “emerging” nations so that we can be 32nd out of 64 instead of 32nd out of 24 industrialized nations.

Failing to educate generations of American children will have long ranging economic consequences and further reduce the quality of life we have come to take for granted.

The Federal Reserve board studies of a few years ago should be studied closely when bickering over where to spend precious tax dollars. There is no question that investing in children pays great dividends by building a bright and capable citizenry and avoiding the preteen pregnancies and juvenile felonies America’s children are getting so well known for.

Instead of pouring money into prisons and the judicial system & preparing children for dysfunctional adult lives, early childhood education prepares children for a successful future in school and in life.

It’s a great investment.

As Pliny the elder stated 2500 years ago, “what we do to our children, they will do to society”.

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From Pillar To Post, The Life Of A Foster Child

Published

on July 31, 2011

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12 years as an active guardian ad-Litem in county child protection taught me how important people, programs, and services are to children caught up in our court system.

Without early childhood programs like daycare and early learning, at risk children can find it impossible to build the skills needed to succeed in school or in life. Life gets much worse for these children when they are faced with managing their own life as juveniles.

We know that well adjusted children become smarter adults and better citizens, contribute instead of burden our communities, and go on to have families of their own that contribute to, not cost, society.

Unfortunately, our communities are offering less and less in the way of help for abused and neglected children.

MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has stated that 90% of the youth in our juvenile justice system have passed through child protective services. Almost all inmates in our criminal justice system passed through juvenile justice on this pipeline to prison.

Over half of all youth in the juvenile justice system have diagnosable mental illness, and over half that number have multiple, chronic, and severe diagnosis. It’s a wonder that America has only two million prisoners (five percent of the world population & 25% of the world’s prison population)

America prosecutes over 25% of its juveniles in adult courts.

Many states have bigger budget increases for prisons and jails than for schools and early childhood programs.

Children have no lobby and social workers are trained to not speak of these things outside of their work day. This combination makes the 3 million children reported to child protection each year voiceless. They have no power to escape the cruelty of sex abuse, violence, and dysfunctional upbringing & no way to avoid the mental health consequences that come with it.

America spends 7$ on the aged for every 1$ we spend on children.

Educators are forced to manage the growing population of severely damaged children without the resources (or even the understanding of the underlying issues) to control a classroom.

Instead of supporting educators, we blame them for poor performance, as if they can manage severely damaged children, many of them regularly taking psychotropic medications.

Rather than training daycare workers and supporting early childhood programs, America builds prisons & send juveniles to prison.

“Children who are the victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the State of Minnesota” said by former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to State Rep Andy Dawkins and current state commissioner David Strand and demonstrates one political party’s approach to day care and early childhood services.

These children, through no fault of their own, are living within a court system that is being torn apart by mean spirited politics.

It is up to you & me to make at least a small effort to enlighten legislators and neighbors to the importance of services for abused and neglected children.

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Military Suicides & Child Abuse; A Growing Problem

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Continue reading ‘Military Suicides & Child Abuse; A Growing Problem’

on July 15, 2011

in Politics and Funding, Public Policy and The States

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Stressed military families and the attendant suicides, violence, and child abuse are growing in number and severity.

El Paso County Texas child abuse case numbers are set to surpass 13,000 this year. Mental health issues and military suicides impact children in profound ways. There is more pain than people in the military can deal with & it explodes in rage, abuse, and death.

What do you think about the impact of suicide on the children of the over one thousand MN veterans that have committed suicide? If you know the children of a suicidal parent you know torture.

The daughter of one of these suicides (who had been a dear friend) called me this year a few days after her father killed himself.

There has never been a more difficult call to take. There are no good answers and the questions linger for lifetime.

Safety nets are evaporating and a percentage of our community has decided that we just can’t afford to help people (Minnesotans share of the wars over the next 2 years is 30 billion dollars, but we do not have the 6 billion dollars for our schools, roads, and communities).

The stresses that impact military families are just the tip of the problem in our troubled communities. Poverty breeds stress that impacts children in a similar fashion. Violence and abuse become more common.

Our inner cities and military families need relief to insure that children are safe and suicide rates come back down.

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Coming To Your State Soon? “A culture of fear, intimidation, & retaliation”

Published

on July 8, 2011

Standardized tests were corrupted at 44 schools by 178 teachers & principals (over half have confessed) & a former “superintendent of the year” in Atlanta Georgia will not seek extension of her contract. Criminal charges are probable.

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“Teachers were either ordered to cheat or pressured by administrators until they felt they had no choice, authorities said.”

Just for a moment, think about this from an obtuse angle friends.

It is easy & automatic to hate and blame the perpetrators, but perhaps because I have 12 years in as a volunteer within the institution of child protection I find myself more forgiving than someone who does not know what it’s like to be almost guaranteed of failure in the work we do

Remember; we fail and the children fail.

Yes, all across the nation, our institutions are producing the exact opposite of what they were designed to produce.

Child protection services create preteen mothers and adolescent felons.

Juvenile justice manufactures dysfunctional human beings that average ten years in jail & prison.

Our schools graduate only a percentage of their students and about 25% of graduates cannot go on to junior college without remedial math and reading.

Who could possibly want to be a teacher, social worker, or administrative official in this failing system?

As someone from the outside, who worked alongside career social workers, teachers, and administrators, I believe the answer to be;
committed and caring people.

This work really doesn’t pay that well – especially social for workers.

These professions draw people that want to make a difference in the lives of the children they work with. I could not do this work for a living, nor could most of the people that I work with in the business world.

Call me crazy, but getting to know hundreds of social workers, educators, and juvenile justice workers, I truly believe this.

After I spoke at the United Nations 4th Annual Youth Assembly in 2008, social workers and educators from all over the east coast shared their sad stories of why they left their chosen field of endeavor. I’m from Minnesota and conditions were not yet this bad (I was troubled to know just how bad the east coast cities were suffering).

Minimal support, inadequate resources, and the never ending failure of poor children in their care. One worker confessed that she made four times more money caring for one child as a nanny than she had with 22 children as a social worker (and results were much happier and more successful-there was little success with 22 children). She also clearly articulated what it is like to work in an environment of minimal support, fear, and failure.

America is way behind the curve in supporting the change that is needed for educators and social workers to meet the challenges that are facing our youth today.

Let’s do what we can to convince our friends and legislators that teaching is important work and that children have rights and deserve protection from terrible circumstances. Support the change that is needed to make American children safe, smart, and happy.

Police will get more days off, school performance will improve, and our communities will be more livable.

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Continue reading ‘Coming To Your State Soon? “A culture of fear, intimidation, & retaliation”’

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The Boy Who Died Locked In A Cage After 12 Visits From Indiana DCS

Published

on June 27, 2011

Continue reading ‘The Boy Who Died Locked In A Cage After 12 Visits From Indiana DCS’

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New and more detailed information has been discovered about how long and painfully seven year old Christian Choate suffered before his parents killed him in his cage.

Blaming social workers is the first and most common reaction we have. After 12 years of working alongside the folks that try to provide a safety net for our weakest and most vulnerable citizens, I don’t believe this is fair or a productive response.

Like blaming teachers for failing schools; teachers have not gotten worse over the last twenty years. The population of abused and troubled children has grown exponentially. These children are hard to manage, let alone educate.

Social workers in a growing number of states are barely able to visit the worst of the worst cases anymore due to giant caseloads. Training is minimal and resources are scarce. Minnesota responds to one out of three reports today. A few years ago two out of three calls were responded to.

We only read about the babies found in dumpsters, or other violent child deaths. NO one reports the thousands of children sexually abused, beaten, or starved.

I know too many of these children & it is a dark stain on America that explains overflowing prisons, failing schools, and unsafe cities.

This nations would save money by funding child protection and copying the Missouri Miracle of a few years ago (in its treatment of juvenile offenders). Until then, we will read about more unbearable tragedy & worry about being downtown after dark.

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Sometimes People Get Shot

Published

on June 23, 2011

Continue reading ‘Sometimes People Get Shot’

. 7 Comments

Michael Swanson’s pointless execution of Sheila Myers & Vicky Bowman-Hall defines our continuing failure to make mental health resources available to even the most severely troubled people.

This story will fade away until the next Cho (Virginia Tech), Michael Swanson or Jeff Weiss (ten dead Red Lake) makes the front page and more families will be doomed to the years of grieving over the avoidable homicides that destroyed their families.

Blaming severely disturbed people for their crimes is nonsense and solves nothing (it’s counter productive-no steps are taken to solve the problem if that’s all we do).

It would be much more useful to get to know a family that has tried to find help for a very troubled child. As a volunteer County guardian ad-Litem, I came to know many very troubled youth and their parents and other caregivers.

My heart goes out to each one of you. The fear and worry are none stop.

Michael Swanson’s mother Kathleen outlined the years of terror the family lived with as her son received what now looks like almost no professional help even though he repeatedly showed signs of very violent behavior.

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Child Rights & Safety; Advanced Nation or Emerging Nation?

Published

on June 10, 2011

in Public Policy

. 0 Comments

Over the years, it has been safer to be an on duty police officer than a juvenile in America.

Statistically, more U.S. teens (and ten and eleven year old children) are charged as adults in our criminal justice system than in any other nation in the world.

We also lead the other 24 industrialized nations in child poverty, teen and preteen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, & child mortality.

America is also the undisputed leader among industrialized nations in juvenile crime, violence, and death.

Florida may very well lose its battle with the National Rifle Association and forbid doctors from talking to their patients about having a gun in the house.

This NRA / Florida battle is the very definition of America’s public health problem.

Americans are apparently unconcerned with very young children being tried as adults in our court system, child abuse, or the most basic child rights or protection. The NRA is a lobby for big gun manufacturers and they spend millions to make sure that guns are being sold anywhere and everywhere.

Children have no lobby to raise the questions that need to be raised about the proliferation of guns and their impact on youth.

Much like the tobacco companies years of false studies and claims that cigarettes don’t kill people, the NRA has convinced us that guns are harmless and should be allowed (or mandated) in schools and now in Ohio, bars & sports stadiums.

Children in America have almost no voice or rights over basic well being or protection. Guns killed or wounded about 4000 youth in 2008. The rate of unintentional gun death for children 14 years of age and yonger is nine times higher in the U.S. than in all the other industrialized nations combined.

The U.S. and Somalia are the only nations on the planet that have refused to sign the International Rights of Children Treaty. I believe that Somalia simply has no functioning government to sign it. The only reason the U.S. has not signed it is that we refuse to stop the military training of eleven year old children.
Continue reading ‘Child Rights & Safety; Advanced Nation or Emerging Nation?’

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Child Abuse; A Public Health Crisis

Published

on May 22, 2011

Please consider making your doctor and other professional caregivers (including dentists, social workers, therapists etc) aware of the work being done by the Academy On Violence & Abuse to develop a comprehensive system of public health surveillance.

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The Academy On Violence & Abuse was founded by medical professionals recognizing that abuse is a public health issue of great consequence.

Academy Co Founder Dr David McCollum’s perception about the impact of child abuse came by discovering that emergency room patients were mostly people suffering from abuse and living their lives in dangerous and damaging ways because of it.

As a volunteer guardian ad Litem watching five, seven, and nine year old state wards stab teachers with pencils, cut themselves with razors, and having dangerous sex with multiple partners at inconceivably young ages has always unhinged me. One of my first guardian ad-Litem visits was to a four year old in a suicide ward.

Dr McCollum points out that abused children’s destructive dangerous behavior doesn’t end – it lasts a lifetime. Abused children suffer from more chronic and serious illnesses and die young.

The Academy has studied and identified the relationship between interpersonal violence and health and could make a profound difference in the lives of abused people if the research, tools, and information they have compiled were to become part of the mainstream medical world. Doctors can make a difference. They need to know about www.AVAhealth.org

People can be mended and lead better lives if their past abuse is dealt with in a meaningful way and these folks know how to make it happen.

Three million children a year are reported to child protection services in the U.S. & the majority of them have suffered extended exposure to violence and deprivation that will impact them forever if not treated. Extended exposure to violence and deprivation is the World Health Organizations definition of torture.

The Academy’s powerful studies prove the enormous costs, health complications, suicide, and early death that abuse causes.

This information needs to see the light of day. Our schools would graduate smarter and healthier students, our streets would be safer, and our communities happier places to live if we could identify and deal with our nations biggest problems.

“What we do to our children, they will do to society” Pliny2000 years ago.

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202 Minnesota Child Deaths Examined (over half were under three & shaken or beaten to death)

Published

on May 5, 2011

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This Minneapolis Star & Tribune article on male care givers causing 2/3s of child deaths & injuries is only partially true in my experience.

The greater truth must include the absence of understanding and concern in our community.

Of the fifty children I worked with as a Hennepin County guardian ad-Litem, every one of them had been sexually abused, subject to violent beatings or extended exposure to violence and deprivation. All of them suffered for long periods of time.

Most of these children were three and four years old when the abuse began. A number of them were sexually and violently abused for over five years before the child protection system did anything to help them.

Two of my first cases were horrifically abused children that to this day lead lives completely defined by what happened to them when they were four years old. The boy (now 22) leads a very dysfunctional life & has AIDS – the girl had more sex partners by the time she was 11 than anyone I’ve ever known.

There are three big reasons that the issues of abused and neglected children are misunderstood and ignored; Continue reading ’202 Minnesota Child Deaths Examined (over half were under three & shaken or beaten to death)’

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200,000 Youth Tried As Adults Each Year; Temple University

Published

on April 25, 2011

. 1 Comment

This morning I received a call from a reporter at the Star Tribune to talk about mental health issues of abused and neglected children I had worked with as a guardian ad-Litem.

I forgot to tell him that well over 50% of the youth in juvenile justice suffer from diagnosable mental health issues, and fully half of those children suffer from multiple, chronic, serious problems.

The amount of psychotropic medications provided to very young children and juveniles is not in dispute, but the results are.

My experience with children receiving adequate therapy for the severe trauma and resulting behavior problems that were so indelibly a part of these very young children’s lives was almost non existent.

Once these very troubled children become old enough to impact their surroundings they do so in a most troubling manner. That’s why our jails are full and our schools are troubled.

From the study; “In other words, by one mechanism or another, more than 200,000 individuals under the age of 18 are prosecuted in criminal court each year. There are three trends in the data worth noting.

First, the proportion of juveniles prosecuted as adults is growing, primarily because states are adding more and more offenses to the list of crimes that are excluded from the juvenile court.
Continue reading ’200,000 Youth Tried As Adults Each Year; Temple University’

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What’s It Gonna Take? Judge Lucy Wieland Is Dead Right

Published

on April 16, 2011

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Today’s Star Tribune article by Hennepin County District Judge Lucy Wieland reinforces a powerful message delivered by MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz a few years ago; “it is time to put away our rosy view of Minnesota as a land of opportunity and grapple with the ugly reality of racial disparity”.

I grew up in Nordeast Minneapolis in the 1950’s and a number of my friend’s fathers were firemen, postmen, policemen and city / state highway workers. There were no women or black men in these jobs back then. I will never forget the phoney qualifications testing that kept these jobs for white men only, nor the social policy changing *war that occurred to end this discrimination.

The unrest of the 60’s & the vicious attacks by policemen & dogs and firemen on nonviolent protesters (Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connors/Selma Alabama) was not that long ago—I’m not that old.

Many of my friend’s fathers were outspoken bigots afraid of being forced to share their good paying jobs with other people.

I had few liberal childhood friends in my neighborhood and I had no healthy understanding of racial issues until I was in college. I remember one black student in junior high school and none from my senior high school (and I was an inner city kid).

Today, too many of my friends and business associates talk the same talk (minus certain words) that I heard back then. Blaming people that have very little, never had much, and most likely will never have more than subsistence (no matter what they do), along with teachers and social workers as the root of our nation’s problems.

Blaming and hating people solved nothing in the 50’s and it is not working today (if it were, we could simply elect Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh to run the nation). Continue reading ‘What’s It Gonna Take? Judge Lucy Wieland Is Dead Right’

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David’s Question For Liberals & Conservatives

Published

on March 27, 2011

in David Strand, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

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The question. What do you think of people who allow children to be punished for the accident of their birth? I ask myself that question, and I do it while looking into a mirror. And I don’t like the answer I get. You see, I am a citizen of a country that punishes children who, through no fault of their own, are born into low-income families.

This is the punishment for their misfortune. American children of low income parents have the smallest chance of escaping poverty in growing to adulthood of all industrial nations. By failing to be able to read by their third grade, kids experience humiliation and only rarely manage to recover and catch up to their peers.

Studies show that children who can read by the 3rd grade are seldom ever involved with the criminal justice system. On the contrary, four of five incarcerated juvenile offenders read two years or more below grade and the majority are functionally illiterate.

This horrible truth puts a dagger through the heart of America’s most fundamental self-described exceptionalism. The belief that we are world champions of equal opportunity is false. It is a myth. It is a cruel reality to millions of our littlest citizens.

This crushed pillar of national pride is revealed in a half dozen studies of social mobility reported in recent years. They have come from researchers in Germany, Great Britain, Canada and more recently the Pew Charitable Trust and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They are all slightly different, but all have the same conclusion. This sad fact is most recently revealed in Time magazine’s March 14 cover story “Yes, America Is In Decline”.

“Yet several studies, the most recent from the OECD last year, have found that the average American has a much lower chance of moving out of his parents income bracket than people do in places like Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Canada.”

So when conservatives blast liberals for supporting wealth re-distribution, they are ignoring the absence of fairness in how America’s wealth is distributed today. It isn’t fair at all. And liberals who argue that taxes on the rich are unfairly low, neglect the best argument of all. Income does not need to be equally distributed. What is needed are public policies that provide all kids a healthy start in life and a reasonably equal chance at prosperity. That is the equal opportunity environment that all other industrial nations seek and that they all support in varying degrees.

Ironically, the science of brain development that other societies use to convince taxpayers to support equal opportunity policies is a product of researchers here in American universities. We have some of the world’s best and they all show that healthy prenatal care and the first years of life are the most important for brain development. The only problem is our American policy makers have ignored this locally produced research.

And this is the high risk adventure America has embarked on. The single most important determinant or a nation’s success is the strength of its human capital. By squandering the lives of millions of children raised in low income families, America is creating a self fulfilling prophecy. Yes, America is in decline and it is our own fault.

Why is one of every four prison inmates in the world incarcerated here? Does it have anything to do with kids left without support in poor families, and then when they fall behind in school, and later drop out they conclude they never had a chance at the winning cards? Their mother didn’t get prenatal care, something all other modern countries apply universally. Their moms and dads didn’t get to stay home with them in their first year, like that available in all other countries, then they never could go to nursery schools and other pre-kindergarten places. And when they did get to the 3rd grade, they couldn’t read.

Conservatives and liberals, did you know that a woman experiencing childbirth has a greater chance of dying here than in 49 other countries. That includes all other industrial countries plus places like Cuba? Isn’t that something to be ashamed of? Equally shameful is the fact that we don’t know how to keep babies alive in the first year of life-our terrible infant mortality proves it.

Here is what other countries do routinely to ensure reproductive health and to guarantee that all children have a good chance to succeed.

* income of full-time employment provides families above poverty living standard.

* universal housing for all families with children.

* universal health care.

* paid maternity and parental leave for both parents with guarantee of return to the previous job.

* women’s guaranteed right to breastfeed at work.

* universal pre-school child care and development.

* guaranteed sick leave for illness and family care.

* minimum of 5 to 6 weeks of paid vacation.

* taxpayer paid college tuition for qualifying students.

* protection of children from predatory marketing by consumer product companies.

None of these programs exist in the United States. That is why it is accurate to describe our country as a mamouth incubator for prison inmates. And that is why the US is in 30th place in government tax revenue as % to GDP. We are easily the lowest taxed country of the developed world.

Yes conservatives and liberals, Americans should pay more taxes and the top 10% of us who have amassed nearly all the growth in wealth in the past three decades should pay the most. And the reason isn’t to “redistribute wealth”, it is to begin living up to our words we so often pay homage to, that all Americans have the right to the pursuit of happiness.

Those who have prospered the most have the most at stake to correct this injustice.

This isn’t even paper airplane science. It is common sense. You don’t let children play with guns or drive cars. And you don’t punish them for poverty they are born into through no fault of their own.

I don’t think much of people like me, and conservative and liberals and people in the middle, who punish kids for their misfortune of birth, which means America is not fair.

It’s time we stop it. If we don’t, the words of Pliny the elder will be our fate. “What we do to our children, they will do to society.”

Reprinted from
Strand tidings and view 3.22.11
By David Strand,

Aitkin Age Newspaper Aitkin, Minnesota
dlstrand@msn.com

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Joe Biden, Rape, Teachers & Social Workers; A Common Thread

Published

on March 19, 2011

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Joe Biden’s recent rape/blame the victim comparison blaming poor people and the middle class for destroying the world economy points to a flawed attack on teachers and social workers as the root cause of school and child protection failure is more disturbing than most of us understand.

Politicians make political hay by blaming “civil servants” for a multitude of institutional failures that they themselves are responsible for. It is a poor understanding of underlying issues and lack of concern for the children and poor families that is killing us.

I’ve met hundreds of educators, social workers, and health workers as a volunteer guardian ad-Litem, and almost every single one of them did their work to the best of their abilities and to my knowledge, none of them were in it for the money.

How dumb must we be to accept that when a baby is found in a dumpster it’s the lowly social worker at fault? Or, when attacking the profound problems of education lay our failures at the feet of lazy & overpaid teachers? The work is getting harder every years as poverty, violence, and misery affect more and more children that have to be managed by fewer and fewer teachers, social workers, and health care dollars.

There is no question that poor governance is the root cause of the dramatic collapse in the quality of life indices America has suffered these past twenty years.

The U.S. has have fallen so far that we no longer compare ourselves to the 23 other industrialized nations with 200 year old democracies. These are our peers with the infrastructure and money to provide the highest levels of education, health, and safety within our nation. We should not compare ourselves to Pakistan, Mexico, or Afghanistan, but those nations we have always measured ourselves against.

America has the highest sexually transmitted disease rates, more preteen moms, crime, poverty and criminals than any other industrialized nation.

As a baby boomer that grew up in new schools with good health care and safe streets, it hurts me terribly to see the lack of support for at risk children, education, and healthcare that are necessary to make today’s youth capable of leading productive lives.

*Instead of investing and facilitating progressive programs, our courts and justice system have become our short sighted answer to everything.

This criminal justice policymaking has brought immense suffering to our cities, 13 million prison/jail releases and over 1 trillion dollars in insurance estimates of crime costs last year alone.

We are jailing eleven year olds as adults, denying health care to poor families and seriously troubled children, and trailing the industrialized world in almost all quality of life indices.

In Minnesota, we don’t have six billion dollars for infrastructure and support for social programs over the next two years, but we will pay our share of the Afgan and Iraq wars (sixty billion dollars will be paid by MN taxpayers over the next two years).

Support the people, programs, and policies that bring positive change to our nations youth and stop blaming the people doing the work for the problems of poor governance. Always Vote (it really matters).

Pass this onto people that need to know.

*Terrific article on American prisons from Aljazeera

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He Would Wander The Streets With His Dog Looking For His Mother When He Was A Boy; Abandoned As An Infant – Executed at 37

Published

Continue reading ‘He Would Wander The Streets With His Dog Looking For His Mother When He Was A Boy; Abandoned As An Infant — Executed at 37′

on March 11, 2011

in Crime and Courts, Health and Mental Health and Public Policy

. 5 Comments

If you have not worked with children in child protection systems, the above headline might seem extreme.

There is very little sympathy for felons in our nation and very few people stop to question why there is so much crime and so many criminals.

Not me.

I know that MN Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Blatz is accurate when she says that 90% of the youth in our juvenile justice systems have come through child protection services & that Minneapolis MN arrested 44% of its adult African American men in 2001 (no duplicate arrests).

Support KARA’s effort to stop punishing children; sponsor a conversation in your community (invite me to speak at your conference) / Buy our book or donate

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Abused & Neglected Children Impacting Schools, Courts & Communities; What Works — What doesn’t

Published

on March 5, 2011

dropout rates,
sexually transmitted disease rates,
murder & incarceration rates

. 0 Comments

It stinks to know that my community (family, friends, & business associates included) are committed to policies that guarantee America maintain the industrialized world’s highest;

Some states have quality of life indices for children that rival Afghanistan. Child poverty in Mississippi, uninsured children and births to preteen mothers in Texas, infant mortality and child death in Louisiana are comparable to conditions in third world nations. Continue reading ‘Abused & Neglected Children Impacting Schools, Courts & Communities; What Works — What doesn’t’

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Changing America’s Troubled Foster Care System

Published

on February 26, 2011

Continue reading ‘Changing America’s Troubled Foster Care System’

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Two friends have frightened me into writing this.

One, a bright fellow & past executive director of a nonprofit serving at risk youth, the other a successful businessman that has adopted many children over many years. Both have good hearts and great minds.

The political fellow tried to make a life in the nonprofit world as an executive. He quickly realized that his nonprofit (and he extrapolated that most of them) could not make rational, sustainable decisions to create outcomes consistent with their mission statements.

That’s the long way of saying that most non profits are badly run in his estimation.

He left his executive position (& the nonprofit world) after continued disagreements with the board of directors and I believe, the opinion that nonprofits could not sustainably meet the needs of abused and neglected children.

The other fellow, a long time businessman, explained that his experiences with adopted children and government agencies were bad, and therefore government should stay out of the lives of abused and neglected children.

These gentlemen believe that non profits can’t fix the problem, and our social service agencies can’t help either.

What’s left for abused and neglected children if this level of failure in the non profit and social service sector exist?

Should we let these children just sink to the bottom (as in Jonathon Swift’s MODEST PROPOSAL)?

This is what Minnesota’s last Governor, Tim Pawlenty said to Andy Dawkins & David Strand when asked his opinion; “children that are the victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the State of Minnesota”

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The Scandal Of Medicating Very Young Children In Child Protection Systems

Published

Continue reading ‘The Scandal Of Medicating Very Young Children In Child Protection Systems’

on February 20, 2011

in Health and Mental Health, Kids At Risk Action (KARA) and Public Policy

. 1 Comment

Today’s Star Tribune article,

One Scandal After Another, brings attention to the unethical if not criminal behavior of pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and anyone promoting the psychotropic medication of very young children without adequate mental health services.

U of M bioethics professor Carl Elliott discusses drug company payments to doctors and the enormous amounts of money drug reps make by pushing profitable drugs and running outright scams on doctors to sell their product.

My own experience is based on many years as a volunteer guardian ad-Litem and first hand knowledge working with medicated five and ten year old children with real mental health needs but only receiving Prozac, Ritalin, or any of a multitude of psychotropic drugs.

There are few things more painful than watching abused and neglected children not receiving the personal attention of professionals that could help them deal with their mental health needs.

Almost all of the troubled children I worked with suffered extensive and long lasting damage because drugs were used to mask behavior and not useful, proven therapy.

A child protection judge shared with me the psychotropic medications taken by the children that passed through her child protection courtroom over a year’s time (unbelievable).

I personally have experienced suicidal ideation delivered to me by Topamax, a psychotropic medication given (no warnings were given) to me years ago to treat migraine headaches. I am a mature adult and was able to quit taking the drug. Children have no voice in what drugs they take. Children in child protection have no say at all in their own treatment.

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The Crime Of Prosecuting 10 Year Olds As Adults

Published

on February 11, 2011

in Crime and Courts, Politics and Funding and Public Policy

. 1 Comment

MN is attempting to become the 4th state to prosecute very young children as adults.

The children that commit these crimes have almost all come out of horribly abusive homes. As a nation, we have avoided even a basic effort to ensure that American youth have at least a small chance to lead a normal life. The rest of the industrialized world has left us behind in this measurement.

The last MN governor (Tim Pawlenty) was quoted as saying that “children that are the victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the state of MN”

After many years of working with abused and neglected children, I have witnessed the grim reality of MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz statement that “90% of the youth in the justice systems have come through child protection services”.

Not many Edina or Suburban MN youth end up in County Child Protection (their families have insurance, day care, and mental health programs for troubled youth).

The children in Child Protection are there under the federal “Imminent Harm Doctrine” and have been removed from their homes because their lives have been endangered by their birth parents.

As a volunteer guardian ad-Litem, I can testify to the trauma abused and neglected children live with every day. The World Health Organization defines torture as “extended exposure to violence and deprivation”. This is exactly what I have witnessed happening to the children in my case load in Hennepin County MN.

Hating the parents solves nothing. They were almost all abused themselves as children. Many of them are preteen moms with no parenting skills and their own dysfunctional lives.

It’s horrid enough to witness the abuse these children live with all of their young lives. To think that five and ten year old children have not been punished enough by living with sex abuse, neglect, and other unspeakable act, that we must try them as adults and make sure that they never have any chance of living a normal life is just awful.

There is not a religion in the world that sanctify’s discarding ten year olds.

Once these children enter a criminal adult system they are ruined forever. The rape and insanity of youth entering the criminal justice system is well documented.

It is extremely costly to our state to try and solve these problems with more prison building (it’s also immoral).

It is common that these children will spend 30 to 60 years as returning felons, wards of the state, and dysfunctional citizens unable to hold a job or avoid drug dependency. Consider also the many years of violence and perpetual criminal behavior our prison system fosters.

MN spent 500 million on prisons last year. New York and California spend $250,000 per year on each youth in their juvenile justice systems.

It would be far less costly to our communities to provide resources to young and troubled families to insure that young children receive what they need to lead a normal life.

Just a few years ago a federal mandate forbid the the execution of youth that had committed crimes as juveniles.

Representative Westrom’s bill to try 10 year olds as adults is a step backwards and completely destroys any chance that an already abused and neglected child will ever have the opportunity to lead a normal life.

I write the following while remembering the unspeakable things that happened to the children in my caseload.

While this is harsh, I see the motivation for Jonathon Swift’s Modest Proposal;the children he speaks of lead such miserable lives, that killing them early would reduce their suffering.

Abandoning children to a criminal justice system that rapes and destroys them may be worse than death.

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Autism, Child Protection, & Insurance; Texas could save 2Billion$ by treating autistic children

Published

Continue reading ‘Autism, Child Protection, & Insurance; Texas could save 2Billion$ by treating autistic children’

on February 6, 2011

in Health and Mental Health, Public Policy and The States

. 0 Comments

This well written article on the success of early aggressive treatment for autistic children AUTISM CURE CITY PAGES 1.26.11 makes the overarching logical, ethical, and financial argument about the wisdom of treating children early on with proven methods and saving 18 years of special ed, additional health care, and the very real costs of home, social, and school disruption and personal pain.

Blue Cross covers the IEIBT treatments (Intensive Early Intervention Behavior Therapy) but few other insurance companies do. Very few autistic children receive anywhere near the care required to lead a normal life. The new mental health mandates being required of insurance companies could make life much more livable for thousands of autistic children and their families (and save states billions of dollars).

A personal experience with autistic children was my role in unknowingly facilitating the adoption of an autistic child for a childless blue collar couple that lived in rural MN as the child’s guardian ad-Litem.

I discovered that the social workers on the case had known the baby showed significant signs of autism and that the workers said nothing to the adoptive parents.

I knew the workers to be overwhelmed with too many cases and too few answers for the children they served and don’t blame them personally.

I believe that under-training, lack of resources, and just too many abused and abandoned children to find homes for with too few adoptive families leads to this kind of occurrence in child protection systems.

I stayed in touch with the family for many years and watched them struggle with little help, no programs, and tremendous trouble as the baby became a big boy with terrible and often dangerous behaviors.

These beautiful kind people trying desperately to learn and deal with their adopted son’s extraordinary mental health issues with almost no resources or outside help found little support and a great deal of personal pain and strain on the family.

It’s not just the 18 years of unsupported struggle, but the aging family and the hard choices that face them with a child that can’t function independently as an adult in the community as they themselves become unable to manage dangerous behaviors from an unpredictable adult.

To accept that the nation I live in doesn’t support mandating cost effective programs to save children and families from the devastating impact of autism causes me to wonder about what we have become as a people.

Are we that confused that even when we know the economics favor doing the right and ethical thing, that we allow ourselves to be lead by short term thinking or corporate interests to do the wrong thing?

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Child Abuse, Child Mortality, Hating vs. Caring

Published

on January 30, 2011

Continue reading ‘Child Abuse, Child Mortality, Hating vs. Caring’

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Milwaukee had 499 infant deaths between 2005 and 2008. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blogs surrounding the most recent tragedy are a torrent of blaming and hating with almost no attention to the wellbeing of children.

The absence of concern for children or ideas for making life safer for Milwaukee’s at risk babies is disturbing.

In the case above, the mother apparently did not smoke, drink heavily, or use drugs. The medical examiners report said the mother’s apartment was clean and well equipped with baby supplies.

The public reaction when a baby dies or is found in a dumpster should be one of sadness and a desire to see that children are safer in their community. Something like, “what can we do to see that this does not happen again?”

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have come to know troubled parents and realize that the issues impacting them and their children are often addressable through education, health, and mental health services.

Even in these hard economic times our communities and this nation have the ability to reach out to young families and troubled children to provide education and basic services to provide a safe environment.

We make this choice each time we vote; Day care, early childhood programs, health & mental health services, make for safer and happier families, children, schools, and communities.

Blaming and hating creates only more pain and solves nothing. Be constructive…, do something to help those children that need help.

Vote for child friendly initiatives and the people and programs that support them.

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I am 16 and in the foster care system…Turning 18 is the scariest thing that is going to happen to me

Published

on January 22, 2011

. 12 Comments

“I am 16 and in the foster care system in Washington. I have been through 17 different placements in 4 years. Turning 18 is the scariest thing that is going to happen to me.

Also my Social Worker is trying so hard to get me out of the system before i turn 18 so i dont get aged out. i really have hated the system.

But dont blame the social workers, they are doing as much as they can they have 27-30 cases per person and that isnt per kid thats as a whole. thats alot of kids. if you want to blame anyone blame the Federal System, they did it to us.”

This note arrived this morning in my inbox.

As a guardian ad-Litem, I witnessed unfair treatment of children already in pain from exceedingly damaging home lives. One child had almost thirty foster homes before he aged out of the system (he has AIDs now).

Other than the federal “Imminent Harm Doctrine”, there are no protections at the federal level for children in America.

As I have traveled the states, I see how some states have almost no safety net for abused and neglected children.

America, please wake up and show some kindness to the weakest and most vulnerable among us. We will all be the better for it.

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Children and Government

Published

on January 16, 2011

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. 1 Comment

“what we do to our children, they will do to our society” (Pliny, 2500 years ago).

David Strand, a fellow guardian ad-Litem, had an audience with Tim Pawlenty a few years ago and made an appeal for the soon to be governor’s support for abandoned/abused children. Tim Pawlenty told David (and Andy Dawkins) “children that are the victims of failed personal responsibility are not my problem, nor are they the problem of the state of MN”.

At least economically, this is a false statement. Youth that do not graduate from high school are much more likely to lead dysfunctional lives and end up preteen moms and adolescent felons. Also, 80% of youth aging out of foster homes are leading dysfunctional lives.

MN spent 500 Million dollars on prisons last year, and our recidivism is as bad as the rest of the nation (about 66%). About 60% of the youth in juvenile justice have mental health diagnosis, and fully half of that number have multiple and serious diagnosis.

The state pays for children that don’t become contributing members of society in many ways. Today at the Pilgrim House Church the state economist Tom Stimson explained the need for trained workers in the coming years and how it will be negatively impacted by the falling graduation rates.

20 years ago 92% of youth graduated in MN. Today, 46% of minority youth graduate.

As a guardian ad-Litem I am saddened by the lack of resources for the youngest and most vulnerable among us. And in my experience, most abused and neglected children go onto lead dysfunctional lives.

Not valuing children is costly to the state, a terrible display of misplaced values within our community, and it hurts all citizens by lowering the quality of life in MN. Vote for people that support Minnesota children.

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Continue reading ‘Children and Government’

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America’s Children, Mental Health, Addiction, Medication

Published

on January 2, 2011

. 0 Comments

As a long time resident/student of my community (almost 60 years), volunteer guardian ad-Litem (14 years), and voracious reader of newspapers (about 50 years), I have observed again and again how important the basics are to children.

Children born into violent dysfunctional homes don’t get the basics and this affects them forever.

Most often mom was abused and suffers from serious mental health issues that will soon become the child’s problem. The sex abuse I’ve witnessed among the fifty children I’ve worked with as a CASA volunteer is frightening to speak (and much to common and underreported).

Children traumatized by violence and neglect have serious developmental disabilities that don’t go away with age. 80% of youth aging out of foster care are leading dysfunctional lives.

Adding to the 3 million children reported to child protection in America each year, are the 3.5 million children on stimulant and anti-psychotic medications. Recent studies indicate that almost half of U.S. youth have mental health issues. About 2/3s of the youth in juvenile justice are diagnosed with mental health problems; half of them have multiple, serious diagnosis.

The following article/interview from Democracy Now, Amy Goodman & Dr. and author Gabor Mate explains in detail what happens to children born into unfortunate circumstances and how we need to wake up and support families and institutions to positively change the child unfriendly environment we are creating in America.
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149325

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Continue reading ‘America’s Children, Mental Health, Addiction, Medication’

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For Profit Youth Prisons

Published

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.bettermsreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Walnut-Grove-Complaint1.pdf

on December 28, 2010

in Crime and Courts, Public Policy and The States

. 0 Comments

A few years ago, one of my guardian ad-Litem cases walked about thirty miles on a ten degree night when he was put outside at a juvenile detention center. That he did not die or suffer permanent physical damage was a miracle.

Last year, a Pennsylvania judge was incarcerated for sending youth to prison for profit (he behaved as a commissioned salesman – selling innocent youth into jail).

Federal Lawsuit Seeks to End Years of Physical, Sexual Abuse of Teenage Inmates

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Child Abuse Death; Every Child Matters

Published

on December 20, 2010

. 0 Comments

Yesterday I wrote about how the data appears to minimize child abuse in America. Today, the ” National Media Blackout” article by EVERY CHILD MATTERS, digs deeper into the numbers and why U.S. children suffer three to eleven times the death rate of the 24 other industrialized nations. From the article;

Other causes of death receive far more media attention that child maltreatment deaths;The most current figures show the following annual numbers for much more widely publicized causes of death:

• U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan: 479.
• H1N1 pediatric fatalities: 281.
• Food borne illnesses: 74.
• Toyota accelerator malfunction: 34.
• Coal mining accidents: 33.
• Total of above: 901.

In my own experience, when a baby drowned in a bath tub after 14 police calls to the home, the reporters that called me were very surprised to find out that I had experienced 49 police calls to a home before a child was removed (and only then because the seven year old tried to kill the five year old in front of the police officers).

Newspapers no longer have the financial luxury of assigning reporters to areas of news that don’t generate big readership.

Child abuse is a painful subject and much under reported. I encourage everyone to read the following article and make some effort to positively impact the lives of abused and neglected children. Continue reading ‘Child Abuse Death; Every Child Matters’

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New Federal Report; Drop In Child Abuse? I Don’t Believe It

Published

on December 19, 2010

Continue reading ‘New Federal Report; Drop In Child Abuse? I Don’t Believe It’

. 1 Comment

The latest federal report on child abuse shows a decline for the third straight year.

From my perspective the decline reflects a change in policy and refusal of child protection agencies to accept cases (MN now rejects 2/3 of all reports of child abuse).

The equation works like this; if fewer cases are investigated, that must mean there are fewer cases of child abuse, which leads to less funding and fewer resources for terrified and traumatized children.

This report flies in the face of what we read in the newspaper and data that relates to abused and neglected children.

More children died last year at the hands of their parents and teen suicides had the highest rate increase in 15 years.

This is the same logic that has hidden child sex abuse from the public eye. When I wrote the book INVISIBLE CHILDREN in 2005, there were 895 cases of child sex abuse reported in the state of MN.

At that time I counted fifty children that I knew had been sexually abused. There were about five hundred guardians at that time. It is my experience that child sex abuse is the most underreported crime in America.

Again, the equation works like this; if a problem is not reported, it gets no attention and is not perceived by the public to be an issue that needs to be addressed.

Until our communities begin to solve the terrible problem of generational child abuse, our schools will continue to fail, our jails and prisons will remain full, and we will continue to lead the world in the number of very young women with sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy.

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America By Heart

Published

on November 25, 2010