What would you say to the 12 year old boy who told you how he plans to suicide by cop? Or to the mother of the young girl you speak for in court that told her child “I wish you’d never been born”?
Words don’t come easy.
This survey of 12,000 LGBTQ youth identifies the extreme stress, anxiety, rejection and overwhelming feeling of danger these children grow up with.
Montana is not the only state to shut down a licensed child care facility for abused of abused children. Every state has the problem. The Great Falls Tribune news in Montana today of “egregarious, chronic and persistent child abuse and neglect by this licensed child care facility is just the tip of the iceberg. Anyone from Montana reading this should contact their State Representative and complain that the DHS hearings should NOT be kept confidential and closed to the public. You paid for this facility to do terrible things to these children and you need to know what has been done if you don’t want it repeated. This is a core problem with child protection systems everywhere; no transparency or accountability until someone dies or the violence to children becomes horrific and unhideable. KARA believes that once the community becomes aware of the depth and scope of the problems tortured children are forced to live with, more care and resources will become available. Until then, these stories will be the norm.
Minnesota recently closed two facilities and thereporting here gives a snapshot
Let’s get behind the poor souls doing the work of social work, teaching, healing, parenting, policing and otherwise involved in the lives of badly behaving children that have been traumatized by child abuse and the society that has added to their problems instead of solving them**.
“What we do to our children, they will do to society” (Pliny the Elder 2000 years ago)
How many teachers signed up to pack a weapon when they entered the profession? Turnover in education is already a huge problem. Packing a gun is what police and soldiers do. Shooting someone takes real and extensive training.
Arming teachers, the commonality of school lock downs and active shooter student training and placing the army or police force inside of our schools are extreme measures being taken that instill fear in students and make teaching more like combat than education. Wiki list of school shootings in America.
Federal Funding, Zero Tolerance and Inadequate Alternatives mean that more states are policing schools with armed officers. Before the 1970’s police were almost absent from elementary and junior high schools.
Today in American schools
DJ Tice Star Tribune article recently made crime very real by describing his wife’s rape, his own assault and home burglary along with the awful Barry Latzer assumption that 80% of Americans could become victims of a violent crime in their lifetime.
No obfuscation here.
Crime hurts when it happens to you or someone you love.
What best should be done about crime and punishment is our national conundrum.
Damn the data, “hanging’s too good for em’ and “lock em up” our national chant for fifty years bringing us such data as;
News and stories from around the U.S. from June and July 2019. Find your CASA news here;
Where other advanced nations create safety nets for struggling families, we build giant jail and prison systems that have been filled to capacity for decades along with incongruous realities like;
Last night’s KARA party and fundraiser was great fun and a super success. The food was remarkable and between the banana ice cream cinnamon wonder and the multiple courses of beefy and veggie creations, I was hard pressed to not have two of many things.
We met new volunteers and supporters and raised significant money for KARA’s INVISIBLE CHILDREN Campus program
Damon & I had the pleasure of engaging many of you in KARA’s mission and strategy. We have high hopes of keeping your interest in our efforts in the years to come as we build an army of people that want to improve the lives of at risk children.
These recent stories, statistics & videos represent the state of foster care in America today and what it is like for a child to be a Ward of the State in your State;
We are all in this together.
Pliny the Elder stated 2000 years ago, “what we do to our children they will do to society”.
Let’s do better.
The Heart of the Matter Chapter One
What You Don’t See;
If it’s not seen, it’s not spoken of.
If it’s not spoken of it’s not an issue.
If it’s not an issue there’s not a problem.
If it’s not a problem it needs no solution.
Generational child abuse is a problem festering in America for decades. It is having a profound impact on taxes, public schools, public health and public safety.
Dropping napalm on children and families in Vietnam (PBS video) was an unforgivable evil. Thousands of small children died by napalm.
Burned alive is the most painful death anyone can suffer. Survivors live with scars and trauma that never end.
Today, my government takes helpless babies & children from parents and places them in the custody of money driven defense contractors who warehouse them in cages at vacant shopping centers by the thousands.
The American Psychological Association condemns this act as needlessly cruel threatening “the mental and physical health of both the children and their caregivers”.
*Torturing immigrant children for political reasons is a vile act and it needs to be called out. *The World Health Organization defines torture as “extended exposure to violence and deprivation”.
At that time, the institution spent the weeks trying to convert him to their religion instead of helping him. The month long visit was painful and not helpful.
The State of Minnesota forcibly closed the privatized group home at St Cloud for repeated violations including head banging that caused concussions & sex in front of staff. 2 St Paul boys group homes have been closed recently and there has long been a shortage of qualified foster homes in outstate Minnesota (as it is all around the nation).
This video demonstrates how terrible privatized group homes can become (Florida forces 48% of their state wards onto Prozac like drugs and now lives with eleven year old’s prostituting themselves out of their foster group homes).
in many states, single Parents pay over 50% of their income for infant center care and married parents with 2 children pay over 100% of their household income for center based care (or they would if they could make it work). Minnesotans pay over 15 thousand dollars for infant care (when public college tuition is 11 thousand dollars.
For a nation claiming to value children – one could argue it’s for the dollars they bring in and not their future role as citizens. Drunk uncle/boyfriend daycare is an awful thing the media…
Children don’t have a voice in the homes they live in, the media, or in the courts. Speak for an abused child in court and give that child a chance to be heard as a CASA guardian ad litem volunteer. Come learn about what it takes and how it works to stand up for a frightened abused child in the court system.
We all look to the government to provide support in order to protect our children.
Eshanee’s reporting points to a disturbing trend of state inaction in preventing or even intervening in child welfare violations.
To hold our governments accountable and to ensure the well-being of children, more of us need to
contact our local politicians and policy makers and make our concerns known.
Children have no voice in politics, law or the media.
We must be relentless to effect change.
Be the Squeaky Wheel for Children