Resurgence Of Child Fatalities In Minnesota (thank you Safe Passage for Children of MN)
KIds At Risk Action reporting on child abuse and child protection in MN June 2017
DetailsView allAces and TraumaAdoption, Foster and Kinship CareCASA, GAL and Child ProtectionChild Abuse and DeathsDay Care and EducationChild ProtectionChild self harm and suicideChildren's RightsCOVID 19 and its ImpactsDomestic ViolenceEducationFeatured ArticlesGuest PostsGun Violence and ControlJuvenile + Criminal JusticeKARA News and EventsAll Posts from Kids at Risk ActionLGBTQMikes Favorite PostsMental Health + Over MedicationRebuttals & Guest PostsReligion, Politics + the LawReporting and News - InternationalReporting and News - MN SpecificReporting and News - US BasedStunning StatisticsThe StatesTheir stories
Restorative Justice – Veterans & Children (saves money and lives)
Woo Hoo – MN passed a restorative justice act for veterans – diverting at-risk veterans toward probation and social service programs instead of jail time when they commit certain crimes.
Why wouldn’t we?
The World Health Organization defines torture as extended exposure to violence and deprivation. Living in a war zone, bombs going off nearby or a buddy shot dead in front of you changes the brain.
Most of us want soldiers that have experienced traumas in the service of this nation to be treated for their mental health issues and have a path to rebuild their lives as productive citizens.
Details
Response to Star Tribune Article
Yes to constructive solutions; more resources for troubled families and help for abused and neglected children.
No to destructive and inflammatory criticisms of people trying hard to make life livable for terribly abused and neglected children within an overwhelmed social services system and not enough resources to do the job. It’s almost impossible work and there is little support for the worker or the child these days.
Details
Response to Our Friend Hector
I believe that the challenge addressed in this document has to do with ACES and other escalating problems in our society. Please let me know your thoughts.
Hector,
Sadly, the combination of American “bootstrap” culture, harsh individual freedom driven capitalism and defining success as “more money/winning at any cost” are denigrating social sciences/human services and anything else that gets in the way (including “science”).
Our institutions are paying a terrible price demonstrated by the cost of and underperformance in quality of life indices across the board (public health, public education, public safety).
This nation no longer leads the world in the things that make for a safe and livable society. We lead in teen STDs & pregnancies, prison populations, recidivism & incarcerated juveniles, poverty and in most financially rewarding areas of endeavor.
Add to that, the concurrent explosion of trauma related mental health problems (ACES) facing institutions service providers; educators, social and health workers, law enforcement, court and detention personnel are finding their level of training severely inadequate, jobs much more stressful and dangerous with a lack of success across most institutional venues.
The level of violence in hospitals, care & detention centers, foster homes and schools is high and growing and our reliance on Prozac like drugs in managing these problems bodes ill for any long term solutions (without treatment these problems grow exponentially)
Generational child abuse and trauma is the most misunderstood and powerful social disease present in this nation today and there are few signs of its abatement.
Details
Responding To Toni Carter’s Star Tribune Article Yesterday (County Commissioner & Pres MN Assoc. of Counties)
Minnesota’s counties received nearly 68,000 reports of child abuse or neglect last year but closed most of those cases without investigation or assessment.
A review of state and federal data by the Star Tribune shows that the number of child abuse reports being screened out without any protective action rose last year to the third-highest rate in the country.
In all, the state screened out more than 48,000 such abuse reports last year — and authorities often made their decisions after only gathering information from a phone call or a fax.
What happens to those cases is largely unknown. Records are not open to the public. Many counties also don’t keep track of closed cases, potentially resulting in multiple reports of abuse of a child without intervention. A bill advancing through the Legislature would require counties to keep information on screened-out cases for a year to spot recurring child abuse.
“We’re finding gross discrepancies in what one county does vs. another,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jeff Hayden, DFL-Minneapolis.
DetailsReporting Maltreatment Of Children; How Minnesota Does It (State Statute – 626.556)
The difference between mandated reporters and the rest of the world is this; my friend who knew the 7 year old girl across the hall was being sexually abused was not a mandated reporter, and he did not report it. He feared for his life, as these were gang type neighbors, and while he was miserable about it, he never did speak out. Instead he knew for a long time what was happening next door and did nothing to stop it. It was a confession he made to me long after the events had occurred.
The only real hope this little girl (or any other children) being prostituted, pounded on, or otherwise horrifically treated, are mandated reporters. Hopefully, a teacher, hospital worker, or some other service provider will discover the horrors this little girl’s lived through and make help available so she might be healed and lead a better life. This is the statute that all mandated reporters should understand if they are to execute their jobs according to MN law.
If the resources were made available to enforce this statute, and make available the resources suggested within it, the prisons would empty, schools would perform at a much higher standard, and our communities would become the warm and friendly places we all want them to be. Take a moment and review the statute. It is valuable information for any citizen;
626.556 REPORTING OF MALTREATMENT OF MINORS.
Subdivision 1.Public policy.
Details
Reported Child Sex Abuse for June 2018
2 Nodaway County men charged with child molestation, sexual abuse
Maryville Daily Forum
NODAWAY COUNTY, Mo. — Two Nodaway County men were charged on May 18 with several counts of felony child molestation and sexual abuse in …
Flag as irrelevant
Creep accused of sexually abusing 5-year-old girl may have more victims, cops ask public to help …
New York Daily News
Investigators fear he may have molested other children. They released a photo of him Wednesday and asked the public’s help finding additional …
Flag as irrelevant
Repeal The Decision to Aware Elizondo Custody Of His Child; Sign This Petition
Judge Howard Haralson : Repeal the decision to award Elizondo custody of his child.
Details
Removing 100’s of Community Volunteers from Child Protection (why?)
Removing 100’s of Community Volunteers from Child Protection (why?) an accurate and troublesome picture of the conditions facing Minnesota’s at risk children today.
Details
Remembering Young LGBTQ Lives & Moving Interview (guest post)
How did you come to terms with your identity?
Being queer and the sexuality part wasn’t as hard for me. I always knew I liked women. The journey was then finding out who else I liked and what I didn’t like. I feel like when you first join the community, you’re not always presented with how many identities there are. I feel like a lot of people tend to come in uneducated, and I think that’s definitively how I came in. I come from a very homophobic town, so we didn’t have that many people that were out. I didn’t know much. I started identifying as queer because I’m still not sure. My gender identity took a lot longer…
Details