Child abuse reports gathered from around the nation from January through May 4th (find your state here). Post comments here about how your state is protecting children. All adults are the protectors of all children (pass it on)
DetailsKARA is working to make lawmakers and policy makers see the value of community volunteer CASA guardian ad litems in Child Protective Services.
To do this, we are seeking stories from 18 & up folks that have come through child protection with the help of a volunteer CASA guardian ad litem.
You may remain anonymous.
Please contact me directly – mike@invisiblechildren.org with STORY in the subject line.
DetailsStar Tribune Nowhere To Go For Most Troubled Youth, crime, preteen moms and juvenile injustice
DetailsKendrea Johnson’s social worker was unaware that Kendrea’s mental health provider knew this six year old girl was severely mentally ill and having daily thoughts of suicide and homicide.
Tannise Nawaqavou, Kendrea’s foster mother didn’t know either. No one told anyone that this six year old girl wanted to kill herself (and others – she had twice threatened to kill her foster mother with a screwdriver).
As a long time Hennepin County CASA guardian ad-Litem, it hurts me to see policies in place that insure not the best interests of the child, but the best chance that people will never know about the terrible things going on in the lives of abused and neglected children. We do this to foster and adoptive parents all the time and it has to stop (it is dishonest). The intensive therapy needed by traumatized children is simply beyond the ability of average people (most foster/adoptive parents – note the privacy laws referred to by child protection in Brandon’s article above).
People (like the psychologist from Pennsylvania (below in read more) quoted in today’s article*) that don’t believe suicide happens to six year old’s just don’t have a clue.
DetailsSuccess Stories & Failure (unassigned child abuse cases)
We all like a happy ending. Especially when kids are involved.
DetailsIt is good to know that someone is advocating for raped and trafficked children.
If not for the research, reporting and press about priests molesting children, there would not be much attention or understanding of the trauma suffered by sexually abused children or their numbers.
It’s not clear how many children have been abused by priests in the U.S. these past 20 years, but a reasonable guess might be 50,000 to 100,000.
Using the higher total of 100,000 children abused over 20 years by priests means that about 5000 children a year have been molested annually.
Statistically, this number is a tiny fraction of the sexual violence & trafficking done to American children in their own homes by family members and caregivers each year.
Between 63,000 & 400,000 of the 7.4 million children reported abused in America each year have suffered sexual violence. Of the 50 children I helped remove from toxic homes as a volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem, about half of them had suffered sexual violence. One as young as two, several that were four and the rest under ten when their abuse started.
DetailsThis NY Times article about Baptist Sex-abuse survivors shines a light on the commonality of child sex abuse in America. For a very long time, Tennessee allowed ten year olds to wed (almost always to older men).
DetailsThe U.S. and Somalia are the only nations on the planet that have refused to sign the International Rights of Children Treaty.
DetailsAmerica is the only nation on earth that is not a party to the international rights of the child treaty of 1989.
DetailsChild Rights, Religion, Parents & Making America Work Again
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