Minnesota Child Protection Stories, Statistics & COVID – May 2020
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues
providing a passionate voice for Minnesota’s at risk children
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
America vs. the Rest of the World (how we treat children)
KARA Signature Video (4 minute) Public Service Announcement( 30 Second) 25 years ago, KARA board member David Strand went from CASA guardian ad litem volunteer to writing his PHD student thesis “NATION OUT OF STEP” comparing America to the rest of the Industrialized World in how we treat children. At the time, we ranked…
Ethan’s Story
Ethan was 17 years old when I met him. Again, what I know of his story is limited, but the ugliest truths of it seemed to jump off the page and into my brain as I read his file to prepare for our interview. At his first foster care placement, he was sexually and physically abused by his foster father who had an alcohol problem. His foster mother was aware of the abuse going on, but because she was a victim of the domestic violence herself, was unable to stand up for the children in her home. Whether Ethan was removed from this placement (I refuse to refer to it as a “home” given the state of things) before or after this information came to light, is unbeknownst to me.
Domestic Violence Resource Guide (National & International – share this widely)
The United Nation’s-Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that being confined with abusive partners during the pandemic has led to a “horrifying global surge in domestic abuse”. This well organized domestic violence resource guide with hotlines and practical advice …
Policing Abused Children & Why It Can’t Be Done
Teachers, social workers, law enforcement and foster/adoptive parents dealing with State Ward children are often the last chance that a child has to grow up to lead a normal life.
Foster Children On Psychotropic Medication – 1/2 of group home children use them
A national foundation focused on child welfare is footing at least $75,000 of the bill to figure out the best way to conduct an independent clinic exam of children taking mind-altering drugs.
Better oversight of antidepressants, mood stabilizers and other psychotropic medications given to foster children is expected to reduce their usage — and their hefty price tag.
“You are going to save money, and you’re going to provide good medical care,” said Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur.
COVID & Child Protection, Foster Care & Privatized Group Homes
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).
International Child Abuse June 2020 (child abuse & trauma during COVID)
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned that we are seeing a horrifying global surge in domestic violence
all over the world and is urging leaders to include protective measures in their pandemic plans.
The depth and scope of violence against children was a terrible problem before the pandemic.
Child abuse during COVID is growing exponentially – overwhelming our schools, justice systems and communities.
Child Suicides, Self Harm & Statistics (a hidden public health crisis)
Please share this with teachers, law enforcement and social workers in your circles
Current literature reporting included below
What to do when a six year old climbs out the window of your kindergarten classroom threatening to jump three stories to the concrete below?
What do you say to a seven year old girl with scarred arms that is obviously cutting herself repeatedly with a knife or razor?
International Child Protection News for April 2020 (the COVID Impact)
The United Nations Secretary General warned that we are seeing a horrifying global surge in domestic violence
all over the world and is urging leaders to include protective measures in their pandemic plans.
Violence Against Children & Covid19 – (it’s own pandemic) part IV
speaking on critical issues impacting abused and neglected children for many years.
Shelter In Place locks abused children in toxic homes
With no escape to the safety of a classroom
Domestic violence is rising and law enforcement & social workers are having a hard time keeping up.
CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES & STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE DURING COVID19
Violence Against Children & Covid19 – (it’s own pandemic) part II
Shelter In Place locks abused children in toxic homes
With no escape to the safety of a classroom
Domestic violence is rising and law enforcement & social workers
are having a hard time keeping up.
CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES & STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE DURING COVID19
Child & LGBTQ Suicide & Self-Harm (stories, statistics & trauma informed resources for covid19 quarantine)
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.
Domestic Violence to a Five Year Old (living in a house of terror)
Watching mom beaten or raped is terror. Homeless mothers and children are many times more likely to be assaulted and molested.
Children of addicted and alcoholic moms and dads are beaten and raped more often too.
Trauma is *torture. Watching mom being raped is torture.
Impossible Questions & Painful Statistics
Are children property of their parents even if those parents
re violent, addicted, severely mentally ill or criminal?
Harder question.
Do teen and preteen mothers own their fetuses & babies
even if they abuse their children,
are addicted and out of control with little understanding of how
or ability to raise a child safely?…
Is this child’s child doomed prior to birth?
Children have no voice at the legislature, the media or in the home they are born into. They have no choice in who raises them or what is done to them.
Child Care – Brutal Truths & Worst Practices
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…
When Children Can’t Add (or write, or learn…)
America became a great nation because we educated every citizens children. Our commitment to public education, developed a very smart and able citizenry that worked hard, invented great things and governed itself well.
Because our population was smart and able we led the world in education, public health and public safety and most other quality of life indicators…
Sad Stories Child Abuse – Child Death Articles & Statistics
These stories, articles and statistics tell the stories of childhood trauma and death in America over the past few months –
INVITE KARA’S INVISIBLE CHILDREN Program into your community.
Draft KARA TEDx Talk (14 minute video)
Addressing Generational Child Abuse As A Public Health Issue (14 minute video) & how to heal damaged children to make our communities happy and safe again
Take a moment and share your response to KARA’s short video overview of child abuse & child protection in America as an online comment to this post or by email; info@invisiblechildren.org.
Minnesota’s Children 2017 (compiled statistics, facts & stories)
As of early 2016, Minnesota had 7,200 children on its waiting list for child care assistance.
There are 1.3 million children In Minnesota & 404,000 of them live below 200% of poverty
MN Child Abuse/Child Protection Articles, Statistics & Events 2019
KARA gathers news about Minnesota’s at risk children
to provide a snapshot of
how our state
values its children.
Only a fraction of serious child abuse makes the news.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
Follow;
Safe Passage For Children MN (Join their legislative volunteer efforts and make child friendly legislation a reality)
CASAMN (become a guardian ad Litem and speak for abused children)
KARA’s Plea For Change (a call to action – with videos)
Significant institutional change happens when those of us that know the critical issues and have seen better answers start to talk about those problems and solutions loudly and often.
By speaking out, more of our friends and neighbors will know that the punishment model is worsening the public health problem of generational child abuse/trauma is causing all our public institutions.
By speaking out, more people will come to understand that the ACEs model is critical for better results in schools, public health, public safety and happier, more livable communities.
As more of us speak out and advocate for these kids (37% of American children are reported to Child Protection by their 18th birthday) our friends and neighbors will understand the ground truth about why these children don’t do well in school and have so much trouble leading productive lives and spend so much time in the courts and jails.
Childhood Trauma – Making Children Crazy
This powerful ACEs Too High article contains tons of statistics and information related to the prevalence of child abuse in America. What has struck me most is the impact abuse has on school engagement and the number of states where being an at risk child can be dangerous. The list of states with a lack of prenatal care and poor services for young mothers, lack of insurance, affordable day care and other early childhood programs has grown to about 1/3 of America.
Short Powerful Videos on Child Abuse Issues (20-30 seconds)
These short videos capture the realities of child abuse.
Share them widely and more of us will know how to do more for kids in painful places.
ACEs
Child Rape, Data, Reporting & Religion
daho lawmakers are working on a bill to set a minimum marriage age after the House rejected a similar proposal from Democrats earlier this year (10.29.19) as there is no minimum age for marrying off your daughter in this American state (just like in Pakistan).
Minnesota Child Abuse & Child Protection Sept 2019
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
Recent Minnesota child abuse / child protection issues
Infant Death Stories & Statistics October 2019 (find your state here)
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
the child death in our communities today
Signup for KARA’s Weekly News Updates &
share this with your friends and networks
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
Healthy Students – Healthy Schools
1/3 of foster children have mental health issues serious enough to be forced onto psychotropic medications.
Of the 2 million youth arrested in America every year, 70% or them have mental health issues – half of them have severe, chronic and often multiple diagnosis.
That’s what teachers and schools face every day with one school nurse if they are lucky enough to have one.
Arming Teachers/Shooting Students (advocating for less violence and a more civil society)
After the COVID19 lockdowns are lifted, and children and teachers return to the the classroom after months of fear and isolation, wouldn’t it be wonderful if students and teachers do not have to replace the daily fear of a virus with the daily fear of violence?
What can the community do to make that happen?
How many teachers have combat training or 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 training – shooting the right person takes extensive training. For decades now, guns have been more often used for suicide than self-defense in America. This is true also for domestic violence.
American Crime Costs & Statistics
Louisiana (the World’s Prison Capitol), Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma & several other states have incarceration rates 20 times that of incarceration rates in most other industrialized nations. The best prisons in the world release good neighbors back into the community American prisons release hardened criminals with mental health problems and an 80% change of recidivism within five years.
Federal Prisons are 131% of design capacity – 2015 18 states are over capacity. 800% increase in women in prison since 1980.
These statistics and research calculate crime in America today and its cost…
It Didn’t Start In a Vacuum (crime – impact & statistics)
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;
The Data Is In – Child Abuse is a Public Health Crisis
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;
Recent Foster Stories & Statistics
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;
Hard to Watch; Immigration & Children as Political Footballs
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”.
Ensuring Children Will Die Lawsuit in Indiana (the other way of getting better public policy)
I visited Indiana a few years ago after the governor redirected funding from parents adopting special needs children after the adoptions had been completed (AFTER). Then governor mitch daniels directed those dollars to people most successful in dismantling services to abandoned children.
The complaint (new lawsuit) alleges that Indiana removes children from their homes to be placed into foster care at a “staggering rate — more than double the national rate” and then fails to keep them safe while in DCS custody “often placing them in inappropriate, unstable or overly restrictive placements; fails to provide necessary support services and medical and mental health care; and fails to provide meaningful case management.”
Taxes 2 Year Olds (what the feds know that we should)
It turns out that investing in children and young families provides the highest return on investment a government can make.
It’s apparent how terrible many government investments are and it’s easy to see how providing skills and basic needs for children and you families are superior investments to giving the homeless bus tickets to other states so they would be a burden elsewhere.
June Sad Stories (I) 2019 (find your state here)
American states are struggling to find answers for ending adverse childhood experiences and saving at risk children by reversing the explosive growth of child abuse and neglect.
Today, many state ward children are 4th and 5th generation abused children raising their own families without parenting skills and with serious drug, alcohol and mental health issues.
37% of children overall and 57% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17)
6 to 12 million children a year are reported to child protection services and in most states, 1/3 of foster children still forced onto psychotropic medicines
Be A Squeaky Wheel For Children
Annual teacher turnover is highest in Arizona (24%) and New Mexico (23%) Minnesota is 14th highest in teacher turnover.
After my workshop in New York at the United Nations Annual Youth Assembly, a line of ex social workers formed to tell me their stories of why they quit. Annual social worker turnover has been 20 to 40% for many years with individual agency rates as high as 65%.
Police officer turnover rates fall in the middle of teacher/social turnover rates (about 14%) but their suicide, divorce & substance abuse rates are significantly higher.
Recent Child Suicide & Self-Harm Reporting & Statistics (Part III)
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
the child self-harm & suicide in our communities today
KARA’s Top Stories The Week of 5.17.19
AZ: Child-welfare cases are private. Does that protect the kids, or the state officials? (Commentary)
Arizona Republic – May 03, 2019
When news broke that a Maricopa woman had been accused of starving, pepper-spraying, and otherwise abusing seven adopted children, questions immediately turned to what the Department of Child Safety knew and when the agency knew it.
Child Abuse – Minnesota’s Public Health Issue
Today’s edition presented multiple articles (linked below) on at risk children and mental health.
It has taken some years to get here but it is apparent to this volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem that my state is waking up to the public health crisis of child protection and children’s mental health.
County Sees Drop in Child Protection Caseloads (by almost half) is the best news I’ve seen about child abuse since the Governor’s Task Force on Child Protection was formed in 2014.
Investing in social workers (adding 262 workers) and transforming the system means…
Recent Stories, Statistics & Articles About Adoption & Foster Care
After a 9 day trial, foster mom Melissa Sondrol was convicted of of assaulting her infant state ward child, breaking multiple bones and withholding medical information from providers. The court was not allowed to hear her prior histories of abuse. This infant has suffered for years in MN and will live a life very different from other children due to the traumas visited upon him as a foster child – and the things that happened to him prior to entering child protection.
Stories about the shortage of foster care providers, lack of training and resources and transparency within the system are not uncommon – remember, we only read about the very worst cases – the sadness in foster care goes much deeper.
Preteen Moms & Why (stories & statistics)
May had her first child while living as a state ward in a group home when she was 16 and her second child when she was 18 before aging out of foster care.
Her mother was 17 when May was born.
Her grandmother was even younger when May’s mother was born. How old will her daughter be when she has her first baby?
Abused children suffer traumas that last forever and leave a child feeling devoid of love with an emotional void that cannot be filled by social workers, teachers or kind foster parents.
All girls want love in their life. A baby is love. The difference between that poor child and a preteen mom with no parenting skills, a drug problem and a violent boyfriend is about 8 years.
Mistaking Childhood Trauma for ADHD
6.4 million American youth are diagnosed with ADHD. This article from ACEs Too High by Rebecca Ruiz makes clear the overdiagnosis of ADHD and underreporting of childhood trauma. This goes a long way in explaining the overdosing of youth in foster care with psychotropic medications and giant fines paid by big pharma for illegally selling these drugs to pediatricians for use on very young children.
International Child Well-Being (stories, statistics and videos)
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
The Real World of Child Abuse (statistics)
There is more to child abuse than bruises, rape and starvation.
27 states allow withholding life saving medical treatment from children if you tell people your religion forbids it . Criminal and civil immunity means it is not murder when the child dies.
A few years ago, Kansas State Rep Gail Finney vowed to pass a bill that allowed caregivers to leave bruises and cause bleeding. Arkansas State Rep Charles Fuqua promoted the death penalty for rebellious children (based on religious grounds).
Recent Child Burns/Torture Reporting & Statistics
Only the worst child abuse is reported
Most child child trauma and torture is not discovered
Find your state & resources here;
Recent Child Suicide Reports & Statistics (part IV)
Most child suicide is underreported & obfuscated
self-harming behaviors remain almost unknown except to those involved. Resources & your state here;
Recent Child Suicide Reports & Statistics (part III)
Most child suicide is under reported & obfuscated
Find your state, reporting & resources here…
Recent Child Suicide Reports & Statistics (part II)
KARA’s reporting is only a sampling of what should be reported
Most child suicide is under reported & obfuscated. Your state, resources & statistics here…