I read this article and have just a few questions that this article brings to my mind; I will comment throughout and welcome (encourage) comments or resources i can turn to in order to answer my questions… because the facts here mean only so much but with the ENTIRE facts at hand, then, we can really know whats happening to our children. So please join in on the discussion if you will… I’d like to know thoughts of families that are affected by the system, or from the people within the system, or just taxpaying citizens whose hard earned money goes towards these services that are supposed to safeguard our children… there is a lot to be said about the statistics within the child abuse/neglect concern, which takes place not just by parents/guardians, but within the foster homes and residential treatment centers and youth camps… whats the WHOLE truth? lets see what we can learn here…
Last year, 227 Texas children died innocently
— By Debby Schamber
The Orange Leader
Officials with Child Protective Services want to paint the town blue to recognize April as Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The Blue Ribbon Child Abuse Prevention Campaign started in 1989 after a child’s death. The child’s grandmother received the news of her grandson’s traumatic death from injuries inflicted by his parents. As an expression of her grief and outrage she tied a blue ribbon on the antennae of her van to symbolize the bruised and battered body of her grandson, according to information from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Child Protective Services kicked off a month-long campaign Sunday, hoping raise public awareness and eventually stop child abuse. To help get the program get started, a candlelight vigil and blue ribbon campaign will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Orange County Courthouse.
“This is to remember the victims and bring awareness to the community,” said Shari Pulliam, public awareness officer the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. “Everyone is invited to attend.”
Last year 227 Texas children died from the abuse or neglect at the hands of their parents or guardians.*
I would like to know how many Texas children died from abuse or neglect at the hands of their FOSTER parents, Adopted parents (who adopted through TDPRS) and at the hands of workers at the residential treatment centers, therapeutic foster camps, or due to mishandling, misdiagnosis, or incidents relating to psychotropic drugs prescribed to them by contracted psychologists treating our foster children.. I’d like to know THOSE numbers.
Additionally, 67,737 Texas children were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect* and 17,536 children were removed from their homes, according to CPS.
If 67,737 Texas children were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect, I want to know if by saying confirmed they are saying that allegations from referrals were substantiated? And if so, how many of those were actual abuse rather than “neglectful supervision”, a term CPS likes to use to sustain a referral on vague, sometimes (for lack of better terms) silly information because they did something (such as removing a child) that they shouldn’t have done, and need to have a reason on paper to back it up – neglectful supervision.
In the UCCJEA when it was being changed over from the UCCJA, one area of discussion dealing with jurisdiction on the basis of emergency if the child is abused in another state, or taken and withheld in another state than the one of continuing jurisdiction, the court should not (but they do) transfer or grant emergency jurisdiction based on the term of neglect – it is considered too elastic of a term to be used in order to substantiate allegations made as a defense to parental abduction. That would only encourage parental kidnapping. Furthermore, if you look into the federal definitions of terms relating to child abuse laws… neglectful supervision is not even listed as a recognized term within federal guidelines. So, my point is, their statistic claims 67,737 children were confirmed abused or neglected …. how many of each? Is it, for example…. 20,000 abused and 47,737 neglected children with 40,000 of those being labeled neglectful supervision because of things like a parent in the household having marijuana i n their system from a new years eve party that is found after a spite referral comes in from an angry mother-in-law… having nothing to do with the children… or similar circumstances that really have no other application than that (unrecognized) term….
CPS – please tell us – whats the REAL numbers there? If those ARE sustained abuse/neglect cases, how many were NOT substantiated…? If 67,737 cases were substantiated – then tell us how many kids removed into foster care had cases where in the end the allegations were baseless? Whats THAT number? And how many children, if 227 children were killed at the hands of their parents/guardians, do you mean family members when you say guardians? who are the guardians you mean? define them? Or are the guardians you speak of stepparents? are they the foster parents? adopted parents? Who do you mean when you say “guardian”??
After questioning that, I wonder then how many children died at the hands of those you…CPS…. entrusted the children to – the foster parents or adoptive parents who adopted from CPS – the workers at state run juvenile detention centers, RTC’s, camps? How many of those 227 children whose lives were needlessly and horribly cut short actually were killed by the hands of their BIRTH PARENTS – split that statistic for us after you define “guardian” – is it 7 killed by parents and 220 by guardians? Give us the REAL facts…
How many children died while in the care of the state? And while you’re at it, how many of those children 17,536 children torn from their homes were allegations which were NOT substantiated or based on “neglectful supervision”? And of those – how many of THOSE children died in state’s care. Those are the questions I want answered! I’ll refrain at this time from asking about how many of those children were abused and beaten, battered, tortured, or traumatized by the state’s child “protection” system… that, we can discuss later.
“Child abuse is an everyday occurrence that needs to be focused on, but we do this to simply raise awareness to the problem,” Pulliam said.
Pulliam asks who holds the answer to child abuse and also replies, “We all do.”
“Prevention of child abuse is not a responsibility that is only appropriate for parents and family. In fact it is an action in which each of us can participate.” Pulliam said. “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something and together we can do anything. Together we can prevent child abuse.”
If thats the case, Pulliam, tell me, how many foster parents or state facility workers are actually convicted, facility shut down, or forced into services with children immediately removed from their homes naming THOSE who are caring for those children under CPSs supervision, actually named in a registry as abuse/neglect perpetrators when a child is abused or killed in their care? If you want to be honest about pulling together to stop child abuse START THERE – because I can tell you not just from experience where my child was abused in state’s care and nobody was convicted for it (instead they didn’t bring him to visit me while his injuries were still present and told him I didn’t show up thats why there was no visit….LYING to cover it up) … I know that nothings been done inside the system except whats necessary to protect themselves when incidents occur. Go to the TDPRS Child Care Search Engine where you can input names of facilities and read their incident reports that they are legally bound to furnish the public with (although I’ve found that some are, in fact, not reported) – such as::
Narrative A young foster child was sexually assaulted by an older child in the home. The older child was arrested for sexual assault
WHO HERE WAS CONVICTED FOR NEGLECTFUL SUPERVISION TO ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN????? That facility is up and running still….
See my POST OF VIOLATIONS to discuss… I was going to list some here, but there are too many I want to show you that it deserved its own post….meanwhile back to the article….
The focus for the campaign this year is there is “no excuse for child abuse.”
Child abuse prevention is about stopping child abuse and neglect before it starts. The best way to prevent child abuse is to support families and provide parents with the skills and resources they need.
The public can have an active role in prevention of child abuse by being aware of the signs.
(and by demanding accountability within the foster care system)
“It is important for the community to be aware of the problems of child abuse and to learn what to do,” said Jane Nielsen, volunteer cooridnator/public relations for CASA.
Injury to a child is considered abuse regardless whether the caretaker intended the incident to happen or not. A person should suspect abuse if the child has frequent injuries without adequate explanations or complains of pain without obvious injury.
A person suspicious of child abuse may look for burns or bruises in unusual patterns that may indicate cigarette burns, the use of an instrument or even a human bite. To hide the marks a child may wear unseasonable clothing. The child may also disappear for a few days and the re-urface with injuries that appear to be a few days old.
Furthermore, a child may act out emotionally by becoming aggressive, disruptive, and have destructive behavior. On the other hand, a child may become withdrawn, passive, have emotionless behavior and a fear of going home or seeing the parents.
“It is important for the victims of abuse to know it is never their fault,” Pulliam said. “The kids can’t blame themselves and say if only they cleaned their room or did something different then it would not have happened.”
Child neglect is also a form of child abuse. Neglect is just as harmful and is a failure to provide basic needs to sustain the life or health of the child. However, this excludes failure to provide based on financial status unless services or help has been offered and refused.
A person may suspect neglect if a child suffers from obvious malnourishment or is stealing or begging for food. Furthermore, a child may have a lack of personal cleanliness and have torn or dirty clothing. In addition, the child may be left unattended at home or be absent from school frequently.
Child abuse and neglect is against the law in Texas, so is the failure to report the abuse. If a person suspects a child is abused they can call law enforcement or CPS at 1-800-252-5400. The hotline is answered 24 hours a day, every day. If the situation is life threatening, the person should call 911.
Reporters are not expected to prove the abuse or neglect they report. It is best to be specific of the injuries noted and the incidents observed. A delay in reporting the incident may result in serious harm to the child and it is also best for the investigator to see the injuries or bruises before they fade.
If a person fails to report suspected child abuse it may result in the person being charged with a Class B misdemeanor which can carry a fine up to $1,500 and up to 180 days of imprisonment.
Reach this reporter at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2613, or dschamber@orangeleader.com
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
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