Posted by
Annie Hamilton on Sunday, February 08, 2009 5:24:52 PM
A Vision for Children, A Vision for Change
When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?
Eleanor Roosevelt
Paper nominated for the Rolex prize in 2003
currently with the National Institutes of Health/Institute of Pediatrics/Endocrinology/George Chrousos MD and the University of Athens
How can we as responsible Adults realign the present system we currently depend on to ensure the safety of our children while achieving economic compatability within all systems, public and private, and in doing so, renew the spirit of compassion and accountability within society?
Ideal reform of services must utilize all aspects of government and requires cooperation from facilities both public and private. The imperatives described within, once established, should not be compromised for self interest or personal agenda. Principles, although versatile for purposes of improvement, must not be diluted or weakened in the process.
Ideal reform within the systems that ensure the safety of our children must be implemented in a straight forward manner, steadfast with honest reporting, cohesive involvement of all parties and predetermined tenants to succeed with lasting results and measurable outcomes.
As a principle, the societal value of the child must be reexamined, with policy reform reflecting all changes deemed appropriate. Abraham Lincoln reflected this value when stating that 'to sin in silence when they should protest makes cowards of mankind'
INITIATIVES FOR THE TASK AT HAND CAN BE FURTHER SUMMARIZED INTO THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS:
1. Children at risk for abuse and fatal injury must be identified and tracked as such. furthermore, a system designed for accountability
for must be developed and maintained.
2. Children who are identified as 'at risk' must be protected as a national priority whether inside or outside of the family structure.
The basis for this statement is that children are vulnerable and helpless must be afforded greater protection than the greater system
presently accommodates. At present, our nation prefers the 'reunification' of the family model which studies reflect as a danger to
the child and an economic failure. Furthermore, children who ARE rescued from dangerous homes must be given the opportunity
to heal through integrated therapies involving mind, body and soul, including adoption efforts.
3. The Public must become awakened to the modern reality of child abuse. it's no longer the social 'disease' of the urban poor. it's
in the wealthy homes, it's affecting more and more households, as families vent their frustration and rage. overworked, underpaid,
Social service employees are, as it's being discovered, missing more and more cases of negligence, starvation, negligent homicide,
and other forms of mysterious deaths overlooked by professionals hired to investigate. Multi-layer reform must include educa-
tional mandatory retraining for Professionals dealing with children and aggressive marketing efforts geared toward television and
media.
ISSUES FOR PURSUIT
It is interesting that even as we have seemingly progressed as a society, our maltreatment of children continues into the modern age. In virtually every country on the planet, child abuse is an issue and it is one area of life that does not discriminate. Children of all ages, races and socioeconomic categories and levels of education within families are affected by abuse and its destructive patterns. It affects boys and girls both and although studies favor girls for sexual abuse that is only because boys are afraid to report it with the same frequency.
Who was Tucker Sherman?
In June of 2001, while traveling to a softball tournament in Dalles, Oregon, I stopped to pick up dinner for my children on the way to our hotel room. On top of the counter sat a coffee can with a child's photograph crudely taped to the side as though it had been prepared in a hurry. It simply said, Tucker Lee Sherman, July 17 1995-March 16 2001 and noting that it had a second date on it I realized that the five year old boy was dead. This was overwhelming for two reasons: one, my own son was born on the 18th of July in the same area and two, he looked like he could be my child's twin. I felt this odd pull in my abdomen, an odd sensation I'd never felt before. Was it grief? before having children, I'd not even bonded with any kid, i was the first to bark at nephews and other peoples kids so I could enjoy baseball games or my 'book' and then I had my own kids and realized something - these little things that creep around with no teeth are people. they have feelings. they're helpless. oh my God. it hadn't dawned on me before. and now, years later, I was falling in love with a dead child who was reaching out to me and it wasn't making sense, I was having this strange, surreal experience but one thing was clear - I was connecting with something that was very powerful. the Man behind the counter broke my focus and asked me if he could help me.
"who is this?" I gestured toward the photo.
"That was Tucker Sherman. a local little boy. He was..." voice choking " a local little boy who was murdered by his Mother's boyfriend."
Soon, I learned that Tucker's family had fallen victim to the mill closing and due to environmental protests and the financial burden proved too great for his parents. Within weeks of his parents splitting up, his mother had allowed a local man to move in with her, to their place out in the country. Tucker's father's new job as a long haul truck driver kept him away to make money and he was unaware that his ex had invited a local bully to live with them. by the time he returned to The Dalles, three months later, his young son would be dead.
Through additional research, interviews with the District Attorney and interviews with the Sherman family and reviewing the autopsy report and slides, it came to my attention that Tucker was subjected to 106 days of physical and sexual torture and despite numerous reports to social services, the bus driver at school, the principal at school, his teacher, numerous police reports, numerous neighor reports expressing concerns AND a handwritten note that Tucker himself wrote in crayon (absolutely heartbreaking to view in person as he knew his days were numbered) he couldn't be saved - no one would be accountable for him. they simply REFUSED to save him. flat out refused.
My curiosity about this case grew - awe, absolute jaw dropping 'what?' and I started to gather research as to how often this really happens. With multiple reporting, parties reporting abuse, broken bones, bruises, a torn anus - in the ER, crying jags, inability to control his bladder, hand written notes (that DID get to other people, including adults) and the testimony of dozens of neighbors and friends? how is it that no one came to his aid?
Well, here is the thing: my research and interviews with others have unveiled that Tucker's story is not unusual, it's commonplace. Thousands of children meet a similar fate every single year in this country. Soon, I was led to Jeffrey Bennett, the former Mayor of Corona, California. He pointed out that in this 'politically correct and polite' society, people encourage us to turn away in distaste from topics as unsavory as child abuse and that fear of getting involved has circumvented ongoing chronic abuses today.
Bennett was selfless with his time and energy and introduced me to the art of 'digging' and taught me to gather reports, deal with law enforcement, gather and read information (how to ask for it, dealing with and crossing counties, etc) and a variety of other factors. his passion and knowledge were invaluable and so very useful in putting this together. One major point we both learned in reviewing statistics is that not all states require autopsies for children and most states don't require coroners to have any experience with child abuse, battery or domestic violence.
OCCASIONAL TRAGEDY OR EPIDEMIC?
Child Abuse in America, although a subject rarely discussed in open forums is on the rise, approximately 40 % from 1992. Since then, hundreds of organizations have been attempted- all efforts even with the best of of intentions have failed. One system provides a bandaid for an infectious disorder that is growing more gangrenous by the day, posing a threat to society, the family and to all human beings.
Rather than reinventing the wheel, providing little more than lip service, I set out to answer societal questions that might seem simple yet tend to be viewed more as a philosophical discussion, inviting rhetoric of discussion that fwe care to defend in this politically delicate atmosphere.
SOCIETAL VALUE OF THE CHILD?
Sadly, we Americans view our children as property and have taken great steps to protect our civil liberties even at the expense of our children. This is evident in mountains of evidence where children have been returned to dangerous homes (approximately 50 % of children who are murdered by a parent ARE KILLED AFTER A JUDGE ORDERS THEIR RETURN TO THE FAMILY HOME AFTER IGNORING THEIR FILE) so before you respond to this and tell me i'm wrong, please re-read that statement.
PARENTAL ROLE IN AMERICA
Presently, the stratetic focus in our country is in family preservation. While this is an admirable goal it is far more important to understand that the utopian ideal doesn't apply to families where the kids are at risk and with this in mind and based firmly in fact reunification of the child and parent should be the exception and cease as the rule. This clearly paves the way for reform which must focus on the safety, well being and individual rights of the child as individual person and not possession or extension of parental property. I firmly believe a dispassionate examination of the facts surrounding fatal child abuse points to the need to rethink our perception of parenting and that of the role of the child in society. Furthermore, the realization that it's common to get a stronger sentence for killing a dog than a child should give pause. (this is changing because people are starting to speak out)
COMMUNITY NEED BETWEEN CHILD ABUSE AND SOCIETAL ISSUES
Studies indicate that children who suffer untreated abuse frequently become just as burdensome to society as their families were to them. In fact, 20 % of children who suffer chronic abuse will serve life sentences in prison and more then 90 % of our prison population first experienced the system as victims of child abuse. Further documentation presents issues such as drug seeking behaviors, addictions, mental illnesses, depression, learning disabilities, road rage, workplace violence, suicidal tendencies, sexual behavior/rage, and emotional unbalances.
ECONOMICS OF CHILD ABUSE
The costs of administering abuse prevention programs generally are federally funded through allocations to individual states, where state jurisdiction takes over. With increasing regularity, the funding for such programs have been cut or reduced from budgets even though the percentages of abuse reports continue to rise. (in fact, many studies indicate that less than 50 % of abuse is even reported further increasing the urgency) But what is the ultimate price and what is it that we really value?
1. As previously stated, 20 % of victims of chronic, untreated abuse will go on to serve prison sentences. (and this
number has likely increased since 2003) the cost of incarceration exceeds hundreds of thousands of dollars per inmate,
for a twenty year to life sentence.
2. Further costs include the drain on the health care economy for hospitalization, lab work, mental health care profession
als, pharmaceuticals care, emergency room visits, outpatient services, chemical dependency programs, legal advocacy
programs, loss of productivity in the workplace, (in adulthood, victims experience greater degrees of unemployment,
issues of self esteem, rage and helplessness)
A VISION FOR CHILDREN
Children must have the same rights as adults. Furthermore, when there is evidence of maltreatment and/or endangerment, the needs of the child must be treated as a national priority as children are helpless an cannot possibly defend themselves efficiently. Reform must be AGGRESSIVE, ONGOING and REQUIRES a FIRM COMMITMENT from ALL COMPONENTS of SOCIETY. Reform efforts must parallel the task of gathering the appropriate information throughout the new and improved data systems and goals for children can be based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including, but not limited to; BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD AS PRIORITY, NON DISCRIMINATION IN EFFORTS, LEGAL RIGHT TO SEPARATE FROM PARENT/LEGAL GUARDIAN WHERE DANGER EXISTS, PROTECTION FROM ABUSE AND NEGLECT, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, ACCESS TO CARE FOR DISAILITIES, RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE (I'm sick of these religious wack jobs letting their kids die because their religion precludes them from getting medical treatment - this needs to be MURDER ONE) RIGHT TO EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY, FREEDOM FROM CONFLICT
DATABASE
In the case of Tucker Sherman, as well as in most of the thousands of cases I researched over the 18 month study, communities DID, in fact, respond to the threats of violence in the homes on behalf of these children. They fervently tried to do the right thing. This restored my faith in human beings. It turned my stomoch at the stupidity, laziness and passivity in our system, however. it's pleading for intervention from law enforcement and children's services. What happens in this proposed document is once a report is 'made' or generated, it goes to the database/party and creates an immedate follow up for investigation. It's probably not difficult to imagine that the workload of most social workers is excessive and as much as society has grown weary of stories of mismanagement of files and victims falling through the cracks of inadequate protective systems, the fact remains that social workers and law enforcement cannot possibly be expected to investigate with any great degree of accuracy, every case without the appropriate tools necessary in expediting the task at hand. THE MISSING TOOL IS A LARGE NATIONAL DATABASE, MUCH LIKE THE ONE USED BY THE DMV.
The database would be created to gather reports from all available systems, including daycare centers, hospitals, physician offices, urgent care centers, schools, private citizens, law enforcement, bus drivers, coaches, and other avenues of society (proven faulty reports of a malicious nature would result in felonious charges to protect both children as well as integrity of the system) and once a child's name was entered more than once, it would immediately trigger an 'urgent follow up response'
Details would be entered into the database which might mean little to the reporting party but as accessed by those educated to pick up 'little details' it might trigger earlier responses, hence, saving lives. (case in point: Two weeks after Robert Walker, Tucker's killer, moved into the Sherman household, Tucker showed up to school with red dots under his eyes. the explanation given to the school was that they'd been in a 'fender bender' but the Teacher noted it and called it in as suspicous. now, had the authorities had the appropriate training, they would have KNOWN that what was being being described was an attempted choking incident. In addition, if the red dots (which was in the report) was in a database, the next report that was filed, by the doctor would have flagged it for sure, for the Doctor WAS trained in child abuse and would have noted the symptom at once. get the point? Tucker could have been spared with the database, the torture started that second week.
Further, the system could be created with multi-agency access, offering the maximum in firewall protection, harbored with law enforcement agencies within each state, accessible only by a pre-assigned code.
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
Research for this thesis included multiple discussions/interviews with law inforcement, DEA, social workers, victims, abusers, physicians, hospital administrators, plastic surgeons, counselors, daycare providers, bus drivers, parents, teachers, newsaper reporters, nurses, attorneys, ER physicians, ER Administrators, ambulance professionals/EMT's and Tucker's family. One commonality in these discussions confirmed the suspicion that the current reporting system doesn't seem to 'end up' anywhere and that the dissemination of reported information created a sense of alarm in all who have been involved with abuse prevention in one form or another. In short, not a single adult disagreed with the gathering of information for the purpose of diagnosis, prevention, treatment and punishment of abuse and felt it should be an immediate priority for the President's Administration to pursue.
Not only would the information save lives, it would create immediate accuracy in studies, benchmarks for improvements, analysis for the purpose of gathering effective data, therefore allowoing the government to properly budget for present and future issues related to incidents of abuse. If a report is made, a permanent file would be then open to anyone with appropriate access. It would create a cleaner, easier format for social workers and law enforcement alike and other than its immediate value as a utility tool, becomes documentation for legal services, such as CASA and court cases. With the appropriate firewalls, the identity and privacy of the child would be protected within reason even while carrying out normal aspects of the job.
REFORM FOR CHILDREN - FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
At present, legal focus is on reunification of the family. Studies support that at LEAST HALF OF ALL CHILDREN WHO ARE KILLED ANNUALLY BY A PARENT OR CAREGIVER/LEGAL GUARDIAN ARE RETURNED TO THE HOME AT LEAST ONCE BY A JUDGE WHO IGNORED A CASEFILE WITH INFO WARNING THEM OF DANGER TO THE CHILD. This is UNACCEPTABLE AND MUST NOT CONTINUE!!!!!. As Stated earlier, reunification is a great idea but the Disney idea of family only exists in movies these days and the reality is that many homes in America are violent and kids MUST be protected above the 'rights' of parents. period. people gotta get over it - moving on! they are PEOPLE with FEELINGS and FUTURES - not your possessions.
As the environment that victims of abuse are born into is not normally conducive to the family structure as identified as the norm, the need for legal reform has NEVER been greater or more urgent. As previously stated, the needs of the child as individual persons must be considered as a National priority and urgent issue to pursue.
A CHILD'S RIGHT TO THRIVE
Children who are extracted from their homes for their safety must reserve the right to thrive in society. this is often difficult for them at first, they often are very loyal to their abuser and want to return over and over, regardless of counseling and logic. It's a cycle that must be broken. In an effort to completely prepare children for adoption we would propose that children be placed in rehabilitative homes where children would be placed with families prepared to nurture them with their psychosocial needs, their physicial needs, their educational needs, health care, dental care, sports, learning assessments, the arts - anything they need. Kids are our future - they should be treated as such! All kids deserve a chance to grow and thrive and be loved, nurtured, truly cherished for the treasured they are - the blessings and beautiful creatures they can be!
A VISION FOR CHANGE
MEASURABLE OUTCOMES- TRACKING DATA FOR SUCCESS
The information entered into the database creates instant statistics. this is both helpful in guarding situations dangerous against their health and safety/well being but also it's imperative in creating benchmarks for analysis, successful initiatives and in making a case when seeking funding. The long term goal remains the well being and productivity of the child as an empowered, individual human being with the right to thrive and grow into loving, capable and successful adults who do not perpetuate the cycle of abuse with their own future families. Efforts must be made to strive for a society that recognizes and values the worth of all children as worthy human beings.
In order to reach this goal, children must be tracked from the very first report issued on their behalf. The database is critical to the success of these initiatives and additional resources and channels must be navigated to ensure its' successes including financial and legislative.
A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR AT-RISK CHILDREN
Presently, inadequate delineation of roles and responsibilities within services rendered on behalf of children is dominant within our society. This can and MUST change. Although the first priority must become and remain the safety of the child, efforts within communities must e made to educate young families and professionals, creating appropriate safety nets/measures for accountability, in support of parents before they pose a risk to their own children.
As previously noted, the project must retain its' original focus and framework, even while assuming new goals, leadership and incidental changes. Comments, offers to help in any way/lead or get involved, please feel free to email me at
annie.hamilton@gmail.com
I welcome your feedback. With kindest regards,
Annie
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
A few people have wished to remain anonymous but others were helpful. The best advice I received was from Newt Gingrich's office. I sent the preliminary draft to Mr. Gingrich who promptly sent it back and said, "you need to attack this from an economic standpoint for anyone to even consider it a true problem' At first I thought him insensitive but over a period of several days, his words sunk in and it hit me suddenly - Kids don't contribute to the economy. Of course! That's why they're not mentioned in the constitution and they're only recognized as an extention as their parents. But do they really not matter? I suppose that's for society to decide. I know they matter to Gingrich and they matter to me. I rewrote the paper and this has been the result. So, thank you, Newt Gingrich - your hard to hear common sense was helpful!
Several sources of information and documents were supplied from:
Department of Justice
National Institute of Justice
Health and Human Services
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
National Data Archive on Child Abuse
Clearinghouse on Abuse & Children
Division on Neuroscience
Center on Early Emotional Healing
Centers for Disease Control
David Pelzer, Author
Jane Alvarez, Author
Wayne McFarland, Former Chief of Police
National Evaluation Data & Technical Assistance Center
David Gil, 'Violence against Children' Harvard study 1993-1994
Saad Nagi, 'Child Maltreatment in the U.S. - a challenge to the social services industry' A Columbia study
A History of Abuse/The Battered Child, Third edition
Murray Straus' A Sociological perspective on the causes of family violence'
David Wolfe, B Edward, I.Manion, C Koverola, 'Early Interventions for parents at risk of abuse and neglect' journal of consulting psychology 1988
Jay Belsky, 'Etiology of Child Maltreatment: A Development mental-ecological approach' Psychological Bulletin 1993
'Do Abused children become abusive parents?' American journal of orthopsychiatry, 1987 Kaufman/Ziglar
Jeffrey Bennett/Former Mayor of Corona, California (numerous resources, interviews, assistance, writings, etc)