After boyfriend's arrest for child abuse, mom charged with neglect

Malik Jackson, 19, booked into Columbia County Jail on $100K bond

LAKE CITY, Fla. - Several days after a 19-year-old man was arrested on a child abuse charge over injuries to his girlfriend's 6-month-old child, the Lake City Police Department has charged the baby's mother with child neglect.

Last Friday night, the police began investigating a child abuse complaint from the Florida Department of Children and Families. Investigators said Malik Jackson and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Victoria Pope, took her 6-month-old daughter to a pediatrician, who expressed concern about injuries observed on the infant. In the complaint, police said, staff noted that Jackson and his girlfriend refused to follow the doctor's orders for treatment.

Staff at the pediatrician's office, who police said were concerned for the child's well-being, then contacted DCF, which sent  an investigator to the child's home, then notified police.

Police said the DCF investigator took the infant to a hospital, where the child was confirmed to have a recent, trauma-caused break to both bones in her arm. DCF then took protective custody of the infant, and detectives with the Police Department began investigating.

During an interview with the infant's mother, investigators said she told them that she often left her child in Jackson's care. She also said that several times in the past, the infant would return with red marks and bruises, according to police.

When investigators questioned Jackson about the infant's broken arm, he told investigators that it was a "birth defect," police said. During that interview, police said, Jackson also told investigators that the infant had rolled over wrong and twisted her own arm.

Investigators said those descriptions did not match up with the findings from medical staff, who later learned the baby also had fractures in seven of her ribs.

Jackson was arrested on Saturday and charged with aggravated child abuse. He was booked into the Columbia County Jail on Saturday and ordered held on $100,00 bond. 

Detectives said they also learned that Jackson is on probation in Georgia, where he is also under court order to have no contact with his girlfriend and to attend anger management classes.

On Thursday, police learned that the baby had seven fractured ribs and the injuries appeared to be seven to 10 days old. After Pope was re-interviewed and detectives said she admitted to continuing to leave her daughter in Jackson's care after witnessing abuse, she was charged with child abuse and also booked into the county jail.

Police said the infant remains in the care of DCF as the investigation continues. 

“When you have a 6-month-old baby that suffers two broken forearm bones and seven fractured ribs, the child is no longer safe in her own home," Lake City Police Chief Argatha Gilmore said. “I applaud the quick response of the DCF investigator in getting the necessary and immediate care for the infant and for Investigator Johns for unraveling the lies in an attempt to cover up the abuse to this child.”

Montana launches new effort to reduce child abuse, deaths

HELENA — Montana's health department on Friday announced a new effort aimed at reducing deaths due to child abuse and neglect.

Sheila Hogan, director of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, is expanding a home visiting program for expectant mothers and young families with "home visitors" who will work exclusively with families involved in the child protection system.

Of the 14 child deaths reported to the Child and Family Ombudsman between mid-December 2016 and mid-December 2017, 10 involved children under the age of 1, department officials said.

Through the First Years Initiative, "we will take tangible steps by focusing on early intervention and education, with the goal of preventing tragedy before it strikes," Hogan said in a statement.

The Family and Community Health Bureau within the department has contracts for 27 people to provide various types of home visits that help connect young families with prenatal care, teach parenting skills and child development, connect families with community resources and help address mental health issues, domestic violence or substance abuse.

Under the initiative, five people working as home visitors will be added whose caseloads will include families involved with the Division of Child and Family Services.

Health department officials will meet with local health officers and current home visiting teams to develop plans to provide the additional resources to high-risk families, the agency said.

A study commissioned by Congress in 2016 showed that early childhood home visitation services had the most promise in preventing child fatalities and reduces child abuse and neglect, the department said.

The next step of the state initiative proposes asking the newly formed Child Abuse and Neglect Review Commission to partner in a public education campaign. The commission, created by the 2017 Legislature and appointed by Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, and Attorney General Tim Fox in August, is expected to hold its first meeting in the next few weeks.

A third step of the initiative still under discussion will explore further partnerships with community organizations with the goal of preventing child abuse.

Such collaborations are critical due to recent cuts in state funding, said Laura Smith, deputy director of the health department.

In the coming year, Hogan said, the health department also will partner with the Montana Healthcare Foundation to focus on prenatal and postpartum care for women with substance abuse disorders.

The Division of Child and Family Services has seen a caseload increase and record numbers of children in foster care. Most of the increase was attributed to drug use by caregivers, the agency has said.

Hong Kong welfare minister pledges action on child abuse after shocking death of girl, 5

Dr Law Chi-kwong promises to work on enhancing training for social workers and educators to help them spot possible cases

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Dr Law Chi-kwong conceded in his weekly blog on Sunday that the death of five-year-old Chan Siu-lam on January 6 had caused a public outcry and raised questions over whether there were inadequacies in the system.

The girl died after being repeatedly thrown at the ceiling and poked in the chest with scissors at home. Her father, 26, a transport worker, and stepmother, 27, were charged with murder on Monday.

Subsequently, four incidents of abuse were reported to police in three days.

Law promised to look at ways of enhancing training for social workers and educators to help them keep watch for possible cases.

His pledge came after official statistics from the government's Social Welfare Department suggested ill-treatment of children had been on the rise in the last three years.

The latest available full-year figures showed 892 cases were reported to the Child Protection Registry in 2016, compared with 874 in 2015 and 856 in 2014.

Between January and September last year, 704 cases – an average of 78 a month – were flagged to the authority, more than the monthly average of between 71 and 74 in the three preceding years. The registry's figures date back to 2005. The highest number of cases reported was in 2010, with 1,001.

The abuser was a parent in more than half of these cases, but other common perpetrators were friends of the family and other unrelated people.

Law said the Social Welfare Department had long made efforts to ensure children suspected of abuse were protected through its Procedural Guide For Handling Child Abuse Cases, but many government departments, schools and organisations also had to work with “countless” other guidelines which made the job difficult.

“To ensure frontline workers have a grasp of and apply these guidelines in a timely manner, proper training, support and supervision are necessary,” he wrote.

The Labour and Welfare Bureau would examine how to improve the existing system and strengthen the services provided, Law said, while the Education Bureau would explore how to enhance awareness among principals and teachers.

Options open for consideration included the possibility of making it mandatory for schools, social workers and medical staff to report cases of suspected abuse as well as requiring the stationing of at least one social worker in each school, Law added.

Lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, who chairs the Hong Kong legislature's Subcommittee on Children's Rights, said a mandatory reporting system was long overdue.

“It would make it clear as to who, how and when these abuse cases should be reported to authorities,” he said on RTHK television show City Forum.

Hong Kong Kindergarten Association president Mary Tong Siu-fun said most staff did not have the requisite professional training to deal with such cases and rarely knew the right points of contact in the event of suspected abuse.

Social Workers' General Union president Yip Kin-chung called for longer contracts for social workers stationed at schools to enable them to follow up on cases closely. Under the current mechanism, schools are required to issue new tenders every year.

The government figures, which detail reports of physical, sexual and psychological abuse against children, also showed that abuse continued to be most rampant in districts with higher poverty rates and new immigrant populations.

As in previous years, Yuen Long had the highest number of reported cases among the city's 18 districts last year, with 77 – or 10.9 per cent of the cases citywide. It was followed by Kwun Tong with 69 cases, Tuen Mun with 65, Kwai Tsing with 53 and North district with 52.

Billy Wong Wai-yuk, executive secretary of the Hong Kong Committee on Children's Rights, said these parents might have a lower educational background, which could lead to them not knowing where to get support such as childcare services, which could in turn lead to neglect or them taking out their frustrations on their children.

Walla Walla taking new approach in child abuse cases

Walla Walla, WA -- Seated on a child-sized chair, Brooke Martin looks right at home.

That's intentional, she said.

Martin is a social worker with the Walla Walla office of Child Protective Services. While her office is under the umbrella of Washington state's Division of Children and Family Services, she works in the Walla Walla Police Department's headquarters right next to a child-friendly forensic interview room.

That's the spot where most troubled kids 13 and younger in Walla Walla County end up talking about things that are hard to talk about. Even Martin's cabinet of puzzles, books and games can be of little solace for children who talk to her about instances of abuse, violence and neglect at home.

Having this specially designed space — complete with bright colors, artsy walls, one-way glass and cameras — is one of the building blocks needed to create a unified approach to child abuse in the Walla Walla Valley, said Deborah Peters.

Peters is coordinator for a newly collaborative effort in the Walla Walla area that aims to help abused, neglected and exploited children and their families get faster, more focused services. It's not that services haven't been in place, but they haven't always been applied in a best-practice method or in ways that helped kids the most, Peters said last week.

Called the Children's Advocacy Team, representatives from 13 local social service and government agencies have been meeting since late September to begin putting together components of a more effective and child-centered system to investigating cases of abuse and more.

AVOIDING RETRAUMA

Right now, things work in a fragmented way, Peters explained.

"We're not set up to talk to each other," she said of the various Walla Walla providers charged with keeping kids safe.

For example, "Emily," 5, goes to school and tells her teacher she is being hurt at home. That means talking to not only her teacher, but probably the principal and the school nurse.

The school calls a child-abuse hotline and local law enforcement. Emily talks to the police officer, who may take her to the hospital.

There Emily is examined by a doctor, who talks to the little girl. A nurse and social worker also ask Emily questions, along with a detective who gets assigned the case.

Before the case really gets started, Emily will talk to a child protection investigator, counselor and a lawyer assigned to represent her.

Each retelling of the worst time of her young life carries the potential of re-traumatizing Emily. And while some kids are able to clearly explain the incident or recount a history of abuse, some are not, Martin said.

1 IN 4 KIDS

Although not every allegation of abuse is found to be true, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says as many as 25 percent of American children will experience some form of significant mistreatment. In that group, about 80 percent will suffer serious neglect, 18 percent will be physically abused and 9 percent sexually abused.

Nearly 90 percent of these children are related to their abusers and 79 percent of abuse-related child fatalities involve infants or toddlers, according to the CDC.

In the Walla Walla area in 2016, officials opened 428 child-abuse cases — usually involving more than one child — 233 of which were investigated for abuse or neglect. Out of 134 completed investigations, 37 were found to be true.

In some cases, however, even without a concrete finding of abuse, children who request removal are taken out of homes considered unsafe, Peters said, quoting numbers from Child Protective Services.

A NEW MODEL

The Child Advocacy Team, which operates under the umbrella of Children's Home Society of Washington, is intended to make a much smoother path for all the Emilys.

With a new model of intervention, Emily discloses abuse to her teacher. The case gets referred to Peters' team of two dozen specialists, which includes pediatric behavioral health workers, counselors, law enforcement officials, doctors and nurses, child protection staff and public health employees.

But Emily and her (non-abusive) family member will only have to talk to three people; a family advocate, a doctor and a trained interviewer who will take notes while a detective, child-protection worker and attorney observe and listen behind two-way glass. Like the one in Martin's interview room at the police department.

Emily then gets a referral to a counselor to help her heal, Peters said.

When a child suffers neglect or abuse, responders have a responsibility to respond quickly and appropriately, according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice. And that's what the Walla Walla team is aiming for, she said, adding that having a communitywide, standard protocol will not only improve outcomes for victims, but put Walla Walla in a good spot to consider development of a one-stop children's advocacy center.

Peters said such a center is a dedicated facility staffed with specialists who can offer children and their non-offending family members wrap-around services — such as preparation for court and therapy — in a comfortable and safe-feeling atmosphere.

FAMILY NAVIGATORS KEY

Perhaps the most important piece of a child advocacy center will be the family navigator, she said. Those employees attach to a case right from the start, making sure a child and his or her safe family members get steered into services.

Basically, that advocate is the "T'' crosser and the "I'' dotter, Peters said, sticking to a family "like glue."

Studies show most kids can get back to being kids faster with a team approach to allegations of abuse. With agreed-upon and collective action, every agency will have the map for what step to take and when, she noted.

"So, for instance, after we've finalized our protocol, we could have conversations with the school district and say, 'OK, if a child discloses to a teacher, we don't want to have that teacher question the child. Instead, help that child feel safe.'"

People have the best of intention is these cases but not everyone is trained in gathering forensic evidence. And when a child-abuse victim relives his or her experience through retelling, it's inviting new trauma each time, Peters said.

And if children clam up, there can go the only real evidence in a case, Martin pointed out.

The National Children's Alliance recommends kids have a safe place, such as an advocacy center to talk to trained professionals and get on the road to help and health as fast as possible.

Like Peters and others, Martin wants the same thing. That's why she explains just where the cameras in her special interview room are, and who might be hanging out behind the funny glass window. It's why she sits in a chair designed for children, under the birch tree decals with bluebirds that appear to grow on the walls.

That room, created when the police station was built in 2012, is proof of Walla Walla's investment in kids' safety, Peters and Martin said.

"The great thing about this team work is it is really happening at a community level," Peter said. "That's the part I find really powerful about it."

Child-abuse reformers ask for sit-down with state Senate GOP boss

ALBANY — A coalition of child abuse survivors and advocates is pushing for a meeting with the head of the state Senate to discuss passing a bill designed to make it easier for victims to bring cases as adults.

The coalition, New Yorkers Against Hidden Predators, requested the meeting after Senate GOP Leader John Flanagan recently told the Daily News that he would be “more than willing to sit down to have real adult conversations that inure to the benefit of everyone.”

The Senate GOP has blocked the Child Victims Act from coming to the floor for a vote. The Assembly earlier this year passed the bill for the first time since 2008.

In the letter to Flanagan (R-Suffolk County), New Yorkers Against Hidden Predators said “we have been, and continue to be, ready to meet with you to convince you of the merits of the legislation and encourage you to stop blocking the bill.”

“Senator, as the #metoo movement sweeps the nation, calling out those who failed to protect the vulnerable, you do not want to be on the wrong side of history,” the coalition's founders, Marci Hamilton, Stephen Jimenez and Kathryn Robb wrote.

The three said they have “made an untold number of requests to you and your office over the years to hold such conversations, but have never been accommodated.”

They told Flanagan in the letter that they would meet as early as next week in his Long Island or Albany offices.

The newly created New Yorkers Against Hidden Predators recently held events in the districts of several Senate Republicans calling on them to pass the Child Victims Act.

“Every day more and more victims of undisclosed sexual abuse are coming forward,” Hamilton, Jimenez and Robb said in the letter. “It is time to reform New York's antiquated child sexual abuse laws and bring justice to the hidden sexual predators that lurk in our communities.”

The bill passed by the Assembly, and supported by Gov. Cuomo, would allow survivors to bring civil cases up until their 50th birthdays and felony criminal cases until their 28th birthdays. Currently, they have until their 23rd birthdays to bring such cases.

The bills also include a one-year window to revive old cases and treats public and private institutions the same. Currently, those abused in a public setting like a school have just 90 days from the incident occurring to formally file an intent to sue.

Religious groups like the Catholic Church and Orthodox Jewish community oppose the provision that would open a window to revive old cases.

A Flanagan spokesman had no immediate comment on the meeting request, though he said top aides to the Senate leader have met with victims in the past.

In a recent interview with the Daily News, Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) wouldn't talk specifics, but said “we're more than willing to sit down to have real adult discussions that inure to the benefit of everyone.”

He added that “the specter of a good compromise is everyone walks away a little bit unhappy. Will we have discussions about it? Absolutely. Have we had them? Yes. Will they continue in earnest? I completely believe that 100%.”

Spokane school officials charged with failure to report child abuse in case involving used condom

The retired Spokane superintendent and the Spokane High School principal — who is on leave — were in a Christian County courtroom Tuesday. 

Both the men, Daryl Bernskoetter and Chris Kohl, were indicted in late 2017 on two counts of failure of a mandated reporter to report child abuse stemming from an alleged incident nearly a year ago.

If convicted, each man faces up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000 on each misdemeanor charge.

The indictments state that Bernskoetter and Kohl had "reasonable cause to suspect" that a male student — who was not named in court records — "had been subject to abuse by two adult high school students at Spokane High School" and failed to report the incident to the Missouri Department of Social Services' Children's Division.

Bernskoetter, who retired as superintendent of the 700-student district at the end of the 2016-17 school year, and Kohl have pleaded not guilty to all counts. As school employees, they were mandated reporters and required, by law, to notify authorities of any allegations or reasonable suspicion of child abuse.

No action was taken in court Tuesday. Judge Jennifer Growcock ordered the two men to attend a hearing at 10 a.m. March 22.

The Spokane school district, Bernskoetter, Kohl and Zach Leonard — a former coach and teacher — were also named last year in a civil lawsuit stemming from the same alleged incident.

The civil case is still making its way through the court system. Also assigned to Judge Growcock, a hearing has not yet been set.

The suit, filed by the parent of a former Spokane High student, accused school officials of failing to protect his son after three baseball players allegedly pinned the teen in a dugout, touched him in a "sexually overt manner" and shoved a dirty condom in his mouth.

In the Aug. 25 suit, the parent alleged the three school officials failed to protect his son from months of harassment and intimidation that followed; failed to comply with board policy prohibiting bullying; and did not report the sexual assault of another student to the proper authorities.

Bernskoetter and Leonard left the district before the suit was filed. Kohl, who is still listed as the high school principal, was placed on paid administrative leave.

Terry Jamieson, who has been superintendent since July 1, was also in court Tuesday to watch the proceedings. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The civil suit alleges at least five students were present during a February 2017 incident in the baseball dugout — three who pinned down the teen, a fourth who watched and told the victim to be quiet and a fifth, a freshman, who was listed a witness.

The suit alleges that the freshman witness was "sexually assaulted, months later, by some of the same perpetrators." The assault allegedly was reported to Kohl, a former Springfield school employee who was in his first year as principal of Spokane High.

According to the suit, Kohl, a mandated reporter, failed to hotline the allegation. The district instead opted to handle the matter "in house" — giving the students allegedly involved a five-day suspension, reduced to three days. None of the students allegedly involved in the assault were required to miss baseball games.

According to the suit, rumors circulated around the school regarding the sexual assault and "finally, a group of teachers made the hotline call a week later."

After the call, the state Children's Division started an investigation and the freshman who was the alleged victim revealed that he had witnessed the earlier incident in the dugout, the suit says.

According to the lawsuit, the Christian County Sheriff's Office demanded the district turn over all of its records concerning the two assaults but school officials initially refused, complying only after detectives threatened to get a warrant.

The suit also alleges that district officials warned students that the sheriff's office was investigating. That warning, according to the suit, led to "pervasive name calling" of the two victims.

The suit alleges that Leonard, the coach, did nothing to discourage or address the behavior and, during a field meeting, reportedly told the team to stay mum because "whatever happens on the baseball field should stay on the baseball field."

In the spring, the parent who filed the lawsuit transferred his children to another school district. In the suit, he says his son has required therapy and other treatment and is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

After Zainab's murder, what will it take to protect the other children of Pakistan?

by Rafia Zakaria

(CNN) -- One week after the body of 7-year old Zainab Amin was found on a garbage heap near her home, protests continued in many parts of Pakistan. On television talk shows, politicians and analysts demanded the resignation of top officials; demonstrating students in universities mourned the dead child; and the hashtag #JusticeforZainab was all over social media sites.

Should Child Sex Offenders Go Unpunished?

Murfreesboro Police are investigating an alleged rape of a female by her step father. Will Tennessee's statutes of limitations let this sexual offender roam freely?

This week an adult female with children stepped forward and told Murfreesboro Police, "I tried several times when it was happening to tell family members, but no one listened." (MPD case # 18-680, 1/11/2018)

Now authorities are listening, but sadly the victim may find that Tennessee's statutes of limitations dealing with child rape cases may protect the culprits from prosecution.

Psychological counselors note that adult survivors of child abuse often hide this dark secret for decades. Some victims harbor this painful secret to their grave.

Shockingly, Murfreesboro police have video taped interrogations with suspects who actually confess that they are guilty. It's as if they want to release the shame that's been haunting them over the years. And even with taped confessions, Tennessee's statutes protect the child abuser and allow them to go unpunished.

The National Conference of State Legislatures gives more information about civil statutes of limitations dealing with child sexual abuse cases . Tennessee Code 28-3-104 and 28-1-106 both require the victim to file a suit within one-year of having reached their eighteenth birthday. Most counselors agree, that just won't happen!

The 110th Tennessee General Assembly convened on January 9, 2018. Is this an issue that you would like to see studied by our lawmakers? Let NewsRadio WGNS know your feelings. E-mail your anonymous comments to news@WGNSradio.com.

Pennsylvania

Police Chief charged with trying to solicit sex from a 14-year-old who was actually an undercover cop

by Salvador Hernandez

A Pennsylvania police chief hailed as a local hero after losing his arm in a June fireworks accident was arrested Friday on suspicion of trying to solicit sex from a14-year-old girl online.

At the time of his arrest, Leechburg Police Chief Michael Diebold believed he was meeting 14-year-old girl for sex, after arranging the encounter on an online dating app, according to state prosecutors. The teenage girl Diebold thought he was chatting was actually another cop, officials said, working undercover with the state attorney general's child predator unit.

"This case is particularly heinous because the perpetrator is a public official, sworn to serve and protect the community" Pennsylvania's Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement .

Diebold caught the attention of the undercover agent after identifying himself as a police officer in an online ad soliciting sex, according to the criminal complaint. "I am a dom male that is also employed as a full time police officer," the ad's title allegedly stated. "I hope that does not scare you off."

Diebold, who is married, wrote in the ad he was, "looking for a female sub for ongoing play sessions," and signed the ad with his KIK messenger app handle, "kutecop4yous," according to the complaint.

Authorities on Friday said that in multiple message between Diebold and the undercover officer pretending to be a 14-year-old, the police chief was told he was speaking with an underage girl, but that he still continued to arrange a meeting for sex. He was taken into custody at a gas station in Westmoreland County, where he allegedly planned to meet the fictitious teenager.

"Diebold sent inappropriate pictures to the undercover agent and solicited the agent for unlawful sexual contact," the attorney general's office said in its statement. "He then made plans to meet the undercover agent."

"proof that you are serious would be a bra and panty pic right now," Diebold allegedly texted on one occasion, according to an affidavit.

"I am cold and naked now wanna see," he wrote another time.

According to the complaint, Diebold "admitted that he knew that sexual contact with a 14-year-old child was wrong and illegal and that his life was totally over."

Diebold had become a local celebrity last year after he lost part of his left arm in a near-fatal fireworks explosion. Diebold married his fiancee 18 days after the explosion in a ceremony that was covered by local media. News outlets, as well as the Associated Press, continued to chronicle Diebold's recovery, as he was fitted with a prosthetic arm that he hoped would allow him to get back to work.

Diebold had planned to return to the job last month, but was placed on paid leave on Dec. 11, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported . As of Saturday evening, he was still listed as the police chief on the Leechburg Police Department's website.

Diebod was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, according to Westmoreland County Prison records, and could not be reached for comment Saturday. Information about his attorney was not immediately available.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/salvadorhernandez/police-chief-charged-with-trying-to-solicit-sex-from-a-14?utm_term=.dmmjx0qEJw#.vco8QAyorP

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China

Chinese schools roll out sex education programmes after child abuse scandal rocked the nation

by Stewart Paterson

Children in China are being taught how to prevent sexual assault following a sex abuse scandal that rocked the country.

Parents are also purchasing more sexual health textbooks and signing up for online courses to better educate their children about sex.

Schools are also acting to educate youngsters, in a country where sex is traditionally a taboo subject.

The action follows a number of scandals that surfaced last month.

They included allegations against a Beijing's Red Yellow Blue Kindergarten, where staff were teachers were accused of drugging and sexually assaulting children.

One parent claimed her child told her of a naked man or men - referred to as 'uncle doctor' and 'grandpa doctor' - who would performing a 'health check' on a naked child.

Han Xuemei oversees an organisation operating in dozens of Beijing-area schools that administer sex education to more than 9,000 pupils.

'After Red Yellow Blue, people started paying much greater attention to us. Several kindergartens asked us to help train their teachers,' she told the Los Angeles Times .

Sex education in the country varies widely from school to school — with some offering none whatsoever.

Now, parents are taking matters into their own hands so youngsters can spot the warning signs of sexual abuse.

A book titled 'Learning to Protect Yourself: Teaching Children How to Avoid Sexual Abuse' soared to the top-10 bestseller list on a Chinese children's books website.

'After the Red Yellow Blue incident, I rushed to buy my child a book on sex education,' said Weng Limin, 45, a mother in Shanghai.

'As they say: "You may worry your child is too young for sex education, but a criminal won't have the same compunction."'

Chinese state media have also bolstered the movement after the China Daily published an article titled 'Sex Education Needed in All Schools, Experts Say'.

It was later followed up by a story in the state-owned Global Times, titled: 'Sex Education Gains Recognition Among Chinese Parents'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5243813/Chinese-schools-roll-sex-education-scandal.html

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Opinion

Yelling at your children may hurt more than you realize

by Bill Schubmehl

Have you ever been in line at a supermarket and overheard a parent yelling at their child and found yourself tensing up?

Have you ever had what you thought was a great weekend with your family and then was told later by your spouse that what they mostly recall about it was you yelling at them and/or your children again?

No one likes to be subjected to yelling but, depending on your childhood experiences, you (or your spouse) may have a stronger visceral reaction than other people.

Children who have been raised with harsh verbal discipline are at increased risk to develop anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems, according to the results of research cited by Mandy Velez in the Sept 6, 2013 Parents (“Yelling at Kids Could be Just as Harmful as Physical Discipline, Study Suggests”).

Furthermore, the study revealed that "the negative effects of verbal discipline within the two-year period of the study were comparable to the effects shown over the same period of time in other studies that focused on physical discipline".

Although most parents have lost their temper occasionally, it's the cumulative effect of a child being exposed to frequent verbal outbursts (even if the child is not the target) that can result in the harmful effects.

For some children, the cumulative effect of growing up in a family with frequent harsh verbal discipline can basically rewire the brain and lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. P.T.S.D. can adversely affect all aspects of one's life, including self-esteem, mood, relationships, substance abuse, health, and vocational pursuits.

An article in the August, 2017 publication Today's Parent (“Is Yelling at Your Kids as Bad as Spanking?”) reports that “Yelling causes a physiological reaction...the brain releases cortisol (the stress hormone) and too much of it causes us to go into fight, flight or freeze mode...”

A study in the July 2001 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry found that emotional abuse was a more significant predictor of mental illness than sexual and physical abuse.

Getting angry is normal but if you frequently have trouble controlling how you deal with your anger, this could be an indication of a deep-seated problem.

Examples include: expressing a level of anger out of proportion to the issue; experiencing stress-related symptoms like high blood pressure, stomach distress, or tension headaches; feeling guilty or sad after an outburst yet seeing the pattern repeat often; engaging in frequent conflicts with other people ( marital problems related to how you deal with anger or incidents of road rage).

If this resonates with how you handle anger (or have been told as much by your partner), a consultation with a mental health professional would be beneficial to help you understand this pattern and to work on more effective ways of handling your anger.

Regarding how to deal with episodes of anger towards your children, here are some suggestions: practice 'Stop-Breathe-Think' before you respond; talk with your children about your emotions and theirs so they become more aware that it's OK to be angry as long as it's handled in a healthy manner; address their behavior calmly, but firmly; use consequences to set limits without yelling; if the problem persists, discuss your child's behavior issues with their pediatrician.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/guest-column/2018/01/05/guest-essay-yelling-your-children-may-hurt-more-than-you-realize/1007389001/

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Washington

A new response to child abuse

by Sheila Hagar

Seated on a child-sized chair, Brooke Martin looks right at home.

That's intentional, she said.

Martin is a social worker with the Walla Walla office of Child Protective Services. While her office is under the umbrella of Washington state's Division of Children and Family Services, she works in the Walla Walla Police Department's headquarters right next to a child-friendly forensic interview room.

That's the spot where most troubled kids 13 and younger in Walla Walla County end up talking about things that are hard to talk about. Even Martin's cabinet of puzzles, books and games can be of little solace for children who talk to her about instances of abuse, violence and neglect at home.

Having this specially designed space — complete with bright colors, artsy walls, one-way glass and cameras — is one of the building blocks needed to create a unified approach to child abuse in the Walla Walla Valley, said Deborah Peters.

Peters is coordinator for a newly collaborative effort in the Walla Walla area that aims to help abused, neglected and exploited children and their families get faster, more focused services. It's not that services haven't been in place, but they haven't always been applied in a best-practice method or in ways that helped kids the most, Peters said last week.

Called the Children's Advocacy Team, representatives from 13 local social service and government agencies have been meeting since late September to begin putting together components of a more effective and child-centered system to investigating cases of abuse and more.

Avoiding retrauma

Right now, things work in a fragmented way, Peters explained.

“We're not set up to talk to each other,” she said of the various Walla Walla providers charged with keeping kids safe.

For example, “Emily,” 5, goes to school and tells her teacher she is being hurt at home. That means talking to not only her teacher, but probably the principal and the school nurse.

The school calls a child-abuse hotline and local law enforcement. Emily talks to the police officer, who may take her to the hospital.

There Emily is examined by a doctor, who talks to the little girl. A nurse and social worker also ask Emily questions, along with a detective who gets assigned the case.

Before the case really gets started, Emily will talk to a child protection investigator, counselor and a lawyer assigned to represent her.

Each retelling of the worst time of her young life carries the potential of retraumatizing Emily. And while some kids are able to clearly explain the incident or recount a history of abuse, some are not, Martin said.

1 in 4 kids

Although not every allegation of abuse is found to be true, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says as many as 25 percent of American children will experience some form of significant mistreatment. In that group, about 80 percent will suffer serious neglect, 18 percent will be physically abused and 9 percent sexually abused.

Nearly 90 percent of these children are related to their abusers and 79 percent of abuse-related child fatalities involve infants or toddlers, according to the CDC.

In the Walla Walla area in 2016, officials opened 428 child-abuse cases — usually involving more than one child — 233 of which were investigated for abuse or neglect. Out of 134 completed investigations, 37 were found to be true.

In some cases, however, even without a concrete finding of abuse, children who request removal are taken out of homes considered unsafe, Peters said, quoting numbers from Child Protective Services.

A new model

The Child Advocacy Team, which operates under the umbrella of Children's Home Society of Washington, is intended to make a much smoother path for all the Emilys.

With a new model of intervention, Emily discloses abuse to her teacher. The case gets referred to Peters' team of two dozen specialists, which includes pediatric behavioral health workers, counselors, law enforcement officials, doctors and nurses, child protection staff and public health employees.

But Emily and her (non-abusive) family member will only have to talk to three people; a family advocate, a doctor and a trained interviewer who will take notes while a detective, child-protection worker and attorney observe and listen behind two-way glass. Like the one in Martin's interview room at the police department.

Emily then gets a referral to a counselor to help her heal, Peters said.

When a child suffers neglect or abuse, responders have a responsibility to respond quickly and appropriately, according to the U.S. Dept. of Justice. And that's what the Walla Walla team is aiming for, she said, adding that having a communitywide, standard protocol will not only improve outcomes for victims, but put Walla Walla in a good spot to consider development of a one-stop children's advocacy center.

Peters said such a center is a dedicated facility staffed with specialists who can offer children and their non-offending family members wrap-around services — such as preparation for court and therapy — in a comfortable and safe-feeling atmosphere.

Family navigators key

Perhaps the most important piece of a child advocacy center will be the family navigator, she said. Those employees attach to a case right from the start, making sure a child and his or her safe family members get steered into services.

Basically, that advocate is the “T” crosser and the “I” dotter, Peters said, sticking to a family “like glue.”

Studies show most kids can get back to being kids faster with a team approach to allegations of abuse. With agreed-upon and collective action, every agency will have the map for what step to take and when, she noted.

“So, for instance, after we've finalized our protocol, we could have conversations with the school district and say, ‘OK, if a child discloses to a teacher, we don't want to have that teacher question the child. Instead, help that child feel safe.'”

People have the best of intention is these cases but not everyone is trained in gathering forensic evidence. And when a child-abuse victim relives his or her experience through retelling, it's inviting new trauma each time, Peters said.

And if children clam up, there can go the only real evidence in a case, Martin pointed out.

The National Children's Alliance recommends kids have a safe place, such as an advocacy center to talk to trained professionals and get on the road to help and health as fast as possible.

Like Peters and others, Martin wants the same thing. That's why she explains just where the cameras in her special interview room are, and who might be hanging out behind the funny glass window. It's why she sits in a chair designed for children, under the birch tree decals with bluebirds that appear to grow on the walls.

That room, created when the police station was built in 2012, is proof of Walla Walla's investment in kids' safety, Peters and Martin said.

“The great thing about this team work is it is really happening at a community level,” Peter said. “That's the part I find really powerful about it.”

http://www.union-bulletin.com/news/health_fitness/a-new-response-to-child-abuse/article_e98f090e-f34c-11e7-a9a2-636a1ff9259d.html

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Pennsylvania

The Sexual Assault Epidemic No One Talks About

by Joseph Shapiro

Pauline wants to tell her story — about that night in the basement, about the boys and about the abuse she wanted to stop.

But she's nervous. "Take a deep breath," she says out loud to herself. She takes a deep and audible breath. And then she tells the story of what happened on the night that turned her life upside down.

"The two boys took advantage of me," she begins. "I didn't like it at all."

Pauline is a woman with an intellectual disability. At a time when more women are speaking up about sexual assault — and naming the men who assault or harass them — Pauline, too, wants her story told.

Her story, NPR found in a yearlong investigation, is a common one for people with intellectual disabilities.

NPR obtained unpublished Justice Department data on sex crimes. The results show that people with intellectual disabilities — women and men — are the victims of sexual assaults at rates more than seven times those for people without disabilities.

It's one of the highest rates of sexual assault of any group in America, and it's hardly talked about at all.

Pauline was part of that silent population. But she says she decided to speak publicly about what happened to her because she wants to "help other women."

NPR's investigation found that people with intellectual disabilities are at heightened risk during all parts of their day. They are more likely than others to be assaulted by someone they know. The assaults, often repeat assaults, happen in places where they are supposed to be protected and safe, often by a person they have been taught to trust and rely upon.

Pauline is 46, with a quick smile and an easy laugh. (NPR uses rape survivors' first name, unless they prefer their full name be used.) She has red hair and stylish, coppery-orange glasses.

In February 2016, Pauline was living with her longtime caretaker and that woman's extended family.

On the night of Feb. 20, she was in the basement of the family's second home, in Pennsylvania. According to the police criminal complaint, Pauline was raped by two boys who were part of the family.

She told them repeatedly to stop. They warned her not to tell.

But she did.

Raise your hand

At a conference in a large ballroom, Leigh Ann Davis asked the audience in front of her a question: How many of them had dealt with sexual assault or sexual harassment in their lives? Davis was referencing the #MeToo campaign on social media. Almost every woman — about 30 of them — raised her hand.

Davis runs criminal justice programs for The Arc, a national advocacy group for the 4.7 million people with intellectual disabilities, their families and the professionals who work with them. This was at the group's convention in November in San Diego. The room was filled with professionals and parents as well as people with intellectual disabilities themselves.

Then Davis posed a second question: How many in the audience knew someone with an intellectual disability who had been the victim of sexual harassment or assault? Only two hands went up.

"What does that say about where we are as a society?" Davis asked. "Where people with intellectual disabilities are more likely to be victimized, but we don't see more hands being raised."

Davis focuses on the issue of sexual violence. She is familiar with the high number of rape reports among people with intellectual disabilities.

"It means people with disabilities still don't feel safe enough to talk abut what's going on in their lives," she said. "Or we haven't given them the foundation to do that. ... That there are not enough places to go where they'll feel they'll be believed."

Unrecognized, unprosecuted and unpunished

Intellectual disability is now the preferred term for what was once called "mental retardation." The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, which represents professionals and helps determine the official definition, describes an intellectual disability as "characterized by significant limitation in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behaviors." Those adaptive skills include social skills — such as the ability to deal with other people, to follow rules and avoid being victimized — and practical skills, things like being able to work and take care of one's health and safety.

"Developmental disability" is another commonly used term . And while this mostly refers to people with intellectual disabilities, it describes a larger group of people, including some without intellectual disabilities. People with cerebral palsy and autism, for example, are counted as having a developmental disability.

NPR reviewed hundreds of cases of sexual assault against people with intellectual disabilities. We looked at state and federal data, including those new numbers we obtained from the Justice Department. We read court records. We followed media accounts and put together a database of 150 assaults so serious that they garnered rare local and national media attention. We talked to victims, their guardians, family, staff and friends.

We found that there is an epidemic of sexual abuse against people with intellectual disabilities. These crimes go mostly unrecognized, unprosecuted and unpunished. A frequent result was that the abuser was free to abuse again. The survivor is often re-victimized multiple times.

"It's not surprising, because they do have that high level of victimization," says Erika Harrell, a statistician at the Bureau of Justice Statistics. "That high vulnerability is just reflected in our numbers."

Harrell writes the Justice Department's annual report about crime against all people with disabilities. But the report doesn't break out sex crimes against people with intellectual disabilities. When NPR requested those data, she came up with the stunning numbers that show people with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted at much higher numbers — "more than seven times higher than the rate for persons with no disabilities."

"If this were any other population, the world would be up in arms," says Nancy Thaler, a deputy secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services who runs the state's developmental disability programs . "We would be irate and it would be the No. 1 health crisis in this country."

For people in the field, like her, the high rates of assault have been an open secret.

"Folks with intellectual disabilities are the perfect victim," says Thaler, who has been a leader in the field for more than 40 years — in top state, federal and national association jobs. She is also a parent of an adult son with an intellectual disability.

"They are people who often cannot speak or their speech is not well-developed. They are generally taught from childhood up to be compliant, to obey, to go along with people. Because of the intellectual disability, people tend not to believe them, to think that they are not credible or that what they saying, they are making up or imagining," she explains. "And so for all these reasons, a perpetrator sees an opportunity, a safe opportunity to victimize people."

Harrell could think of only one other group that might have a higher risk of assault: women between the ages of 18 and 24 — but only those who are not in college. Those young women tend to be poorer and more marginalized. Compared with women with intellectual disabilities, they have an almost identical rate of assault, just slightly higher.

But the rate for people with intellectual disabilities — the Justice Department numbers count people ages 12 and older — is almost certainly an underestimate, the government statistician said. Because those numbers from household surveys don't include people living in institutions — where, Harrell said, research shows people are even more vulnerable to assault. Also not counted are the 373,000 people living in group homes.

The 1998 law that requires the Justice Department to keep statistics on disabled victims of crime — the Crime Victims with Disabilities Awareness Act — actually only mentions people with developmental disabilities. It calls for a report to spur research to "understand the nature and extent of crimes against individuals with developmental disabilities." But the DOJ expanded its collection to look at people with all disabilities and made a more useful annual report.

Vulnerable everywhere

Most rape victims — in general — are assaulted by someone they know, not by a stranger. But NPR's numbers from the Justice Department found that people with intellectual disabilities are even more likely to be raped by someone they know. For women without disabilities, the rapist is a stranger 24 percent of the time, but for a woman with an intellectual disability it is less than 14 percent of the time.

And the risk comes at any time of day. Half the sexual assaults take place during the day. For the rest of the population, about 40 percent of sexual assaults occur during daytime. The federal numbers, and the results of our own database, show that people with intellectual disabilities are vulnerable everywhere, including in places where they should feel safest: where they live, work, go to school; on van rides to medical appointments and in public places. Most of the time, the perpetrators are people they have learned to count on the most — sometimes their own family, caregivers or staffers, and friends.

Often it's another person with a disability — at a group home, or a day program, or work — who commits the assault. Pennsylvania, at NPR's request, compiled data from more than 500 cases of suspected abuse in 2016. Of those, 42 percent of the suspected offenders were themselves people with intellectual disabilities. Staff made up 14 percent of the suspects; relatives were 12 percent; and friends, 11 percent.

One reason for the high rates of victimization is that so many adults come in and out of the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, according to Beverly Frantz of Temple University's Institute on Disabilities . Frantz estimates that a typical person with an intellectual disability who lives in a group home or a state institution deals with hundreds of different caregivers every year.

"If you think two to three different shifts, five days a week, 365 days a year, it adds up pretty quickly," she says.

The high number includes the consideration of weekend shifts, too; high staff turnover, staffers on vacations or on sick leave, plus assistance from family members.

The vast majority are professional, dedicated and caring. But for someone who wants to be abusive, the opportunity is there. Caregivers have a role that gives them power. They may assist with the most intimate care — dressing, bathing, toileting — for some with significant physical disabilities. A person with intellectual disability is often very dependent upon those caregivers.

"We treat them as children," Frantz says. "We teach them to be compliant."

For many people with intellectual disabilities, caregivers — including professional staff — become their friends, often their best friends, among the people who know them best and care about them the most. But that, too, is a line that can be easily crossed.

"We use the word 'friend' a lot, and the boundaries are sometimes nonexistent," Frantz explains.

"It was a predator's dream"

Stephen DeProspero is serving 40 years in prison for filming himself sexually assaulting a severely disabled 10-year-old boy he cared for at a state institution in New Hartford, N.Y.

"There was nothing in the back of my mind that caused me to seek out a job with vulnerable people so I could take advantage of them," he wrote in response to a query from NPR. "I wholly prided myself on doing a selfless job for people who are disabled and can tell you many nice stories about all the lives I touched in a positive way."

When the boy's family sued the state, DeProspero said in a handwritten affidavit that it was easy in the house to abuse the boy unseen. "I could have stayed in that house for years and abused him every day without anybody even noticing at all," he wrote. "It was a predator's dream."

DeProspero now regrets those words, he told NPR in his letter, because he says he wasn't a serial predator. He blames his crime on an addiction to pornography, including child pornography.

NPR wrote to several men in prison or awaiting trial for sexually abusing an adult or child with an intellectual disability. Most of the men did not write back. Some claimed that the sex was consensual.

In his letter from the Attica Correctional Facility, DeProspero says he has spent years trying to understand why he raped a disabled child. He speaks of having a difficult childhood. As an adult, he had few friends, he says.

He took a job at a group home for children with severe disabilities in 2004. There he met and cared for the young boy who could not communicate with words.

"I took a liking to him," DeProspero wrote. "I spent the most time with him and taught him how to brush his teeth, tie his sneakers and even ride a bike. I would often take him for [shoulder] rides, at his request, and carry him around the residence."

One day, DeProspero wrote, the boy was upset and alone in his room. "My memory of child porn videos sprang back into my mind," he says, and he forced the boy to perform a sex act.

For weeks afterward, DeProspero says, he was "beside myself with guilt and grief."

He says he looked for another job. He got one, at a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities. But first he went back to sexually assault the boy one more time, and this time filmed it as "a momento [sic] to remember him."

That act, too, went unnoticed. Five years later it was discovered, by accident.

Police investigating Internet child porn seized DeProspero's computer and cameras — and found images of children. He was given a six-month sentence.

Afterward, his lawyer asked police to return DeProspero's computer and cameras. They agreed but first did one last check of the equipment. That's when they discovered more pictures, including the film clip of DeProspero, from years before, assaulting the 10-year-old boy.

"I let this child down in the worst way imaginable," DeProspero said the day he was sentenced.

The state of New York paid the boy's family $3 million in damages.

"People who perpetrate these crimes are always looking for justification for what they do. It's never their fault. It's always someone else's fault. ... They're very manipulative people," says Dawn Lupi, the Oneida County prosecutor in the case.

One of the most memorable moments in the case, Lupi said, was when she met with the other staffers in the large group home where the boy was raped by DeProspero. "They were very caring," she says. "They were devastated that they didn't stop it."

Barriers to prosecution

It's rare for these cases to go to court. Some people with intellectual disabilities do have trouble speaking or describing things in detail, or in proper time sequence. Our investigation found that makes it harder for police to investigate and for prosecutors to win these cases in court.

Even when these cases do go to court, there are barriers. In 2012, a jury in Georgia found a man guilty of raping a 24-year-old woman with Down syndrome three times over one night and the following morning. A judge, two years later, overturned the decision, saying the woman did not "behave like a victim." Appeals Court Judge Christopher McFadden questioned why the woman waited a day to report the rape and said that she did not exhibit "visible distress." The jury had heard evidence that the man's semen was found in the victim's bed and that a doctor who examined the woman found evidence consistent with a sexual assault.

The man was retried in 2015, and a new jury convicted him. The woman's mother said afterward it had been traumatic for her daughter to go back to court and tell her story again.

In another case, a psychologist hired by the Los Angeles Unified School District said in court in 2013 that a young girl with an intellectual disability probably was less traumatized, because of her disability. The trial was for damages for a 9-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted five times by an older boy at her school. Stan Katz, the psychologist, testified it was "very possible" that the girl had a "protective factor" against emotional trauma because of her low IQ.

The jury didn't buy it and awarded the girl $1.4 million in damages, far more than the girl's family was even seeking.

"It's not your fault"

When Pauline — the woman who wants her story told — was raped on Feb. 20, 2016, she was living with her longtime caretaker, a social worker named Cheryl McClain, and that woman's extended family. Pauline had lived half her life with McClain and called her "Mommy."

The family lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., but had bought that second home in the Pocono Mountains, in Pennsylvania.

That's where the rape happened.

Pauline was assaulted by two boys, just 12 and 13. These details come from the police criminal complaint. One boy, McClain explains, was her foster child. The other, she says, was her adopted son.

According to the police complaint, the two boys confessed right away to the police that they had raped Pauline and that she had told them to stop. Both boys, according to the complaint, "confessed to raping the victim and both related that the victim repeatedly told both juveniles to stop assaulting her."

It was McClain who called the police that night. But after police charged the boys with rape, McClain seemed to have second thoughts.

She pressured Pauline to change her story.

One way we know: Cheryl McClain recorded herself coaching Pauline. Telling the woman with an intellectual disability that maybe it wasn't really rape, that she'd enjoyed the sex.

"You wanted to do it," McClain tells Pauline on the recording.

NPR obtained parts of the transcript from the recording, which was attached to the police complaint.

McClain goes from expressing anger at the boys who assaulted her to telling Pauline that she was at fault, too.

"Even though I know they started with you first," McClain told Pauline, "a lady has to say 'No.' She has to mean 'No.' "

McClain told NPR that she had warned the boys to be respectful of the woman with an intellectual disability. "They knew not to touch her, that I love her so much, that to touch her would be trouble," McClain says. "I would throw them out of the house."

But on the recording, it's Pauline who, McClain threatens, will have to leave the house. If Pauline's charge against the boys stands, McClain tells her, "the only way to fix this, the only way it could work out, you just would have to not be with me. ... You wouldn't be able to live with me if I had any boys here."

McClain says if she had known the boys were abusing Pauline, she would have stopped them. But Pauline says she did tell McClain about previous assaults. Just the week before that assault in Pennsylvania, Pauline had told McClain that there had been earlier assaults, according to the police complaint. She said both boys had abused her, in the house in New York and the house in Pennsylvania. The police report shows that McClain said she called the police in New York. As a result, the 13-year-old was detained at a New York juvenile facility for four days, and then released back to the family.

That was just days before the sexual assault in Pennsylvania. This time, both boys were removed to a juvenile detention center, this one in Easton, Pa.

McClain and Pauline had lived together for more than 20 years and were like mother and daughter. Pauline said McClain was often nice to her, but sometimes mean. She'd sometimes yell at her. "Used to call me names. Call me 'stupid.' 'Retarded,' " Pauline says.

McClain denies that she ever mistreated Pauline or used those words.

But Pauline says that in the days after the sexual assault in Pennsylvania, there was a lot of tension.

"Because of the boys and stuff," Pauline recalls. "She said, 'It's your fault, Pauline.' "

Pauline pauses, and then reassures herself: "It's not your fault."

On Feb. 22, two days after the assault, McClain called Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Shamus Kelleher, who had investigated the rape. She told the officer that Pauline had changed her story and now said the sex acts had been consensual and that Pauline said she "enjoyed it."

But when Kelleher asked to talk to Pauline, McClain refused to let Pauline speak. In his report, Kelleher noted that McClain's claim that Pauline had agreed to sex with the boys had been made "solely" by McClain "and was not in any way verified by the victim even after requested by this Trooper."

Kelleher already had a sense of Pauline. He had taken her statement two days before, when she was "visibly upset and I observed her to be crying," he reported, as she talked about the assault. Pauline had told him she never wanted to see the two boys again.

Then, on March 1, the night before the boys were to appear in juvenile court, McClain took Pauline — the rape victim — to the office of the public defender who was representing one of the boys — a rape suspect. McClain told the lawyer that the sex acts were consensual. The attorney, William Watkins, stopped her. If that were true, then Pauline might have been guilty of committing a crime against the two boys.

The next day at the Monroe County Courthouse, news of McClain's bringing Pauline to the public defender's office was relayed to the judge. The Monroe County district attorney, police and an Adult Protective Services worker tried to speak to Pauline to see whether she had, in fact, changed her story. But every time someone approached Pauline, either McClain or her husband, Kinard McClain, "would physically restrict any possible communications with the victim," according to the police criminal complaint against McClain.

Pauline, Kelleher would write in a police criminal complaint, "became visibly upset and agitated during these proceedings and on numerous occasions stated she did not want anyone to go to jail."

But she did not change her story that she had been raped.

That's when McClain revealed she had those recordings on her phone.

McClain played one of the recordings. Kelleher wrote in the police complaint that rather than hearing — as McClain claimed — Pauline retracting her story, he heard "a heated discussion regarding the sexual assaults."

Police ordered McClain to turn over her cellphone with the recordings as potential evidence. But she refused, and hid the Samsung Galaxy phone inside her shirt.

The judge had taken an unusual step. To protect Pauline, he assigned her a lawyer. Usually, a crime victim is represented by the district attorney. But to prosecute crimes against people with intellectual disabilities, courts often need to take extra steps, sometimes creative or rare ones. Now, in addition to the district attorney prosecuting the crime, Pauline had her own lawyer.

Syzane Arifaj, a former public defender for juveniles, had worked with clients with disabilities. When she met Pauline for the first time, the thing that struck her was that Pauline was "consistent." Her story about how the two boys raped her did not change. That was important, Arifaj says, because "a lot of people who have intellectual disabilities are very malleable. So if you just repeatedly tell them this happened and this didn't happen, they're sort of prone to taking the suggestion."

Pauline was torn, though, facing heavy pressure from McClain, whom she had long relied on.

"Pauline didn't want to upset anybody," Arifaj says. "From the start, her thing was, she didn't want anybody to be mad at her."

She had learned to survive by pleasing the people she depended upon for help. And when told she was putting people she lived with in danger with the law, Pauline said she didn't want anyone to go to jail.

The difficulty of prosecution

Arifaj says it's harder for people with intellectual disabilities to seek justice.

"They don't act independently so if someone who is taking care of them is not advocating for them, that makes the situation very difficult because they're not in a position to take care of themselves," she explains. "Mrs. McClain was taking care of her. That's all she knew."

There's long been reluctance by many prosecutors to take on rape cases against people with intellectual disabilities. That's largely because a person with an intellectual disability may have difficulty recalling details from a crime, or remembering them consistently. And they often have difficulty remembering time sequence — when something happened or in what order.

That made prosecuting crimes against Pauline difficult. She was unsure of dates of the different times she had been assaulted and which assaults had happened at the family's house in New York or at the house in Pennsylvania. And it wasn't just Pauline who found it confusing; prosecutors did too.

It helped prosecutors in Pennsylvania, Arifaj says, that the boys had quickly confessed to police investigators that night.

According to court records, the two boys were charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and other sex crimes.

Separately, McClain became a defendant, too. She was charged with six felonies — including intimidating a witness and interfering with an investigation — and two misdemeanors. Prosecutors would eventually drop the felony charges.

Last June, McClain pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of giving false information to police with the intent to try to implicate someone. She was fined $15,000 and put on probation for two years.

In 2016, the two juveniles were found guilty — "adjudicated delinquent" is the terminology — and sent to a state treatment center, according to attorneys involved in the case and what Pauline's new guardian in Pennsylvania was told.

McClain still disputes the charges against her. She notes that she was the one who called the police the night Pauline was assaulted. And when McClain told authorities a different story — that it wasn't rape but consensual sex — she thinks police and prosecutors refused to believe her because they thought she was now fearful of losing Pauline's Social Security disability benefits. Social Security sent Pauline's check to McClain as her representative, according to the police complaint.

"If I was afraid I would lose the check, I never had to pick up that phone and not tell anyone," McClain says.

She says she pleaded guilty because she feared prosecutors. "I felt those people were coming to destroy my life."

McClain says that she loves Pauline and wants her to come back to the home in Brooklyn.

A new life

When Pauline was raped in Pennsylvania, her life turned upside down. Suddenly, she lost the life she had worked hard to establish in Brooklyn.

McClain, for more than 20 years, had helped Pauline make her way in the world. In Pennsylvania, Pauline would have to make a new life for herself.

Most days, it starts at a busy day program run by the Arc Northeastern Pennsylvania. At this center in a city in the northeastern part of the state, people with intellectual disabilities, like Pauline, spend the day, get meals, socialize and do some work for minimal pay.

One day last April started with an exercise video. Nine adults lined up in a row, faced the screen and moved their arms and bodies to the music. A woman in a wheelchair scooted back and forth.

Pauline smiles during the cha-cha step. She's a smooth dancer.

"I like any kind of music," Pauline says. "I like Michael Jackson. Stevie Wonder. Diana Ross. I like any kind of music. They play music. I'll dance to it. I like to dance."

As it was just a few days before Easter, the big excitement was around an impending visit from the Easter Bunny.

And when the guest of honor — the staffer who fit into the furry costume with straight-up ears and a goofy smile — arrived with a basket of chocolates, the room of adults — in their 30s, 40s, some in their 60s — erupted in delight, with applause and cheers.

Sometimes adults with intellectual disabilities still take joy in childish things. And maybe that's because they're often treated as children for so much of their lives.

There's debate among professionals about moments like this. Many argue that to do things with adults that are normally done with children is condescending and "infantilizing." Some argue that it stops adults from learning adult skills appropriate for their age.

Pat Quinn, who runs adult day and residential services at the Arc Northeastern Pennsylvania, points out the difficulty around this dilemma. His agency makes respect a primary value. But as he watches the excitement of the adults receiving candy from the Easter Bunny, he asks, "How could you deny them this?"

Often people with intellectual disability are described this way: They're 30 years old or 40 years old, but they have the "developmental age" of a child.

Many professionals in the field say that kind of description can be misleading.

Mainly because, as Quinn notes, adults with intellectual disabilities are not children. They have a lifetime of experience. They want things other adults want: jobs and community; friendships, relationships — and that includes romantic relationships, sex, and maybe marriage.

But it's difficult because there are limits when it comes to learning, problem solving and everyday social skills.

Often, it's the law that treats them like children. In 32 states, according to an NPR count of state statutes, the same laws that protect children from physical and sexual abuse are used to protect adults with intellectual disabilities.

And there's some good reason for that. Like children, adults with intellectual disabilities — who grow up trusting and relying upon other people — may have trouble telling when someone tries to trick them. Like kids generally, they're just more vulnerable to abuse. Often they need the assistance that they find in a place like a group home.

Pauline lives with three other women in a group home now. It's a one-level red brick house with white columns in a residential neighborhood.

At first, Pauline says, she was upset coming to this unfamiliar house. But those feelings evolved.

"I got used to it," she says. "It took me a while."

Now she thinks it's better for her to live here — "Because I feel safe. I feel happy. The staff take good care of me. I'm really happy here."

The staff at this group home — run by the Arc — took Pauline to doctors. She has a new pair of glasses — the coppery orange ones. Pauline and her caregivers said she had gone for years without glasses. McClain disputes that and says Pauline lost glasses she had previously had. Pauline and Roxanne Kiehart, the house supervisor, say the day Pauline got those new glasses, she was stunned by how her vision changed. She ran around the optometrist's shop, yelling, "I can see. I can see."

She can see the TV screen now. In New York, she says, she never had time to watch TV. Her day began making the beds in the house. Then she went to a job busing tables at a pizza parlor in Brooklyn. She took two subways, by herself, to work. The money she earned went back to McClain, to the house, to pay for groceries. Most nights, the family went to church.

At the new house in Pennsylvania, it's still hard to get Pauline to relax and just take time for herself, Kiehart explains. Pauline likes to set the table and help with dinner.

"She always wants to be busy," Kiehart says. "She always wants to help."

Part of that, Kiehart explains — and Pauline agrees — is that Pauline stayed busy doing chores at the house in Brooklyn.

Now, Pauline says, she gets to keep money from her Social Security check and from her job. And, for the first time, she goes shopping and picks out her own clothes. McClain says she gave Pauline money and that there's an entire closet at the house in the Poconos with Pauline's dresses, ones that she bought herself.

Pauline gives a tour of the house: The kitchen where she likes to help make pasta stuffed with cheese, the backyard with the tall trees, her bedroom with seashells over the bed.

There was one more thing Pauline wanted to show off: the pictures from her wedding.

They are in frames on the dresser in her bedroom. "I have a beautiful wedding dress," she said. "It's white. And it's like a thing you put around your hair" (her veil).

When Pauline was living with McClain, she met David, a man with an intellectual disability, at church.

Pauline says McClain told her if she wanted to be with David, they would have to get married. The wedding was at the church, where McClain is active; Pauline in the white dress, David in a dark tuxedo. They had a white wedding cake with red rose petals.

David moved into the house, sharing a room with Pauline.

She holds out her left hand to show the twisted silver wedding band with a small stone.

Pauline reflects on what it means to her to be married and to have a husband.

"He really loves me so much," she says. "That's where you feel special."

But now, miles apart and in different states, David and Pauline talk on the phone most nights. On the dresser in her bedroom, there are pictures of David and the cards he sends — birthday cards, holiday cards, romantic cards. He signs them with his first and last name.

Pauline misses David's kisses. She misses him in her bed. But she won't go back to her old family. That's where she was raped. And David won't, on his own, leave that house and move to a new state. He lives with McClain and depends upon her. McClain insists David doesn't want to move. He has a job he likes and is active in the church.

Like other adults with intellectual disabilities, Pauline wants love, romance and marriage. But like so many other adults with intellectual disabilities, a history of rape gets in the way.

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/08/570224090/the-sexual-assault-epidemic-no-one-talks-about

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Missouri

Combating 'disinformation' about child abuse

New book aims to explain what everyone can do to help kids who need it most

by Neil Schoenherr

Children need nurturing, attention to health and basic needs, safety and appropriate supervision. Child abuse and neglect, also called “child maltreatment,” too often endanger the health, well-being and even lives of children.

Especially for the very young child, maltreatment can result in a variety of serious issues, including physical injury; cognitive delay; disruption of the stress response system that may result in long-term problems with emotion regulation and health; and even death, said Melissa Jonson-Reid , the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work Research at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Child abuse is not one thing. It can take the form of physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect or emotional abuse, and many children suffer multiple forms.

“Older children may be less vulnerable to serious and fatal physical injury but remain vulnerable to emotional harm and injury due to lack of supervision and other issues,” Jonson-Reid said.

“Older children are also more likely to experience multiple forms of maltreatment and other overlapping risk conditions that can increase the likelihood of poor outcomes,” she said. “Older children and youth with histories of maltreatment have higher risk of behavioral, mental health and physical health consequences, including lower school performance, poor mental and physical health outcomes, suicide, long-term adult health problems and more.”

But what can be done to solve it? Jonson-Reid and Brett Drake, professor at the Brown School, offer insight into this prevalent problem and some ideas for change in a new book released Jan. 9 by Oxford University Press, “ After the Cradle Falls: What Child Abuse Is, How We Respond To It, And What You Can Do About it. ”

“Child maltreatment is a critical issue that is not in the public discourse — until something tragic happens,” Jonson-Reid said. “Typically reactions to the horrific cases, which make it into the news, result in very little actual change that addresses the needs of the millions of children impacted annually who do not experience such extreme conditions. The goal of the book was to try to change this.

“Yes, it can be a complicated issue and there are many problems that need to be addressed, but importantly this is not an intractable lost cause, and people can get involved at multiple levels to change things for the better,” she said. “So we decided to write a book that is heavily grounded in research to provide the public with the facts, but write in an everyday style integrating pop culture, new stories and folklore to demystify the topic and engage a broad audience.”

Drake said it is surprising to him how much disinformation and “simple ignorance” exists around the issue of child maltreatment. “For example, most people understand that state or county child protective service (CPS) agencies exist, but the general public has almost no understanding of what it does or how it operates,” Drake said. “Is CPS a preventative service? Is it just about foster care? Is it part of law enforcement, social services or the public health system? These are questions that the average person just doesn't have answers for. We wanted to help with that.”

How do we solve this problem?

Jonson-Reid said one way to begin to solve the issue is to focus on parenting.

“We need to stop treating parenting as if it is something everyone can just naturally do without help,” Jonson-Reid said. “Child maltreatment is not something out there that happens in a few odd instances — nor is it a new problem. Estimates are that over one-third of U.S. children have a maltreatment report by age 18.

“We need to take away the stigma associated with reaching out for assistance before something goes wrong,” she said. “Parenting is not an easy task, and parenting under conditions of multiple stressors and challenges can sometimes lead to actions or inaction that can cause serious harm to a child.

“The vast majority of child maltreatment does not occur at the hands of an adult who plans to do harm. Even child fatality cases include many instances in which corporal punishment is wrongly applied to a child who is too young or gets out of hand because a caregiver is mad or frustrated,” Jonson-Reid said.

Policy and processes can, or should, be changed. Jonson-Reid suggests there is “a need to rethink” policy toward children in the U.S.

“Despite common use of terms such as ‘child welfare system,' we actually don't have a complete ‘system' for responding to or preventing maltreatment,” Jonson-Reid said. “We have only succeeded in building bits and pieces of a response over the past 100 years, with very little attention to prevention and early intervention. Most of our attention and nearly all of the funding is focused on intervention after situations become severe.” (Estimates are that about 6-7 percent of what is spent on child maltreatment and child welfare in the U.S. is spent on prevention or early intervention with families.)

For Jonson-Reid, timing is of the essence. “Separate from the human cost — a single year's cohort of children reported for maltreatment costs billions each year — most of this is related to the longer term consequences that might have been avoided if we had intervened early,” she said.

“We need to rethink our policy toward children in this country and build a system that can allow them to thrive. We hope the book helps the public to understand that they have a role to play in their families, their communities, their organizations, and as voters or policymakers.”

https://source.wustl.edu/2018/01/time-focus-child-abuse/

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United Kingdom

Engage: Child sexual abuse-hearing the cry for help is not always a simple task

by Samuel Larner

Child sexual abuse is on the rise in the UK with the NSPCC announcing a 31% increase in police referrals in 2017 compared to the previous year. Worryingly, this is just the tip of the iceberg as child sexual abuse is widely under-reported. My research has revealed that a major factor in this issue is the use of language and a safeguarding system which is sometimes deaf to a child's cry for help.

There are many reasons why a child will not tell anyone that they are being abused, including fear, shame and confusion. It is therefore important that adults are aware of behaviours that may be symptomatic of sexual abuse.

Greater awareness of potential indicators of sexual abuse is undoubtedly crucial for helping adults to recognise when there may be a problem. But as a linguist, I am particularly troubled by reports of children who attempted to disclose sexual abuse, but felt that they were never heard . That is, their attempts to seek help failed.

The disclosure stage (the point at which an allegation of sexual abuse is made) is crucial in determining what action is taken, if any at all. The recipient must firstly acknowledge that a child has reported sexual abuse and then be willing to act.

There are several reasons why children's voices may be unheard. Sadly, cases where recipients have not acted appropriately, either through minimisation or cover-up are numerous. Second, since children often do not make a clear disclosure, the full extent of their abuse may not always be apparent. They may only partially report the abuse, they may minimise the extent of the abuse, and they may lack the vocabulary to convey the full extent of their abuse.

Linguistic skill

But another reason why disclosures go unheard may be linked to the linguistic skill of the adult the child confides to.

In data that I am currently analysing (online counselling sessions between victims of sexual abuse and ChildLine volunteers) some children talk explicitly about sexual abuse. Within the opening lines of one counselling session, an 11-year-old child stated bluntly that she had been raped.

By contrast, a 15-year-old revealed sexual abuse more cautiously over a conversation lasting one hour and ten minutes. First, she reported she had had sex. Later, she explained that she didn't consent. She then provided details about the level of force. Finally, one hour into the conversation, she asked for clarification over whether she had been raped.

Importantly, it was the counsellor that facilitated the disclosure and helped the child to articulate it. In this example, the process of reporting was very much a two-person interaction. The pressure shifted from the child being solely responsible for making the disclosure to the counsellor supporting and eliciting it.

From this perspective, it is understandable why some children report how they've tried to tell someone what has happened to them – but have not been heard. It is possible that the adults they spoke to were either not skilled in drawing out the information or following safeguarding advice and training were reluctant to do so for fear of contaminating the child's evidence.

Support versus evidence

The problem is that an allegation made in an anonymous counselling session is very different to a disclosure made to a teacher or social worker. In a ChildLine counselling session, the focus is on supporting the child. By contrast, teachers and social workers are duty bound to report disclosures and the statement that the child produces constitutes evidence, which may be used in subsequent criminal proceedings.

Guidance for social workers and teachers highlights the need to collect accurate and complete information from the child, reporting only the words that the child has used and without using leading questions.

This creates an apparent paradox since my research suggests some children rely on an adult to help construct their disclosure precisely so they can produce complete information. While the evidential approach is designed to collect uncontaminated evidence, it potentially fails those children who need adults' help to actually say the words.

In my data, a 12-year-old girl explicitly asked the counsellor to ask her questions because she found it easier than providing an unprompted narrative. Teachers are explicitly told that how they speak to the child can affect the evidence and questioning should be kept to the minimum. The child is expected to articulate their abuse independently.

It seems, then, that there is a potential tension between the needs of the child in making a disclosure and the needs of trusted adults who are in a position to help the child. For many children in my data, their concern was not with prosecuting their abuser. Many explicitly said they did not want this. What they often wanted was emotional support, reassurance that they did nothing wrong, and clarification about what had happened to them so that they could begin to make sense of it.

For as long as safeguarding policies place emphasis on the quality of evidence collected, rather than focusing on helping children to understand and verbalise how they've been abused, children's voices will continue to be unheard.

https://www.careappointments.co.uk/features/engage/item/43070-engage-child-sexual-abuse-hearing-the-cry-for-help-is-not-always-a-simple-task

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Commentary

Australia

Can juries deliver justice to sexual assault victims?

by Emily Cole

It seems we're in an era where every time we read the news there is a new case of sexual assault. While the #metoo campaign flooded my social media newsfeed and The Silence Breakers came forward, I stayed quiet. Not because I haven't been a victim. Just like one in six women (at least) in Australia, I too have been sexually assaulted. I stayed quiet because I was serving on a jury of a child sexual assault case and could not show a conflict of interest. And while my heart welled for those breaking their silence, I was haunted as I watched the system eventually fail those women.

When my jury service ended, we set a man free. A man, who in my mind is guilty of more than 25 counts of child sexual assault. A man, who I believe preyed on young girls over a period of 40 years. Who had crept into their bedrooms at night to touch them. Who had fostered young girls, and then groomed them to accept his ongoing assaults. Who had taken nieces truck-driving and then had sexual intercourse with them night after night. A man who would tell them to stay quiet or risk ruining the family. A man who had stuck a deodorant can in a 13-year-old's vagina and then later forced her to have anal sex. And after nine weeks of jury service, I felt devastated. I, along with the 11 other jurors and the judicial system, let those victims down in the worst way possible. We were a hung jury, and he walked free.

The judicial system of NSW elects a jury as judges of the facts. Twelve people, who are representatives of the state in which we live. A combination of genders, ages, backgrounds, religions and life experiences. What became clear over the three weeks of deliberation that followed a six-week trial is that the general public does not have the ability to do its job properly . As a population, we do not have the emotional intelligence to understand the psychology of victims and how their responses vary. Many of my fellow jurors found the girls and women unreliable. They could not fathom how the victims continued to place themselves in harm's way. Girls between 10 and 16 years of age at the time of their assault, many of whom had been abused over a number of years, by a man who was either their uncle or foster father. That lack of empathy among so many on the jury undermined the facts of the case and left room for doubt.

Sitting around that table, I realised just how broken the system and society is when it comes to sexual assault. When you hear statements such as, "two fingers in a vagina wasn't sexual assault in my day" or "maybe they enjoyed it" you realise we are fighting a battle that cannot be won. People like that, are never going to understand sexual assault and it's impossible to convict a man with a jury that holds that mindset. It took every part of me not to commit a crime of my own in that deliberation room.

As long as we continue to blame victims, or have the expectation that it is a child or woman's responsibility to remove themselves from that situation, or fight back, or scream "no", the cycle of sexual assault will continue. Many members of the jury could not comprehend the idea that the responsibility lies with a man to not touch them in the first place. This saddens me more than I can ever express.

If my sister, or a friend or colleague came to me now and confided in me they had been sexually assaulted, I would encourage them not to report it. I realise how heartbreaking that is, and how that perpetuates the cycle of abuse, but I could not encourage anyone to go through the process I have just witnessed. Conviction rates for reported cases are notoriously low. And until the mindset of our society shifts, and we reassess how the judicial system manages these sorts of crimes, the perpetrators will all too often go free.

Being privy to the questioning and cross-examination the women underwent, it wasn't surprising to learn that one of them had been seeing a psychologist for two years to prepare herself for court. What will she have gained from the pain and emotional suffering the courtroom put her through? The man that assaulted her is free and justice has not been served.

To those women, I am sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I tried my best. I fought, yelled and cried in that jury room. I tried to make them understand. I tried to reason with them. To make them understand that we were to judge the facts and not to judge how you responded to your abuse. I tried to make them understand that your response was reasonable and fair. But I did not succeed. And I am sorry.

And while this episode does not have a happy ending, I am hopeful there is a next chapter. There were other jurors who shared my views. And now it is up to us, and all of those out there who realise how flawed the system is, to start changing it. To put the responsibility of sexual assault back onto the perpetrators. To give better support to victims through the process. And to reassess whether juries are capable of adjudicating such issues. Sitting in that courtroom, it was clear change is not going to happen overnight, but we owe it to those women to try.