Child Abuse Reporting Now Available Online

From the Florida Abuse Hotline:

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, making it an effective time to reflect on the
importance of reporting potential child abuse.

You are in a key position to observe and report potential signs of child abuse and neglect. State law
requires reporting of suspected abuse and neglect to the Florida Department of Children and Families
Child Abuse Hotline. Reporting is available 24 hours every day both online at FloridaAbuseHotline.com
and via the department’s Hotline at 1-800-962-2873. However, using the online system can save
valuable time in providing the department the information needed to initiate an investigation quickly.
By the profession we have chosen, we are committed to protecting children and ensuring they have
happy, healthy lives. Reporting potential abuse and neglect saves lives. Last year the department
investigated nearly 188,000 reports of child abuse and neglect; sadly, these were only the cases that
were reported.

For further guidance on when it is appropriate to make a report, the child abuse reporting feature, at
FloridaAbuseHotline.com, includes helpful resources such as definitions for reporting, laws, tips for
successful reporting, frequently asked questions and more.

Any report made in good faith is important. The child may not be in imminent danger but child
protective investigators may determine the family would benefit from services to strengthen parenting
skills or from mental health care. The department’s primary goal is to protect children, but safely
keeping families together whenever possible is also a priority and the department collaborates with
community partners in every region of the state to provide care and services that families need to
thrive.

Be vigilant if you suspect abuse. A child may be depending on you.

10 Years After the Death of Carlie Brucia, We Struggle to Know How to Help Children

Carlie Brucia

Ten years ago on February 1, an 11-year old girl was abducted, raped, and murdered in Sarasota, Florida while walking home from school. The 10th anniversary of Carlie Brucia's death has raised again the awareness of stranger danger. I have often thought how different this might have turned out if Carlie had gone to Escape School. But she didn’t. We must remember that as horrible as this is, it is also rare. Thank God it is rare. However, at-risk children are not rare. Each day in the 12th circuit of Florida (Sarasota, Manatee, and Desoto counties), every hour, 24/7, 365 days per year, a report is made of suspicion of abuse and neglect. Most reports cannot be legally substantiated, but all reports are investigated. Most children are under the age of five, the most vulnerable. Approximately 1,300 children are in out-of-home state care, and many more are living with friends and relatives in the 12th circuit at any given moment.

The Real Threat to Kids

It is not strangers who are the biggest threat to children. It is not some vicious predator animal that got loose from the local zoo. It is not an infestation of killer bees from Mexico. It is not falling meteors or space debris reentering the atmosphere. The greatest threats to our children are fathers, mothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, uncles, grandpas, trusted family friends, and neighbors. It is normally someone the child knows. The safest environment for a child should be their own home, church, school, and neighborhood. What makes these environments so toxic and dangerous? There is no guesswork here. The threats are well documented. It is substance abuse, domestic violence, and just plain not paying attention.

Caregivers and trusted adults are increasingly becoming uncaring and untrustworthy. Child abuse and neglect are the outcome of adults whose lives are not being properly managed. The decision to ingest substances like alcohol and drugs impairs judgment and places children at risk. The lack of conflict resolution skills and the lack of impulse control place children at risk. Being too busy with one’s own life and interests to raise the children put children at risk.

Seeing Their Value

I believe there is something even more basic that these risk factors, something less tangible but more powerful, and that is the value one places on a child. If I could speak to a potential abuser and neglecter of kids before they offend, I would ask these questions. How important is your child to you? Is your child important enough to get help for your addiction? Is your child important enough for you to walk away from an argument, and seek help in learning conflict resolution skills? Is your child important enough to you to shut down the cell phone, put up the video game, quit hanging with your friends, and spend time attending to their needs? Selfishness and self-centeredness are the core of the problem of abuse and neglect of kids.

Out of this spring of selfishness and self-centeredness flows the system we call child-welfare, a multi-million dollar industry made up of caring and trustworthy people who try to undo the lack of care and trustworthiness which affects our children. Children enter the world of case-workers, guardians ad litem, attorneys and judges, child protection investigators, foster parents, and an assortment of service providers. This is a sad but necessary alternative to a loving mother and father. It is true and commendable that many mothers and fathers see the light, wake up, and begin to care again for their children, and reestablish loving and protective homes. Unfortunately, damage has often been done to the child, and the work to restore the heart and health of this little one may take years—perhaps a lifetime.

What are we to do? I have many ideas, but this isn’t the article in which to lay them out. We can begin by praying that the Father of us all will intervene and teach us all how to love our children. Will you join me in praying for the children of our community, that one day we won’t need a child welfare system other than the child’s own home?

-Rod Myers

Where Will They Go?

Here is a headline and a story we all have seen in Sarasota county recently:

Sarasota man Kenneth Stoddard arrested for hog-tying 11-year-old daughter Melissa, who later died

11-year-old Melissa Stoddard

SARASOTA, Florida -- A Sarasota man was arrested today for aggravated child abuse after police say he hog-tied his 11-year-old daughter, who later died.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office says Melissa Stoddard stopped breathing on December 12. The girl was taken to Doctor's Hospital, then transferred to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where doctors discovered she had severe brain damage. Deputies say she also had ligature marks on her upper arms, wrists, ankles and thigh area.

Melissa was classified as brain dead. She died on December 17.

The Department of Children and Families has taken custody of five other children who also lived in the home, some of whom described how the parents allegedly "restrained" Melissa. Investigators learned the girl was regularly "hog tied" to a board on her bed with duct tape covering her mouth, or tied up and put in a filthy family pool.

Five other children living in this home were taken into protective custody and placed in foster care. Where will they go? Who will take them in? Who will be prepared to minister to the special needs these children will certainly have?

Often in society when we have situations where people have to be placed, such as criminals in jails or the mentally ill in institutions or the elderly in nursing homes, we can let others handle it. But, when it comes to the abused and neglected children of our community, these children need to be in loving, caring and safe homes. We call this foster care.

The word foster means “to encourage or promote the development of something or someone.” When a child experiences abuse or neglect, or simply an unsafe environment and need to be removed from a home, even temporarily, their growth and develop is not suspended. They continue to need guidance, protection, security, instruction, encouragement, as well as the meeting of physical needs. Where will they go to get this? We have heard the reports of orphaned infants who grow up in a cold, sterile institution where basic physical needs are provided, but love and attention are in short supply. These children fail to thrive. They need more than a diaper change and a bottle. They need love.

There is a critical shortage in the state of Florida in general and in the 12^th circuit in particular for quality foster families to care for the little ones among us. Keeping sibling groups together requires special homes with the capacity to care for more than one at a time. Other children have special medical and mental health needs. Others need to be kept near familiar surroundings within their community.

Here is how you can help. If you want more information about how to become a foster parent call the Safe Children Coalition at 941-371-4799. If you represent a group or organization and would like to have someone come to speak about how foster call BAANK (Rod Myers) at 941-374-1818.

-Rod

Remind Me Why I Do This?

Why should we care about abused and neglected kids?

I know: it sounds crude to even ask the question. Isn't it obvious? It should be, but if it were, perhaps there would not be as many abused and neglected kids in our community as there are.

Let's make it personal: If you were working out in your yard and heard the screams of a small child who was obviously in pain and ran to his aid, only to find his father beating and kicking him senseless, what would you do? Of course, you would intervene to save the child even at risk to your own safety. What if you found a small child on the side of the road who looked as if they had not eaten in three days, what would you do? Of course, you would immediately intervene to get this child help.

But this and similar occurances happen in Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties every day. The only difference is that you do not personally witness these children. They are mostly "out of sight." And you know how the rest of that phrase goes.

According to James 1:27 it is a Christian's business to take care of the vulnerable within our midst. This is why BAANK exists. It is our purpose to identify strategic places Christians/churches can intervene right here in our community, to research and design—along with folks within the child welfare community—standards and trainings to provide the greatest quality of programs, and to recruit volunteers to step into these places to serve and make a difference.

Honestly it is my goal to be able to say one day that the abuse and neglect of our kids in this community is cut down to a trickle. But this will not happen unless we all commit ourselves to very practical work. Yes, work. Involvement. BAANK needs your partnership and your wisdom and your talents to find the best ways to do this work. Won't you help? Give me call.

-Rod Myers

Prescription Drug Abuse in Florida

Prescription drug abuse kills more than 7 Floridians per day. This number is 5 times greater than deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined, making it the number one public health and safety concern in Florida. It's also important to the child welfare community, since one-third to two-thirds of child maltreatment cases involve parental substance abuse.

The Florida Office of the Attorney General has developed a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem, Florida’s Prescription Drug Diversion and Abuse Roadmap (2012–2015). It's about forty pages long, but we've boiled it down to some highlights:

1.  Prescription drug abuse affects our community in a number of ways, one of which is child abuse and neglect. Many cases of prescription drug abuse start as legal prescriptions, but without proper treatment for addiction, the increased emergency room visits, child abuse and neglect, and crime creates a burden on society.

2.  The overall goal of prevention is twofold: (1) to increase the lawful and medically appropriate compliance to prescription drug use by patients and physicians, and (2) to reduce the abuse of prescription drugs and their negative consequences.

3. An increasing number of children are born with Neonatal Withdrawal Syndrome as a result of mothers' abuse of drugs while pregnant. Florida experienced a fourfold increase in instances of Neonatal Withdrawal Syndrome from 2003 to 2010.

The problem of expectant mothers abusing pain medication has become so prevalent that All Children’s Hospital in Tampa estimates that at any given time there are at least 10 newborns being treated for prescription drug withdrawal. These numbers may, in fact, be much higher than reported because many pregnant women are neither tested for drug use, nor admit to using prescription drugs during pregnancy. 

4. Florida in particular has been a hub of prescription drug abuse because of its permissive laws toward doctors' prescriptions of pain killers. Here exist "pill mills": illicit merchants of prescription drugs under the guise of pain management clinics. People visit these places because prescription drugs, usually painkillers, are cheaper and easier to obtain than elsewhere.

5. Prescription drug abusers are likely to have used illicit drugs in the past. Other correlated factors include "time spent in jail, a family history of substance use disorders, cigarette smoking, post-traumatic stress disorder, being a non-Hispanic white male, and/or having a high degree of pain-related limitations" (page 28).

6. Children who learn about the risks of drugs from their parents or caregivers are up to 50 percent less likely to use drugs. If children make it to adulthood without experimenting with drugs, they become far less likely to start using later in life. Although a caregiver is most effective at educating children about drug abuse, part of the Florida plan is to increase education.

7. There is a myth out there that prescription drug abuse is "safer" than illicit drug use. This is simply not true. Dispelling this myth is crucial in order to make progress in prevention.

Read more about Florida's plan to reduce prescription drug abuse here.

Reason for Alarm: Abuse and Neglect in the 12th Circuit

What is happening to our children in the 12th Circuit of Florida (Sarasota, Manatee, and Desoto counties)?

You sure you want to know? Knowledge requires action. Here are the facts:

In the 12th Circuit, almost 10,000 investigations of alleged abuse and neglect were conducted over the past 10 years. Picture each little boy or girl involved. How many were verified? Let’s look at the last 15 months: there have been over 1,800 verified findings of abuse and neglect just within our neighborhoods. Can we ever look up and down our streets the same way again?

So what happens to these children? In the current fiscal year (2011-2012), nearly 1,400 children have needed services from child welfare workers, with 854 in out-of-home care. Most live with friends and relatives, but over 300 lived in licensed foster care and group care homes.

Try not to get lost in the numbers. These are real children who exist in our community. They represent every race, ethnicity and socioeconomic level. Some enter the world and spend weeks in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, born with drug and/or alcohol addictions. Others are pre-teens or teens who suffer from physical, psychological and/or emotional abuse. All are victims of trauma. All have scars. All of them just want to be loved and feel secure. These children live in your neighborhood, go to your child’s school, and attend your churches.

The need never stops. About the same rate that children enter the system, they exit and others come in to take their places. For instance, in the current fiscal year, 675 children entered services and 731 exited. In one month (December 2011), over 100 children entered state care, most of them under the age of six. An army of workers are needed to care for these children. There are 69 authorized case managers overseen by Safe Children Coalition (SCC), a division of the YMCA and the lead agency for the Circuit. This does not account for the investigators, support services, volunteers, foster parents, grandparents, other relatives, or responsible friends.

But even the positives highlight the negatives. It's just as bad at the end of the day than when we started. We're not gaining ground. Over $24,000,000 has been allocated through the Department of Children and Families, a State of Florida agency—just for the 12th Circuit. Since 2005, almost 900 children have been adopted to forever families within the Circuit. On average, of the children who are removed from their homes and are then reunified with their families, 80% return home within 12 months. Currently, about 200 young people are being assisted in moving toward adult independence. These are good things, but they remind us that there is a deep problem that we have only just begun to alleviate.

Consider seriously this perspective: three children per day are verified as victims of abuse and neglect right here in our community. Pause a moment. Let that sink in: three per day...three per day. That’s three per day, every day. Day in and day out. Every month, every year. It never stops. And it’s getting worse.

But before you judge the parents, we have to try to understand the abusers as well as the children. What are the factors that cause these families to be at risk? Why have so many family structures broken down? What are we going to do to make a difference? This is the heart of what BAANK is trying to figure out.

(Thanks to Maureen Coble at Safe Children’s Coalition for the data found in this article.)