1. Haiti orphanage attacked by armed bandits, children sexually assaulted, manager says
A woman driving the car sped “away as they were being shot at,” Syracuse Police Deputy Chief Derek McGork said during a press conference Monday. “After she realized the children were injured, she stopped and called 911.”
The children were taken to Upstate University Hospital. The baby, identified as Dior Harris, did not survive. The other girls, 3-year-old and 8-year-old sisters, were stable, Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said Monday. Their names were not released by authorities.
In the months before three young siblings were slain inside a Reseda apartment, the alarms about Liliana Carrillo’s ability to care for the kids grew louder and louder.
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The warnings reached officials in Los Angeles County as well. The county’s child welfare agency and the Los Angeles Police Department were alerted, on numerous occasions, that Carrillo was a danger to the young children, according to interviews by The Times with Denton and his family along with court records and sources familiar with the ongoing investigation.
L.A. County’s Department of Children and Family Services had received at least two separate reports involving the family. But despite repeated conversations with the children’s father and family and a court order from a Tulare County judge that restricted the mother’s custody, social workers opted to keep the children with their mother, according to records and interviews.
4. The State: SC can’t house unaccompanied immigrant children, Gov. McMaster orders. Here’s why
According to McMaster’s executive order, DSS found taking on a number of migrant children would potentially stretch the department’s resources and the state’s capacity for foster care placements. McMaster feared that the placement of migrant children in state facilities would cause the “ultimate displacement of South Carolina’s most vulnerable children in an already-strained system,” according to a statement from the Governor’s Office.
“South Carolina’s children must always be given first priority for placement into foster care and the State’s strained resources must be directed to addressing the needs of its children,” McMaster wrote to Leach in a letter provided by the Governor’s Office. “Allowing the federal government to place an unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our state’s child welfare system for an unspecified length of time is an unacceptable proposition. We’ve been down this road with the federal government before and the state usually ends up ‘on the hook.’”
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“This heartbreaking humanitarian crisis on our border was created by the Biden administration,” McMaster tweeted after issuing the order Monday. “Sending unaccompanied migrant children from the border to states like South Carolina only makes the problem worse.”
5. BBC News: Northern Ireland riots: Adult influence in disorder ‘amounts to child abuse’
The rioting, which has involved people as young as 12, has largely seen youths throwing bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs at lines of police officers and vehicles.
While there are no clear indications the unrest is being orchestrated by an organised group, the violence has been concentrated in areas where criminal gangs linked to loyalist paramilitaries have significant influence.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme, Ms Yiasouma described the violence as involving “coercion by adults of vulnerable and at-risk children”.
6. For years, the Boston Police kept a secret: the union president was an alleged child molester
Despite 1995 evidence, Patrick Rose kept his badge, worked on child sexual assault cases, and ascended to power in the police union. He went on to allegedly molest five other children.
7. Infant’s injuries in foster care spark protest
8. NPR: Court Backlogs During The Pandemic Meant Kids Stayed Longer in Foster Care
. . . Over the course of several months, I was in touch with Stevie (ph), who’s a mom in Baltimore. And, you know, in a typical scenario, this family probably would have been reunited within a few weeks or months. As it ended up playing out because of the slowdowns to the system, Stevie didn’t see her kids in person for four months, and she didn’t start getting regular visits with them for six or seven months. And Stevie – you know, her son had just been born, and so she just didn’t get that critical period of infancy with him. She felt like she didn’t know him, and he didn’t know her. That family, happily now, has since been reunited. Stevie and her husband were able to get help. They have been off of drugs for a while now. And that family, like many now, is going to sort of have to see what the effect of this pandemic and that prolonged separation is going to mean for their relationship going forward. And we just – we don’t know quite yet.
9. Dr. Benjamin Levi: Less than ideal parenting doesn’t equal child abuse
One sure way to help is to decrease the number of reports that shouldn’t be made to CPS and to raise the quality of reports that should be made. By decreasing the noise-to-signal ratio, CPS staff can devote more time to cases that warrant careful attention. And by receiving better, more actionable information, more can be done to both identify and protect abused children.
Such a process begins by recognizing the importance of evidence-based mandated reporter training. We’ve known for decades that children and families are often referred to child welfare agencies because mandated reporters don’t know where else to turn or they fear civil or criminal penalties for not making the right call. Yet despite the high stakes, there remains no real commitment to high-quality, effective education for educators, healthcare professionals, law enforcement and others whose work brings them into contact with children.
10. NBC Connecticut: Remote Learning May Have Masked Child Abuse, Neglect at Home
11. Susan Hammerling-Hodgers: Know the signs of child sexual abuse
“I designed this curriculum to keep children safe in ways I wasn’t able to be,” says Senator Lauren Book, M.S.Ed, Founder/CEO of Lauren’s Kids. “We know that through personal safety education, we can teach children how to avoid the traps predators set, and how to access help if they are in situations where they feel uncomfortable or hurt. No child has to suffer in silence.”
Pregnancy resource centers have long been advocates of the adoption process and are working to change the stigma around adoption, but there’s still work to be done.
“Every PRC should be prepared and equipped to talk with women about the option of adoption,” Woods said. “It should be part of the pregnancy options education they do with women. It’s important to put it on equal footing with parenting. We have to get away from the idea if you choose it, you’re not a fit parent, because this is not true.”
Additionally, she notes, “equipping churches to support women who choose to place their child for adoption the same way they would with families who adopt would be a huge step forward.”