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All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children (Don Shelby)
Before this Safe Passage For Children of MN report, no one knew how many children in CPS were dying or how they died. Chances are the number of children murdered at the hands of their caregivers is much larger than the 200 listed in the report. The report did not include child suicides, attempted suicides, almost murdered and tortured children. Four counties refused to cooperate with this report, and no county provided any information that was not already public.
The lack of data in Child Protective Services (CPS) has been a problem for decades. Whether by accident or design, this colossal failure continues hiding critical information from legislators and the public. These children are dead. Who are we protecting? How are we to improve an institution if we do not know the outcomes it is producing?
In order to prevent child death at the hands of their caregivers, policy makers, providers and other stakeholders need to understand the depth and scope of this problem. The Safe Passage Report should be required reading for everyone involved in CPS and the people making and administering policies and programs. This lack of information gives the public and legislators a dangerous false sense of security in CPS when nothing could be further from the truth. Without public understanding of the issues and reality on the ground problems just don’t exist. No problems, no solutions required.
The overuse of the HIPPA laws surrounding child abuse and death is keeping reporting and change from happening. Children are failing to thrive and even dying because of this. Dee Wilson made reference to this when he delivered the Casey Foundation’s investigation to the Hennepin County Commissioners. This investigation was instigated by Governor Mark Dayton’s “colossal failure of CPS) comments upon the slow tortured death of Eric Dean after 15 reports of abuse by mandated reporters.
Today, we force investigative reporters to find out who died and make them fight like hell to find information and determine what caused it. Two short video interviews with Brandon Stahl on his reporting and barriers he faced).
The public (until the Safe Passage Report) knew only what intrepid reporters were able to gather.
Prior to this report, no one knew that 200 children died at the hands of their parents while in CPS.
This is a national issue that hides the need for resources and policy change in CPS.
Note: MN’s statutory definition for torture has five must be met specifications (barriers) that pretty much guarantee that “almost no” MN children are recorded as tortured. Eric Dean was tortured, almost all the children in the Safe Passage Report were tortured. In my work as a CASA volunteer Guardian ad Litem almost all fifty of the children I helped remove from imminent harm had been tortured. Almost all of my kids suffered violent life changing assault or years of either rape, starvation, physical and mental assault before being saved by CPS. The WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION’s definition of torture, “Extended exposure to violence and deprivation” would double caseloads and require increasing resources to manage the additional children.
There is overwhelming evidence that living with severe and repeated trauma changes the brain causing lifelong behavioral damage that keep children from achieving the life the rest of us live.
This article was prompted by the fine reporting of James Walsh and his article on 26 seniors dying in assisted living by maltreatment.
https://www.startribune.com/how-many-minnesotans-die-in-assisted-living-facilities-due-to-alleged-maltreatment-state-lacks-data-totaling-deaths/601207788
An outcry over 26 maltreatment deaths in assisted living and nothing for the 200 children killed at the hands of their parents while in CPS is an egregious mistake by a public and its lawmakers. The cost to society of underserving the almost 8 million children reported to CPS annually is having horrendous impact on our communities and this will only worsen as more and more damaged children become troubled youth and adults in years to come.
INVISIBLE CHILDREN book Their Stories Mike Tikkanen
The lack of record keeping or transparency reflects badly on this agency.
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kids at risk action / KARA / invisible children
