AMERICA’S CHILDREN IN 100 CHARTS (read book draft)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Featured Articles, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, KARA News and Events, Mental Health + Over Medication, Reporting and News - US Based

This is a book about childhood trauma, its impact on children and the impact traumatized youth are having on our communities and society. It is a guide to seeing and dealing with the most critical issues and causes of abuse, and solutions.

What Child Protection Means In Minnesota

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child self harm and suicide, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

From Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota today; This Peabody Award Winning video documents the critical issues that lead to the gruesome murder of 6 year old Eli Hart and dangers facing all of Minnesota’s abused and neglected children. 

Hundreds of children have died while known to Child Protective Services. Some have been tortured over time. Many more children have suffered years of  trauma as the institution standards and practices of CPS have deteriorated.

There are no metrics or reporting made available about children’s suffering at the hands of their caregivers or the self-harm or suicide attempts of traumatized kids in the system.

Minnesota Children Killed By Caregivers While Known to CPS (& how to stop it)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

 There is a real lack of data and transparency in CPS which makes it hard to know outcomes short of child death.
72% of of the 88 child maltreatment deaths studied (complete study below) were known to CPS. We do know that there were many reports of life changing violence, neglect and abuse but few follow ups. 

Child Suicides, Self Harm & Statistics

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Mental Health + Over Medication

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association have joined forces to declare a national emergency in children’s mental health, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today’s declaration is an urgent call to policymakers at all levels of government — we must treat this mental health crisis like the emergency it is,” said AAP President Lee Savio Beers, MD, in a statement.

A Modest Proposal (satire & similarities)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

300 years ago, an Irish Minister wrote an explosive satire that was misinterpreted by many readers of his day (printed in its entirety below). In a gruesome and widely read logical argument, Swift offered a plan that would relieve the suffering of Irish families and their youngest children…

Back in the day, these writings were the modern equivalent of you tube or a precursor to Twitter and consumed voraciously by all who could read (or read them to others).

Public policy treated poor Irish more like animals than people and Irish children were doomed to lives of crime, prostitution, and abject poverty.

Was Swift’s underlying argument that death might be preferable to children doomed to disease, crime, prostitution, & the cruelties suffered by abandoned children of his time?

Suicidal Children & Hospital Beds

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child self harm and suicide, Mental Health + Over Medication

For every six-year old foster child’s successful suicide (Kendrea Johnson), there are hundreds of attempts and many hundreds of self-harming incidents in hospitals and Child Protective Services (CPS) – many if not most of these incidents are never reported.

For every child killed while in child protection (recent Safe Passage investigative study of child maltreatment deaths) there are hundreds of children starved, beaten, raped and otherwise abused that  are never known outside the home

5 Month Old Aaliya Goodwin Death & Why From Safe Passage For Children Investigation

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Children's Rights, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

Aaliya Goodwin. This is one of the 88 stories of children dying at the hands of their caregivers reported in the recent Safe Passage For Children investigation of child death in Minnesota. The report suggests why this tragedy is happening in our state and how we can make life safer for at risk children (in…

Eli Hentges – 1 of 88 Stories of Child Death at the Hands of Caregivers

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Children's Rights, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

Eli Hentges. This is one of the 88 stories of children dying at the hands of their caregivers reported in the recent Safe Passage For Children investigation of child death in Minnesota. The report suggests why this tragedy is happening in our state and how we can make life safer for at risk children (in the read more at the end of the article). Please share this with your contacts and State Representative.

8 Year-Old Tayvion Davis Death & Why (from the Safe Passage Investigative Report)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

This is one of the 88 stories of children dying at the hands of their caregivers reported in the recent Safe Passage For Children investigation of child death in Minnesota. The report suggests why this tragedy is happening in our state and how we can make life safer for at risk children (in the read more at the end of the article). Please share this with your contacts and State Representative.
Tayvion Davis, Hennepin County

If You Live In MN You Should Do This

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, KARA News and Events, Reporting and News - MN Specific

The Safe Passage Report on Child Maltreatment Deaths is a remarkable report – not in a good way. It demonstrates how common it is for Minnesota children to die from abuse in the home even after they have become known to CPS. This report is still only the the tip of the horrors facing abused children as;

DHS did not cooperate with the investigator,
Four counties did not respond,
Child deaths reported were only those that had court filings or had been reported in the media

2 Year-Old Sophia O’Neill Death & Why (from the Safe Passage Investigative Report)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Reporting and News - US Based, Their stories

This is one of the 88 stories of children dying at the hands of their caregivers reported in the recent Safe Passage For Children investigation of child death in Minnesota. The report suggests why this tragedy is happening in our state and how we can make life safer for at risk children (in the read more at the end of the article). Please share this with your contacts and State Representative. Sophia O’Neill, Hennepin County

If You Live In MN This Simple Act Can Help At Risk Children

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, KARA News and Events, Reporting and News - MN Specific

If you read this blog, you know how hard it is for Minnesota’s abused and neglected children to find the help they need to thrive. If you have not read the investigative report of child fatalities known to CPS by Safe Passages for Children of MN, please read it here. Pages 22+ tells the sad…

2 year-old Lylah Koob’s Death & Why (from the Safe Passage Report)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Their stories

This is one of the 88 stories of children dying at the hands of their caregivers reported in the recent Safe Passage For Children investigation of child death in Minnesota. The report suggests why this tragedy is happening in our state and how we can make life safer for at risk children (in the read more at the end of the article). Lylah Koob, Goodhue County

The Real World of Child Abuse (statistics)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

There is more to child abuse than bruises, rape and starvation.

27 states allow withholding life saving medical treatment from children if you tell people your religion forbids it . Criminal and civil immunity means it is not murder when the child dies.

A few years ago, Kansas State Rep Gail Finney vowed to pass a bill that allowed caregivers to leave bruises and cause bleeding. Arkansas State Rep Charles Fuqua promoted the death penalty for rebellious children (based on religious grounds).

MN Child Fatalities From Safe Passages Reporting

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Children's Rights, Reporting and News - MN Specific

CONTACT:  Rich Gehrman, Executive Director, Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota (651) 303-3209; gehrm001@umn.edu  Report documents multiple systemic failures in cases Of Minnesota children killed due to maltreatment  8 YEAR OLD AUTUMN HALLOW’S MURDER (KSTP video)   Minnesota Child Fatalities from Maltreatment 2014 – 2022 Executive Summary From the report; This study of children who died in…

Metrics of Minnesota’s Child Protection (what does your state measure?)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, Reporting and News - MN Specific

Recent Star Tribune articles about juvenile justice and explosive growth of crime in our community miss the heart of the matter. We keep putting fires out that could have been prevented. The car jackings, transit crimes and other juvenile violence making life miserable for so many of us didn’t begin when these children became juveniles. It started with traumas suffered in the home mostly caused by parents that suffered the same violence and abuse as children.

Florida’s Child Protection System Today (it can’t happen here?)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Juvenile + Criminal Justice, Mental Health + Over Medication, Reporting and News - US Based

“I’m not for killing kids and stuff” (officer Omar Bellow). For eight seconds officers fired 66 rounds from Glock service weapons towards the children. You can read the NY Times article details here. There is nothing easy about being in law enforcement in America today (or teaching, or social work, health services or child care). The numbers of seriously troubled youth are off the charts and so many children have serious often violent behavior problems. 

Trauma, Children & Overwhelmed ER’s in Minneapolis

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Mental Health + Over Medication, Reporting and News - MN Specific

Fairview Masonic Children’s hospital has been overwhelmed with 145 emergency pediatric psych cases since September. A makeshift shelter in an ambulance garage is all that’s available at Fairview Masonic to protect children suffering from the traumas of child abuse and homelessness.

Foster Care vs Dog Care (Reimbursements)

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths

For decades foster families have found most states unwilling to cover the costs of caring for the poor kids placed in care because of abuse and neglect.

In about half the States, kennelling/dog boarding pays more dollars than fostering a child. Dogs don’t need diapers or the near constant attention a troubled youth from Child Protective services does.

People food is also more expensive than dog food. Dogs don’t need shoes or shirts or money for “things” that children need and do.

Kamari Gholston’s Death & Child Protection in MN

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - MN Specific

Star Tribune’s Investigative journalist Paul Walsh coverage of toddler Kamari Gholston’s death today shines a light on the importance of public understanding and support for Child Protective Services in our state. 

Kamari’s death resembles Eric Dean’s case of 2014. Except Kamari…