Children holding signs advocating for children's rights and voices.

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. 

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.

Children of diverse backgrounds holding hands around Earth.

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

A young girl with messy hair looks sad in front of a blackboard with emotional writing.

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…

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).

A red wagon with white wheels parked on grass near trees.

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…

Person standing beside Minnesota Correctional Facility sign in Shakopee.

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.

A surreal book scene with a man fishing on an open book's pages.

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.

A woman with a serious expression holds up her hand as a stop gesture.

It Can’t Happen Here (Sally’s Story)

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Their stories

This had to have been one of the most detailed Childline referrals the county had ever seen, not to mention Sally had a wonderful, dedicated psychiatrist. As the time went by, the treatment team eagerly awaited the results of her abuse referral, as she had won over the hearts of all the hospital staff and we all wanted to see her safe and free from harm.

The referral came back as unfounded.

Due to her intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities, she was deemed in-credible.

A woman with a serious expression holds up her hand as a stop gesture.

Child Abuse & Soul Murder (chapter 2)

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

I’ve come to know 50 beautiful babies and children that have had their souls murdered.

All fifty of my caseload children lived with chronic and serious beatings, rape, starvation and neglect repeatedly over a period of years.

They all died a tragic death of self.

Some watched their mothers being beaten or raped repeatedly, others were beaten, neglected or raped repeatedly.  Some of them were regular drug users by 8 or 9 years old.

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Lawsuits and the Death of Two Year Old Arianna Hunziker

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

Arianna was wrapped in sheets, left alone in a closed room and slowly starved to death. Foster parents Sherrie and Bryce Dirk will go to prison for murdering Arianna. This solves nothing.

There is something terribly disturbing about a State sanctioned foster family starving a 3 year old State Ward child to death that needs to see the light of day.

Arianna must not have had a County social worker (today’s Star Tribune article …

Person standing next to Minnesota Correctional Facility sign.

Restorative Justice – Veterans & Children (saves money and lives)

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

Woo Hoo – MN passed a restorative justice act for veterans – diverting at-risk veterans toward probation and social service programs instead of jail time when they commit certain crimes.

Why wouldn’t we?

The World Health Organization defines torture as extended exposure to violence and deprivation. Living in a war zone, bombs going off nearby or a buddy shot dead in front of you changes the brain.

Most of us want soldiers that have experienced traumas in the service of this nation to be treated for their mental health issues and have a path to rebuild their lives as productive citizens.

Facebook Replacing Mandated Reporters for Child Abuse?

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

40-day old Aiden Braden’s mother Kristina reported Aiden’s death on Facebook 38 days after social workers had responded to a child abuse hotline in Tollhouse California.  Only after Aiden died did the County workers visit the home and remove Aiden’s twin brother.

Kristina Braden had already lost custody of her 3 oldest children because of her drug addiction and a long history of child neglect.

Blaming social workers for not physically intervening when they were in lockdown solves nothing.

Book cover titled 'Childhood Made Crazy' by Eric Maisel.

What’s It Like?

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

For a teenager at home with your laptop and 7th grade course work with too many people making too much noise or drunk uncle William downstairs screaming at the TV set?

If your mom and dad are fighting and the atmosphere is toxic?

or your uncle is hurting you?

Can safety be found?

Can I call for help?

What if you are a single working parent or two parents working and no child care and no money and spending long days and troubling nights wondering about safety, food, the next day, next week and what’s next.

A young child with a bruised and swollen face.

The Cost of Saving Money

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

at the time, argued that subsidized daycare was unnecessary (like bus service and bridge maintenance—his words) and he diverted all the money allocated to subsidized daycare for poor families and children into a “general fund.”

The waiting list for low-cost daycare climbed from 34 to over 7,000 families. People quit applying.

My state was saving money at the expense of 1- and 2-year-olds. Drunk uncles and boyfriends became daycare providers overnight, and terrible things happen to children when that occurs…
“What we do to our children, they will do to society” (Pliny the Elder 2000 years ago)

Silhouettes of a family with two adults and one child.

Sad Stories June 2019 (III – child suicide)

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Mental Health + Over Medication, Reporting and News - US Based, The States

The National Poison Data System, researchers found more than 1.6 million cases of 10- to 24-year-olds attempting to kill themselves by poisoning from 2000 to 2018. More than 70% of the suicide attempts by poisoning were in young women.

U.S. youth emergency psychiatric hospitalizations and suicide attempts are escalating at alarming rates.

Among children between the ages of 5 and 17, annual emergency department encounters for suicidal ideations and attempts have more than doubled from 2008 (0.66%) to 2015 (1.82%)7. That equates to an increase of 35,266 encounters for SI or SA during the period of 2008-11 to 80,590 encounters from 2012-2015.