Fewer children are entering the foster care system during the pandemic.
This is not because there is less child abuse and trauma.
Families are more stressed than before COVID.
Drug and alcohol use, domestic violence and child abuse are up because of this.
The following information is gathered from local MN news sources over the last 60 days.
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues
These are just a sampling of the articles appearing in local media in our state the last few months
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.
The nightmare of George Floyd’s murder and the burning, street violence and social upheaval continuing as this already too hot summer gets underway is raining down extra hard on children already suffering the traumas of toxic circumstances.
Closed schools locked abused children with their abusive caregivers.
This additional social violence creates more fear, pain and stress that leads to more drug & alcohol use & more domestic violence, more trauma and less escape from it.
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues
providing a passionate voice for Minnesota’s at risk children
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
It is not maltreatment, the word maltreatment does not describe traumatic violence to a child – to a child, the trauma of watching your mother being beaten or raped is very much the same as being beaten or raped – being left in a crib alone for days at a time with no touching, no food or love is also a trauma that lasts forever.
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues
providing a passionate voice for at risk children
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
Kids At Risk Action writes and reports on child abuse issues & provides a passionate voice for at risk children All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children Support KARA’s Public Service Announcements KARA Signature Video (4 minute) Public Service Announcement( 30 Second) Struggling families in America have never had it easy. The stresses of…
28 states place children in the adult criminal justice system, 25% of pit youth are charged as adults, 30% of our youth are arrested by 23rd birthday
Teachers, social workers, law enforcement and foster/adoptive parents dealing with State Ward children are often the last chance that a child has to grow up to lead a normal life.
Imagine as a child, living in a home where every day there is forced sex or beatings by adults. Mom is a teen or preteen parent with a violent boyfriend, mental health issues and no parenting skills.
This is America’s generational child abuse problem.
Mom, and mom’s mom also came from abusive homes. It’s their normal.
In America today, children have no federal rights except under the “doctrine of imminent harm” which allows the child to be taken from the family if the child’s life is endangered by the parent. For the most part, being responsible for killing your own child, unless it’s for religious reasons it is against the law.
At least 30 states still allow parents to withhold lifesaving medical care to their children for religious reasons and children do die because of it. This may sound hyperbolic, but if you did withhold lifesaving medical care in a state that did not allow it for religious reasons, you’d be charged with killing your child. Parents have all the rights and children have no voice except for the guardian ad litem that speaks for them.
Because schools are closed, after-school activities are canceled and churches aren’t having youth groups and community activity with trusted adults outside the home have evaporated – the chances an abused child can find help to interrupt abuse in the home are dramatically reduced.
Add to that, families living with troubled children are finding the COVID environment much harder now.
More anxiety, substance abuse and family violence are happening because of lost jobs and the 24/7 close quarters of people locked into toxic homes because of the pandemic.
Every state is struggling with child protection, domestic violence and foster care. What’s it like to be a foster child or a foster parent in your state? The following articles are arranged by state. Check out your state here;
Today’s Safe Passage short post about the impact of poverty and racism on children hits the nail on the head. Decades and generations of children living without enough to eat, access to health and mental health care and all the stress that accompanies people in fear of homelessness and hunger.
Does you community accept young children being expelled from daycare and elementary school? The violence and trauma visited upon us at this time is a direct result of how America treats its children. Life would be way better for all of us if we cared more for other people’s children.
California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris has declared Adverse Childhood Experiences a public health problem and public school crisis in her state.
Posts & Video From ACEs Connection (+trauma informed resources for Covid19 quarantine)
speaking on critical issues impacting abused and neglected children for many years.
Shelter In Place locks abused children in toxic homes
With no escape to the safety of a classroom
Domestic violence is rising and law enforcement & social workers are having a hard time keeping up.
CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES & STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE DURING COVID19
Shelter In Place locks abused children in toxic homes
With no escape to the safety of a classroom
Domestic violence is rising and law enforcement & social workers
are having a hard time keeping up.
CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES & STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE DURING COVID19
Do parents have a constitutional right to care for their children without interference from the courts or community? Because the U.S. has never ratified the United Nation’s Rights of the Child Treaty (the only nation in the world not to do so), American children have no voice in their homes, the courts, the media or the legislature.
Today, the Covid19 pandemic is keeping social workers from in person visits and there is no classroom for a child to escape to with a personal connection to a caring adult. This Article from Safe Passage for Children of MN should frighten us all.
What’s it like for stressed out families living with the profound and immediate changes that keep our children out of school, parents out of work and the pervasive fear of the Covid19 virus?
Social distancing, stay at home orders and fear are driving up 911 calls and police departments are having a hard time responding adequately. In France, the government is paying for hotel rooms for victims of domestic violence and providing pop-up counseling centres due to the soaring numbers of abuse calls…
There are a lot of injuries, a lot of abuse. The most significant thing is the psychological death of so many of these kids. Kids are being destroyed every day, destroyed by a government-funded system set out to help them.
What does it take for a child to find refuge in Louisiana? Will the state execute the boy (he is being tried as an adult & Texas has ignored a federal ban on executing the mentally incompetent).
What would you say to the 12 year old boy who told you how he plans to suicide by cop? Or to the mother of the young girl you speak for in court that told her child “I wish you’d never been born”?
Words don’t come easy.
This survey of 12,000 LGBTQ youth identifies the extreme stress, anxiety, rejection and overwhelming feeling of danger these children grow up with.
These videos are disturbing but accurate. Not knowing cannot help the state ward children of Florida (the password is “foster”). What we know, we can change. What we don’t know, gets worse until we do know.
Florida To Completely Privatize Juvenile Correctional Facilities. In an effort to reduce costs, Florida’s state-run residential programs for juveniles will soon be completely privatized. … About 95 percent of Florida’s youth residential facilities for underaged offenders are now privately run.
Watching mom beaten or raped is terror. Homeless mothers and children are many times more likely to be assaulted and molested.
Children of addicted and alcoholic moms and dads are beaten and raped more often too.
Trauma is *torture. Watching mom being raped is torture.
Get the crash course on child abuse in America
& Advocate for At Risk Children
Until January 15th,
KARA is offering;
The INVISIBLE CHILDREN book
(hardcover, pdf, CD, online or e-book)
plus either the Give Kids A Voice
Ladies Tee Shirt, or Boy/Mens T shirt
or the
3 Ply Mask, or an Activity Mask,
For a $10/month online donation to support KARA’s mental health initiative for youth.
Let’s stamp out homelessness for 2 year old children. .
Let’s change the sad fact that children in many third world nations stand a better change of being vaccinated against preventable deadly diseases than U.S. kids…
Make a resolution to support reading programs and mental health programs that teach children how to cope with their surroundings and insure that they can read by the third grade. This will have a great and positive impact on graduation rates, crime rates, and the overall safety and happiness of our communities.
Le’t’s resolve to promote good public health programs and reduce the prevalence of sexually transmitted disease among our youth (we lead the world in this realm).
Overall, we need to recognize the value of children in our society. As Pliny said 2500 years ago, “What we do to our children, they will do to society”.
Read David Strands Early Childhood Education Manifesto below, it is a first rate strategy for saving the next generation in America;
Guardian ad litem program needs volunteers in Anderson area Anderson Independent Mail Trained volunteers in the Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem Program helped more than 10000 abused or neglected South Carolina children last year, and the numbers will probably be even higher this year, according to officials. …
Addressing Generational Child Abuse As A Public Health Issue (14 minute video) & how to heal damaged children to make our communities happy and safe again
Take a moment and share your response to KARA’s short video overview of child abuse & child protection in America as an online comment to this post or by email; info@invisiblechildren.org.
As of early 2016, Minnesota had 7,200 children on its waiting list for child care assistance.
There are 1.3 million children In Minnesota & 404,000 of them live below 200% of poverty
Volunteer: Be the voice for a child that doesn’t have one! (Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area OPPORTUNITIES)
One hundred and seventy five Hennepin County children are without a guardian ad litem today – WE NEED VOLUNTEERS.
Do you know any? Send this to a friend and share it with your social media.
With the response to recent reporting of child abuse and child death in MN, a corresponding increase of child abuse cases are entering the system & means that volunteers are badly needed.
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
Recent Minnesota child abuse / child protection issues
This reporting over the last 45 days is a fraction of
the child death in our communities today
Signup for KARA’s Weekly News Updates &
share this with your friends and networks
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
After a 9 day trial, foster mom Melissa Sondrol was convicted of of assaulting her infant state ward child, breaking multiple bones and withholding medical information from providers. The court was not allowed to hear her prior histories of abuse. This infant has suffered for years in MN and will live a life very different from other children due to the traumas visited upon him as a foster child – and the things that happened to him prior to entering child protection.
Stories about the shortage of foster care providers, lack of training and resources and transparency within the system are not uncommon – remember, we only read about the very worst cases – the sadness in foster care goes much deeper.
DJ Tice Star Tribune article recently made crime very real by describing his wife’s rape, his own assault and home burglary along with the awful Barry Latzer assumption that 80% of Americans could become victims of a violent crime in their lifetime.
No obfuscation here.
Crime hurts when it happens to you or someone you love.
What best should be done about crime and punishment is our national conundrum.
Damn the data, “hanging’s too good for em’ and “lock em up” our national chant for fifty years bringing us such data as;
News and stories from around the U.S. from June and July 2019. Find your CASA news here;
These recent stories, statistics & videos represent the state of foster care in America today and what it is like for a child to be a Ward of the State in your State;
Dropping napalm on children and families in Vietnam (PBS video) was an unforgivable evil. Thousands of small children died by napalm.
Burned alive is the most painful death anyone can suffer. Survivors live with scars and trauma that never end.
Today, my government takes helpless babies & children from parents and places them in the custody of money driven defense contractors who warehouse them in cages at vacant shopping centers by the thousands.
The American Psychological Association condemns this act as needlessly cruel threatening “the mental and physical health of both the children and their caregivers”.
*Torturing immigrant children for political reasons is a vile act and it needs to be called out. *The World Health Organization defines torture as “extended exposure to violence and deprivation”.
The State of Minnesota forcibly closed the privatized group home at St Cloud for repeated violations including head banging that caused concussions & sex in front of staff.
Children don’t have a voice in the homes they live in, the media, or in the courts. Speak for an abused child in court and give that child a chance to be heard as a CASA guardian ad litem volunteer. Come learn about what it takes and how it works to stand up for a frightened abused child in the court system.
current news about at risk children bringing transparency and attention to our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
Jerry Lee Curry is going to prison after proving that he could torture children in a wealthy progressive city right for ten years right under our noses.
A combination of about 100 police calls and child abuse reports were made to his home where his 3 young girls were beaten, raped, impregnated and tortured (not far from where I live).
We all look to the government to provide support in order to protect our children.
Eshanee’s reporting points to a disturbing trend of state inaction in preventing or even intervening in child welfare violations.
To hold our governments accountable and to ensure the well-being of children, more of us need to
contact our local politicians and policy makers and make our concerns known.
Children have no voice in politics, law or the media.
We must be relentless to effect change.
Be the Squeaky Wheel for Children
You can help vulnerable Minnesota children today by clicking and sending a message of support to your elected Representative and Senator regarding the following child welfare legislation.
Please help. It only takes a few minutes to make a big difference!
This is unlike any other volunteer experience. The impact you can have on a child’s life is tremendous. Currently, there are hundreds of children in Hennepin County alone, waiting for a GAL, their spokesperson, their advocate.
Thank you for your interest in — and for considering advocating for — the abused and neglected children in our community! We look forward to seeing you and please feel free to invite others!
Only the worst child abuse is reported
Most child child trauma and torture is not discovered
Find your state & resources here;
Most child suicide is under reported & obfuscated
Find your state, reporting & resources here…
TAt a Governor’s Task Force Oversight Meeting (on Child Protection in MN in 2014) the head of Hennepin County Commissioners Jan Callison showed genuine anger and concern when she found out* that Social workers weren’t available on weekends or evenings for abused and neglected children and that she directed the department to “fix it”.
While the rest of the industrialized world is busy using public policy to make quality education, health & child care affordable for all, America has doubled down on commercializing prisons, group homes & schools and making health care a
This KARA post from 2005 suggests a significant improvement in graduation rates in Minneapolis schools. No Child Left Behind really did leave behind a great many children.
From our 2005 piece;
Roosevelt High school graduated 28% of its students last year—Minneapolis and other big city schools averaged graduation rates between 50% and 60% nationwide. 25% of graduating U.S. high school seniors are functionally illiterate.
Teachers and school administrators are accused of bad stewardship. That is like blaming the police for who sits in the back seat of a squad car. It’s not their fault.We are all in this together, or as Pliny the elder said 2500 years ago, “what we do to our children, they will do to our society”
KARA gathers news about abused abused children in America and around the world to provide a snapshot of Child Protection and how states and nations value their children.
Kids At Risk Action needs an aspiring writer/research to help gather and report on these stories.
If you are an aspiring writer/researcher with an urge to speak for your communities abused and neglected children,
Contact mike@invisiblechildren.org with REPORTING in the subject line.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
The U.S. rates badly among industrialized nations in how we treat and value children. America is the only nation in the world to not sign the International Rights of the Child Treaty.
Today’s post by Safe Passage for Children of MN shows how badly our state compares to the rest of the nation in protecting at risk children.
“What we do to our children they will do to society”.
This statement is as true today as it was 2000 years ago when Pliny the Elder made it.
All Adults Are the Protector of All Children