On June 28, 2001, I wrote a commentary about the case of the small toddler who died a tortuous death by the hands of a drug addict’s boyfriend. This coward broke this child’s arm, stuffed socks into his mouth to muffle the terrified toddler’s cries of pain, slapped his face until his nose and mouth bled, shot rubber bands at his genitals and tied his wrists and ankles to keep him still. Blistering wounds formed, never healed and finally stopped when his painful death occurred some two months later.

Today, February 5, 2003, I read the same story. This coward is finally on trial and his girlfriend is testifying against him for a reduced charge. She’s a victim because he threatened her? She’s a victim because of her past? My father was severely abused, lived very poorly on a farm in Missouri and his total life was devoted to children and their well being. Let’s not forget that she lived with this man freely, and also bore him two children. Let’s not forget the fact that she witnessed the fear, terror and pain this child suffered. She had many opportunities to take this child to a doctor for medical treatment…fact is that she was actually in a drive through at a fast food restaurant when this child stopped breathing. I was disgusted that she actually screamed at the murderer during the trial as though he was the only “monster” in this case. We live in a society that makes many excuses and holds little accountability. This woman, the child’s mother, and the boyfriend should be held totally accountable for the murder and torture of this small child.
We make conscious choices in our lives. This child could have been abandoned on someone’s steps and would have been better cared for. Instead, his mother, who was going to jail because of her drug usage, chose to leave her child with drug addicts, friends of hers.

One wonders, who we should blame for the death of this child. The mother? In a roundabout manner, she played a significant role in the safety and in the death of this helpless child. When the mother of this child got out of jail for her drug arrest, did she put out a missing persons report when she could not find her child? Did she go to the police? The answer is no. Still, we only charge the caretakers for murder – one pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter for standing by and watching the torture and murder of this child – actions that could have been stopped many times.

The other will stand trial for murder.
Any charges against the mother for placing her child in danger? How many drug addicts do you know who are caring, loving parents? Who protect their children first and foremost? Their only goal in life is to get another fix or welfare check to buy more drugs. I know hundreds of people raising their grandchildren because their children are drug addicts and their grandchildren had to be placed in protective custody. If the mother is not held accountable to some degree in this tragic case, how then, can a bartender be charged with a crime when he serves one too many drinks to a patron and that patron gets involved in a vehicle accident? Or a tobacco industry be charged with the deaths of smokers who voluntarily bought cigarettes and smoked for years? Or how can a man get 4 years prison for throwing a dog onto the freeway to be run over and die? Our laws are not just, nor are they fair.
No matter how you cut it, this child was doomed to die. Hundreds of splinter groups talk about child abuse prevention throughout our country. They offer programs to educate people in dealing with children and how to handle their anger problems, how to parent, how to prepare food, and the list goes on and on. However, these suggestions will not help the bullies out there, be it parents, relatives or friends, who only want to hurt children. Nothing helps these people but hard time.

While this case is going on, there are numerous others taking place in our county. The small boy whose parents held him in scalding water and took him to Mexico where he received no medical treatment for weeks. There are numerous foster parents caring for small infants with numerous broken bones, drug addictions because they were “marinated” in methamphetamines while their mothers were carrying them, and those in intensive care units because of other injuries.

Recently, my partner received a call from a congressman’s office in Portland, Oregon, regarding letters she’d been sending around, addressing concerns about human rights violations committed against our nation’s children. When she suggested several options to improve the safety of children, the aid responded that the ‘federal government generally does not get involved in situations unless they are of grave importance or a crisis has already happened or is imminent’

‘You mean like the attack on American soil on September 11th?’ she inquired further, keeping her voice as low as possible. ‘yes, exactly!’ the Aide replied, doing her best to sound polite. ‘Well…’ Anne continued, ‘what if all four airplanes from 9/11, both towers and the pentagon had been filled with children and their parents had been at the controls?’ in a shocked voice, the aide exclaimed, ‘my god, that would be terrible! But quite impossible.’ to which Anne responded, ‘well, you are not quite correct. In fact, you would need to take that number of victims and double it - because that is the approximate number of children who are killed by their parent/caregiver each year, in America. And that number is only increasing. ‘ Naturally, the Congressional Aide didn’t care to discuss it further.
Economics of Child abuse

The amount of money spent on child abuse in America is mind boggling. The costs are both related and unrelated and affect nearly every faction of society. In general, the expenses related to administration of abuse prevention programs are funded through allocations to individual states where jurisdiction takes over. With increasing regularity, the funding for such programs have been cut or reduced from budgets even though the percentages of abuse continues to rise. (in fact, many studies indicate that less than 50 % of incidents are ever reported) What is the true cost of child abuse and how to go about preserving society as a whole, while ensuring the safety of the child?

1. 20 % of children who are battered as children with or without intervention, will go on to serve prison sentences. Again as previously stated, more than 90 % of inmates in prison today were abused as children. The cost of incarceration for a 20 year sentence runs, on average, $1,520,000 per prisoner.

2. Further costs include the drain on the health care system for the following areas; hospitalization, lab costs, x-rays, mental health professionals, CASA professionals, pharmaceuticals, emergency room visits, drop in clinic visits, outpatient services, chemical dependency programs, federally/state funded abortion services, legal advocacy costs, loss of productivity to the economy (victims experience greater degrees of unemployment, issues with self confidence, rage and helplessness)

3. More than 50 % of children who are fatally beaten are already operating within the children’s services system. What this spells out is that reunification is dangerous to kids who must live in the homes and to society who must continue to pick up the tab for irresponsible parenting choices and irresponsible system control over the issue as a whole. First of all, child abuse is a crime. It’s a crime against the child and that carries costs of related issue to society that measure in the hundreds of millions annually to the taxpayer. Why is this? We aren’t diagnosing properly and the cycle is like a large flammable snowball that continues to build, ignite, creating damage around it and then rolling forward, only to continue to grow. Violence begets violence and the ultimate price comes in two forms 1) loss of the child and

2) higher crime rate tomorrow

For example - many professionals throughout society believe that sex offenders should be rehabilitated, given second, third, fourth and fifth chances to ‘change their ways’ and be integrated into society. Common sense has told us otherwise, as has hundreds of studies that indicate that sex offenders are not able to be rehabilitated and that it is not even a crime of sex but one of power. Meaning, castration does not even ensure safety of society as the offender will look for an object to offend with. It’s a crime of power and the power is that over a child who is defenseless. Point is, until society understands this as a whole, we will continue to let sex offenders free from prison after their sentences and they will live in society as our neighbors, sometimes employees, friends and often in positions that hide their obsessive side until it ultimately resurfaces again. And it will…but who will they turn on? Your child? Mine? Who can tell? It’s not an ailment that can be cured and as such, we must treat it as deadly to society as it is. The cost to society of the actions of a re-offender is in the hundreds of millions annually. Kids who are beaten, sexually abused, ignored or mistreated in other ways often become tomorrow’s juveniles who clog up the legal system with petty crimes and other justice malfunctions. Those same children often will float in and out of the system only to eventually commit a crime heinous enough to ensure them a safe haven for 20 years - as a stint in prison. This is the ultimate price as the early treatment costs the child their freedom to thrive as a rights bearing child prior to growing into a productive adult and it costs society the costs related to advocacy costs, hospital visits, foster care costs, mental health visits, later on, more legal costs (but this time not as advocacy costs but defense expenses) mental health costs, more medical costs and then the expense of prison. Child abuse is more than abuse to a child and the destruction of the family - it’s also a slow growing financial cancer to our communities and the more we ignore the problem, the larger it will grow and fester until it’s no longer manageable at all.

You might be wondering what you can do, at this point. The problem may seem huge and you might feel a little helpless and bewildered. Don’t. There is plenty you can do and with everyone doing their part, their share, we can save a child’s life.

1. Learn as much as possible about the reality of child abuse and allow the facts to slowly sink in and become a part of your understanding. Read the rest of this report, in small portions, if you must digest it slowly.

2. Write your congress people and let them know that you want the system to change for children. At the end of this report, we will provide legislative suggestions that would be instrumental in helping facilitate change. You may contact us at annieh@viclink.com or janealvarez@cs.com for suggestions, dialogue, etc.

3. When you suspect a child is at risk, please go outside of your comfort zone and say something. Don’t make a phone call to police and assume that everything will be ok…it usually isn’t. You must follow up daily with further phone calls and make sure that everyone understands that you mean business. When you voice a concern to the police department, also call social services, the school that the child goes to, the daycare that the child goes to, the chief of police and the mayor of the town - seriously, put the community on notice that you feel in your gut that something is up. Never make one phone call and assume it will be taken care of. This is one area of society where a little bit of outrage will go a long way toward solutions. Make a stink, it may save a child.

4. Consider getting involved by volunteering your time or your resources. Visit us at www.americanchild.com and see what you can do to help.

Jane LeMOND Alvarez