Jonathan’s Gift

Jonathan’s Gift

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During the course of one year I lost my only child to violence, my youngest brother to the ravages of illness and a grandmother to time. I survived these tragedies a better, stronger, and more determined person, because I was nurtured by the grace of angels.

The hand of God touched me on the day Polly was born. The first time I held her in my arms I experienced the power of unconditional love. This perfect baby was mine, and I would love and protect her forever. For me, this was the miracle of birth.

I was fortunate that Polly was my companion on this earthly pilgrimage. The strength of her commitment enhanced my understanding of the human condition and provided me with clarity of vision. The depth of her emotion taught me that caring for others could strengthen my own self worth and expand my horizons beyond material values. The purity of her love defined her final act. She faced her worst fears with courage worthy of the most seasoned combat veteran. On shaky knees, as the devil was stealing her into the night, her final words were, “Please don’t hurt my mother and sister.” My greatest teacher was only twelve-years-old.

That night the angels dipped their wings over Petaluma and re-claimed one of their own. In life Polly shared her gifts with those who were touched by her presence, but in death she touched us all. The welfare of a little lost girl surmounted religious, ethnic and political barriers. Millions of eyes were looking for her and millions of hands were clasped in prayer for her safe return. Her presence on earth set a course that millions of years of evolution, thousands of years of legislation and hundreds of years of struggle and strife couldn’t accomplish. She brought us together as one. Those were Polly’s angels.

The nation rose like a phoenix in the wake of Polly’s tragedy and demanded answers. For sixty-five days we navigated the murky waters of despair toward a fate that tantalized us with glimmers of light, and then doused our hopes with uncertain veils of darkness. Finally the prayers of Polly’s angels were answered, but not as we expected. Polly’s unselfish bravery in the face of doom provided the target and her commitment of love gave us the weapon to use in the eternal struggle between good and evil. In bitter irony we discovered that in order to win the war, we sometimes have to lose a battle.

Seven months later I visited my brother Jonathan on his deathbed. He seemed to be recovering and was excited to see me. I held his hand as he told me the following story. “Earlier today Polly visited me. She fluttered above me like a butterfly on tiny wings. I asked her why her wings were so small? She said that it was because she wasn’t ready to go yet. Then Polly said, ‘Get ready Uncle Jonny, because you will be joining me soon and there are a great big pair of wings waiting for you.’ I asked her if I should hurry? Polly said, ‘No, Uncle Jon, you want your wings to get as big as they can, and together we will take a ride that is better than anything at Disneyland.” Two days later Jonathan died. Now he is with Polly on a fantastic voyage.

My grandmother was very old, bed ridden and fragile, so we didn’t tell her about either of these misfortunes. Besides, she was riding horses, and wanted to get to the top of the mountain where Polly was waiting for her and the sun was disappearing over the horizon. She is now with Polly, and the sun has set and I know something that I never realized before. The angel we were seeking was guiding us all along.

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Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen

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Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchenis a cookbook written by my friend Judy Witts Francini. Judy and I worked together at San Francisco’s Stanford Court Hotel in the mid 1980’s. When I moved to San Francisco during a difficult time in my life, I spent an awful lot of time at Judy and Cathy’s apartment, listening to punk rock, sipping Stoli and tasting Judy’s budding culinary creations. Judy began her culinary career as a pastry chef in California, but in 1984 declared that she was going to move to Italy to pursue her culinary aspirations and “find a real man”.
Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen is the culmination of more than two decades of total immersion into the cultural and gastronomical sensibility of Tuscany. This beautiful book contains nearly 100 of Judy’s favorite recipes which she also teaches at her culinary program Divina Cucina which is based in Florence. From Antipasti (appetizer) to Dolci (dessert), recipes are logically organized and each is paired with a note page so that you can apply and notate modifications to your own taste. Given that Violet and I are addicted to the Primo Piatto(first course) I return time again to Judy’s exquisite Naked Ravioli and outrageous Risotto.
Delight your friends and family with the fresh, creative, and beautiful dishes in Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen. Autographed copies of this fabulous cookbook, which I highly recommend, are available through Judy’s Divina Cucina website. If you are looking for last minute Christmas gifts that will wow and impress the recipients you cannot go wrong with Secrets from my Tuscan Kitchen!!!



Oh, and Judy had no trouble finding that “real” man she was seeking in 1984. She has been happily married to Andrea Francini for many years now.

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The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

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On October 11, 2011 five-year-old Jahessye (Jessie) Shockley seemingly fell of the face of the earth. One month later her mother Jerice Hunter stared into the lens of a television camera and declared, “Jahessye, mama coming to get you. Mama coming!”


America is in denial that evil exists in the hand that rocks the cradle. We prefer to think of our monsters as shrouded, faceless men lurking in the dark. However, a current case illustrate that as convenient as this perception may be, moms and dads can also be infected with anti-social impulses, destructive compulsions, and violent tendencies.

It was reported that Jahessye disappeared from the family home under the care of three siblings while her mother ran errands. There were no signs of forced entry so police initially believed that Jahessye had walked out through the front door and wandered away when no one was paying attention. A hastily issued Amber Alert and thorough search of her Glendale, Arizona neighborhood provided no leads to her whereabouts.

No suspect or person of interest was named, yet within days Jerice Hunter accused the authorities of unfairly focusing their investigation on her, because of her criminal past. Jerice’ mother Shirley Johnson further charged the police and media with racism, claiming that the case was not receiving much deserved attention because the little girl was black. On November 21, 2011 Jerice Hunter was arrested on child abuse charges directly related to Jahessye’s disappearance. The authorities announced that they do not expect to recover Jahessye alive.

In 2005 Jerice Hunter was charged with torturing another 7-year old daughter and causing corporal injury her other three children. Her mother Shirley Johnson told the police that Jerice whipped the child with an extension cord while the child was being held down by her husband, registered sex offender George Shockley. In 2006 torture charges were dropped in exchange for a “no contest” plea. Hunter was subsequently sentenced to 8-years in prison and denied her parental rights because she was considered a threat to the well being of her children. Jerice justified her criminal behavior by claiming that she had been abused as a child.

Jerice Hunter’s mother Shirley Johnson, the woman who taught Jerice how to discipline and abuse kids, received custody of the four children named in the criminal complaint. Little Jahessye, born shortly before her mother went to prison, was turned over to other relatives. Upon her release from custody four years later Jerice moved to Arizona where grandma Shirley decided to ‘reunite the family’ without going through legal proceedings. Upon an order from Phoenix Police little Jahessye was turned over to her mother in August, 2010. Jerice now had total control over the children she had gone to prison for abusing and the daughter who would disappear within the next ten months.

Jerice was eight months pregnant when Jahessye disappeared, so she was not allowed to take the polygraph she said would prove her innocence. By the time Jerice gave birth at the end of October, Arizona Child Protective Services (CPS) had removed the other three children from her custody and placed them in foster homes. They quickly did the same with her infant. Jerice now refuses to take a polygraph exam.

Once free of her mother’s control Jahessye’s thirteen-year-old sister told her foster mother that Jahessye was kept in a bedroom closet and deprived of food and water and that she had seen her with black eyes and bruises and cuts to her face and body. She also reported that clumps of Jahessye’s hair had been pulled out. She went on to say that Jahessye did not look alive, that she looked like a zombie and that the closet where Jahessye was kept looked like a grave and smelled like dead people.

The sister said that a few days before Jahessye was reported missing Jerice spent the entire day cleaning the apartment and cleaning her shoes from the closet with soap and bleach. The police found a receipt that showed Jerice bought a bottle of bleach two days before she reported Jahessye missing. Jerice was arrested for child abuse on November 21. She has since been released and has not been charged with Jahessye’s disappearance.

This case oozes deferred responsibility. It wasn’t Jerice Hunter’s fault that she tortured and abused her kids: after all, that’s how she was treated when she was a child. It’s not Phoenix PD’s fault that Jahessye was returned to her mother because children belong with their parents. California CPS wasn’t responsible for actions that took place in Arizona, and Arizona CPS couldn’t prove abuse despite numerous complaints and repeated reports documenting Jerice’s sad and sordid history with children.

The disappearance of Jahessye Shockley is a familial and institutional failure. Her mother has proven unfit time and time again. The court knew it, but failed to take appropriate action. Jerice Hunter had been reported to CPS more than once, yet they failed to take appropriate action. The police who ordered Jahessye return to her abusive mother now scramble to locate the little girl whose disappearance has rocked a community.

We only know two things for certain. Jahessye Shockley did not fall of the face of the earth, and her mother should never have been allowed to regain custody of her children.

One November 9, 2011Jerice Hunter stared into the lens of a television camera and declared, “Jahessye, mama coming to get you. Mama coming!”
Posted in Jahessye Shockley, missing children | Tagged | 4 Comments on The Hand that Rocks the Cradle

It Came From Hell!

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He’s only twenty-years-old, slight of frame, with a receding hairline and a bad complexion. His name is Ryan Brunn and he possesses qualities that are both unique and rare to mankind. He lacks conscience and receives great joy from inflicting pain and suffering upon others. Such great joy, in fact, that his most recent bloodlust was only satisfied after he had kidnapped, bludgeoned, raped, stabbed and murdered seven-year-old Jorelys Rivera. Then he disposed of her remains by tossing her into a dumpster, compacting her tortured little body and hoping that his crime would not be discovered. But it was.

Brunn was not regurgitated from Hell last Thursday so that he could attack little Jorelys on Friday. He had been preparing for his moment for two decades. As the authorities retrace the steps of his sordid life they will no doubt uncover other victims who were able to escape the full wrath of his budding sadism. The human victims may be able to assist in peeling back the layers of his grotesque life. Unfortunately, as they do so they will be forced to relive their own pain, suffering and extreme victimization. The animal victims will not. Perhaps it was while torturing and killing animals that he first became sexually aroused. If so, he would not be the first as this is a common trait among sexual sadists.  

Jorelys is not dead simply because Brunn wanted to eliminate witnesses to his rape. If it were that simple he would have strangled her to death. Instead he leveled incalculable violence upon her little body in the form of blunt force trauma and stab wounds. It was only in the throes of this massive perversion that he was able to achieve the sexual release that was the goal of his attack. Had he not been captured he would have repeated this scenario again…and again…and again ad nauseam.   

So, it is the memory of little Jorelys that will sustain him for the next several decades. He will sit in his cell and relive his greatest triumph through dreams, masturbation, and other facets of his twisted imagination. It is only the death of her victimizer that will finally free Jorelys from her ongoing victimization. When his eyes become as unblinking and unseeing as her, that Jorelys torment will finally end once and for all.

How do I know these things to be true? Fifteen years ago I spent six months sitting in a courtroom as prosecutors built the case against my daughter Polly’s killer. I listened to psychiatrist after psychologist detail the mind of a sexually sadistic psychopath. Their arguments were so convincing that he was sentenced to death. He still sits on death row and, as he told Psychiatrist Lewelen Jones, “Masturbates twice daily and thinks of tying up female victims of past crimes.” I can think of no better justification for the death penalty.
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The News of the World is Not All Bad

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Like the rest of the world I was appalled at the recent revelations about the phone hacking and illegal wiretapping scandals that have caused Great Britain’s News of the World (NOTW) to shut its doors. Members of senior staff have been arrested for criminal conspiracy and corruption charges. Allegations of bribing police officials, anti-competitive practices, computer and phone hacking among other charges have been leveled at News Corporation and its iconic Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Cell phone messages from celebrities, politicians, and members of the royal family were illegally accessed, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. However, the incident that really made my skin crawl was learning that thirteen-year-old kidnap and murder victim Milly Dowler’s cell phone account was manipulated by NOTW operatives leading her family and the police to believe that she was still alive. However, it is the NOTW response to another missing child case that I would like revisit.

On July 1, 2000, eight-year-old Sarah Payne disappeared from West Sussex, England. Seventeen days later Sarah’s remains were recovered from a cornfield about fifteen miles away in Pulborough. Convinced that their daughter had been the victim of a sex predator, Sarah’s parents Sara and Michael demanded changes that would be more protective of Great Britain’s children. The Payne’s then joined forces with leading tabloid newspaper News of the World to campaign for life-prison terms for child killers and public access to identifying information on Great Britain’s 110,000 registered sex offenders. The campaign became known as Sarah’s Law.

Utilizing its formidable resources and with broad public support, the newspaper launched a petition drive demanding public access to and longer sentences for convicted sex offenders. The NOTW then published the photographs and addresses of 50 known sex offenders. This action ignited vigilante reprisals despite appeals against violence.

Because of our work to legislate sex offender registration and community notification (Megan’s Law) in the United States, the NOTW contacted KlaasKids and invited us to Great Britain to help advocate on behalf of Sarah’s Law, and counter scathing governmental and conservative media condemnation. During a July, 2000 meeting with British Home Office Junior Secretary Paul Boateng, I was told that the government intervened and warned unsuspecting women only when incarcerated sex offenders place lonely heart ads trolling for single mothers of young children. However, the minister then condemned the NOTW ‘name and shame’ campaign. He stated that community notification was not an option because the government believed that ‘outing’ sex offenders would drive them underground, and that disclosing their addresses would promote vigilantism. I told the Secretary that suggesting that community notification will drive registered sex offenders underground belies the real problem. The offenders are already underground and community notification is a remedy, not a symptom.

The American example of Megan’s Law demonstrated that punitive penalties for failing to comply with the terms of sex offender registration did not force offenders underground: instead, they promoted compliance. Numerous studies also indicated that imposing prison penalty enhancement for individuals who misuse sex offender registration information to exact vigilante justice were effective as very few registered sex offenders had been publicly threatened.

On September 12, 2000 Sara and Michael Payne delivered 700,000 petition signatures to the British Home Office. On September 25, Violet and I returned to Great Britain to join Sara and Michael Payne in addressing the annual Labor Party convention. It was our fervent hope that the British Government, which now stood alone in opposition, would acknowledge the will of the people and replicate America’s bold and successful experiment with community notification.

Unfortunately, it was not to be so. In December 2001, recidivist sex offender Roy Whiting was convicted of murdering Sarah Payne and sentenced to 50-years in prison. In the end it took a more than decade to convince the government and the authorities that Sarah’s Law was sound policy. In April 2011, that the Home Office finally announced that Sarah’s Law would be implemented. Like Megan Kanka’s mother before her, Sara Payne’s belief that her daughter would be alive had she known that a sexual predator lived in her community forced a change in national policy. Now, parents can access information on registered sex offenders in their neighborhood and use the information to protect their children.

During our work on behalf of Sarah’s Law we befriended NOTW editor Rebekah Brooks and her successor Andy Coulson, both of whom now face serious criminal charges. They helped a grieving mother achieve her dream of protecting children through legislative change. Their benevolence seemed genuine as they asked for nothing in return. We were proud of our work on behalf of Sarah’s Law and grateful for the experience, as grueling as it ultimately became.

However,a few months ago it was revealed that the NOTW had also hacked into Sara Payne’s cell phone account. That, in turn, leads me to wonder if they did the same to me after insisting that I use one of their cell phones during our visits across the pond?
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Baby Lisa and the Loss of Faith

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babylisa_224Baby Lisa’s parents have asked supporters not to hold any more vigils for the missing one-year-old on their front lawn. Really? So there are people trying to help; trying to keep the story alive in hopes of recovering the little girl and the family is asking them to stop. A family spokesperson said that the vigils made a return to normalcy impossible and that the vigils were upsetting Lisa’s half brothers. Meanwhile the authorities have reported no new developments in the case.

 

Volunteers who are invested in the safe return of baby Lisa need support from the family, not indifference or condemnation, yet they have been blown off by Jeremy and Deborah After all, it has been demonstrated time and time again that the recovery of an abducted child requires a full team effort that includes volunteers. But no: instead of assisting in baby recovery, the volunteers are told that they are making it impossible for the family to return to a normal routine.

 

How normal can life be if your home has been broken into, your infant has been kidnapped and remains missing and your other children are left to believe that an evil boogeyman who has already stolen your sister remains at large? If your lawyer and not your heart speaks on your behalf then your sense of normal probably belongs in a courtroom, not a living room. If you can convince yourself that a return to normal means that there should be no more vigils on your front lawn then you are either in denial or something more sinister is afoot. It took many years after my daughter Polly’s tragedy before Violet and I were able to adjust to our new normal. We had lost a piece of our soul, our vision of the future severely challenged our faith.

 

What must the step-brothers think of this most recent development? It seems like vigils on their lawn would be the least of their worries. We know that five and eight-year-old children register fear, have nightmares and are totally dependent on their parents for their survival. So I have to wonder what Jeremy and Deborah are telling them about the disappearance of their little sister. I also wonder if they have asked, “What would you do if I was kidnapped?”

 

How would you like Jeremy and Deborah to be your parents? It would be like hovering off the edge of a cliff with a severe case of vertigo and no one to hold onto.

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The CASE Act: Coming to a Ballot Near You!

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Because the California State Legislature just doesn’t get it, a new, powerful initiative is being prepared for the November 2012 California general election ballot. The Californians Against Sexual Exploitation (CASE) Act will strengthen penalties against human trafficking and update Megan’s Law for the 21stCentury. I am calling on the good citizens of California to support the CASE Act. Californians are very clear about where they stand on criminal justice and victims rights issues and the CASE Act is yet another opportunity to make good policy.

In 1994, the Three Strikes and You’re Out ballot initiative (Proposition 184) passed overwhelmingly because the law abiding citizens of California were sick and tired of coddling career criminals. The result was a dramatic reduction in crime. Efforts by professional politicians to weaken the Three Strikes law have failed miserably. Jessica’s Law (Prop. 83) passed by a similar margin in 2006, because Californians wanted greater monitoring of sex offenders and harsher prison sentences for child molesters.

Californians also enjoy some of the most expansive and forward thinking victim’s rights in the USA because of voter demands. In 1982, California voters passed the country’s first Victims Bill of Rights (Prop. 8) that, among other things, granted crime victims the right to be notified of, to attend, and to state their views at, sentencing and parole hearings. Marsy’s Law (Prop. 9), which was passed by voter initiative in 2008 expanded upon those rights by adding new protections and safeguards for victims of violent crime.

Two overlooked areas of concern addressed by the CASE Act are human trafficking and online predation. The CASE Act will increase prison terms for human traffickers and increase fines for human traffickers up to $1.5M to fund victim services. It will remove the need to prove force to prosecute sex trafficking of a minor as well as mandate human trafficking training for law enforcement. Sex traffickers will be required to register as sex offenders, and all sex offenders will be required to disclose internet accounts and identifiers. Finally the CASE Act will prohibit the use of sexual history to impeach or prove criminal liability of trafficked victims.

According to the Trafficking in Victims Protection Act, which was signed into law by President George Bush in 2000, human sex trafficking occurs when, “a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.” Between 1.6 and 2.8 million children run away annually in the U.S., half of which are girls. Within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one third of these children are lured or recruited into the underground world of prostitution or pornography. The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14. For boys, the entry age is 11-13. These harrowing statistics provide broad justification for the CASE Act, because to turn our backs on the tens of thousands of children being trafficked in California is simply another form of victimization.

Sex offender registration and community notification, otherwise known as Megan’sLaw was adopted by all 50-states in the late 90’s. Megan’s Law is based on the premise that convicted sex offenders pose a threat to society and that the public deserves to know when they are in the community. When Megan’s Law was enacted the Internet was not the ubiquitous presence that it is today. The CASE Act requires registered sex offenders to provide Internet email addresses, social networking profiles and other online identifiers so that social networking sites can scour relevant profiles from their online communities. The concept of convicted sex offenders including their Internet identifiers as a component of the sex offender registration process was successfully legislated in New York in 2008 and has thus far been responsible for removing more than 24,000 sex offender profiles from social networking sites.

I have joined CASE Act authors California Against Slavery and the Safer California Foundation to get this important measure on California’s 2012 general election ballot. We know that in the United States predators are fulfilling their voracious appetite for underage prostitution with at-risk American teen aged children. This is a stain on our society. We also know that we can stop sexual predators from using the Internet to prey on innocent children by closing the Internet loophole of anonymity via this administrative procedure. Since the California State Legislature is unwilling to take these reasonable steps to create safe streets it is left to citizens like you and I to take control of our own future.
Do you want to help make the CASE Act a reality?  If you live in California you can lead a group of volunteers in your community by helping to gather the 750,000 signatures required to qualify the CASE Act for the 2012 ballot. You can also host a house party to raise awareness and raise funds; or create and conduct your own fundraising event. If you run a nonprofit agency or are sworn member of a law enforcement agency you can endorse this important and groundbreaking initiative. Act now to get in on an effort to create a safer and better California by actively supporting the CASE Act.
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Where Have All The Children Gone?

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I approach Thanksgiving with mixed feelings. On one hand it reminds me of the family that I no longer have and that makes me feel sad and self-pitying. Thanksgiving also means getting together with family, whatever that happens to mean, and engaging over a sumptuous feast and that makes me feel optimistic and hopeful about the future. However, I cannot shake the feeling that there are missing children who have been forgotten or dismissed by society who will not have an opportunity to break bread with their families this year and members of those families are at best complacent about this sad turn of affairs.

In Gilbert, Arizona the mother of five-year-old Jhessye Shockleyhas been arrested on child abuse charges “directly related” to little Jhessye, and the authorities don’t believe they’ll find the child alive. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because the mother has already spent four-years in a penitentiary for child abuse. What is surprising is that she had custody of Jhessye, three of her siblings and was eight-months pregnant at the time of the little girl’s disappearance. How could a racist spewing, child abusing ex-convict who was married to a registered sex offender gain control over a precious five-year-old girl who required nurturing and not torturing. Society failed to protect Jhessye from a monster.

We need to own this. We cannot allow unfit parents or guardians to regain custody of children in the aftermath of a history of abuse, criminal behavior and neglect. Our tax dollars pay the family judges, child protection services and other entities designed to protect children from those who would do them harm, yet they are nowhere to be found when they are needed most.  

In Kansas City, Missouri the parents of baby Lisa Irwin have circled the wagons, shut out the authorities, and refused to do media interviews because life isn’t fair. Instead, they have chosen to allow a ‘defense’ attorney from New York orchestrate a sham campaign designed to complicate the truth. Now the case is losing momentum, the investigation seems stalled in its tracks, and hired guns are calling the shots. Baby Lisa deserves way more from her family.

I learned a long time ago that life is not fair. We don’t get what we deserve and we cannot withdraw goodwill from a savings account. Sometimes we find ourselves thrust into situations that are beyond our control without the skill set required to respond effectively. Sometimes shit happens…and just we have to deal with it. If the parents of the missing child are not publicly fighting for her return, then how motivated will the rest of us be? Baby Lisa’s parents have not owned their reality. They are not dealing with it, they are hiding from it. The bottom line is that Lisa has missed her first birthday and will not spend Thanksgiving with her family.

In Bellevue, Washington the mother of two-year-old Sky Metalwala is nowhere to be found. Remember that early on the morning of November 6, her car ran out of gas as she was taking her sick child to the hospital. So, she left the toddler strapped in his car seat, left the car door unlocked and walked a mile with her four-year-old daughter to the nearest gas station. When she returned an hour later the little boy was missing, prompting a massive search effort that has thus far turned up nothing. Funny thing though: the car had plenty of fuel in the gas tank, and she did not return with a gas can. The little boy disappeared, or was reported missing four days after contentious divorce mediation. In 2010, mom was involuntarily committed to a mental health center after her husband claimed she had dreams about killing her children. She also has a profile on a ‘sugar daddy’ website where she is apparently offering herself to the highest bidder. In response Sky’s mom has said that her husband was a “sadistic Muslim Pakistani” and no one had “any idea” how “difficult” the whole affair had been. Dad, who has attended a local Christian church since 2006, has fully cooperated with the authorities since day 1. Trouble is, he is not going to spend Thanksgiving with the little boy the courts refused to allow him to visit.

Certain bio-moms and bio-dads seem to think that they can dispose of their children without consequence as long as they lawyer up and refuse to speak with the authorities. Why does Sky’s mother feel that she can get away with this kind of criminal behavior? Because we live in a post Casey Anthony era where criminal behavior is condoned, excused or otherwise justified. Silence buys freedom and the U.S. Constitution buys cover. If you can’t find the body, you can’t prove the crime. 

In light of Penn State and Syracuse University allegations we need to pay more attention to our institutions. Not only institutions of higher learning, but also those whose job it is to protect children from abuse, neglect and abduction. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is the most high profile of those institutions. In fact the term exploited children is in their name, but what exactly are they doing to protect children who are clearly being exploited?

Are they writing legislation that will hold family judges accountable or make child protection services more responsive? Are they educating society to the danger signs of exploitation or abuse? As I see it, they are simply waiting until the ultimate abuse has occurred and posting pictures of children who are already dead or missing on their website? We owe it to our children to ask the hard questions and hold somebody accountable for this obvious social failure.
Posted in Baby Lisa Irwin, Jhessye Shockley, missing children, Sky Metalwala | Tagged | Leave a reply

Penn State’s Shame

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Child sexual abuse is all sexual activity between an adult and child. Certain sexual activity between children is also sexual abuse.

 

In light of recent revelations surrounding the Penn State and now Syracuse University sex scandals, parents are rightly concerned about the safety of their own children. After all, if we cannot trust institutions of higher learning to protect and not exploit our children, then who can we trust? Unfortunately, child sexual abuse has existed in the seamy underbelly of society forever. Usually, we try to ignore it, but sometimes, and this is one of those times, the revelations are so gross and disturbing that we must engage the debate. What is child sexual abuse, what is being done to prevent it, are my kids being abused, and how can I personally engage this issue?

 

The widespread institutional abuse of children has been common knowledge ever since the Catholic sex abuse scandal started receiving broad public attention in 2001. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that individuals that want to abuse and exploit our children will seek positions that will provide them with unsupervised access to children. We see it in the non-profit world, schools, pre-schools, churches, fraternal organizations and the athletic field. This is why President Clinton signed the Volunteers for Children Act of 1998. Now organizations and businesses dealing with children, elderly, and the disabled may use national fingerprint-based criminal history checks to screen out volunteers and employees with relevant criminal records. The Internet has provided a new virtual playground that needs to be the topic of its own story.

 

We should be aware of the warning signs in children and adolescents of possible child sexual abuse. If very young children have knowledge about specific sex acts it is not age appropriate sexual behavior and warrants further investigation. The same goes with young children behaving sexually in public places.

 

Behaviors to watch for when adults are with children include: inappropriate touching, hugging, or kissing, particularly when the child resists. Secret interactions with children also raise a red flag. When the adult seems ‘too good to be true’ and offers to babysit, take your children on unsupervised outings, lavishes gifts or inappropriate praise, you have reason for concern. Signs that an adult may be at-risk to harm a child include spending most of their free time with kids, and having a ‘special’ child friend that may change from year to year.

 

Signs that a child or teen may be at-risk to harm another child include spending inordinate time with younger children rather than peers, or forced sexual interaction on other children. Also, children may be at-risk of harming other children if they have not received appropriate counseling for their own abuse issues.

 

Coach Jerry Sandusky

So, how do we as responsible adults combat the insidious onslaught of child sexual abuse in our own communities? Insist that groups and organizations that you interact with to have written and transparent policy guiding adult/child behavior. Support local non-profit organizations that deal with child abuse issues and report instances of suspected abuse.

 

Society needs to look upon this as a learning opportunity. The Catholic Church has not yet recovered from their ongoing sex scandal because they did not respond appropriately. Instead of facing the situation head on, they tried to cover up, dismiss and deny sexual abuse in their own ranks. To that end, their standing in the world and the faith based community remains tainted. Were it not for their ubiquitous position and unprecedented wealth the Catholic Church would not have survived their shame.

 

Any individual involved in the cover-up of child sexual abuse at Penn State or any other institution of higher learning needs to be removed from their position of trust and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Society demands that the safety of children is the highest priority and those that abuse that trust must be held accountable. To do less is simply another form of child abuse.

 

In light of these new charges and allegations every school in America now has the opportunity to evaluate their own internal policies. They can get ahead of the situation by sweeping their own records. How have they handled sex abuse situations in the past? Take a look at current allegations and decide whether they have made the correct choices. If they take that step then the Penn State and Syracuse victims will at least have a legacy.

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FCC Regulatory Action on Trucker TV Could Save Lives

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When North Carolina truck driver Beano Francis spotted a white Ford Escort headed south on Interstate 85 in July, he recognized the car from an “Amber Alert” and quickly notified authorities. Police say the West Virginia man driving the car had “met” the 13-year-old girl online before abducting her and credited Mr. Francis for his fast action, but he was actually just the latest trucker to answer a family’s prayers and help an abducted child return safely home. 
It was big news, but professional truckers responding to Amber Alerts is actually fairly common – it was even the second success story in North Carolina in July alone. My family’s introduction to the long-haul trucker community came when my daughter Polly was kidnapped in 1993 and the drivers helped circulate flyers far and wide. You rapidly realize that truckers are out there on the roads and at highway rest stops, convenience stores, gas stations, and fast food restaurants where persons on the run frequently try to escape.
So it has been a bit mind-boggling over the past several years that a broad-based alliance that includes the foundation we formed in the wake of Polly’s murder, KlaasKids, has been unable to convince the Federal Communications Commission to approve a proposal that would literally bring hundreds of thousands of new truck drivers into the missing persons loop.
The proposal we support has been made to the FCC by Clarity Media Systems, LLC, a subsidiary of Flying J Inc., the company that owns and operates all those Flying J travel plazas. Under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, commercial truckers must spend at least ten hours or more per day resting. If the trucker’s cab becomes their “living room on the road,” then those Flying J plazas are their community centers.
However, one service that truck drivers have never been able to access in their on-road living rooms is basic television. Clarity has proposed to change that by providing 70 channels of television programming, including five of its own locally-produced channels to entertain and inform truckers. This localized, low-powered system would reach truckers in these on-road living rooms, effectively creating a video hot spot limited to within the truck-stop perimeter – but they need FCC approval.

Perhaps most importantly for those concerned with missing persons, Clarity’s proposal includes a Public Safety and Alert channel that will allow truckers to receive news flashes, special reports, and full-length programming about unresolved missing person cases from local television stations, national cable and satellite channels, and Clarity channels. And in addition to high-profile cases, the service will also feature lower-profile cases that may have failed to receive media attention, including missing adults excluded by their age from the Amber Alert system.
We at the KlaasKids Foundation know firsthand the valuable role that informed long haul drivers can play in fulfilling our mission to recover missing persons and look forward to working with the Alert effort to highlight specific cases.
To many of us, this frustrating case just seems like such a no-brainer: It costs the taxpayers nothing; it provides professional drivers with a service they want and need; it saves lives. We will never know how many people might have been saved in the years this has languished in the FCC process, but surely it is time to allow Clarity to implement its proposal.
Let’s face it, we sure could use more of those trucking heroes like Mr. Francis in North Carolina. Families hoping for just such a miracle should not miss their chance because of regulatory inaction.
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