Lauren Pack should get some sort of award for this very important and informative article about child abuse in Butler County.Please note all of the important statements by Bill Morrison and the great work of Butler County Children's Services.

     We need you to help change our childcarelaws and practices,  locally, statewideand nationally. The basic fallacy is our childcare priorities. The prioritytoday is rehabilitation. Time has proven rehabilitation with biological parents  to be less thansuccessful due to the epidemic of drug abuse. It is a grand ideal to reunite abusedchildren with dysfunctional parents after they have supposedly beenrehabilitated. But in most cases it has proven not to be successful and thechildren pay the price. In those cases where it is successful it is wonderfuland we should encourage it. However, rehabilitation and reunification offamilies should be a secondary priority with Child Protectionbeing the first priority. If our protection laws are made stronger and enforcedisn’t it more reasonable to expect less child abuse and dysfunctional families?Of course it is! 

       Our abused children have four possibleplacements under our present childcare system:

1.      Back to their biological parents.

2.      Adoptive parents.

3.      Foster care.

4.      Children’s residential or group homes.

       Each of these choices need some new lawsand clear understandings to protect our children.

       Biologicalparents need to clearly understand their responsibilities and new strongerpenalties for child abuse should be established. If they abuse their children,their children will be removed from the home and the parents will pay severepenalties.

        Adoptionsneed to be streamlined and waiting times for adoptions need to be lessened. Manypeople go out of the country and adopt children because our waiting times areso long. When adoptions don’t work the alternatives need to be exercised withina reasonable amount of time based on the best interests of the child and theparents. The alternatives need to be plainly and clearly spelled out.

        Our Foster care Program is a disaster. It needs total overhaul. Thereare many wonderful foster parents but there are more abusive ones under ourfoster care system. Our children service agencies must be given new guidelinesto identify abuse and how to immediately deal with the abuse and the fosterparents should be heavily penalized immediately to ensure the child’s safetyand security.   Our children servicesagencies must have a policy that the child’s interests, safety and protectionare first and everything elseis second. No one must be allowed to be a foster care parent if they are doingit just for the money or to have extra free labor around the house or if theyare going to make the foster child feel like a second class citizen. Sometimeschildren are put into as many as two to twenty foster homes before they areeighteen. The courts refer to them as the plastic bag brigade. Children in thefoster care program must not be allowed to be put in more than two fosterhomes in their lifetime. It is essential that the child feels wanted, safe andsecure.

       Children’shomes are a wonderful alternative when reunification, adoptions andfoster care do not work out. Some children are just not adoptable and fostercare does not work for them. In those instances the children’s home alternativeis a wonderful haven for children. We have many wonderful children’s homes inthe United States that provide safety, security, great educations, moral valuesand preparation for lifetime choices by the child. There are those who throughlack of experience or any practical frame of reference have the idea that allchildren’s home are like the 18^th century Dickensian, Oliver Twisttype of cruel orphanage where a child has his hand out with a bowl asking for asecond helping of gruel. Those days are long gone and the children’s homes oftoday are ideal in temporary and long term childcare. We need to change ourfederal and state guidelines for children’s homes and relax some of theregulations and let the homes do what they are specialist in doing for childrenand not be hindered by bureaucratic red tape and theory. Please encourage theproper use of more children’s homes to help solve our childcare problems. Thereis a shortage of children’s home that are for disadvantaged children who arenot at-risk.

     Wherever we place our displaced childrenwe need to practice Preventive Childcare that gives children the best careand development in life to keep them from getting into trouble and helps themto become good solid citizens. 

      Please get proactive in behalf of ourchildren. They didn’t ask to come into this world. It is a sad testament to ournational values that we are more willing to rehabilitate than to protect ourchildren. You can be of great value in behalf our (homeless) children.  Please do what you can. Write and call yourlocal

Judges, prosecutor, andrepresentatives and demand new and severe childcare laws.

County investigates thousands of child abuse reportsannually

12/26/15

By LaurenPack

Staff Writer

BUTLER COUNTY —

Every year millions of reports ofchild abuse are made in the United States, involving more than 6 millionchildren. The U.S. has one of the worst records among industrialized nations inchild abuse deaths, losing an average of four to seven children per day tochild abuse and neglect.

About 6.3 million children arereferred to state agencies each year because of abuse.

The numbers can be startling andpart of an ongoing challenge for those tasked with protecting children inButler County While the most horrific cases that result in the death of a childgrab headlines, county Children Services officials say the agency openedthousands of investigations this year with the majority having more positiveresults.

So far this year, Butler CountyChildren Services has seen seven cases where a child had to be taken to thehospital due to abuse, according to Bill Morrison, the agency’s director.

Two incidents this year ended withthe death of babies, most recently 2-year-old Madison Twp. toddler, KinsleyKinner. In 2012, the county saw a five-year high of 30 child abuse cases thatrequired a trip to the hospital. Morrison said the parents are almost alwaysinvolved and often the mom’s boyfriend is the culprit.

“I wouldn’t say it is a prevalentproblem, but one is too many,” he said. “You hate to see it any time it occurs.I don’t have any reason to believe…Butler County is any different statisticallyfrom any other counties around the state.”

Kinsley’s mother, Rebekah Kinner,who is pregnant with a son due in February, is charged with involuntarymanslaughter because sheriff’s detectives say she watched her boyfriend,Bradley Young, beat the toddler and did nothing to intervene. Young is chargedwith murder for the alleged fatal beating.

Earlier this year, Phillip J.Cunningham, 27, of Hamilton, was charged with murder after he allegedly droppedhis 2-month-old daughter and shook her, according to Hamilton police. The babylater died from her injuries, which included intracranial bleeding, skullfractures and “serious brain injuries,” police said.

Cunningham, who remains housed inthe county Jail is scheduled to appear in Butler County Common Pleas Court onJan. 21.

Through November, Butler CountyChildren Services has opened 2,553 cases this year based on an allegation of achild in need, which includes anything from physical abuse to emotionalmaltreatment to homelessness and neglect. For the intakes investigated, therewere out of home placement in 191, which includes foster care and relativeplacements.

“Some of the most difficult case arethose involving infants and toddlers, because they can’t talk, or defendthemselves,” Morrison said.

He said when Children Services opensa cause involving a young child, they are also challenged with finding out whomay be inflicting the harm, which can be difficult if many people and familymembers have access to the child.

Depending on the circumstances ofthe situation, such as if a crime has been committed and the police areinvolved, the child can be removed from the home. But often the child is placedwith the other parent, a safe family member or friend of the family.

“We have a some wonderful fosterfamilies, but think about it: If you are a child, four of five years old, andyou are taken from your home and given to people you have never met before,that is a class A, 911 event for that child,” Morrison said. “We know growingup in foster care causes a lot of childhood problems.”

Case workers assigned to a case arerequired by law to check and speak with the child and parents, depending on thesituation, with regularity.

The case and a disposition of thevalidity of the allegations must be completed in 45 days.

On the “front end” of a case,according to Julie Gilbert, a children services supervisor who spent many yearsas a case worker, they are trying to determine if there has been any physicalabuse. That means something other than marks on the buttocks from corporalpunishment. And also if the child has been exposed to violent acts, drug abuse,mental illness or if they simply have no food or shelter.

“We meet with the child victim andat least one person caring for them,” she said. Follow up is done every fivedays with the worker attempting to visually see the child, Gilbert said.

Morrison said the agency workswithin the system and the structure they have to keep children safe, but thebottom line is the agency is not about breaking up families, when counselingand other services can make life better for all.

“We are future thinking for thechild and the family,” Morrison said. “But the reality is, we don’t have theability to predict human nature.”

Morrison said the agency was notinvolved with Rebekah Kinner as a parent prior to her daughter’s death, andthey don’t have jurisdiction over any unborn children.

“But we will be watching (once thechild is born),” Morrison said.

If a person should suspect a childis being abused or neglected, they can call Butler County Children Services onits 24-hour hotline: 513- 868-0888. Callers can remain anonymous.

Officials said, however, if someonesees a child being harmed, and they believe it is an emergency, they shouldcall 911.

Butler County Children Servicesinvestigations through November 2015

Emotional maltreatment — 40

Medical neglect — 71

Neglect — 778

Stranger danger — 10

Physical abuse — 1109

Sexual abuse — 278

Dependency — 101

Family in need of Services(homelessness, lack of food) — 166