Child Abuse Awareness Month

April is nationally Child Abuse Awareness Month according to WPD Juvenile Officer Marsha Eisenhart at the Crime Watch Committee Meeting held Thursday, April 9, at Village Hall. Marsha presented an eye opener program on child abuse at this month's meeting. She gave us some national and state statistics but mostly concentrated on actual Wellsville cases she and other WPD officers have been involved in.

Child abuse occurs in three main types - neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse. Nationally Ohio is ranked number 11 in child abuse cases. The number one killer is the Shaken Baby Syndrome. Wellsville had one case not too long ago where a six month old baby died. In that case the baby sitter was sent to prison for four years.

You don't hear much about cases in the ville but they are out there. Really the only ones we hear about are the ones that make it to court or indictments that are issued against some of the offenders. Some don't make it that far and some are pending for various reasons. As all across the nation one of the biggest problems in the ville is the people that don't want to get involved and for the abused child that is sad.

Marsha told us about the little girl whose finger tips were chewed raw because she was going hungry. In that case they found a refrigerator full of beer and wine coolers. She told about a boy with burns on his belly from a stove top burner. She told us about a little girl they found with her finger tip being black from lack of treatment when it got caught in a door. She would have lost that finger if gone untreated much longer. She told us about the four year old girl being allowed to watch porno because her mother thought she saw worse in school. She told us about the boy in kindergarten that wanted to commit suicide because he felt no one loved him. These are all cases that happened in Wellsville.

Most cases are referred to Children's Services and some are assigned a case worker for follow ups. Generally they have a good relationship with the folks over in Lisbon but sometimes things go awry. Marsha said she has invoked Rule 6 which allows the officer to pull a kid out of an abusive home without going through Children's Services. Some abused children are placed in foster care but most are returned home and that generates lots of repeat cases.

There's a lot of frustration involved in juvenile work but Marsha said there are some rewarding moments that make their efforts all worthwhile. She said they have a good relationship with Akron Children's Hospital that has a special unit dedicated to young abuse victims. They have a doctor over there that has just about seen it all and tells it like it is. She said most abuse cases come from homes where the parents are drug or alcohol abusers or a combination of both. In spite of all the efforts to combat this problem the drug abuse problem just seems to get worse. Regretfully for the children there are many stories of this type that just don't have a happy ending. It's an on-going problem.

On a brighter note Marsha told us about a program that Wellsville signed on with A Child Is Missing (ACIM). They are headquarted in Florida and their services are free. ACIM was founded in 1987 and they have the ability to place 1,000 calls in 60 seconds in a community such as ours when a child is reported missing. The calls are made to alert people to be on the look out for the missing child and they give a description such as age, what they look like and what they were last seen wearing. Every forty seconds a child goes missing in this country. The calling is all done with computers and recorded messages. It can also be used with people with Alzheimer's and others that may wonder off. You can learn more about this program by visiting their web site at http://www.achildismissing.org/. It's an amazing program.

We're fortunate in the ville to have such devoted officers such as Marsha. The mayor commended her for her concern and generosity often digging in her own pockets to feed a kid. Marsha said many clubs in the ville make donations to help her with this. Feeding a child is a big aid in getting them to open up. Marsha donates her days off volunteering in the schools. Pictured above is Marsha with her presentation showing pictures of actual Wellsville cases the WPD has investigated.

The Crime Watch Committee have changed their meeting days to the third Thursday of the month. Meetings start at 6 P.M. Next meeting is May 21 at Village Hall. Everyone is welcome.

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