‘Some children are trapped in their homes with their abusers’: Local Officials Concerned as Child Abuse Reporting Plummets in the Wake of the Pandemic’s School Closures
[Image from Can Stock Photos]
A statement by Humboldt County Child Welfare Services Deputy Branch Director Ivy Breen provides insight into the dramatic decline seen in child abuse reporting:
The average weekly number of reports made to the child abuse hotline have decreased by 28% since schools closed. Prior to schools closing (the week ending in March 14, 2020) the number of reports made averaged 61 per week. Since school closures, we’ve received an average of 43 reports per week.”
Breen adds, “It is important to note that not all reports made to the Child Abuse hotline meet the threshold for an in-person CWS response.”
![Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal discusses the decrease in child abuse reporting in his June 4, 2020 Media Availability [Screenshot from Youtube Video]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-17-at-2.39.15-PM.png)
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal discusses the decrease in child abuse reporting in his June 4, 2020 Media Availability [Screenshot from Youtube Video]
Humboldt and Mendocino Counties already struggle with high Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Scores. The CDC defines ACEs as “potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years).” Those events include: “experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect, witnessing violence in the home or community, and having a family member attempt or die by suicide.” The CDC also includes aspects of a child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding such as “growing up in a household with substance misuse, mental health problems, or instability due to parental separation or household members being in jail or prison.” A higher score indicates a higher likelihood of health issues later in life.
![ACE's Survey shows that for the 2016-2018, Humboldt County had the highest proportion of respondents in California who have experienced at least one type of adverse childhood experience. Mendocino County's was also high. [Screenshot from Letsgethealthy.ca.gov]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ACEs-Survey.png)
ACE’s Survey shows that for the 2016-2018, Humboldt County had the highest proportion of respondents in California who have experienced at least two types of adverse childhood experience. Mendocino County’s results were also high. [Screenshot from Letsgethealthy.ca.gov]
Sadly, Van Vleck offered, “There are some houses out there that are not great places for children to be and many of those students struggle when they had to go home for a Christmas or summer break because their stability was at school.”
Ukiah Unified School District’s Superintendent Debra Kubin shared Van Vleck’s concern for the safety of her students. She said, “The biggest worry on my mind, when you go for three months in a home with an abuser, and there is nobody there to see it, to talk to you, it’s difficult.” She added, “I always think about how kids rely on us as a school system, for so many things other than learning.”
The California Department of Education requires all the state’s certificated and classified school staff “to be able to identify signs of suspected cases of child abuse and/or child neglect and to have the tools to know how to make a report to the proper authorities.” Superintendent Van Vleck acknowledged that “without that daily contact, that face-to-face interaction, the staff just cannot see those signs [of abuse].”
![Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall and Mendocino County Superintendent of School Michelle Hutchins in their video “A Difficult Conversation- Child Abuse in Our Community” [Screenshot of the video posted on Facebook]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-17-at-4.21.17-PM.png)
Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall and Mendocino County Superintendent of School Michelle Hutchins in their video “A Difficult Conversation- Child Abuse in Our Community” [Screenshot of the video posted on Facebook]
Sheriff Matt Kendall implored the public for its help in protecting our community’s children: “Because our school is not open, we need your help as well. I urge you, especially teachers, coaches, family members, and spiritual leaders to stay connected with your students. Stay connected to your friends and families and pay attention to what’s happening in your neighborhoods. Use social media and technology to stay connected.”
In a personal message to the children of Mendocino County, Superintendent Hutchins looked directly into the camera and told them, “If someone is hurting you, do not be afraid to pick up the phone and dial 911.”
Van Vleck described Eureka City Schools putting into place procedures to ensure students maintained a connection with school personnel requiring “every student will be contacted at least once per week by the teacher.” Speaking frankly Van Fleck said, “I don’t think students are as apt to report [abuse] compared to when teachers observe that something is wrong.” He emphasized, “When teachers are in front of students every single day, [signs of abuse] are much harder to hide.”
Kubin, Ukiah Unified School District’s Superintendent, shared in Van Vleck’s assessment that remote check-ins hindered educator’s abilities to monitor the health of their students: “When you cannot see a student in person, it’s really hard to tell what’s going on. I worry about the isolation of kids. I know they have the technology, but it’s not the same as being in person.”
Kubin described Ukiah Unified’s expectations for maintaining contact with students in spite of the closure. She explained, “The goal was to have teachers reach out to their students twice per week. If a teacher couldn’t reach a student, there were systems in place to escalate that student up to the administrative team hoping to outreach to kids and families. From there, if the second level couldn’t reach the student, it got escalated to the District Office’s Student Services Department.”
Ultimately, Van Vleck suggested, “The sooner we can get back to normal as far as our educational process, face-to-face instruction, the better. That’s really what is going to make the difference.”
HOW TO REPORT CHILD ABUSE:
Humboldt County Child Welfare Services Deputy Branch Director Ivy Breen reminded the public “To report suspected child abuse or neglect, call the 24-hour crisis hotline at 707-445-6180.”
Sheriff Kendall requests Mendocino County residents to report any information regarding potential child abuse: “If you have information to share or information about a possible child abuse case, please contact us. You can report it through our dispatch line (707)463-4086 or you can use the WeTip line 1-800-782-7463 and you will remain anonymous”
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??? So this report is appalling. No kids in public indoctrination assumes they are being abused? What about the abuse when they are in the system? [edit] Maybe the system is worse than the family structure? Enroll your kids right now PERMANENTLY OUT OF GOVERNMENT !!!!!!!!! Get away from government education as fast as possible!
uh, no. kids that are being abused aren’t having mandated reporters intervene on their behalf.
Or mandated reporters coaxing kids into false charges.
You have no f’ing idea what you’re talking about. Every “mandated reporter” I know agonized over every report we ever made. How to do this properly so that something more than a cursory check would be done? Whether enough information was available to the people who had to handle the case? Why didn’t we say something earlier, when our intuition was making us question the well-being of the child? Will this report just increase the stress of an already under-resourced family? Do we have enough evidence to be sure. . .to really require the report. . .are we just responding to a “mood” or safety issue of our own? Will there be any damn resources to actually help this child and family? How overstressed and dysfunctional is the foster care system any way (we know the answer and it’s not pretty)? Will the push for family reunification just repeat the problem ad infinitum? Will the lack of resources and family ability to cover up with shame just make this situation worse? Will all of the good work we’ve been doing with this child and family get tossed into the trash?
For those who have been abused ourselves this all goes double. We remember when the community and the system failed us and/or our families (and it did, I can guarantee that).
We know that the loudmouth simplistic whiners have an infinite amount of energy for making it worse. We met them when we were kids and they were destructive then too. May I suggest that you who are inclined to sneer and snark, take your energy for whining and spend some time and energy coming up with a way to improve your attitude. Then do something to help. Lot’s of kids need help. And you’re not a mandated reporter so you can keep helping even when all hell breaks loose, if you’ve got the decency and the courage.
b.
Do you believe that “fatherless homes” in America are a major problem?
Yes. I believe that “loveless homes” in America are a major problem. I believe that “materially and socially deprived homes” are a major problem. The failure of the nuclear family model has been ongoing, brutal to fathers and mothers and therefore to many children.
The extreme disempowerment of fathers and uncles and grandfathers, via what Abraham Lincoln termed wage slavery, has led to various manifestations of dysfunctional child raising. My particular experience of it was shaped by the demand that “the woman,” my mother, be excluded from valuable employment because of her sex, and that my father, the nurturing parent be required to do work that stressed him and that he was not very good at. They were isolated, fenced both in and out of meaningful choices, and, in my mother’s case, nearly psychotic and certainly extremely violent.
Luckily my dad chose a working class neighborhood with a wild landscape at its border. So I could escape my mother and I learned from the kids on the street how to be human and from “the Woods” how to be an animal.
b.
Thanks for your powerful reply. “Loveless Homes”
It’s no wonder, to me anyway, why so many of us idolize the social fabric of bees. No fathers allowed. One mother. Everybody is in love with each other. Possibly the eldest surviving society on Earth.
Fathers? I had 5……the truth.
Simplistic you say?? You who “works” for a pathetically ineffective “school” system that has fallen from first place nationally to 48th in academic standing in the last 35 years. You bleat from that cauldron of failure whilst wallowing in your mismanaged empathy?
Pffftttt
Once a gain you have no idea what you are talking about.
Prop 13 took the California school system from 3rd in the nation to 48th, and it did so by destroying the funding system.
I hate the school system and its stupid assumption that children’s minds are empty cans to be filled with “facts.” I also hate ignorant arguing. I like teaching people, especially children how to think by critiquing both their own thoughts and those of others. I taught for ten years– and did a damn good job of it– precisely because I couldn’t stand the system and did everything to “cooperate” while also doing everything to get around its tendency to turn children, who naturally are learning machines, into unthinking cogs in an economic system. Fortunately I didn’t mind returning to being poor so I was always ready to do what worked for my students regardless of what the state (usually wrong) attempted to make me do through its mandates. I did them in ways that shielded my students from the impact
My empathy is and was quite effective, thank you. Pride in lack of empathy, I tend to doubt its value.
🕯🌳I can believe that the tension in a household can be directed towards the children or women in the this area and some kind of outreach should be set up.🖖🌍🕊🐸
Well gee, I wish there was some solution to this? Like maybe open the schools that we are still paying for with our taxes back up? The only people that are in still in support of this shutdown are government employees who never missed a paycheck and didn’t have to work a day or pot growers who have enough money anyways.
🕯🌳Kind of a good point. 👍🏽🌍🖖
Are you sure? Right now school shootings are way down.
Thanks for the breath of fresh air Connie. Way to bring out the sunshine in the morning.
So shut them down and give me my taxes back? One or the other.
Exactly. Open the schools!! How will the economy recover if working parents are strapped with having to manage their children’s education, childcare, while working and trying to honor their employer’s expectations?! If the teachers aren’t teaching why are they getting paid full time? I will be appalled if they don’t open schools back up in August.
we could always maybe make the billionaires take care of this stuff, instead of letting them get away with paying lower taxes than ever.
also, teachers are still teaching. distance learning. so, clearly you have no idea what you’re talking about and are just firing off at the keyboard for the sheer rush of arguing. hope it was fun.
I’m all for a progressive tax rate but if you confinscated 100 percent of American billionaires wealth, including assets, you would only have enough money to run the government for less than a year. We have a government spending problem not just a tax problem. Teachers are doing a fraction of the work at full pay also the government is still taking taxes at schools full operational costs. Even my auto insurance company gave me a rebate for not driving as much during this time, shouldn’t the schools system give back revenue collected for services not rendered?
That’s a ringer Mike!
Let’s take a long hard look at the government employees who though unemployed, still receive their full pay and benefits. It appears that, when in government service there’s not a pandemic, there’s time off with pay.
“Defund the child welfare system. Defund the schools. Increase funding for police and prisons. FREEDOM!” OK, guess that’s conservative?
???
You might want to call or email your school’s board members and superintendent. Let them know what you want.
Mike. The teachers have still been teaching. They’ve created book packages plus Chromebooks which are delivered to EACH child, online learning programs & testing. They’re still doing assessments. I believe they speak with the parents & child on a weekly basis. This shutdown has been really hard on teachers.
Since you seem more concerned about your tax $ than the subject if this article, child abuse, you can rest assured.
Well shortly put, California went from bragging about a 8 billion dollar surplus to a somewhat current 54 billion dollar deficit. So I think it would behoove everyone to worry about where their tax dollars are going a little more. Especially since the budget is what pays all the government employees.
also the epidemiologists. i don’t care what newsom or trump have to say on the matter, the epidemiologists say it’s too soon. they know better than anyone, since they are literally the experts on infectious diseases.
i don’t know why anybody would ever listen to anybody else about the matter.
Many epidemiologists say there is great futility in shutting everything down in an attempt to stop something that can’t be stopped no matter how much people have become used to technology changing things. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/swedens-plan-if-theres-a-second-wave-of-coronavirus.html
Epidemiologists are like every other expert- there’s a wide range of opinions and a limit on what is best from a disease standpoint when considering other realities- like even epidemiologists think getting paid is important.
Some objective evidence supporting the stance that a lack of reporting constitutes a equal or similar amount of abuse gone unnoticed would strengthen this article.
To play devils advocate one could reasonably assume if the criminal justice arm of the government is experiencing review based off egregious power, then the fingernail of that arm (CPS etc) would warrant similar review.
RE: THE FOSTER CARE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
There are profound personal, political and financial incentives to needlessly tear apart families and consign the children to the chaos of foster care.
James Marmon MSW
Former Social Worker V
Mendocino County Family and Children’s Services (aka CPS)
CPS does not do investigations. They take children then start paperwork for the court to place you in as many programs as they can. It’s a racketeering business and children are the profit. Because what wouldn’t a loving parent do to get their child back. Easy money!
🕯🌳CPS gets a dependent tax break for every child on foster care. Its almost like the prison system. 📡⚖🇺🇸⚖
Homes that have been identified as having issues with child abuse should continue to be monitored by a social worker. Why can’t a social worker still make weekly or monthly visits to the homes of children where there is documented cases of abuse? Put on a mask and check on these kids. They can’t be left in these terrible situations without monitoring. Makes me sick to think what could be going on with these kids while stuck at home.
No way out. A living hell at home or the alternative of foster care. Everyone makes choices but some kids don’t have a chance due to severe abuse. A lot are in the prison system now. You can’t expect a castle when your foundation is crap. Idk the answer but my heart goes out to the children, animals, and elders that are subjected to this horror every day of their lives. Speaking from the voice of experience
Guest, I’m sorry that you suffered as a child. That’s a hard thing to come back from.
What! Phone calls and video conferencing isn’t enough?
This is such a nuanced and difficult sibject. I am going to speak subjevtively mostly because we had to deal with cps due to an unsubstantiated claim made against us by a former doctor (or so we think.) Mandated reporters are protected by immunity even if the case brought against parents is found to be untrue, as was our case.. Abuse of children is wrong. People that abuse their children are scum.. However our experience was guilty until youbprove your innocence and while it was easy to do so because we were doing nothing wrong, the process was long and annoyong and dhhs was horribly inept and hard to work with and communicate with.. They pryed into every part of our lives and histories and it was so unsettling, especially since our child was and is happy healthy and loved beyond measure. Its hard to say that it is a neccessary thing to have cps because i feel as though in this day and age of snitchy behavior many parents have to deal woth over zealous mandtory reporters who may believe in different life choices than parents and then report them.. They are also further incentivized because if they dont report they could even be arrested. Its a vocious example of our broken and weird system. And yes. Money is involved. It is a business like most other state programs and after doing lots of research it seems as though more families are bothered with cps than helped… We dont need the “state” to tell us how to raise our children and check in on us.. Its bullshit really.. And i know the argument is that abuse will happen if there is no.mitigation but there should b some recourse for parents wrongly accused who are made to suffer the horrible process.. Which there is no recourse. That imo needs to change.. Its nearly libel and slander when you have to explain to your employeer and friends why this is happening especially when the claims are untrue.. But there is nothing. So when a doctor or teacher who doesbt like you or your child or your methods of parentinf decides to make an unsubstantiated report the parents should b able to sue or something.
Mandated reporters in SoHum are lip service at best.
Look at the case of the young boy and his mother murdered by the abusive dad in mendo .
That child had been in charter school in Redway for over 2 years and the ongoing domestic abuse and neglect were well know to the boy’s teacher here, and never reported.
Now he’s dead, the victim of homicide/murder from an abusive father. And the mom is dead too.
The teacher justified taking no action, by saying she was certain the father was ONLY STRIKING THE MOTHER , not the children.
Disgusting.
The veil of secrecy and shame over domestic violence needs to be lifted and the complicit victim-blaming, & apathetic behavior on the part of society is a huge reason it never will be.
//‘Some children are trapped in their homes with their abusers’: Local Officials Concerned as Child Abuse Reporting Plummets in the Wake of the Pandemic’s School Closures//
I say baloney.
Are we stupid enough to believe that school is more safe than home? Sure for 1%.
Schools should be in session. Teachers are being scaredy-cats. Local officials parrot the baloney.
Teachers don’t make the decisions about whether or not schools are open. Administrators (particularly school boards and superintendents) make those decisions.
Another issue that could disappear if we talked with and/or had close and caring relationships with our neighbors/neighborhoods, instead of buying all the separation drivel that the TV AND these agencies preach.
They don’t include any numbers for Humboldt?. It figures. “We are the government, not the Yellow Pages. What are people here supposed to do, call Mendocino? Dial information first?
Come on Humboldt County, Mendocino is setting a real easy example to follow.
It’s negligent to not include a number or two to call in this report.
Humboldt County is run so Fucking Slipshod it’s unbelievable.
Waiting for schools to reopen in order to protect these kids doesn’t seem very proactive or effective at all. Many of these kids aren’t even in school yet, do won’t be returning at all.
Why does the Sheriff seem to be so nonchalant about the whole thing?
Nepotism at its finest.
Did he have any solutions or even any suggestions?
Sounds to me like he’s kicking the can down the road.
I quit the County along time ago because of the Fucking Slipshod way they ran things, because if I didn’t, I was sure I’d inevitably be guilty of negligent homicide by association, or dead.
Just in time, I might add. My premonition was correct. You guessed it, I worked for County Roads.
Before I worked for them, I only charged for productive time, never for idle time or for redoing something I messed up, which came out of my pocket, materials included, and I worked by the hour.
Seldom did I get in an 8 hour day, virtually never a 40 hour week, and lucrative overtime wasn’t ever even an option.
I worked hard.
I couldn’t afford to Screw Up.
And I was my own oversight.
Call it a work ethic.
After working for the County for a short time, that work ethic was shot.
Mostly what I gained was weight,
and I went broke.
I did learn how to play quarters, though. And no, that’s not how I went broke, but it might have something to do with all the weight I gained.😉
You might think I’m just being a judgemental asshole that’s trying to be funny, but my heart is breaking because some people that I love are in this situation and I’ve been tearing what’s left of my hair out trying to figure out what to do or who to call without turning what could be described as a tailspin into a nose dive.
With the way I know Humboldt County does shit, it’s probably better they didn’t give anyone their fucking number.
Gives everyone a fighting, fucking chance.
How Fucking Funny is that?
Am I supposed to post my number and wait for them to contact me anonymously?
At least the Mendocino Sheriff actually addressed the issue, and left some contact info.
Honsal just seems to be mentioning it as a topic of his tepid Covid minute type bloviation, moving steadily towards cushy retirement and with a fat pension.
I guess I better get back to trying to figure out what to do by myself, and stop wasting my time trying to advocate for change at the highest levels of County Government.
Heaven forbid they be held to their responsibilities or any sort of reasonable standards.
It’s how they keep their workload down, by making it such a complete nightmare to even involve them, nobody would even consider it.
I’m surprised they don’t have an unlisted number as well.
It’s in the second to the last paragraph. “To report suspected child abuse or neglect, call the 24-hour crisis hotline at 707-445-6180.”
I hope I don’t seem abrasive, but it should be moved to the appropriate place with the other Humboldt info for people like me who are looking but get lost trying to Wade through information that is out of order or buried in the Mendocino section. I actually searched the article for a number but missed it.
I’m trying to be constructive not critical of the article or the reporter, and like I said, he might have done everyone a favor by burying the number at the end with Mendocino info, less likely to be found easily, because in Humboldt if you call it is like out of the frying pan and into the fire.
No anonymous number for Humboldt?
They hold everyone but themselves accountable.
Honsal must not have kids, but maybe he does, I have no idea.
But why does he say on June 4 that this will all be back to normal, in effect, when school resumes, if he is not kicking the can way down the road for months. It’s not starting again until at least the fall. It’s not like they go back soon, when they start allowing cutting hair, etc. again.
He acts like it’s a minor delay.
No pun intended.
Stop yawning and do something about it.
And Matt, your doing a great job, and I am super picky, but, respectfully, could you please put the necessary numbers in the headline, or at least a little closer, like immediately after.
The suspense is, well, not to exaggerate, potentially ….figurative.
Same Old Dude, We don’t put numbers in the headlines. We put numbers at the end of articles. This is standard practice across news organizations.
That’s news to me.
Are all your readers aware of that?
Sounds like the County.
“We’ve all been doin it this way forever, why change”
It all boils down to maintaining a captive audience, that I understand.
Seems contrary to the subject matter, though.
Isn’t there an exception to every rule.
I never really liked required reading.
Lots of places you call, the second sentence you receive is a reference to 911 in case of emergency.
The second sentence.
It wasn’t always like that, either.
Being after Ukiah, Kubin, Van Vleck and before Kendall.
Gotcha. Simple.
So Humboldt.
Now that you understand the format, you’ll know that you can skip all the information in the article about why and when you should call and just grab the phone number towards the bottom of the article.
Or you can Google. Key words “Child abuse hotline Humboldt” gave me the same information first try.
For anyone else having issues, I’ve added the subtitle just above the numbers “HOW TO REPORT CHILD ABUSE:”
Thanks Kym.
How to report child abuse, used to include the term elder also.
I sense that b. might know a lot about that portion also. I do.
It seems to me that, abuse from someone in a dominate position is the result of predatory inclinations. Most manage the urge, some get enraged by it. At the very least, it’s barbaric and uncivilized.
Thank you.
Very bold.
If only it were that simple.
It’s a delicate balance and there is the potential for doing more harm than good.
Like the guy said, it’s very nuanced. And a difficult cycle to break.
If the answer is waiting for school to resume, unfortunately, it’s going to be at least a few more months.
That is not a minor delay, but I guess it happens every year anyway.
Count your blessings if you’ve been spared from it all.
Change is hard.
Do you have the number for emergency assistance with reading and comprehension?
How many consecutive non sequiturs does one need to make in a before they are no longer non sequiturs?
Or how many times does one have to contradict themselves before they stop being inconsistent. Meow?
Two things that could help are totally free child care and offering living wages.
Taking some of the economic pressures off young families matters a lot.
ACE, adverse childhood experiences, is at the root of much drug addiction.
Take care of one another peeps. We all benefit.
Maybe stop snitchin n start confronting people
It took CPS two years to look into a child neglect complaint I made. And don’t believe that you can report anonymously either, because they sure enough will tell the abuser who made the complaint.
[…] of his protest is his concern for the collateral damage from COVID-19 lockdowns including spikes in child abuse, domestic abuse, suicides, and […]