Thursday evening the Marshall County office of the Indiana Department of Child Services held their third annual Pinwheels for Prevention. This event is to raise the message of prevention.
Local Director Michael Carroll presented Marshall County statistics for 2014. During those 12 months there were a total of 1,052 allegation assessments of abuse and neglect. Of the 1,052 assessments 85 were for sexual abuse with 12 of them being substantiated. There were 274 assessments of physical abuse with 24 reports being substantiated. In the county there were 693 allegations of neglect. After the assessments 107 of those allegations were substantiated. Carol said, “My cry is out to you. We need all eyes and ears in the community to help combat child abuse and neglect because we believe children thrive in safe, caring, supportive families and communities.”
Tami Napier, Chief Deputy Prosecutor in Marshall County spoke to the approximately 50 who gathered at the Hoosier Old Wheels Shelter in Centennial Park. She said, “April is traditionally the month we try to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect and educate the community about prevention.” She spoke of the great strides made in the prevention and education and prevention of child abuse and neglect. In 70’s a family court judge started the CASA program to make sure the voice of the children were heard. There are now laws that enhance penalties for offenders against children. There are statutory laws that create duties for people to report suspected abuse and neglect. Napier said, “Those are some great strides but we have a long way to go.”
Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter spoke of his years with the Indiana State Police and discussed his last meth lab experience in November 2006. He said, “There should not have been any kind of animal living in that home.” He said the two children living in the home were not being bathed because the meth lab was in the bath tub.
Mayor Senter said, “We hear about it often. It’s always some other city or some other neighborhood or some other house. Some of us have witnessed it firsthand. Some of us are victims of child abuse and some of us in our own community are offenders.”
Haley Kittrell, Court Appointed Special Advocate Director of Marshall County said there are currently 42 volunteers who speak for the children and in our county there are no children on the waiting list. Across the state, the end of 2014 there were 4,043 kids on the waiting list.
On Thursday the CASA program received good news. The Indiana General Assembly increased the state CASA budget from $2.9 million up to $5 million so they can tackle the waiting list.
Kittrell stressed that citizens have a duty to report suspected neglect or abuse. She said, “You don’t have to know whether something is abuse or neglect to report it. That’s that the trained case workers do.” Kittrell closed by saying, “Don’t ask what if I’m wrong on reporting suspected abuse, but what if I’m right.”
