Guest Feature: Lubbock in the Dark II: Child Abuse

Ruth Bradley is a crack reporter and an official Friend of the Brink. She's got a five-part series on social issues in Lubbock, Texas running in the Texas Tech student paper, the Daily Toreador. We'll link to the articles, and we'll also run them here since you have to sign up to view them on the site.


Every day, somewhere in Lubbock County, a child is abused.

Sometimes the abuse is emotional. Sometimes it's sexual or physical. And sometimes the abuse will end the child's life.

"We've had children that die, children that sustain pretty serious injuries," said Shawn Vandygriff, investigation program director for Children's Protective Services. "Children are hurt every day in our community because they don't have someone to protect them."

In Lubbock, reported abuse is high, according to the Texas Kids Count 2005, a compilation of statistics from the year 2004, found at www.cppp.org. Out of counties in Texas in 2004, Lubbock ranked 19th in size. It ranked third in the number of children in foster care. And it ranked fourth in child abuse, with a rate of 12.2 per 1,000 children. The Texas rate was 8.2.

Vandygriff said these high numbers may be the result of awareness and subsequent reporting in the Lubbock community. Although official numbers for 2005 have not yet been released, Vandygriff estimated that nearly 2,500 cases of suspected abuse were reported. Of these, between 25 percent and 30 percent were confirmed by Children's Protective Services.

In Texas, reporting suspected child abuse is mandatory.

Abuse falls into seven categories, said Catherine Bass, executive director of the Children's Advocacy Center of the South Plains. These include physical abuse, emotional abuse, medical neglect, abandonment, neglectful supervision, physical neglect and sexual abuse. Regardless of type, most cases have one thing in common: The perpetrator is usually someone the child loves.

"Eighty to 90 percent of our perpetrators are people that we know, people that we trust," said Dakesa Piña, director of clinical services for the Children's Advocacy Center.

When Bass was growing up, the catch phrase for child abuse was "stranger-danger."

Now, she said, out of almost 650 cases the Child's Advocacy Center dealt with last year, only four involved strangers.

Motivating factors behind abuse are varied, said Vandygriff. Abuse can stem from frustration, stress, lack of good parenting skills, and, especially, substance abuse.

"We've seen a substantial number of children and a singular increase in problems due to drugs and alcohol," said Vandygriff. "Because, of course, when you're impaired, you can't take care of your kids."

And sometimes, people become perpetrators because they themselves were once victims, Vandygriff said.

This is just one of the many long-term effects of child abuse, Piña said.

"The kids deal with things like nightmares, problems sleeping, what we call semantic problems," Piña said. "Kids sometimes will get aggressive behavior, cause they don't know how to communicate what they're going through."

Piña said victims of sexual abuse are especially likely to deal with the effects of their abuse later in life.

"You can be ashamed of your body," Piña said. "You can not be able to have intimate relationships (because) it might trigger the feelings you had when you were sexually abused."

Sexual abuse is prevalent in Lubbock, Vandygriff said, and is usually committed by a close family member, such as a father or a mother's boyfriend.

Bass said a close relationship enables the perpetrator to build trust.

"Normally it's someone who has access to the child that can groom them and make them feel like it's OK," Bass said.

Girls are three times more likely to be sexually abused, but that number may be slanted because boys are less likely to report it, Piña said.

Sexual abuse also is difficult to pinpoint because the symptoms are not as apparent as they are with other types of abuse.

"We rely pretty heavily on … the child making an outcry," Vandygriff said.

Many children simply do not recognize what is going on, Piña said, and do not know enough about sex to protect themselves.

"We don't like to talk to kids about sex and sexual things," she said. "But it's important that we educate them."

One of the goals of the Children's Advocacy Center is to help children pinpoint what is happening and be able to communicate it. Children's Protective Services and the Lubbock Police bring children to the center for interviews, which are videotaped for use by investigators and sometimes as court testimony.

Bass said this recorded interview makes it easier for agencies to work together and also helps the child who does not have to constantly relive the experience as a result of multiple interviews.

The center also provides counseling for children and non-offending family members.

"It helps my parent and my child to reconnect," Piña said. "Abuse can be very isolating. You feel like you're alone. You feel like you're the only one."

Support for non-offending parents, who often feel deep guilt for what has happened, is especially important, Piña said.

"That's our support system," she said. "If we don't take care of our parents, our kids aren't going to be OK."

Maintaining the family unit is important to Children's Protective Services as well. In cases where children should be removed from their homes, a social worker usually will work with the parents to help them create a "plan of service" to help define changes that need to be made before the children will be returned.

Kevin Hart, associate judge for the South Plains Foster Care Court, said plans of service often require participation in parenting classes, psychological evaluations or treatment for substance abuse.

Hart, who oversees all cases involving children and foster care in Lubbock and eight other surrounding counties, said he looks at the level of the parents' level of fulfillment of the plan to help him decide the outcome of the child's case.

"The ultimate thing I'm looking for is whether the parents can provide the child with a safe and secure home," Hart said.

Volunteers with Court Appointed Special Advocates also help Hart make his final decision. When a case is brought before the court, Hart appoints a member of CASA as a guardian ad litem, a special temporary guardian for the child or children involved. This volunteer will work with the child, Children's Protective Services and the child's parents and foster parents.

"Based on that information they receive, their role is to recommend to me, as judge, what the outcome should be in the case," Hart said.

Children are returned to their homes in about 50 percent of all cases, Hart said.

"If parental rights are terminated, then kids will stay in foster care until an adoptive home can be found for them," Hart said.

But foster homes are scarce. Hart said children from the Lubbock area often must be sent to homes in surrounding communities, such as Midland or Amarillo. There is a need for more foster parents or relief parents (families who take children for a short period of time to give foster parents a break).

There's also a growing need for CASA volunteers, Bass said, and for people to get involved in public education about abuse.

"People can help raise awareness to legislators about those kinds of issues," she said.

And they can work to educate their community. In April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month, volunteers with the Family Guidance and Outreach Center of Lubbock will cover the city with blue ribbons as reminders of the problem, said Alaina Bloodworth, program coordinator for the organization. The group also is planning a candlelight ceremony to commemorate victims of child abuse and to raise public awareness. It will be at 7 p.m. on April 4 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3321 33rd St.

More information about volunteer opportunities can be obtained by contacting CASA at (806) 763-2272, the Children's Advocacy Center at (806) 740-0251 or the Family Guidance and Outreach Center at (806) 747-5577.

The best way to get involved however, Bass said, is to simply watch out for the children of the community.

"Just be aware of what's around you, and report if you think something is wrong," she said. "(Child abuse) does happen, but there are things that we can do to help prevent it."

Copyright 2006 Daily Toreador

filed: social.issues