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-- ShakespeareBrevity on the NetWednesday, June 7, 2006 A weekly newsletter about juvenile justice
from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges,
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What Happens to Children Kidnapped by Their Parents?
For people who spent their childhoods hiding out with a distraught parent, taking on new identifies, the hardest part comes when the child is recovered and so-called normal life resumes. ++++++++++ New Survey Says One in Five College Students Practice Self-Injury
Self-injury, self-mutilation, is an extreme coping mechanism that seems to help relieve stress. It can also be a call for help. The results of a new survey at Cornell and Princeton are similar to what counselors say is happening at middle schools, high schools, and colleges around the country.
This latest information comes from 2,875 randomly selected male and female undergraduates and graduate students at Cornell and Princeton who completed an internet-based mental health survey. Seventeen percent said they had purposely injured themselves. Of that 17%, 70% had done so multiple times. ++++++++++ Gang Crime Toolkit
The COPS Toolkit for Addressing Specific Gang Problems is a resource for law enforcement officials, educators and parents to address specific types of crimes committed by gangs. The publications at this site can be downloaded. Some of them are quite long. The Gang Reference Card for Parents is available in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Vietnamese. ++++++++++ In Florida, Kids in State Care Down; kids Missing from Child Welfare Up
While the number of children in Florida’s child welfare system is down, the number of kids missing has skyrocketed to 652, most of them runaway teens and youngsters snatched from foster care by their biological parents. ++++++++++ Prevent Child Abuse Booklet
Stop it Now! is an organization that aims to prevent child sexual abuse by increasing public awareness and empowering people to act responsibly to protect children. The organization has published an 8 page booklet loaded with information, recommendations, and checklists of warning signs of child sexual abuse, including what to watch for when adults are around children, warning signs for an adult with sexual behavior problems, signs a child may have been abused. Downloadable. ++++++++++ Charting Parenthood: A Statistical Portrait of Fathers and Mothers in America
Just in time for Fathers' Day: More fathers than mothers believe that two parents are more effective at raising children than one parent alone. Forty-five percent of mothers believe one parent is sufficient. Twenty-five percent of fathers hold that belief. Most fathers who live with their children participate regularly in some kind of leisure activity with them. More than one in five preschool children in two parent families have their father as the primary caregiver when the mother is at work, attending school, or looking for work. Father involvement has been found to be a more important predictor than a mother’s involvement in the likelihood of a child getting better grades.
.++++++++++ Use of Antipsychotic Drugs to Treat Children and Adolescents Increased More Than Fivefold From 1993 to 2002
Researchers analyzed data from a national survey of doctor’s office visits to find a sharp rise over the last decade in the prescription of psychiatric drugs for children. The drugs are prescribed by child psychiatrists who say that they are the best therapy available for children in urgent need of help who do no respond well to other treatments. Experts say that little is known about the use of antipsychotics in minors. Only a handful of small studies have been done in children and adolescents. ++++++++++ How to Read to Your Cat
A Brevity reader pointed out that, in the interest of fairness and in regard to the story last week about children reading to dogs, I should also inform you that children can read to their cats! She says her daughter, who struggled to learn to read, loved “Three Stories You Can Read to Your Cat” and she and her sibling read them to the family cats several times. The book is available in paperback, both new and used, online at Amazon, and probably B & N too, although I haven’t looked. ++++++++++ National Truancy Program Registry
There are currently 116 programs registered at the National Center for School Engagement (NCSE) web site. They can be sorted by state or by grade level and come with contact information and a wealth of detail. If you run a truancy program you can register it at the site too. ++++++++++ Baltimore Sees Steep Decline in Drug Overdoses
Here’s some welcome news from Baltimore, a city from which the news is consistently dreary. Baltimore reports a dramatic change in crime and drug overdose rates. Both are at decade lows. Officials credit huge spending increases on drug treatment and improvement in policing, efforts drug treatment specialists say could serve as a national model for reducing the effects of illegal drugs on communities. Financier George Soros, whose foundation gave the city $25 million to rejuvenate local treatment programs in 1997, is so pleased by Baltimore’s results that his foundation is offering $10 million in grants to cities that want to copy Baltimore’s program. ++++++++++ A Couple Fights to Stay a Family
A New Jersey couple is engaged in a constant battle to prove their fitness as parents. They lost custody of their son for 18 months when child welfare authorities put him in foster care. They are among thousands of parents around the country with mental limitations who face the same struggle. Nationwide, 40 to 60 percent of parents with mental limitations will have a child taken away by the child protection system, at least temporarily. Deciding whether a child is safe at home, or needs to be placed in foster care, is a tough decision. When mentally disabled parents are involved, the decision is even tougher. ++++++++++ Sex Offenders Tracked by Satellite
Under a new Wisconsin law convicted sex offenders will have to wear a two-piece electronic tracking device for the rest of their lives. Ankle bracelets and a pager-sized unit will use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to follow their every step. If they entered restricted areas, such as schools, officials will be alerted. ++++++++++ Teenagers Who Plot Violence Are Being Charged as Terrorists
U.S. public schools in April saw at least a dozen Columbine-like plots foiled. School safety experts have long noted similarities between school shooters and terrorists, urging schools to use a “threat assessment” approach to safety that takes even implied threats seriously. They note almost all the school shooters had thoughts of suicide in common, similar to the dispair experienced by terrorists. ++++++++++ Circus Arts Help Troubled Youth in Chile
Using circus arts to help troubled youth was the brainchild of the Cirque du Soleil, which began its first two pilot projects in Chile and Brazil in 1995. Today Cirque du Soleil has 50 projects running in 19 countries, many of them developing countries. Today, Chile’s Circo du Mundo is run independently and continuously searches for funding. The organization’s director says circus arts get kids to channel the same energy that leads to violence or delinquency toward positive pursuits. ++++++++++ North Carolina’s 21st Century School System
North Carolina is engaged in transforming high schools from a model created in the industrial age to a system that makes sense in the 21st century. The state’s plan calls for a network of “early college” high schools that will eventually give every student in the state the chance to get two years of college by the time they graduate. It emphasizes new small, career-themed schools emphasizing subjects like engineering, science or business within larger high schools. The goal is to make sure all students graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college or the workplace.
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Joey Binard, Senior Program Manager
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Juvenile & Family Law Department
NCJFCJ
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