PeoriaStory

PEORIA, IL -- From a news release:

The Family Justice Resource Center has two pieces of exciting news!

 

1. Board President Diane Redleaf Has Just Published a New Book

 

"They Took the Kids Last Night," published by Praeger Press, is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what wrongly accused families are up against. The book, which tells the story of six separate families whose children were wrongly seized by child protection services, vividly illustrates the constitutional balancing act where medicine, family interests, and child safety can clash. 

 

Diane is extending a 20% discount to FJRC's network of families, attorneys, and physicians. Go to www.abc-clio.com and use promo code Q41820. The book is also available on Amazon.  

 

I read an earlier draft of the book, and I can tell you that it's absolutely riveting. Diane expertly weaved together riveting stories with discussions of policy. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. 

 

If you do read it, please leave a review on Amazon!

 

2. FJRC Featured in Local News Series

 

WEEK News 25 contacted FJRC a few weeks ago to discuss the issue of medically-based wrongful allegations of abuse. Last week they aired a two-day series they called "Accused" that features three FJRC leaders. Here are links to the segments:

 

Day 1 (Aired on October 30): https://week.com/news/2018/10/30/accused-a-local-familys-693-day-nightmare-a-25-news-special-report/

 

Day 2 (Aired on October 31): https://week.com/news/2018/11/01/accused-part-2-families-say-they-became-collateral-damage-in-fight-against-child-abuse/

 

Thank you all for your continued support. Check our website to see pictures from our two launch events. 

 

Michelle Weidner

Executive Director

Family Justice Resource Center

[email protected]

www.famjustice.org

Cell 815-608-9296

Intake Line 309-431-9127

 

 

Shaken baby syndrome is a myth, experts say

PEORIA, IL -- Shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis used to convict and imprison parents and caretakers for child abuse, has no scientific basis showing it actually occurs.  That was the conclusion of a panel at a Peoria meeting on April 25. 

The concept is so questionable that a new name for it has been found, "abusive head trauma."  But the syndrome is "mythology." 

A Wheaton attorney, Zachary Bravos, said the "classic shaken baby case with no external signs of injury does not exist."  Bleeding on the brain, used to diagnose the syndrome, is caused by "disease conditions."

Dozens of bio-mechanical tests, some on animals, have proved that shaking cannot cause bleeding in the brain, he said.

The audience viewed a film about wrongful convictions and prosecutions of abuse, based on shaken baby syndrome. It revealed that the physicians who have pushed this wrong diagnosis have profited from it, by setting up a center and conferences and obtaining millions in grants to fund their activities. 

"You can't cause brain damage without causing neck damage," an expert in the film stated. Then the panel talked and answered questions from the audience.

Panelist Michelle Weidner was wrongly accused of 'abusive head trauma' in 2010. Her six week old infant was wrongly diagnosed at OSF St. Francis Medical Center, she said, and child welfare officials were notified of potential abuse.  The baby was ultimately taken out of state to another hospital where accurate scans took place.

He was finally diagnosed with a rare disorder, but the family was under supervision for three months by child welfare officials during an investigation, and could not be alone with their children.

Weidner has become an activist for medical accuracy in child abuse investigations.  She said she has been threatened. "I have been warned to stop telling my story," she said.

A nurse who tried to help her almost lost her job, she said. A doctor kept silent. "There is no safety for dissent.  People stay quiet," she said."There needs to be less fear. What does this say about child welfare in this community?" she asked.

A Springfield radiologist on the panel, Dr. David Ayoub, said the lack of scientific evidence for shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma is appalling. But the medical establishment has fallen for the ideology, and is pushing back against those who question it. "Things are worse now than before. I fear people like us are going away," he said.

Bravos said the syndrome is "entrenched in the legal system," but some judges who understand science are becoming enlightened. "The courts have been recognizing the evolution in science."

He added, "the attempt to silence dissent is usually the last gasp of a dying idea."  

Louis Milot, the team leader for assistant public defenders in the juvenile division of the Peoria county court, said parents accused of this type of abuse are not like typical criminals. "These parents want to know what happened. They want to help," he said. 

"I have issues with clinical-based opinions rather than science," Milot said.

A group, Pediatric Accountability in Central Illinois, seeks to help parents wrongfully accused, and "educate members of the medical, legal and law enforcement communities about medical conditions and accidental injury findings that minic abuse and neglect findings."

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

Peoria, IL -- From a news release:

Central Illinois played host to a group of current and former Major League Baseball players recently, including Peoria-area product Ben Zobrist, at the annual Christian Center “Play with the Pros” event.

Highlighting the event was Eureka High School graduate Ben Zobrist who became a World Series Champion last fall with the Kansas City Royals and signed in the off-season with the Chicago Cubs. As a young man, Zobrist was affiliated with Christian Center programs.

Zobrist was joined at the event by fellow Major League Baseball players Zach McAllister of the Cleveland Indians (and Chillicothe) and Pat Venditte of the Toronto Blue Jays as well as former Major League Baseball players Brian Shouse of the Tampa Bay Rays (and Bradley University), Rick Short of the Washington Nationals (and Western Illinois University), and Kyle Hudson of the Baltimore Orioles.

Five other current and former Minor League Baseball players from the area also helped with the event. Ben Zobrist was more than happy to help out. “When you make it to the major leagues and get an opportunity to do something that I really didn’t think possible when I was a little kid growing up here — the fact that it is within reach for some central Illinois kids is fun,” he said.

Zach McAllister echoed Zobrist’s sentiment, saying “It’s a great honor for me to be able to come back home and help out. It definitely makes you appreciate what you have and what you’re able to do.”

A day-long baseball clinic for area youth, the Play with the Pros event, was envisioned by Brian Shouse and Ben Zobrist, then teammates with the Tampa Bay Rays, while playing catch in the outfield on a practice day. The most recent event marked the seventh in its history. Warming a cold day under the
protective Avanti’s Dome in Pekin, the December 19th event welcomed 124 kids.

Each child participating received one-on-one instruction from the pros and even got to play in a sandlot game of baseball with the pros! Sponsors and the pros, who all volunteered their time, saw to it that the event raised over $15,000
for Christian Center youth athletics programs.

This annual event takes place each December and is announced on the Christian Center’s website over the summer. Since 1948, the Christian Center in Peoria has provided area kids with a wholesome and challenging athletics programs. This year, more than 1,900 central Illinois kids will play in Christian Center baseball, softball, soccer, and basketball programs. Scholarships are available. For more information visit www.thechristiancenter.cc
       --Phil Newton
For more information: Chad Bailey, Christian Center Managing Director
(309) 208-9614 [email protected]

Turn candy into cash

PEORIA, IL -- Here's an unusual press release:

We want your CANDY! 1 pound of candy = 50 cents for YOU! The candy buyout shop will be open Monday-Thursday, November 2nd-5th during business hours (11:00-5:30 pm).

Options Center for Health & Education 4316 N. Prospect Rd., Peoria Heights, IL 309.685.7721

 

 Helen Kay Cox, RN, BSN, LDN

Options Center for Health & Education, Inc.

4316 N. Prospect Rd.

Peoria Heights, IL 61616

309-685-7721

www.options-center.com

 Facebook | Options Center

 Cox stated she will throw the candy away, and wants it to keep children from eating it, as it's bad for their health.

 -- Elaine Hopkins  

Children's museum moving forward

PEORIA, IL -- The long awaited children's museum, now slated for Glen Oak Park, is moving forward, with bids likely to be taken soon, Emily Cahill of the Peoria Park District said on March 20.

Cahill spoke to the Greater Peoria League of Women Voters. The museum aims to make Glen Oak Park a day long destinations for families, she said, as the Peoria Zoo also is there.

The museum will add jobs and stabilize the neighborhood, she said. It will be focused on education through play. "Kids learn through play," she said.

Reaching young children is essential, she said, as 85 percent of the brain develops by age three, and children learn more between the ages of four and five than they learn from ages six to 18 combined.

Many Peoria children, living in poverty, have never been more than three miles from home, she said. "It's our duty to bring these things to them."

This museum will be far from a traditional museum, and has been especially designed to focus on Peoria's history and natural resources. It will offer kids a chance to engage in non-structured play and learning, based on learning standards, she said.

Most of the exhibits are deliberately non-computer based, she said, as children need non-structured activities.

"Everything is gender neutral, she said, with colors designed to attract boys and girls.

Its galleries, to cover 8,000 square feet, will focus on construction, farming, sand play, Peoria history, science/technology (which will include a worm farm!), theater, sports and the Illinois river valley.  A tot town will include a hubcap house, which the designers saw and photographed, she said.It's part of Peoria's history, she said.

The museum backers have raised $5.2 million of the $6 million the museum is expected to cost, she said. Bids are going out in April to rehab the 1894 pavillion building, formerly used for the park district's administration.  "We repurpose structures," she said.

There will be an entry fee, yet to be determined, but scholarships for school classes, she said, and curriculum guides for their teachers. The aim is to make it self supporting. 

Many of the park district's 12,000 volunteers will be recruited to help, she said, along with college students.

This museum sounds wonderful.  It likely will be superior to the Navy Pier museum, and different in focus from the wonderous museum in St. Louis.

Cahill hit all the right notes in her talk to the League.

The museum is aimed at kids 0 - 8, but older kids and their friends, parents and grandparents may well be equally enchanted by what they find there.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

Dangerous toys shows capitalism at its worst

PEORIA -- From a news release: 

Survey Finds Dangerous Toys on Store Shelves

Shopping Tips, Mobile Website Can Help Parents Shop Safe

 

Peoria, Nov. 20 –Dangerous or toxic toys can still be found on America’s store shelves, according to Illinois Public Interest Research Group’s 27^th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

 This morning Illinois PIRG, joined by Dr. Greg Tudor, Emergency Room Attending at the Children’s Hospital of Illinois, released the report. It reveals the results of laboratory testing on toys for lead, cadmium and phthalates, all of which have been proven to have serious adverse health impacts on the development of young children. The survey also found small toys that pose a choking hazard, extremely loud toys that threaten children’s hearing, and toy magnets that can cause serious injury.

 The Trouble in Toyland report also includes a list of dangerous toys that surveyors found on toy store shelves. The list includes a dangerous magnet toy, a bowling game that is a choking hazard and a cell phone rattle that is harmful to little ears.

 “We should be able to trust that the toys we buy are safe. However, until that’s the case, parents need to watch out for common hazards when shopping for toys,” said Hailey Witt, Field Director for Illinois PIRG.

 For 27 years, the Illinois PIRG Trouble in Toyland report has offered safety guidelines for purchasing toys for small children and provided examples of toys currently on store shelves that pose potential safety hazards.  The group also provides an interactive website with tips for safe toy shopping that consumers can access on their smartphones at www.toysafety.mobi.

Key findings from the report include:

 

• Toys with high levels of toxic substances are still on store shelves. We found toys which contained phthalates, as well as toys with lead content above the 100 parts per million limit.
• Despite a ban on small parts in toys for children under three, we found toys available in stores that still pose choking hazards.
• We also found toys that are potentially harmful to children’s ears and exceed the noise standards recommended by the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
• We discovered small powerful magnets that pose a dangerous threat to children if swallowed.

 

 “Parents and toy givers need to remember that while the CPSC is doing a good job, no government agency tests all toys before they hit store shelves.  Consumers should also remember that toys that are not on our list of examples could also pose hazards,” Witt concluded. “The message of today is clear. Parents have to stay vigilant.  We cannot and must not accept any weakening of our consumer and public health safeguards because they protect young children, America's littlest consumers."  

To download our Toy Tips or the full Trouble in Toyland report, go to www.illinoispirg.org.

# # #

African American children more likely to be in foster care

PEORIA -- A black child in Peoria has a much greater chance of being caught up in the state child welfare system than does a white child.

African American children make up around 25 percent of the child population in Peoria County but around 60 percent of the children taken from their families by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, according to recent figures released by the agency after a Freedom of Information request.

These documents from the DCFS show African American children make up 59 percent of children in foster care, 66 percent of children in the care of relatives and 52 percent of those institutionalized or in group homes.

Both African American and white children spend an average time of more than two years in DCFS care before they are reunited with their families or placed for adoption.

For Hispanic children the time is double that, at more than four years, the data shows. But they are a very small percentage of the Peoria DCFS case load, so the statistics may be skewed by one or two extraordinary cases.

Crystal Clark of Peoria has spoken out against the DCFS system. Her African American grandchildren were taken away from her home where they were living with her and their mother, and placed in a series of white foster homes. She says they were abused in some of these homes and also estranged from their religion and culture.

The children were never abused in Clark's home. Instead Clark got into a dispute with a caseworker, who then took the children away from her. The mother had been sent to prison for theft.

For several years Clark has filed complaints, picketed, and even embarked on a brief hunger strike hoping to spark interest in her case and in the way the system operates.

She would like to see a federal mediator from the U.S. Justice Department come to Peoria to meet with officials and representatives of the African American community, to discuss the ongoing problems.

Taxpayers also should be interested in cutting back some of these numbers, especially in situations where a relative is capable and willing to care for the children.

The system in Peoria and Tazewell Counties costs an estimated $25 million yearly to operate, the Peoria Journal Star reported in 2005, based on research I did then.

An average of 300 children from the two counties are taken into the DCFS system each year, the figures show. But a majority of these children are not beaten or abused. More than half typically are deemed to be at risk of being harmed, perhaps because of domestic violence in the home. Others have parents in jail.

Ninety percent of the families caught up in the DCFS system are said to be low income.

-- Elaine Hopkins

Child welfare system protest

PEORIA -- Crystal Clark has settled down in front of the Peoria County courthouse, on the corner of Main and Jefferson, to protest the treatment of her grandchildren in foster care, and the refusal of Chief Judge Rick Grawey to meet with her group to discuss child welfare issues.

A statue of Abraham Lincoln in the courthouse plaza overlooked Clark, 50, an African-American. By 2 p.m. on July 24 she had been there for 24 hours without food or water.

She said her grandchildren had been found to be dehydrated at the hands of foster parents, and she plans to refuse both food and water to call attention to their treatment.

Judge Grawey came out to speak with Clark, but said he cannot discuss her family's case, which is pending, and also could not meet with her group.

Clark said her grandchildren, now aged four and three, have been in foster care since 2003. She has picketed and protested before to no avail, she said.

Clark's daughter lost the children when she was sent to prison for petty theft, but the children remained in the home they all were sharing with Clark. Then the children were removed from Clark's care by a Catholic Social Service caseworker and placed in foster care.

Clark says that occurred because she complained when the caseworker took videotapes from her home. She has also picketed the Catholic diocese offices.

While in foster care the children were abused, she said, and placed in several homes including one condemned by the the city of Peoria, before landing in foster care in a rural Peoria home. They have not been taken to their own church, she said, adding religious discrimination to the list of problems.

Clark's daughter is scheduled to appear in court on July 25.

An official with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has promised to scrutinize Clark's family case. But Clark was skeptical, saying those promises have been made before but nothing changes.

The agency is also studying how to improve the system in Peoria, he said.

In Peoria County, one-fourth of children are black but more than 60 percent of the children in foster care are black, according to DCFS figures.

--Elaine Hopkins