Isis Interview with MCC: Each Child Should be Cherished

Written on February 17, 2012 by Isis Staff in In The News

The "Cherish Mug" is adorned with the MCC logo and available for purchase at Isis Parenting and on the MCC website.

Isis Parenting is proud to support Massachusetts Citizens for Children and their commitment to keeping children safe from abuse and neglect. We decided to interview the folks at MCC so they could describe their history, current initiatives and their unique logo, designed by artist Corita Kent.

Tell us a little bit about MCC and your mission.
Massachusetts Citizens for Children was founded in 1959 by Martha May Eliot, M.D., a Harvard educated pediatrician who went on to head the U.S. Children’s Bureau and UNICEF. Her idea, which was supported by then Governor Foster Furcolo, was to establish a permanent and independent organization of concerned citizens who would work to improve the lives of the state’s most vulnerable children. Our mission is grounded in the belief that all children have basic rights, including the right to be safe from abuse, neglect, and violence; to be economically secure; to receive quality medical and preventive care; to learn in quality educational settings; and to live in caring families and healthy communities. Unfortunately, the realities of some children in our state do not reflect this ideal. Our work throughout our 52-year history has been to ensure that all children are safe, healthy, and are given an optimal environment in which to grow, learn and be happy.

Who was Corita Kent and what was her relationship with Massachusetts Citizens for Children?
Corita Kent, also known as Sister Mary Corita, gained international fame for her vibrant serigraphs which became a hallmark of the anti-war movements in the 1960s and 70s and were popular until her death in Boston in 1986. Corita was well known for her rainbow swash painted in 1971 on one of the gas tanks near the Southeast Expressway in Dorchester. Her 1985 United States Postage stamp “Love” sold in the hundreds of millions. Corita’s art reflected her spirituality, her commitment to social justice, her hope for peace, and her delight in the world all around us.
In the mid-80’s Corita became acquainted with MCC’s work and created an exclusive serigraph to commemorate the organization’s 25th Anniversary. The phrase she believed captured the essence of our mission and work was: “It’s only fair that each child be cherished.” She encouraged us to use the saying as our official logo and determined that it should be in bright, bold red. And so, our logo simply, colorfully and brilliantly expresses our mission and hopes for children.

How do you see Corita’s words applying to what your organization is doing today?
A key part of our history has been to keep children safe from abuse and violence. We are also committed to the right of each child to live in caring families and healthy communities. These two ideas are complimentary; there are abusive behaviors that we can prevent – and we are working to do so – but beyond that, we need to be engaged in creating the home, community, world that we want. So, if we only focus on the things we should NOT be doing we’re missing half the message – what are the things we SHOULD be doing? The ansEwer is that we should be cherishing our children.
The saying “It’s only fair that each child be cherished” is a quiet message but it is a critical one. Oftentimes people, when confronting a serious and widespread problem, such as child sexual abuse, become paralyzed with inaction. Faced with sad facts and statistics it is so easy to get stuck in a “Well what’s the point?” loop. We don’t want people to feel powerless to create change. Shifting perspectives can have a huge impact. For example, instead of focusing our messages exclusively on “Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome / Abusive Head Trauma,” we educate parents on how to care for their babies when they are fussy and crying and how to take care of themselves, too, when infant caring becomes stressful. Instead of limiting the message to “Stop Child Sexual Abuse,” we educate parents, youth, professionals and communities about how to create safe environments. In both cases, the effect of using complementary messages is that people gain the motivation to participate in actions that will actually reduce the numbers of abused children.

What are some of your major initiatives this year?
We will soon be launching a major public campaign to reduce infant deaths and injuries from shaking. It will target young men between 18 and 25 years of age – the group most overrepresented in cases of shaken babies. The Enough Abuse Campaign on child sexual abuse prevention which we lead will be expanded to new communities and areas of the state and we will be providing consultation support to youth-serving organizations who are seeking to strengthen their ability to protect children from sexual abuse in those setting.
We will be promoting our “Pinwheels for Prevention” Campaign in April and in the fall are planning a “Cherish Our Children” Stroll, for which we will again be partnering with Isis Parenting. Other events you can find by following us on Facebook and on our websites:www.masskids.org and www.enoughabuse.org!

The Cherish Mugs are adorable and we’re getting a wonderful response to them in our stores. They make a great gift! How will the proceeds from the mug be used?
Proceeds from the sale of the mugs will go directly to support our programs on Shaken Baby Syndrome/Abusive Head Trauma Prevention and Child Sexual Abuse Prevention. We are a serious “no frills” organization so a very high percentage of funds raised supports our direct programs.

How do you think the missions of MCC and Isis are intertwined?
MCC and Isis Parenting have a shared vision in that both organizations believe in the power of education and the value of strong community. Moreover, Isis wants to empower parents to be the best they can be and they are committed to supporting parents to make parenting easier, less stressful and more joyful. Massachusetts Citizens for Children is committed to giving every child a fair chance at a healthy, safe and happy childhood. One of the best ways to achieve that goal is for each of us to love, cherish, and protect our own children, then the children in our community, then across Massachusetts and beyond – until all children are safe from abuse and violence and all children are able to live in a caring family and healthy community.

Advocates trying to start child abuse task force

Advocates trying to start child abuse task force
by Laurie Balliett, contributing writer
February 16, 2012

HYANNIS — Community and child advocates are considering a new task force to help prevent sexual abuse of children on Cape Cod.

At a workshop at state offices on Perseverence Way on Thursday, the Barnstable County Council for Children, Youth and Families, and a representative from the Enough Abuse Campaign, a statewide grass-roots movements, urged local child-care professionals to create the task force.

The campaign, a program of the Massachusetts Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Partnership, would train facilitators from various organizations to teach volunteers to raise awareness of child sexual abuse. The partnership is a group of statewide child advocacy organizations.

Cape Cod was identified as a priority to the Enough Abuse Campaign about a year ago, but the campaign did not have the funds to do anything here until recently, said Lauren Titus, co-chairwoman of the county council.

About 20 professionals attended the workshop, including representatives from the state Department of Children and Family Services, Independence House, which works to prevent domestic abuse, and Children's Cove, which serves young victims of sexual abuse.

Beth Biro, forensic sexual abuse consultant at Children's Cove, stressed that investigative procedures and protocols should stay in place. She questioned how volunteers would be trained and whether they would know what to do if a child disclosed something, and if they would be able to train somebody else in proper procedures.

"We want to make sure there is a response component to the training," stressed Biro. She offered to attend every training to act as a consultant to the facilitators.

After the meeting, Jetta Bernier, campaign director of Enough Abuse Campaign, said, "I don't think we're looking for consultants; we're looking for partners. ... We want to make sure we work closely with Children's Cove," said Bernier.

The Enough Abuse Campaign was developed in Massachusetts nearly a decade ago in an effort to move toward results-based action, said Bernier.

"We decided there was no plan in Massachusetts to prevent child sexual abuse, and there was a big gap," Bernier said.

The council will hold a follow up meeting that will take place the first week of April.

Child Pornographers in Mass. not penalized enough, study shows

Child Pornographers in Mass. not penalized enough, study shows
Written by Amelia Pak-Harvey
February 15, 2012

Recent rulings of child pornography cases in Massachusetts have given offenders a lighter sentence than the U.S. Sentencing Commission has recommended, a pattern that shadows other rulings nationwide.

The median decrease from the commission’s recommended minimum sentencing was 46.7 percent from Oct. 2010 to Sep. 2011 in substantial assistance departure cases, according to U.S. Sentencing Commission data.

Recent child pornography cases in Massachusetts are evidence of such statistics.

In January, Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced a Dedham man to 21 months in prison for possessing child pornography – 42 months less than the punishment issued in the commission guidelines, according to The Boston Globe.

Two years prior, Judge Michael A. Ponsor sentenced a Springfield man to four years of probation and community confinement for possessing child pornography, according to a U.S. Attorney press release. The minimum suggested punishment is six to eight years in prison, according to The Globe.

But a judge in Pennsylvania recently sentenced a tenth-grade teacher who possessed and distributed child pornography to 19 years and seven months in prison, a punishment within the commission’s guidelines and just five months less than the maximum penalty.

The debate arises amidst recent child pornography cases in the Boston area – former elementary teacher David Ettlinger, 34, from Brighton, faces charges of possession of child pornography and now for assault.

Last Thursday, a 54-year-old management company employee was arraigned and charged with possessing child pornography after his employers found material on his work computer.

Although the commission establishes guidelines of punishment for federal crimes, Supreme Court rulings have declared that judges do not have to follow the commission’s suggestions when sentencing offenders.

The commission holds a public hearing on child pornography crimes today in D.C. The hearing will include discussions on technology, sex offender treatment and perspectives from the law, victims and courts.

Jetta Bernier, the executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children, said people are trying to research if people who view child pornography go on to molest children, or if pornography deters people from actually going out and risking being caught with a child.

However, she said that just by viewing the material, people are creating a market for that material and kids somewhere are being sexually abused.

One of the fundamental problems of child porn is that children are being sexually exploited in order to produce the material, she said.

“We need to work to prevent child sexual abuse from happening in the first place,” Bernier said.

Some local laws, she said, have expelled offenders from communities, which means such offenders have no place to live.

“We find them clustering in trailer parks, for example, because it’s cheap to live there and because trailer parks tend to be out of the way,” Bernier said. “When you have that happen you have a concentration of those who are sexual offenders and that can be really high risk area for any child to live or visit in.”

Bernier said people need to listen to the judges and understand why they are not following the guidelines.

“I think at this point we have to really listen to what these judges are saying,” Bernier said, “and to allow the legal system essentially to make an informed decision about what the right penalty should be.”

"Enough Abuse" Campaign Focuses on Adults Likely to Offend

"Enough Abuse" Campaign Focuses on Adults Likely to Offend
February 6, 2012
Contributor: Karen Brown
Listen here: http://nepr.net/news/enough-abuse-campaign-focuses-adults-likely-offend

Child advocates in Springfield are launching a coalition to identify and stop child sexual abuse – starting off by trainings at community agencies.

For many years, those trying to end child sexual abuse focused primarily on the children themselves – teaching them to recognize good versus bad touching, for instance, or to stay away from strangers. But a statewide campaign called “Enough Abuse” wants to shift the focus to identifying the adults most likely to commit abuse. Campaign trainer Jetta Bernier was in Springfield recently – at the invitation of the family advocacy center at Baystate medical center.

“People are thinking, if someone is abusive, i could figure out who they are. They would look funny, they'd speak funny, they would be weird, we'd all get a funny feeling. The fact that has been proven again and again is that those who abuse children are often very socially adept, they're very nice, they build this sense around them they are trustworthy. Everyone loves them. They do that purposefully bcecause they want cover. “

She was teaching these tips to a roomful of representatives from local youth-oriented agencies – from head start to the Springfield Housing Authority -- who spent several days poring over abuse case studies.

“The  movie of the week version of rape is not what we're talking about here,” says Baystate pediatrician Stephen Boos, co-director of the family advocacy center.

“This is something that evolved over time. There's opportunities that need to be created and sought, victims need to be tested whether the abuser is going to get away with it. And then things progress slowly. So if you identify signs early, you can possible prevent the first abuse event.”

Boos says he evaluates two to three hundred suspected cases of child sexual abuse every year – about half of which are verified. He says high-profile abuse cases have brought attention to the problem of child sex abuse  – including claims against jerry Sandusky at Penn state and the local trial of an Easthampton arts administrator accused of statutory rape.

“People  start talking about it. But the other thing that happens is that pp look at the legal process as some arbiter of truth, and the fact is, most sexual abusers are not prosecuted, and many who are prosecuted are not convicted.”

Boos says he’s assembled a group of community members – from the district attorney’s office to the school system – to launch the “Enough Abuse Springfield” campaign. He’s hoping they’ll learn not only to identify predators, but also to recognize the signs that abuse has already occurred.

“If you are a professional -- say a pediatrician or teacher or school counselor -- and you're dealing with a kid who's acting out….. You might be the person who surprising then finds out the child is abused. and prevents the next abuse.”

Those who attended the recent training have promised in turn to train others back at their agencies in how to identify – and head off – sexual abuse. 

Program Trains Adults to Stop Sexual Abuse of Children
February 6, 2012
Paul Tuthill
Springfield, MA (WAMC)


Listen here: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1901918/WAMC.New.England.News/Program.Trains.Adults..To.Stop.Sexual.Abuse..Of.Children

Sexual abuse of children is disturbingly prevelant according to experts. Dr. Stephen Boos, medical director of the Family Advocacy Center at Baystate Childrens Hospital in Springfield, says surveys have found 1 in 4 women and 1 in six men were sexually abused as children, but 80 percent never reported it. 

"We have been talking about sexual abuse prevention for a long time in this country but the focus has been on training children to protect themselves: 'just say no,' or 'tell somebody.' That's a heavy burden to lay on a child, and when they fail, that just compounds the guilt and keeps them quiet. It's time for the adults to stand up and say 'We're the adults, it is our responsibility to make our society safe for these children."

Getting more adults trained to recognize the consequences of child sex abuse from a public health perspective, how to identifty abusers, and keep children out of potentially risky situations is the goal of the "Enough Abuse" campaign. The initiative involves training community leaders, particularly people who work for, or volunteer with, youth service organizations. These trainers are then expected to work at the grassroots with parents and other adults who have regular contact with children. 

Dr. Boos says child sexual abuse can be prevented, but it takes diligence:

"If you are running a youth serving agency you need to set up your agency to look for this problem.  You need to screen your employees, you need to set up your physical plan so that the environment is safe, you need to kind of have a buddy system so that everyone is looking at everyone, and you need to train your people so that they know that if you're the assistant coach your watching the coach, if you're the coach you're watching the assistant coach. Everyone is watching out for the children, the children come number one and protecting the program and the employees is not the first agenda, I think that's the lesson of Penn State."

Massachusetts Citizens for Children, the nation's oldest state-wide child advocacy organization, is leading the state-wide initiative to train more adults to prevent, recognize, and stop child sexual abuse. The effort is supported by a 1.2 million dollar grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is backed by dozens of community organizations.  According to Eva Montibello communications director for the Enough Abuse Campaign:

"These are, not only people, but they're also community organizations that are taking a stand and fully committed to saying, 'you know what, enough child sexual abuse in our community.' You know, we want to do something to actively and proactively go out into the community and train as many people as we can in all different areas to prevent child sexual abuse."

Greater Springfield is the fourth area of the state to be introduced to the campaign.  The pre-school program, Square One, is one of the campaign's local supporters.  The organization's vice president of family services, Joni Beck Brewer, is hopeful for its success:

"We do take a lot of precautions about making sure that the kids are safe when they're in our care, and then concerns often will come up about whether the child is safe in their home and in their communities - so it really has to be a multi-pronged approach, you cant just look at parents or teachers, we really need the whole community to step up and really be aware of this - and that's what we're hoping to do here. 

Other organizations supporting the child sexual abuse prevention campaign include Head Start, the Ms. Foundation, and the Springfield Housing Authority.

Reporting from WAMC's pioneer valley news bureau on the campus of Western New England University, I'm Paul Tuthill.

After Filing Lawsuit, Alleged Sex Abuse Victim Speaks Out

Rosanne Sliney hopes to inspire sexual abuse victims to come forward.

By Ryan Grannan-Doll
Published in the Waltham Patch

February 2, 2012

After filing a lawsuit in Middlesex Superior Court on Jan. 30, a Burlington woman held a press conference on Feb. 1, speaking out against her uncle, a Waltham businessman she says sexually assaulted her between 1968 and 1977.

Rosanne Sliney, 48, says her uncle, Domenic Previte Jr., of Waltham, sexually assaulted and raped her hundreds of times, starting when she was five.

The lawsuit details the alleged abuse, which Sliney says continued until 1977, when she was 14. Sliney, who grew up in Waltham, also claimed in the lawsuit that Previte forced her to have sex with other men.

“Domenic, you took away my childhood, my adolescence. I have struggled my whole life,” Sliney said during Wednesday's press conference.

Sliney is asking for an undisclosed amount of financial compensation for her pain and suffering, as well as attorney’s fees.

The alleged abuse caused Sliney severe mental distress, she said, which resulted in multiple hospital stays starting when she was 24.

Previte, who could not be reached for comment following the press conference, owned a Cambridge car wash where some of the abuse is alleged to have occurred, according to Sliney’s attorney, Carmen Durso.

Other incidents also occurred at the former Maverick nightclub in North Reading in the 1970s, at Previte’s Waltham home (a different address then where he lives now) and the Showcase Cinemas in Woburn, according to the lawsuit. 

Sliney said Wednesday she was speaking out to help inspire other victims of sexual abuse to come forward, and to call on state lawmakers to eliminate a statute of limitations on alleged victims reporting abuse and filing criminal charges and civil lawsuits. Sliney also called for lawmakers to eliminate the statute of limitations for filing a civil lawsuit. 

“There should be no time limit, we should be able to obtain justice in our own time and out our own pace,” Sliney said, noting that alleged victims can be reluctant to file a lawsuit or charges at first because they are focused on recovery.

Durso said that in this case, the statute of limitations for criminal charges has expired, thus preventing Sliney from filing charges against Previte. However, the law allows for filing of this particular civil lawsuit because it states that a lawsuit can be filed up to three years from the point at which a victim understands they have been abused, according to Durso. In this case, Sliney's recent recollections of abuse, Durso said, allows the suit to be filed. Durso, however, acknowledged, the suit would be a "difficult."

SLINEY RECALLS ALLEGED ABUSE

Sliney, now 48, began recalling the abuse when she was in her early 20s, she said, and never told anyone about it while it was occurring. 

Sliney, a former teacher and coach, said she had planned to tell her mother about the abuse during a meeting with a therapist in 1988, but her mother unexpectedly died that day before Sliney could tell her.

Recently, Sliney started recalling other memories of abuse in which she was forced to have sex with other men, she said, at the former Maverick nightclub in at the intersection of Main and Park streets in North Reading. She was 13 or 14 years old at the time, she said.

“They were pretty horrific and horrible,” Sliney said of the recent memories.

A FAMILY’S REACTION

The alleged abuse took a severe toll on the family, and Sliney said she no longer speaks with her aunts. Sliney said she and her brother and sister decided she should inform her aunts of the abuse, which elicited an unexpected response.

“The first thing they said was, 'We knew,' Sliney said. “They just didn’t want to believe it."

However, her aunts pledged to support Sliney and suggested she confront Previte. Their sentiments soon changed.

“Over time, it became clear to me that this family’s main concern was to keep me quiet and not support me,” Sliney said.

Sliney had a stern message for anybody involved in covering up the alleged abuse.

“To all the adults involved, shame on you for covering this up. Today, I can say that I am strong enough to speak out. I have suffered enough and I’m not hiding anymore,” Sliney said.

CONFRONTING PREVITE

Sliney, despite the suffering she sustained, confronted Previte more than two decades ago during a meeting at one of his businesses, she said.

“We sat in silence, it felt like a lifetime. Finally, we sat down… and I just looked at him and I said, 'I need to talk you about what happened sexually.' That’s when he put his head down and said ‘I never thought this would come back to me,’” Sliney said. 

As a result of the meeting, Previte wrote a letter to Sliney in 1988 in which he confessed to sexually abusing her. In the letter, Previte said he was experiencing a rough time in his life when he abused her and that, 'temptation was mounting. My love for [you] degenerated into something I almost had no control over. I had confused my love for you with sex.'"

PREVITE’S PROMISE

In March 1991, Sliney signed a “Release and Settlement” agreement, in exchange for $26,500 and a promise that her medical expenses would be paid for the rest of her life, according to Durso. Sliney, however, claims her tenuous mental state left her unable to understand what she was signing, according to the lawsuit. During the press conference, Sliney said she has no memory of signing the agreement.

She also claims she felt pressured by her family to forgive Previte, another reason she signed the document, according to the lawsuit. She was also told the document was merely a formality, according to the lawsuit.

Previte, however, did pay her the $26,000, which Sliney said she used to pay off college loans. Previte, however, eventually stopped other payments, claiming making them brought back painful memories of the abuse he allegedly inflicted on Sliney, according to Durso. As a result, Sliney still has outstanding medical bills, according to the lawsuit.

Professionals Learn How to Prevent Child Sex Abuse
By Ray Hershel - email 
February 2nd, 2012

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WGGB)– The recent allegations of child sex abuse at Penn State by a former assistant football coach have brought the issue front and center.

On Thursday, a group of professionals was learning to how prevent this kind of abusive behavior.

It is called the silent epidemic, child sexual abuse.

The Baystate Health Education Center in Holyoke hosted a program to address child sex abuse.

Among the participants was Dr. Stephen Boos, Medical Director of the Family Advocacy Center at Baystate Children’s Hospital,” I’ve seen 200 to 300 kids a year, for every kid I see there’s another three out there who never come forward, so this is a real secret problems,” says Dr. Boos.

Community volunteers are training as trainers themselves in a campaign called “Enough Abuse.”

It is designed to recognize, stop and prevent child sexual abuse according to Eva Montibello, Communications Manager for the Enough Abuse Campaign,” The thing about child sex abuse  is that it can be prevented, there takes a certain amount of diligence, but to have that diligence you really need to be educated, and that’s what these people are learning,” says Montibello.

The second part of the curriculum is learning how to identifiy abusers as well as how to identify children who have been abused.

Adults for example should look for changes in behavior among children, and if a child tells you something, listen, says Dr. Boos, ” Children generally do not lie about this topic, listen carefully to what they say, make sure you’re listening to what they say, not what you’re afraid of, and then you’ll have to explore it further, and when it’s time to explore it further, I would urge anyone to involve a professional,” says Dr. Boos.

Experts like Dr. Stephen Boos  say the focus should always remain on the children and their needs first,” Everyone is watching out for the children, the children come number one, and protecting the program and employee is not the first agenda, I think that’s the lesson of Penn State,” says Dr. Boos.

The “Enough Abuse” campaign is part of a statewide initiative developed with the support of the Massachusetts Citizens for Children and is  supported by health professionals like Baystate Children’s Hospital.

Burlington Woman Sues Uncle, 10 Others For Past Sex Abuse

February 1, 2012 4:41 PM

WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Bernice Corpuz reports:

[transcript]
Forty-eight year old Rosanne Sliney says her uncle and godfather Domenic Previte, Jr. of Waltham raped and sexually assaulted her hundreds of times when she was between five and fourteen years old but she kept it all a secret:

       "I never talked about it in my family,"

Until she was in her twenties when she broke down and told relatives:

       "They all acknowledged and understood the truth of what I had remembered."

But she says her family pressured her to forgive Previte, who agreed to pay for her medical and therapy bills.  Sliney's attorney Carmen Durso says Previte has stopped providing financial assistance.

       "Because every time he wrote a check it just brought back [for Rosanne] the painful memories of what had happened."

Sliney is seeking damages for her pain and suffering.

"I've suffered enough and I'm not hiding any more."

In the financial district, Bernice Corpuz, WBZ NewsRadio 1030.