Child Sex Abuse—Let the games begin!
I won't repeat what has already been said about the child sex abuse scandal engulfing Penn State. Everything which needs to be said can be found in the Grand Jury Findings of Fact and Recommendation of Charges.
Yesterday, National Center for Victims of Crime, released the following statement which is worth repeating.
Washington, DC: The National Center for Victims of Crime today called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and all educational institutions to respond quickly and forcefully to sexual abuse. The arrest of a former Penn State athletic coach ...
Corporeal Punishment for the Masses
The rise of corporeal punishment theory is a troubling cultural phenomenon which really takes us back to the dark ages of unquestioned rule by authority. The link between spanking and conservative Christianity is insulting to the vast majority of believers who do not condone religiously inspired child abuse. It also creates a strange affinity between Catholicism—where child sex abuse has run rampant for years—and evangelicalism—where beating children has seemingly become the God-given norm; the Catholics get the sex and the Evangelicals get the hide. ...
Title IX’s Demise in the Public School System
Title IX is a 1972 federal law which requires gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding. This includes the vast majority of public school systems in our country.
Title IX prohibits both teacher-student harassment and student-student harassment. It also prohibits a hostile environment based on gender. The goal is to eliminate sex-based discrimination in federally assisted education programs. Every public school has an affirmative obligation to prevent sex-based harassment and to lessen the harm to students if, despite ...
Court Rules Attorney-Client Privilege ≠ Colorado GAL-Attorneys
Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the attorney-client privilege does not apply to conversations between guardians ad litem and the children they represent in child abuse, child welfare and custody cases. In Colorado, a guardian ad litem is an attorney appointed to represent a child who has been abused or neglected or is in foster care. They are also appointed for children are accused of crimes or involved in a custody fight.
In a very controversial 5-2 decision, the Court held that “because a child who is the subject of a dependency and neglect ...
Assessing Current Restitution Law to
Effectively Serve Victims in Child Abuse Imagery Cases *
This article discusses the Marsh Law Firm's pioneering work to secure criminal restitution for our client Amy. It appeared in the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse Update earlier this year, before our appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The NCPCA Update can be downloaded in full here.
by Angela Downes, Meg Garvin, Wanda Lucibello, Alison Wilkinson, Terry Campos, and Hon. Paul Cassell2
Amy was only four years old when her uncle sexually assaulted her and documented that assault through photographs. Although the assault took place in 1993, now nearly 20 ...
Foster Care Adoption Benefits – The Adoption Tax Credit
One of the many things I lobbied for in Washington, DC was a refundable adoption tax credit aimed specifically at foster care adoption. It was opposed for many years as being "too expensive" and a "risky proposition" which would lead to the elimination of the non-refundable tax credit for foreign adoptions claimed by wealthy white adoptive parents.
Among the many provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) of 2010 was an expansion of the tax credit for adopting parents. A new factsheet from the Internal Revenue Service, Six Things to Know ...
Free School Meals for Children in Foster Care
According to the Children's Bureau Express, the recently signed Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, make it easier for school districts to enroll foster children for free school meals. Children in foster care are now automatically eligible to receive free school meals, regardless of household income, and they can remain enrolled for the entire school year, even if they leave foster care during the year. Because of this, the process of school districts enrolling foster children into this program is simplified.
An article written by Nate Frentz and Zoe Neuberger for the ...