Sexual Abuse & Domestic Violence

Part of an NPR Ed series on mental health in schools.

Every Monday morning at Harvie Elementary School, in Henrico County, Va., Brett Welch stands outside her office door as kids file in.

“The first thing I’m looking for are the faces,” says Welch, a school counselor. She’s searching for hints of fear, pain or anger.

“Maybe there was a domestic incident at the house that weekend,” says Welch. “That’s reality for a lot of our kids.”

And a reality for a lot of kids in the U.S. While it’s difficult to get an exact number, researchers estimate that between 10 and 20 percent of children are exposed to domestic violence each year.

New data quantifies what many teachers and school counselors already know: While such violence often takes place outside of school, its repercussions resonate in the classroom.

It hurts not only the kids who witness the violence, but also their classmates. The harm is evident in lower test scores as well as lower rates of college attendance and completion. And the impact extends past graduation — it can be seen in lower earnings later in life.

“It’s a sad story,” says Scott Carrell, economist at the University of California, Davis, who has studied this for over a decade.

But, he says, there’s one thing he and his colleagues – economists Mark Hoekstra and Elira Kuka – found that can improve the situation “not only for that family but for all the child’s classmates.” What was it? Reporting domestic violence when it happens.

Violence At Home. Disruption At School.

Brett Welch says she’s noticed that kids who act out at school often come from tough home situations.

“Instead of asking for help, they’ll start being disruptive,” Welch explains.

“They’ll ask to go to the bathroom for the 15th time. And when they can’t, they’ll raise their voices. It can get to the level of throwing a chair – but that’s very rare.”

Kids who witness domestic violence are more likely to get in trouble at school and have behavioral problems, including being aggressive and bullying their classmates.

Welch says she understands why: School is “where they can feel powerful because they are completely powerless at home.”

She often works with those kids one-on-one or in small groups. She wants them to have at least one relationship where “they feel listened to and they feel respected and they know someone cares. That can change everything for them.”

Around the country there aren’t enough counselors like Welch to go around. Not all states require elementary schools to have counselors. And even where they are required, there can be large caseloads. Sometimes one counselor covers multiple schools and oversees more than 1,000 students.

Welch is stretched so thin she’s only at Harvie Elementary two days a week. But a kid may need Welch’s support at any time — and mornings in particular are key.

The first 10 minutes after a student arrives at school in the morning is a critical window, Welch says. If she’s able to catch them and make them feel heard, “it can completely change their day” — and it can change their classmates’ days, too.

Influence On Classmates

If one kid is having a hard day, Brett Welch says, it influences the rest of the children in the classroom.

“It takes the teacher’s attention, it interrupts learning and it interrupts the flow of the day.” She says she can see the impact on classmates’ academic work.

Scott Carrell’s data confirms what Welch has observed.

He links lots of academic metrics – like test scores, discipline infractions and college graduation rates — with court records on whether a parent has filed a restraining order.

Now, domestic violence and restraining orders happen in all the schools Carrell examined. But they were 10 times more likely to happen in the school serving the poorest population compared with the school serving the wealthiest population. So to make sure he wasn’t just seeing the effect of poverty, Carrell came up with a clever solution.

He looked at siblings – who come from the same family and go to the same school – but one sibling has a classmate who’s struggling with domestic violence and the other sibling doesn’t.

Examining lots of sibling pairs and crunching almost two decades worth of data, Carrell found that your classmates – and whether or not they come from a home with domestic violence – influence how well you do in school and beyond.

Measuring harm in dollar figures, Carrell looked at wages when the students grew up. He found that: “exposure to an additional disruptive peer throughout elementary school leads to a 3 to 4 percent reduction in earnings at age 24 to 28.”

Carrell says that number adds up quickly — because, in a class of 25 kids, that’s a 3 or 4 percent drop in wages for each person. Plus, if your classroom has multiple children from troubled homes, the tests scores get lower and lower and the wages drop gets bigger and bigger with each additional disruptive child.

Carrell argues this has implications for how to make schools and classrooms fair. He says, ideally, we would avoid concentrating disruptive kids in the same classroom or the same school.

And Carrell says his biggest takeaway is that “society has a vested interest in helping those families that are struggling with domestic violence. The more we can help other households, the better off our children will be.”

What can be done to improve things?

Carrell and his colleagues found one thing that, they say, really helps: parents reporting the domestic violence.

After reporting it, “things get better.”

Carrell says there are three things that might account for this: First, the violence in the homes may have stopped. Second, another adult has decided to make some positive changes in the child’s life. Third, people like Brett Welch get involved.

Reporting domestic violence forces the school to pay attention, and often that means the school counselors get involved.

Welch talks to students about finding safe places in their homes. She works on anger management. She helps kids improve their emotional vocabulary.

Vickie Fahed, a kindergarten teacher at Harvie Elementary, says she can see Welch’s impact on a child. When Fahed has angry or disruptive children, she sends them down the hallway to see Welch.

“The child comes back so relaxed and so at peace,” Fahed says.

When that child is at ease, the whole class can focus. And that translates into higher test scores and better graduation rates for the child and their classmates.

All this is great — at least on Mondays and Thursdays, when Welch is here.

“You can tell when she’s not here in this building,” says Fayed. “It’s a big difference. We’re like: ‘Okay, she’s not here today? Okay, wait till tomorrow.’ ”

On the days Brett Welch is in the building, she stands by the door as students leave.

“You tell them that you love them because you do,” Welch says. “And because maybe that’s what they need to be able to get through whatever they need to get through at home.”

And, both Brett Welch and Scott Carrell say, if the child’s home life gets better, things will get better at school — for that child, and for their classmates.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The year 2016 has been the fourth deadliest year in two decades, according to data provided by the Anchorage Police Department.

Twenty-four people have been killed so far in the municipality this year.

In July alone there were nine homicides within the city. The figures come on the heels of 2015, which saw the highest number of murders since 1995.

The persistent news of violent incidents has many residents asking whether something has changed and made the city more dangerous.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Anchorage Police Chief Chris Tolley said during a recent interview. “Right now we’re having a lot of crimes. And I’m concerned, and I know the community is concerned.”

The police department tracks a lot of data related to crime and is seeing a 15 percent increase in calls for service, according to Tolley. That uptick in the overall volume includes everything from assaults to property theft to reports of suspicious activity.

But what has most people’s attention is what seems like a lot more violent crime –shootings, stabbings, and a rash of murders, 12 of them clustered around just six weeks this summer between June 27 and August 5.

Two of the deaths this year were officer-involved, including one in July, which some feel should not be counted alongside other homicide or non-negligent manslaughter cases.

Tolley is most concerned about the how persistently it’s young people being killed in incidents this year.

“We’re seeing a trend here where half the victims are under the age of 21,” he said.

There is no one cause that explains all of this year’s homicides, Tolley is quick to point out.

Investigators have found no compelling evidence the murders are linked to gang activity.

Mental health problems have played a prominent role in some of the events, but the most consistent factor is the presence of drugs and alcohol.

“Most of these incidents are things that went too far,” Tolley said. “Disputes over different things, over drugs or things like that.”

Thirty percent of the cases are connected to domestic violence, which is up from an average closer to 20 percent, Tolley said.

Across the municipality, neighborhood crime watch groups post information to Facebook pages, much of it unconfirmed, according to APD spokesperson Jennifer Castro. A growing number citizens are signed up to get crime alerts sent straight to their phones. It can be easy to feel like chaos is descending, simply because a torrent of ominous information is constantly pouring in. Tolley and other city officials are urging a bit more hesitation and consideration, based on the actual number.

The homicide rate in Anchorage has fluctuated between 3.7 and 7.7 deaths per 100,000 residents during the last decade. If 2016 ends with no more murders — which would be unlikely — it would equate to a rate of close to eight.

By contrast, the murder rate in St. Louis last year was 59.

Tolley called a violent year like this in Anchorage a “fluke,” but does not consider it either unprecedented or an anomaly.

“Over eight and 10 year trends you do see spikes like this,” he said. “Is this one of those spikes? Probably.”

The year is far from over, he adds.

In response to violence, particularly among young people, the department plans on relying more heavily on School Resource Officers — the police who are permanently stationed within schools — once classes resume. As staffing levels within APD rise, the department is re-evaluating its policies and procedures to find updates and efficiency. They’re also trying to develop better lines of communication with communities.

Tolley cautions that police are only one part of a comprehensive solution, and one that’s often called upon only in the aftermath of violence.

“This isn’t about the police department solely. It’s about our community,” Tolley said. “I can’t fix this by myself, the administration can’t fix it by itself — it takes the community to take ownership over this. Police are not a substitution for health services. Police are not a solution for school teachers.”

It’s a view shared by Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s administration, which is committed to restoring police staffing levels that saw a dramatic reduction under the previous administration.

“The police force has grown substantially over the last year. We’re almost at 400 officers now, which was the goal,” Berkowitz said.

More police officers is the starting point for improved public safety, in Berkowitz’s view, because the extra capacity means officers can be more proactive, instead of constantly responding to incidents once they’ve already occurred.

Like Tolley, the mayor sees the recent violence as beyond any single, easy explanation. However, he believes problems are being exacerbated by shrinking state support in areas that overlap with violent crime, like reduced drug and alcohol treatment options, and the release of prisoners from correctional facilities.

Berkowitz is adamant that even amid recent upticks, Anchorage is still a relatively safe city.

“The idea that you can have a totally safe community is something we aspire to, but it’s not gonna happen,” he said of the notion that crime could be fully eradicated.

Berkowitz and Tolley also share the view that the recent violence is overwhelmingly connected to the drug trade and what the mayor calls “bad lifestyle choices.”

The other substantial piece in the administration’s approach to community policing has been trying to foster and rebuild community partnerships.

“The community also has a responsibility to help the police do their job,” Berkowitz said.

Some see the administration’s manner so far as more dictatorial than an equal partnership.

“If our community is not involved in providing the solutions, then we’re already missing the peace,” said Mao Tosi, a community advocate who’s been deeply involved with the city’s anti-gang efforts and supporting at-risk youth.

His diagnosis traces the escalation in violent crime to cuts in social services and opportunities for low income communities started in 2009 under the administration of Mayor Dan Sullivan. Those reductions to services and staff haven’t yet been recouped, according to Tosi.

“So we have less police officers,” he said, counting off lessened support in the last few years. “In our school district they’re cutting funds in our education, so we have less teachers, less programming.”

“All these things are almost the perfect storm of issues coming together,” Tosi added.

He supports the administration’s efforts to pursue a better community policing model, but thinks that after several years of worsening relations between APD and communities experiencing the heaviest toll from violent crime the gap is dauntingly wide. Efforts at improved communication are great, but he says that so far policy has come from the top floor of city hall, without enough input from those closest to what’s happening on the street.

Comedian Bill Cosby’s attempt to have his deposition testimony about alleged sexual assaults resealed was rejected by a federal appeals court which decided that the issue is moot because the details have already been published.

The 3^rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled:

“Re-sealing the documents would not provide Cosby with any meaningful relief, and thus this appeal is moot. … The contents of the documents are a matter of public knowledge, and we cannot pretend that we could change that fact by ordering them re-sealed.”

As NPR’s Jeff Brady reports, the deposition became public last summer after a request from the Associated Press to unseal testimony Cosby gave in 2005 in a lawsuit brought against him by Andrea Costand. She was a Temple University employee who claimed that he drugged and assaulted her in his home in 2004.

Cosby has insisted that their sexual relations were consensual. Cosby settled with Costand for an undisclosed sum.

As Jeff reports:

“It’s the latest legal setback for the 79-year-old entertainer. In May, a Pennsylvania judge ruled there’s enough evidence to put Cosby on trial for sexual assault charges.”

The deposition is nearly 1,000 pages long and contains what the court called “damaging admissions” by Cosby, including testimony that he had extramarital affairs, and that he had sexual relations with a woman (not identified in the ruling) after giving her the sedative known as Quaaludes. According to a footnote in the ruling, “ingesting Quaaludes may render someone incapable of consenting to sex.”

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

At least 22 percent of Pokémon Go’s millions of users are minors, according to a Survey Monkey study obtained by Forbes. With that many kids and teens playing the game — which is rated for users 9 years old and up — they become potential targets for child sex offenders.

To reduce the likelihood of harm to children in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday that registered sex offenders on parole would no longer be able to sign up for Pokémon Go and other Internet-enabled games as conditions of their sentence.

The new restriction, which will apply to nearly 3,000 sex offenders currently on parole, comes after a recent report by state Sens. Jeffrey Klein and Diane Savino. Over the month since Pokémon Go has been available for download, they showed that children have been found to encounter the properties and surrounding areas of sex offenders’ homes.

And last month, a PokéStop — a location, such as a local monument or a park, in the real world where players can collect items to help them in the game world — was found to be located at the entrance of an California rehabilitation center that helps, among others, recovering sex offenders.

The New York senators’ report also cites a case where a registered sex offender in Indiana was “actually playing the game with a 16-year-old boy on the local courthouse lawn when he was recognized by two local probation officers.”

New York state bans sex offenders on parole from using social media. It also has an agreement with 40 social media and related technology companies that allows it to update these companies with weekly records of registered sex offenders for social networks to ban. But with Pokémon Go, the agreement doesn’t hold up.

Although the mobile game allows users to interact with others also playing at the same time, it’s not considered a social media platform. Cuomo sent a letter to Niantic, the game’s developer, offering it one of these partnerships, as well as the most updated sex offender data.

“Software developers that operate mobile games like Pokémon GO should be entitled to the same information that is regularly shared with companies like Facebook, Apple and Microsoft,” the governor said in the letter.

Since the start of the agreement with social media and technology companies to ban these users, New York has banned 18,544 registered sex offenders from social media platforms, the governor’s office says.

There’s no word from Niantic yet, but Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman at the governor’s office, says companies in the past who have been sent similar requests comply simply to be good citizens.

“We’re hopeful Niantic will do the same,” Azzopardi said.

Justina Vasquez is a business desk intern.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Bartlett Regional Hospital staff told police that an unknown man made dozens of lewd calls to the hospital’s registration desk and emergency room Friday night. Juneau Police Department Lt. David Campbell said the staff counted between 55 and 80 calls. The final call included a threat.

“The gentleman was primarily dealing with stuff of a sexual nature,” Campbell said. “At one point in time, when they were threatening to hang up on the guy if he didn’t come in to get some assistance, he made the comment to a registrar that he might do a violent act.”

Campbell said after the threat was made the hospital went into lockdown and called the police to investigate. Hospital officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

Police worked with the hospital’s IT department, and local phone companies to backtrack the calls to Virginia, but Campbell said they didn’t learn the caller’s identity.

He said it was a relief the calls weren’t being made from Juneau.

“(It) makes it a little bit more comforting to know that a person that’s threatening violence isn’t going to be able to just walk right in,” Campbell said.

But, Juneau police don’t handle crimes that cross state lines. Campbell said JPD may contact the FBI if they get new leads.

Campbell said the case is still open but most of the leads have been followed. If there are no new developments, he said it will probably be suspended.

The Ketchikan School Board quickly approved a new policy Wednesday establishing programs to help reduce child abuse and sexual assault.

There was no discussion before the unanimous roll-call vote in favor of the policy, which calls for age-appropriate information for students in all grade levels to teach about appropriate conduct, and resources available for students.

The program also will provide information for dating-age students about healthy and respectful relationships, and the warning signs of abusive behavior. Teachers will receive training to not only present the information, but to identify students who may be victims of abuse.

The policy includes an opt-out measure for parents who don’t want their children to participate.

Also Wednesday, the Board heard from Revilla High School principal Kurt Lindemann about the school’s summer program. He said 42 students showed up to recover missed credits from the previous year.

“We had 15 who were Kayhi (Ketchikan High School) students who recovered 32 half-credits,” he said. “We had six kids from Schoenbar who worked on seven different classes. We had three kids from Fast Track who completed four credits, and we had 18 kids from Revilla who completed 27 credits.”

Lindemann said this sort of credit-recovery program helps students catch up, and stay in school.

The board spent a long time discussing a brief sentence in Superintendent Robert Boyle’s report. In his suggested strategic plan, he mentioned a policy that would allow students to skip one year of high school.

Boyle expanded on that idea during the meeting, explaining that the students would have to earn the proper credit through a high school equivalency test.

The district already does offer early graduation through several avenues. This program, though, would allow students to fulfill their graduation requirements and then stay in school to enhance their post-secondary education.

“If you’re really cooking, then you may want to take all AP classes,” Boyle said. “They could graduate earning $15,000-$20,000 a year while they’re in high school. Meaning that you can skip so many credits, even potentially your entire freshman year of college. It’s worth a lot of money for you to have dual credit and all those types of things that are possible through the AP classes.”

AP classes are Advanced Placement, and often can count for college credit.

The Board directed Boyle to bring back additional information for the next meeting.

Also Wednesday, the School Board approved a contract with Tatsuda’s IGA to provide milk for the district lunch program. That grocery store was the only bidder for the contract.

The next Ketchikan School Board meeting is Aug. 10.