Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. March 30, 2024.
Editorial: New rules further the cause of justice for abused children
We often connote Indiana Department of Child Service investigations with young children. However, as a media-led investigation into Pierceton Woods Academy found, young adults are vulnerable, too.
On March 13, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed legislation granting DCS the authority to investigate abuse allegations at residential facilities
Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, D-Fishers, successfully offered an amendment to Senate Bill 169 to resolve some of the residential-care facility reporting issues brought to light by a collaborative investigation by ProPublica and the Indianapolis Star into the state-licensed residential treatment center.
The state’s definition of “child” now includes individuals between 18 and 21 years of age who reside or previously resided at a residential-care facility licensed by DCS. The state is responsible for children who “age out” while living in a residential community.
The legislation was spurred by the news organizations’ investigation, which exposed numerous assertions of sexual abuse and misconduct by staff members at Pierceton Woods.
Lasting Change Inc., a Fort Wayne-based nonprofit, operates Pierceton Woods. Tim Smith, who was appointed its chief executive officer in 2022, leads the company.
Similar issues were found at Wernle Youth & Family Treatment Center in Richmond, where records indicate failure to report allegations of physical or sexual abuse, including an incident involving a 21-year-old counselor allegedly engaging in a sexual act with a 14-year-old resident.
Last November, ProPublica and the Star reported that a psychologist hired by one boy’s family as part of a civil lawsuit concluded a “culture of silence to suppress reports of sexual abuse” existed at Pierceton Woods, allowing residents to be groomed and sexually abused in “an assembly-like fashion.”
“Lasting Change settled the lawsuit last year for $72,000,” the investigative team reported on Nov. 28. “As part of the settlement, the teen was prohibited from discussing the case publicly and Pierceton Woods admitted no wrongdoing.”
Yes, this new law will likely increase work for DCS, but this legislation was needed to safeguard current and future children. How we manage, mismanage, cover up or ignore atrocities foisted upon the helpless says a great deal about our values.
We all have a role in protecting youth in dangerous situations. If you know a child is in immediate danger, call 911 and report it to law enforcement. Otherwise, call the statewide DCS child abuse hotline: 1-800-800-5556.
You can report anonymously, but responders will need as much information as possible about the circumstances creating a risk of harm and the names, addresses and phone numbers of the child, parent and alleged perpetrator.
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Terre Haute Tribune-Star. March 29, 2024.
Editorial: Legislative lament for 2024 — brace yourself for 2025
The Indiana General Assembly was gaveled to a close earlier this month as lawmakers scurried back to their comfortably gerrymandered districts.
Although some of the legislation passed in the course of the session will prove beneficial for Hoosiers, there were a number of bills passed, and ultimately signed into law by the governor, that range from disappointing to downright disturbing. These measures are ugly bellwethers of what lies ahead in 2025.
While each differs in scope, what these questionable new laws have common is that they represent unnecessary intrusions into the public sphere. They address nonexistent “problems” and serve no purpose except the exercise of power politics intended to notch victories on culture war issues.
We offer three as examples:
1 — SB 202 … a law aimed at higher education and what some lawmakers see as bias and discrimination against conservative ideals on campus. It enshrines in statute the fuzzy concept of “intellectual diversity” and puts faculty on notice that they could be targeted if their teachings don’t expose students to a range of viewpoints, primarily those from the right. Proponents could offer no evidence of such bias, but claimed perceptions of bias exist nonetheless. Opponents rightly asserted that such legislative overreach strikes a blow to academic freedom and does nothing more than create confusion and sow mistrust in what are already tightly controlled processes.
2 — HB 1264 … a law that makes voter registration more difficult for first-time voters by requiring them to present photo identification and address-verifying mail if they register to vote in person to establish residency. The need for such a provision was never justified and the “problem” it solves never explained. Even an association representing county clerks, who run elections in the state, remained neutral on the bill, which underscores how unnecessary it is. Although promoted for the sake of “election security,” its result will be to suppress the vote. Indiana ranked last in the nation in voter turnout in the last statewide election. Legislators now have made it even harder for voters to participate.
3 — HB 1338 … an amendment to an unrelated and noncontroversial piece of legislation was introduced in the waning days of the session that severely restricts how the public access counselor crafts advisory opinions when access questions arise about government records and meetings. The provision limits sources the counselor may draw information from to the Indiana Code and relevant court cases. It also allows the governor to dismiss the counselor at any time for any reason. Previously, the counselor was appointed by the governor to a four-year term. There is much to be troubled by in this legislation, including the way it was slipped into the process late in the session with little public input. It represents an infusion of political mischief into a law designed to foster openness and transparency on behalf of the public.
With a Republican super majority controlling the legislature, little can be done to prevent this kind of political overreach. The good news is that this session is now over. The bad news is there is reason to expect more of the same when the General Assembly reconvenes next January.
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Anderson Herald Bulletin. March 26, 2024.
Editorial: Resources needed for immigrant students
The nation’s fixation on immigration in this presidential election year might seem outsized, given the variety and magnitude of other issues.
But the ramifications, both good and bad, of our country’s immigration policies extend to every state, and Indiana is no exception. Take, for example, an emerging problem for the state’s public schools.
Immigrant students are arriving in Indiana in waves, and some of them are homeless.
“Schools are saying, ‘We’ve seen hundreds and we don’t know what to do,’” Christina Arrom Garza, CEO of the Immigrant Welcome Center in Indianapolis, said. “It’s like water through a fire hose. It’s just all coming right at you.”
Garza was quoted in a recent CNHI News Indiana article detailing the problem.
The difficulty is especially pronounced in some school systems.
At Randolph Eastern School Corp., a district of fewer than 900 students on Indiana’s border with Ohio, the percentage of students who don’t speak English as a primary language has grown from about 6% in 2013 to over 27%. And the trend isn’t subsiding. From 2019 to 2022, the number of immigrant students at Randolph Eastern jumped nearly 160%.
Across the state, in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., the immigrant student population has ballooned by 535% during that four-year stretch.
The immigrants seemingly are coming from everywhere, and the language barrier isn’t as easy to address as it used to be.
“Historically, with our student population, we had Spanish-speaking and English-speaking students. Now, there are maybe 10 languages spoken between our students,” said Kelly Coker, COO and program director with Brightlane Learning.
Coker’s organization specializes in educating students living through housing instability or homelessness, which impacts immigrant students disproportionately in Indiana.
Resources — ranging from personal hygiene items to food to textbooks to wifi — to help homeless students, particularly immigrants, can be hard to come by.
The federal McKinney-Vento Act, designed specifically to help the homeless, allocates money to hire tutors, buy school supplies, provide transportation and offer specialized training for teachers.
But that money doesn’t go very far. In 2022, Indiana received just $1.7 million.
In 2020, schools spent an average of as much as $556 to help homeless students while receiving just $79 per student on average.
Another barrier to matching homeless immigrant students with resources: It can be difficult to get their families to accept help. Coming from cultures of self-reliance, many are hesitant to ask for or apply for assistance.
About 400,000 immigrants comprise about 6% of Indiana’s residents. About 1 in every 14 workers in the state are immigrants.
Moving forward, more resources will be needed to help schools and other institutions fully integrate the newest Hoosiers, particularly the young and homeless.
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