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Lucas County Children Services (LCCS) will mark April as Child Abuse Prevention Month with its annual Child Memorial April 29 at 11:30 a.m.
The solemn ceremony will be held at the agency’s office at 705 Adams St. in downtown Toledo. This year’s ceremony will remember five children – Thomas Stahl, age 7 months, Cody Chrisman, age 14 months and Saniya Sullivan, age 3 years, all drowning victims; and Kantraylious Guy, age 16 years and Deshaun Lee, age 16 years, who were victims of street violence.
“Even though this is the first year in recent memory that we did not lose a child as a result of physical abuse, losing these five children is equally as tragic,” says Dean Sparks, executive director of Lucas County Children Services. “Their deaths should serve as a reminder that regardless of a child’s age, we need to keep them close and pay attention to their activities 24 hours a day.
In Lucas County, in 2010:
• LCCS received 4,487 referrals for suspected child abuse involving 6,581 children.
• 735 children were confirmed victims of abuse. This figure appears lower than in past years due to an important and positive change in the way that LCCS has begun to engage families.
Nearly two-thirds of the families involved were able to utilize this “Alternative Response,” in which no abuse perpetrator or victim is identified and caseworkers help families solve their own problems. Caseworkers still conducted traditional investigations of more serious allegations of abuse or neglect.
• The largest percentage of referrals (46 percent) related to allegations of physical abuse, followed by neglect (40 percent), sexual abuse (13 percent) and emotional abuse (2 percent).
• Forty-six percent (46 percent) of alleged child victims were 5 years old or younger. Pre-teens (6 to 12 years old) accounted for 34 percent of child victims, while teens accounted for the remaining 19 percent of victims (2 percent unknown).
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