http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/91150889.html?ref=889
Women Receive Overwhelming Response For Child Abuse Yard Signs
Two local women are taking action following the recent abuse deaths of two children.
Reporter: Jared Cerullo
Email Address: jared.cerullo@kake.com
Child Abuse Yard SignsFriday, April 16, 2010
Two local women are taking action following the recent abuse deaths of two children. The women are giving away yard signs asking people to call 911 if they suspect a child is being abused and they're getting an overwhelming response.
"That's our Vincent's prayer," said Lily Hill as she looked at the bright yellow sign that says 'Be aware. Child abuse can be anywhere. Call 911.'
That's the message Hill and Beverly Van Es want posted on every city block. Their actions were prompted by the brutal abuse deaths of Karsyn Young and Vincent Hill.
"Maybe even abusers will think 'Oh dear, somebody might be watching me and somebody might be listening and I could get in trouble. Maybe I won't do that."'
These grandmother's are getting an overwhelming response from people wanting a sign to put in their own yard. Even as we were interviewing them, someone knocked on the door to pick one up. Hill and Van Es have spent $600 of their own money for the first batch of signs and all of them are spoken for.
"One person can make a difference. One person has many friends. Two grandmas can really make a difference," said Van Es.
"We want people thinking about this," Hill explained. "We want people to think about the horrors that are going on. World War II prisoners of war weren't treated and tortured the way baby Vincent was."
These grandmas have loaded up a suburban with hundreds of signs to give away this weekend. They'll be giving them out at Asbury Church at 15th and St. Paul from 10-noon on Saturday. They've already given away 100 of them and have 200 more more on order. One by one they say, with help from above, they will cover the city with Vincent's prayer.
"We're just a couple grandmas that care," said Van Es. "And we got signs."
If you would like a sign for your yard you can contact Beverly Van Es at 316-838-8601 or Lily Hill at 316-946-1437. They say they will buy as many signs as they can, but would appreciate any donations to help offset the costs.
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/89653847.html
March 31, 2010
Abuse Hotline Call Dismissed Months Before Baby's Death
The Harvey County Sheriff's Department says an abuse hotline call regarding 19-month-old Vincent Hill was dismissed two months prior to his death.
Reporter: Stephanie Diffin
Email Address: stephanie.diffin@kake.com
The Harvey County Sheriff's Department confirms someone called an SRS abuse hotline more than two months before 19-month-old Vincent Hill was allegedly beaten to death. But Newton SRS and Harvey County law enforcement say they were never informed of the call.
The call came in from a couple who lived in the same duplex as Hill, his mother, Katheryn Nycole Dale, and her boyfriend, Chadd Carr. Dale and Carr are both charged in the case.
"Nothing ever gets done until it's too late, and unfortunately, it's too late," said Jason Monarez, the victim's neighbor.
Vincent Hill's father describes the little boy as happy and always smiling.
"He's never going to be able to play catch with me, I'm never going to teach him how to learn how to fish," said Ricky Hill, Vincent's father. "I''m not going to get to see him do anything."
Now, Ricky Hill wonders if he would have gotten the chance to see those things if social services had further investigated a call it received on January 20th, two months before Vincent's death.
"We tried to stop it, we tried... me and my girlfriend both," said Monarez. "You could just hear through the wall, the child screaming."
So Monarez' girlfriend called an SRS abuse hotline. But the center dismissed the call saying it didn't indicate there was any harm taking place to the child. The last sentence of the report reads, "This completes the initial assessment with no further action needed."
"It just makes me angry, really, to know that i tried and it wasn't taken seriously," said Jessica Link, who placed the call.
Since the call stopped at the call center, Newton SRS says it never got word of the suspected abuse.
"If they would have had the report, they probably would have notified us, and something would have gotten done," said Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton.
SRS will not comment about specific cases, but did release this statement on the process of investigating calls to its hotline;
"SRS receives reports of alleged abuse and neglect through our Kansas Protection Report Center, 1-800-922-5330. In State fiscal year 2009 SRS received 56,207 reports of alleged abuse or neglect. Of those, 49% or 27,340, cases were assigned for further investigation."
"Intake workers receive protective services training to elicit specific information about the situation. Information requested is focused on the extent of the situation, circumstances of the situation, child’s functioning, parenting practices and caregiver function, in addition to information regarding the child’s age, person alleged to have caused harm to the child, where the child is located, other individuals or agencies who may have information regarding the incident and the availability of a non-abusing adult to protect the child from further harm."
"The information gathered through the intake process is then provided to a licensed social worker to review and determine whether the incident requires further investigation. This decision is based on specific safety and risk factors, including but not limited to: seriousness of the incident, prior agency involvement with the family, and seriousness of injury to child."
"All reports assigned for further investigation involving allegations of maltreatment of child must be investigated within either a 24 hour or 72 hour timeframe, depending on the nature of the allegation. Situations requiring a 24 hour response include, but are not limited to: life threatening situation, sexual abuse with the alleged perpetrator in the home, child in protective custody, or a child with current visible injuries."
"Certain reports, not alleging maltreatment, may be investigated within 20 working days. An example of this type of case would be truancy."
http://www.thekansan.com/highlights/x1838117985/Charges-filed-in-toddler-s-death
Charges filed in toddler’s death
By Cristina Janney
Posted Mar 31, 2010 @ 12:07 PM
NORTH NEWTON —
Charges were filed in Harvey County District Court Tuesday in the suspicious death of a 19-month-old boy Saturday in North Newton.
Chad Carr, 26, 115 W. 24th St. in North Newton, is charged with two counts of aggravated battery and two counts of abuse of a child in the death of Vincent James Hill.
Carr allegedly was the boyfriend of the child’s mother, Katheryn Nycole Dale, who was not home at the time of the child’s death.
Carr allegedly was home alone with the child when he called 911 to report the child was not breathing. Carr allegedly tried to revive the child, but the child was taken to Newton Medical Center by Newton Fire/EMS where he was pronounced dead.
Law enforcement officials said Monday the child was bruised from head to toe and showed signs of previous injuries.
Further investigation found a concern had been called into the Social and Rehabilitation Services abuse center on Jan. 20.
The report did indicate a neighbor had heard yelling and screaming between the child and an adult male, a news release from the Harvey County Sheriff’s department stated.
The report was screened out by SRS because SRS said the report did not indicate the child was being physically harmed, the news release stated.
The report was never forwarded to any law enforcement agency for follow up.
Carr was booked on suspicion of murder, but County Attorney David Yoder said he is waiting for an autopsy report before deciding whether to file more serious charges.
On a search of Carr’s residence, police found marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Carr has not been charged on the drug offenses.
Yoder said he wants to further review the evidence gathered by police to determine if he will file any charges on those offenses.
Carr is being held in the Harvey County Detention Center on a $150,000 bond.
A funeral service for the child will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Peabody United Methodist Church.
Copyright 2010 The Newton Kansan. Some rights reserved
http://www.kansas.com/2010/03/30/1247216/neighbor-had-called-hotline-about.html
Posted on Tue, Mar. 30, 2010
Neighbor had called hotline about Newton child who died
Comments (0)
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
NORTH NEWTON — A 19-month-old boy had a broken collarbone, a broken lower leg and bruises from head to toe.
But no one directly told local authorities that something was wrong in the child's life until after he died, local law enforcement officials said Monday.
They announced that a man who had been living at the 19-month-old'
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