This is a petition that we just spent a few hours working on for Aliayah's case. Please forgive me if I go over any limit for a post.
Petition: Aliayahs Law
Background (Preamble):
A report by the advocacy group Every Child Matters recently revealed that up to 5 children die every day in the United States from abuse or neglect. Three quarters of the victims were three years of age or less.
Well-documented research suggests the number of children who die from abuse and neglect is considerably higher than official government statistics. Heres how the federal government defines maltreatment deaths:
Fatal child abuse may involve repeated abuse over a period of time (e.g., battered child syndrome), or it may involve a single, impulsive incident (e.g., drowning, suffocating, or shaking a baby). In cases of fatal neglect, the childs death results not from anything the caregiver does, but from a caregivers failure to act. The neglect may be chronic (e.g., extended malnourishment) or acute (e.g., an infant who drowns after being left unsupervised in the bathtub).
According to the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, an average of 152 sexual offenses against American children are recorded daily.
The current judicial system does not adequately reflect the serious nature of these crimes. The death of a child through abuse or neglect is often punished with a prison sentence ranging from only 1-15 years, most of which are automatically halved with parole. This needs to change now.
WE PETITION THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA TO:
1. Increase the maximum sentence in cases where the victim is 16 years of age or less to a discretionary life sentence.
2. Disallow a defendant to plea bargain to a charge of Involuntary Manslaughter or less if the victim is less than 16 years of age or less.
3. Review sentencing guidelines for ALL crimes relating to child abuse, increasing both minimum and maximum sentences.
4. Introduce a law concerning fatal abuse without fatal injury where death as a result of complications from failure to seek medical attention; illness in a child whose immune system is impaired by the stress of chronic abuse or neglect; or abuse or neglect of a child already impaired by chronic illness, is labeled murder.
5. Ensure that sentences for child abuse run consecutively.
6. Abolish parole for all crimes against children.
7. Life sentences should mean LIFE.
8. Close the legal loophole which allows abusers to escape jail when the child survives, by blaming each other for the abuse.
As noted in the federal Department of Health and Human Services report Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities: Statistics and Interventions, these children are the most vulnerable for many reasons, including their dependency, small size, and inability to defend themselves. Further, 70% of the fatalities involved a parent as perpetrator. And often the abuser is a poor
young adult
without a high school diploma
depressed
[who] has experienced violence first hand.
In light of the recent tragedy concerning the disappearance of Aliayah Lunsford within Lewis county, West Virginia, we call for urgent improvements to child protection within the state to include:
1. As the majority of child abuse cases include children 5 years of age or younger, we call for the introduction of regular compulsory health checks, at least four times a year for ages 0-2 and three times a year for ages 2-5. These checks would help to reveal any signs of abuse or neglect. Department of Health and Human Resources(DHHR) should be alerted if appointments become overdue.
2. DHHR case workers & health care professionals should be allowed to physically examine young 'at risk' children. A child on the 'at risk' register means that child is considered to be at risk of significant harm. Examinations should therefore be compulsory at every visit of an at risk child or when any new child is brought to the attention of the authorities where there are reported concerns of abuse as this is the easiest, quickest & most effective way to determine if a child is being physically abused or not.
3. DHHR Case Workers should carry out a task list at every visit which should be adopted statewide and include:
- check the cleanliness/hygiene of all living quarters
- check for evidence of undisclosed people living at the property & Criminal
Record Check all residents & regular visitors
- check there is sufficient food and other essential supplies
- physically interact with the child
- physically examine the child
- insist children in diapers be changed to reveal any cases of serious diaper rash
or possible sexual abuse
- insist any food, ointment, paint etc be removed from the child
- ensure they see the child unrestrained & moving, crawling or walking to assess
any difficulty with movement & possible injury
- see children old enough to speak on their own in the presence of another
professional, so that the child can talk uninhibited away from its caregivers
- check for signs of drug use or alcohol abuse as these are often linked to cases
of child abuse & neglect
- observe family's interaction with pets as abusive behavior may be indicative of
Domestic violence
- check for any other dangers
4. If the DHHR case worker strongly suspects physical abuse, they should have the power to remove the child immediately while the matter is investigated, with or without police assistance.
5. Social workers must be aware of 'red flags' that could be cause for concern and should check on the child without delay every time one is raised as the child may have already sustained injury or be in poor physical condition. These should include:
- caregivers failing to attend any appointments
- being denied access to a child or its residence
- caregivers regularly appear not to be at home or who say a child is unavailable
(confirm child's whereabouts immediately)
- caregivers saying that they can't see anyone for a period of time
6. Up to 80% of Social Workers' time is spent on administration. Free up this time to be spent with vulnerable children instead with adequate admin support. Also, main focus needs to be protecting vulnerable children - not meeting targets, budgets or red tape.
7. An urgent review of the criteria required to have a child taken into care.
8. Introduction of the whistleblowers' hotline for the use of all child protection agencies and the public to expose internal bad practices. Better protection for whistleblowers and a ban on gagging orders in such circumstances as they only serve to hush up bad practices and allow them to continue unchecked.
9. to recruit and retain adequate numbers of high quality, well trained Social Workers & Health Visitors within DHHR.
10. If abusive pet owners can be banned from keeping animals, a similar law should be in place to protect children from abusive caregivers or caregivers who allow a child to be abused or neglected. Abusers should forfeit all visitation & parental rights. Why should children have less rights to protection than animals?
11. A child's welfare must always take priority over keeping a family together.
Petition:
Since Aliayah Lunsfords disappearance, it has been revealed that up to 5 children die every day in the United States from abuse or neglect and that child abuse is far more common than anyone could have imagined.
In light of the tragic and avoidable disappearance of Aliayah Lunsford, we urge the State of West Virginia to implement urgent improvements to child protection statewide to include the above recommendations, and to review the sentencing guidelines for all child abuse related crimes, with a view to ensuring justice for the innocents who are failed in life, and then also failed in death by the injustice of our current legal system, and for those children fortunate to survive, only to be further ill-treated by the injustice of West Virginian legislation:
