A Safe Haven for Kids ANNUAL REPORT 2012 Social Media: Raising Children in the Digital Age JPCC Reaches 700 Forensic Interviews JPCC is a partnership between Our Vision Marin Public and Private Agencies Provide a child-friendly forensic interview center that offers new hope to children who FAMILY SERVICE AGENCY OF MARIN have been the victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or who have witnessed domestic MARIN ADVOCATES FOR CHILDREN violence. Interviews are conducted in a comfortable, safe atmosphere by a team of highly MARIN COUNTY trained professionals to ascertain the truth on behalf of the child and the suspect. Care is DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE taken to ensure follow-up services are provided to aid in the healing process. MARIN COUNTY HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Additionally, JPCC provides information, training and consultation to parents, teachers, MARIN COUNTY law enforcement offi cers, medical and mental health professionals. POLICE CHIEFS ASSOCIATION Zambian Society For Child Protection Visits the JPCC he JPCC was honored to host TMr. Kavanda Sampa, Zambian Clinical Offi cer who performs pediatric sexual assault exams, and his nurse Sister Catherine Mtine who assists him and coordinates Zambian Sexual Assault Services. Sampa and Mtine conduct as many as 300 exams a month at home in Africa. They came to the U.S. in hopes of learning new methods to improve their forensic investigations. Ensuring meticulous evidence collection is critical to legally pursuing child abuse cases. Too often, these crimes against children slip through the cracks. The Zambian Society for Child Protection was accompanied by the esteemed Dr. Charles Clemens, Sister Catherine Mtine, Sarah Zambrano, SART nurse Kavanda Sampra, De Anna Schlua, head of Emergency Medicine Community Violence Community Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator, and Dr. Charles Clemens and Pediatrics in Zambia and also Lafayette, California. Spanish speaking fi lm actors acknowledged by Marin County Board of Supervisors (Left-Right Back Row) Brenda Lopez, Yanirett Ortiz, Angel Rios, Mario de Leon. ( Front Row) Yoselin Mendez, Elsa Pantoja s part of its outreach to protect more Marin County youth The Board of Supervisors recognized the volunteer Spanish- Afrom falling victim to cyber abuse, last year the JPCC speaking students for their dedication and commitment, which undertook the task of remaking the soundtrack to Irreversible included fi ve weekends of rehearsal and fi fteen hours in the Consequences, its educational fi lm about the dangers of the recording studio. The JPCC is truly grateful for their contribution. Internet, into Spanish. This effort was accomplished in large part by student volunteers and resulted in hundreds of The Spanish version of the fi lm, Irreversible Consequences, Spanish-speaking youth and their parents benefi ting from premiered at Pickleweed Community Center , where parents the fi lm’s message. and family members of the actors joined in the celebration. 2 Message from Michael C. Grogan, Ph.D. Jeannette Prandi Children’s Center Project Director Have you checked your kid’s cell phone lately? If you feel challenged by raising your children in the digital age, you are not alone. As parents, we feel compelled to give our children cell phones in order to stay in contact, as well as use in times of emergency. That’s a good thing, right? Yes, but… These wonderful communication devices also provide children with access to information that would be best described as adult content. Children are quite capable of fi nding sites that their parents would be shocked to know even existed. Youth today are in constant contact with their friends, often reluctant to put their phones down. They’re either texting, checking Facebook, sending tweets, posting videos on YouTube, playing games, or… sending photos to friends. Photos they have no business sending. A JPCC study found that 20% of Marin high school girls felt strong pressure to send a naked photo of themselves to a friend. During educational presentations to middle and high schools, we discovered that a majority of students have received a picture of a naked minor on their phones. This troubling trend is technically considered possession of child pornography. Though it is illegal, police agencies in our county are not currently charging the kids, but rather giving them notice of its illegality and then, hopefully, contacting parents. Yet another serious issue with cell phone misuse is cyber-bullying, which is escalating. In the past, when kids were bullied on the playground, they would fi nd a sanctuary upon returning home. Now the bullies use social networking to post harassing messages about the targeted child, and enlist others to deluge the recipient with negative messages. This increases pressure on the victims, and can be dangerously overwhelming. Misuse of the Internet is of great to concern to our JPCC team. For the past three years we have taken our fi lm, Irreversible Consequences, to middle schools and high schools in Marin County in order to alert students, teachers, and parents about the perils of the Internet. To date we have shown the fi lm to over 3, 600 students. We encourage you to contact our center for support, and to talk to your children and their schools about this very serious issue. Thank you and warm regards, Michael 3 Community and Professional Training JPCC Child Forensic Interviewers Benefi t from Latest Research Every year the JPCC Project Director provides forensic interviewers cutting-edge research regarding best practices for interviewing traumatized children in order to assess allegations of child abuse. Maria Affi nito, Health & Human Detective Selma Tijero, Marin County Services, role plays being a Sheriff’s Offi ce, listens intently to the Detective Dan Jenner, Novato P. D., 7 year-old child victim. victim in her role play. explores the benefi t of utilizing fi gures to help traumatized children better explain the highly-charged details of their abuse. School-Law Enforcement Partnership: Reporting Child Abuse At the invitation of Marin County’s School/ Law Enforcement Partnership, the JPCC Project Director moderated its panel regarding the challenges of reporting child abuse. The panel consisted of Paula Robertson, Program Manager, Health and Human Services, Children and Family Services; Sergeant Michael Howard, Novato Police Department; and Luke Mc Cann, Superintendent of Schools, Tamalpais District. The panel explored issues related to the reporting and the investigative responsibilities of each agency. The JPCC’s operation and its benefi t to the community were also discussed. Family Service Agency of Marin Training The JPCC Director conducted a training for the Child Therapy Team at Family Service Agency of Marin titled Children With Sexual Behavior Problems. The training, a response to the increase in Marin children exhibiting troublesome, age-inappropriate sexual behavior, focused on developing interventions to determine the origin of such behavior and to aid in its improvement. Children demonstrating these kinds of behaviors often alienate their peers and result in disciplinary action by school administrators. Peer Summit Presentation For the third year, the JPCC was asked to present its fi lm, Irreversible Consequences, to the 7th and 8th graders attending the summit. The event, an all day retreat, offered middle school students the opportunity to learn how to deal with the many social challenges teens face today. Traumatic Responses by Child Sexual Abuse Victims Marin Advocates for Children’s (MAC) CASA program offers a 40-hour training for volunteers who will act as advocates for children in the court system. At the request of MAC’s Volunteer Coordinator Robyn Roberts, the JPCC Project Director conducted a presentation on “How Children Cope With Sexual Abuse” for the volunteers. 4 JPCC Embarks on a New Film about Cyber-Bullying MALICIOUS INTENT his year the JPCC responded to the alarming increase in cyber-bullying by working with volunteer community Tmembers to produce an educational fi lm about the issue. It is our hope that in raising awareness about cyber-bullying’s effect on its victims and the dire consequences that can follow, young people will turn away from this destructive behavior. We wish to express enormous gratitude to the brave young woman who was willing to share her story about being cyber-bullied to the point of attempting to commit suicide Malicious Intent tells her story, in addition to that of a gay-identifi ed young man. Larry Nilsen, Emmy Award winning sound engineer, Rachel Smith and Sarah Marthinsen toast with soda joined John Aliotti and Michael Grogan on the set to their success after completing a scene. to provide his expertise. Elliott Hansen takes on the job of fi lming the scene. missing photo Malicious Intent script writer JPCC Project Director Michael Grogan and fi lm director John Aliotti from the DA’s Offi ce discuss the scene while actors Sarah Marthinsen and Rachel Smith look on. San Marin’s smARTt Coordinator Linda Kislingbury Director John Aliotti provides direction to his (playing mom) and Sarah Marthinsen rehearse the lead actresses. scene where Sarah reports she is being cyber-bullied. 5 Annual Falkirk Luncheon Celebrates Excellence 2011 Marin County District Attorney, Ed Berberian, presents an award to Prosecutor Murat Ozgur, the DA assigned to the JPCC, for his outstanding work. Linda Kislingbury, Drama Teacher at San Marin High School, presents an award to Katie Kushnir who acted in the fi lm, Irreversible Consequences, and was instrumental in the creation of the program accompanying the fi lm. Ed Berberian presents an award to Kit Mitchell, Retired Chief Deputy District Attorney, who worked for the DA’s Offi ce for over 30 years and was an early advocate for the establishment of the JPCC. Cheryl Jennings (in absentia) Dr. Jan La Torre Derby, Superintendent of Novato Schools, receives an award from San Marin Performing Arts Patsy Fleisch presents an award to her Chairperson of smARTt, sister KGO News Anchor Cheryl Jennings for Linda Kislingbury, and publicizing Irreversible Consequences on her Principal Bob Vieth, show, Beyond the Headlines.