According to CASA of Marion County, 192 children were involved with new abuse and neglect cases in Marion County in 2023. Many of these cases are represented by pinwheels at the Marion County Courthouse this month.
CASA of Marion County staff and volunteers planted pinwheels at the Marion County Courthouse on Monday in observance of Child Abuse Awareness Month.
Staff photo by John Mark Shaver
According to CASA of Marion County, 192 children were involved with new abuse and neglect cases in Marion County in 2023. Many of these cases are represented by pinwheels at the Marion County Courthouse this month.
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WV News) — April marks Child Abuse Awareness Month, and CASA of Marion County is hoping to spread awareness of both the criminal act itself and how those in the community can help make a positive difference.
CASA of Marion County employees and volunteers spent Monday afternoon filling the greenspace at the Marion County Courthouse with blue pinwheels, each one representing a child who opened an abuse and neglect case in the county in 2023, according to Advocate Supervisor Amber Fancher.
"It's a good visual to see just how many kids we have," Fancher said. "We had a huge increase from 2022 to 2023. It was 20%, which is a lot of kids, and this year, just through March, we've had exponentially more children enter the system than we have in (a long time). ... There are probably many more beyond that, unfortunately, that we don't know about."
The number of Marion County children entered into the system in 2023 was 192, so high it outnumbered the amount of pinwheels that the nonprofit bought to install in the greenspace.
Fancher said the nonprofit sees great importance in Child Abuse Awareness Month because if people aren't specifically engaged with children who are suffering, they are more likely to not understand just how big of a problem abuse really is.
"It's easy to know that it's happening but not think it's our problem, but these are kids my kids are going to school with," Fancher said. "These are kids who you're seeing in your community who might go to your church or to the same park or your grocery store."
Fancher encouraged community members to be observant and ask questions if they believe something is amiss, further noting there are many ways people can get involved in making sure that kids are safe.
CASA of Marion County Executive Director Katelyn Cox said there are a lot of vulnerable families in Marion County, and part of preventing further vulnerability is supporting those families.
"A community is built of families, so if our families are struggling, that means our community is struggling," Cox said. "If we can prevent families from being vulnerable, then we'll be a much stronger community for it."
Cox and Fancher said Child Abuse Awareness Month is about showcasing the importance of reporting abuse when one sees it and supporting families in need to prevent it.
Helping a struggling family instead of ignoring them or looking down on them can make a world of difference, Fancher said.
"There are foster care closets in our community," she said. "Reach out to them and find out what you can donate, because those are great resources for these foster parents. Get involved in organizations that promote after-school care or help donate to HOPE, Inc. and the Union Mission and Scott's Place. All of these are where vulnerable families are coming in, and the more we can support these community resources, the better."
Those looking to invest even more time are encouraged to reach out to CASA of Marion County to volunteer as a child advocate. While time-consuming, is also important and rewarding, said Fancher and Cox.
The nonprofit is currently accepting applications for a new training class that are scheduled to start in May.
Those with further questions about how to help vulnerable child, or those who would like to apply to be a volunteer, are encouraged to contact CASA of Marion County at 304-366-4198.
Fairmont News Editor John Mark Shaver can be reached at 304-844-8485 or jshaver@theet.com.
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As a moral rule, a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter.
Yet, clearly ‘Child Abuse Prevention Month’ [every April] needs to run 365 days of the year in this world.
Unfortunately, people will procreate regardless of their inability to parent their children in a psychologically functional/healthy manner. Many people seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they [people] will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
One wonders how much child abuse and long-term suffering might have been prevented had some crucial child-development science via mandatory high-school curriculum been taught. After all, dysfunctional and/or abusive parents, for example, may not have had the chance to be anything else due to their lack of such education and their own dysfunctional/abusive rearing as children.
Still, in the book Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal it’s written that “[even] well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).
Regarding early life or adverse childhood experience trauma, people tend to know (perhaps commonsensically) that they should not loudly quarrel when, for instance, a baby is in the next room; however, do they know about the intricacies of why not?
Since it cannot fight or flight, a baby stuck in a crib on its back hearing parental discord in the next room can only “move into a third neurological state, known as a ‘freeze’ state … This freeze state is a trauma state” (pg.123).
This causes its brain to improperly develop. It’s like a form of non-physical-impact brain damage. Also, it is the unpredictability of a stressor, and not the intensity, that does the most harm. When the stressor “is completely predictable, even if it is more traumatic — such as giving a [laboratory] rat a regularly scheduled foot shock accompanied by a sharp, loud sound — the stress does not create these exact same [negative] brain changes” (pg.42).
Furthermore, how many of us were aware that, since young children completely rely on their parents for protection and sustenance, they will understandably stress over having their parents angry at them for prolonged periods of time? It makes me question the wisdom of punishing children by sending them to their room without dinner.
Yet, general society perceives and treats human procreative ‘rights’ as though we’ll somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
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As a moral rule, a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right — along with air, water, food and shelter — especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter.
Yet, clearly ‘Child Abuse Prevention Month’ [every April] needs to run 365 days of the year in this world.
Unfortunately, people will procreate regardless of their inability to parent their children in a psychologically functional/healthy manner. Many people seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they [people] will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
One wonders how much child abuse and long-term suffering might have been prevented had some crucial child-development science via mandatory high-school curriculum been taught. After all, dysfunctional and/or abusive parents, for example, may not have had the chance to be anything else due to their lack of such education and their own dysfunctional/abusive rearing as children.
Still, in the book Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal it’s written that “[even] well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24).
Regarding early life or adverse childhood experience trauma, people tend to know (perhaps commonsensically) that they should not loudly quarrel when, for instance, a baby is in the next room; however, do they know about the intricacies of why not?
Since it cannot fight or flight, a baby stuck in a crib on its back hearing parental discord in the next room can only “move into a third neurological state, known as a ‘freeze’ state … This freeze state is a trauma state” (pg.123).
This causes its brain to improperly develop. It’s like a form of non-physical-impact brain damage. Also, it is the unpredictability of a stressor, and not the intensity, that does the most harm. When the stressor “is completely predictable, even if it is more traumatic — such as giving a [laboratory] rat a regularly scheduled foot shock accompanied by a sharp, loud sound — the stress does not create these exact same [negative] brain changes” (pg.42).
Furthermore, how many of us were aware that, since young children completely rely on their parents for protection and sustenance, they will understandably stress over having their parents angry at them for prolonged periods of time? It makes me question the wisdom of punishing children by sending them to their room without dinner.
Yet, general society perceives and treats human procreative ‘rights’ as though we’ll somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture our children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.