The tragic death of 20-month-old Imani Jennings has been called the worst case of child abuse in Onondaga County history. In the wake of the toddler’s death, her mother has been charged with abuse, the mother’s teenage boyfriend charged with murder, and a former daycare provider has been charged with failing to report suspected child abuse. The community is in shock wondering how such a thing could happen.

Imani’s death comes at time when awareness of child abuse and neglect was already heightened due to the August death of 11-year-old Erin Maxwell in Oswego County. Like Imani Jennings, police say Erin Maxwell was a victim of neglect before she died. In the past, steps had been taken to help, but did not go far enough.

United Way-funded programs help ensure families get the help they need.

Basic questions are now being raised. How many other families and children are struggling? What can be done to help them? Experts agree, there aren’t easy answers.

Barriers to reporting abuse and neglect

Teachers, police officers, social service workers, medical personnel and day care providers are “mandated reporters,” required by law to report any and all suspicions of abuse and neglect. But nearly half of all reports come from other, often anonymous, sources, including friends, relatives, neighbors and acquaintances.

Yet there are many barriers to reporting abuse and neglect, according to Carrie J. Smith, director of the School of Social Work at Syracuse University. Very few parents recognize on their own that there is a problem in the family, and those closest to the situation are often hesitant to report suspicions of abuse and neglect, afraid to appear nosy or fearful of retaliation.

In some parts of the community, there is also a lack of faith in the child welfare system and concern that the child might immediately be taken away from the family. These community misperceptions are additional barriers to reporting abuse and neglect, according to Smith. “People worry that if child welfare knocks on your door, they’re there to take your child away,” Smith said. “The reality is that taking the child out of the home is, and should be, the absolute last resort.”

Before removing a child from the home, the family is usually assigned a caseworker and may be referred to counseling or programs that help with anger management, mental health issues, substance abuse problems or meeting basic needs. But these steps are not always apparent to the person who reported the abuse, who may mistakenly believe that nothing is being done.

In addition, in a society where a certain level of violence toward children is considered acceptable, people struggle to define appropriate discipline. “While I don’t agree with corporal punishment, I recognize that spanking is generally acceptable," said Maryann Piazza-Toms, director of the Mental Health Clinic at Arise Child and Family Services. "But acceptable punishment varies between neighborhoods and families based on experience and culture. If you were spanked as a child and you see other parents spanking, then spanking seems okay and you are more likely to adopt that behavior and see it as acceptable in others.”

What to do if you see or suspect abuse

The first step is learning to recognize the signs of abuse and neglect. These signs may not necessarily indicate abuse, but may warrant a closer look at the situation by professionals. If abuse or neglect is found, steps can be taken to protect children, and family members can be referred to therapy, parenting classes or other programs.

How do you decide what to report? Experts say it’s best to err on the side of caution. Mandated reporters are required by law to report any suspicions, and experts agree the community would be a better place if everyone embraced that duty. “We’ve seen time and time again in these cases where neighbors, families and daycare workers hear, see and suspect things, but they give the people the benefit of the doubt and don’t report them,” Smith said. “So many of these tragedies could be prevented if they’d made that call and left the determination to the professionals.”

To report child abuse and neglect in Onondaga County, call the Child Abuse Hotline 24 hours a day at 422-9701 or 1-800-342-3720. Reports can be made anonymously. If anything positive has come from these tragedies, it is increased awareness and reporting, as evidenced by the number of calls the county has received this year.

“We’re not only exceeding averages, we’re breaking records,” said Brian McKee, Onondaga County deputy social services commissioner.

Officials also expect to see a spike in mandated reporting as a result of the daycare provider’s arrest. “I think over the next few months, the hotline will get a lot more calls,” said McKee. “I can’t recall a time when a daycare provider has been charged with failing to report, and I think people will err on the side of caution as a result.”

Those who work with at-risk families see this as a step in the right direction. “Children are helpless,” said Donna Carini, director of child and family services at Liberty Resources. “We have to change the mindset that somehow we’re going to get parents in trouble if we ‘tell,’ If the parents are hurting the child, they’re already in trouble. It’s about getting help, and they can’t get that help without the people around them looking out for them.”

“We are all ultimately responsible to each other,” said Piazza-Toms. “We need to make it acceptable for people to speak up out of love and concern for the family and not be punished for doing so. Many of the parents we work with have been victimized and abused themselves; it’s all they know. We don’t want to judge them too harshly; we want to get them help without creating further victimization.”

Next steps in our community

Multiple factors, including many complex social and economic root causes, contributed to the Imani Jennings and Erin Maxwell tragedies. We now ask, what can be done differently moving forward? United Way has organized a coalition that includes nonprofit agencies, Onondaga County officials and Syracuse City School District officials to begin to answer this question and identify systemic problems in our community’s approach to child abuse and neglect with the goal of reducing the number of children who are hurt.

We begin by identifying the critical issues. Where some see a community rich in safety-net services for parents and families, many insiders see services that have been compromised by state and federal budget cuts and a need for more comprehensive family services and for better service coordination.

Many experts say the community should focus on prevention. “We have definitely seen a reduction in preventive services due to federal and state funding cuts,” Carini said. “There’s a real need for more mental health and abuse prevention services. The earlier we get to these problems, the more we can address them before they’re insurmountable.”

Smith agrees. “Prevention is the key,” she said. “Along with the funding issue, I see a fragmentation in the system. Families need a continuum of services, not just services that respond to emergencies. We need central, comprehensive services that address family needs from the time that there’s even a possibility that a child could be born. Until we get to that place, we will unfortunately have these horrific stories that hit our headlines. Then we’ll respond—out of shock, numbness and rage.  But we ought to be looking at these situations before they happen, rather than responding after the fact.”

Programs and services that help

United Way funds a comprehensive network of programs and services to help families that are at risk of experiencing abuse and neglect. Many of these families are referred to United Way-funded programs by professionals who have seen evidence of abuse or neglect. Last year, United Way funded programs helped 1,553 at-risk families to decrease the incidences of child abuse and neglect.

In addition, a program new to Central New York called Touchpoints is training 300 daycare providers to help parents better understand their children. The program—which is administered by United Way’s Success By 6 in partnership with Child Care Solutions and Onondaga County—targets 4,300 children younger than 5 living in poverty in the city of Syracuse, with the goal of building stronger, healthy relationships between children and parents.