First responders asked to let teachers know to ‘Handle With Care’

A way to alert schools when a 911 call involves a terrified child is being proposed for Stanislaus County. The goal is to improve the prospects of the kids who live with addicts and abusers.

There are more of those children than you think, with an estimated 40 percent of children the victim of two or more incidents of violence, crime or abuse, Andrea Darr told law enforcement leaders meeting Thursday in Turlock.

Darr is director of the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice, which runs the no-cost Handle With Care program. She helped develop the program, alongside Chad Napier, a drug enforcement agent.

“The key to success for these kids is to stay in school, to graduate from school. But they’re getting behind because of the chaos that they live in. We want to help children succeed every day to the best of their ability, regardless of whatever they’re having to live with to get there,” she said.

The officers’ part consists of making a note in their report of the name, age and school of every child involved in a call of crime, violence or abuse. That note gets transmitted to a central hub, she said, “and before the kid hits the school the next day, that principal will have a secured fax, text or email that says, ‘Handle little Johnnie with care.’ ”

Confidentiality laws keep that notice very spare, just a heads-up that law enforcement was called, something bad happened that might explain a child’s glassy stare, an angry outburst or missing homework.

“What is luggage in foster care? You all know this. It’s a paper bag or a garbage bag,” Darr said. It’s the quick grab of essentials before the child is driven away; homework does not always make it into the bag.

Children up much of the night may fall asleep on their desks, and chances are they will not do well on the test or get much from the lecture.

Many children withdraw and tell no one of their family problems, she said. Without an alert, that out-of-sorts child may well end up at the principal’s office in trouble instead of getting the hot meal and help he needs. A caring teacher and principal can get that child past the rough patch 90 percent of the time, she said, but others need more.

“We have found 10 percent of these children need someone to talk to. They need a therapist on site (at the school). For many reasons, these parents don’t get their children to these appointments,” Darr said.

That extra work pays off in having kids get a diploma and a path away from the life they came from. Dropouts make up 80 percent of prison inmates, Napier said, adding every prostitute he’s ever talked to was abused as a child.

“We know if they don’t stay in school, we know what’s going to happen. So we’ve got to stop reversing some of the effects of trauma,” he said.

Nationwide, an estimated 11 million children – more than 1 in 7 – live with someone addicted to drugs or alcohol, the biggest red flag for those who study trauma in children’s lives.

That number sounds about right, said George Papadopoulos of the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office. Papadopoulos works with the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency, a multiagency task force spearheading the local effort with the Stanislaus County Office of Education.

In Stanislaus County, the program will be called Focusing On Children Under Stress, he said. While still in the planning phase, the Stanislaus program will extend to fire, police and ambulance services, the people most likely to see children when bad things happen, Papadopoulos said.

The simple idea to link 911 contacts with children is long overdue, said Vicki Bauman.

“Kids can’t think the next day,” she said, recalling her days as an elementary school staffer. Bauman is leading the county office side of the rollout.

The law enforcement reaction was positive, though only Oakdale police volunteered straight up to pilot the program.

Modesto police Chief Galen Carroll said creating a phone app would allow officers to send in the information right from their phones.

“If it has to be put in a paper report, go through records ...” he said, ending midsentence with a shake of his head.

Turlock police Chief Rob Jackson said it sounded good but wanted to check with the Turlock Unified School District superintendent before committing.

Stanislaus school district superintendents will hear the same presentation Friday morning at their regional meeting.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "First responders asked to let teachers know to ‘Handle With Care’."