Weapons Charges Against 10 year old Boy

A 10 year old Detroit boy accused of bringing an unloaded handgun to school was charged with a number of weapons violations in Wyane County Family Court.  The incident occurred on January 20, 2010, when another student saw the boy with the gun in a bathroom at Brewer Elementary/Middle School and told a teacher. The teacher took the gun.

The juvenile pleaded guilty last week to possession of a weapon in a weapons-free school zone.   The Wayne County Prosecutor issued a release today that a concealed weapons charge and a charge of minor in possession of a firearm in public have been dropped.

This is a little more than a case of “boys will be boys.”

Detroit News: Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan

On January 12, 2010, The Detroit News ran an article with the headline “Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan.”   The article summarizes some of the results of the annual Kids Count Report.  Some of the facts in the article include:

• 40% of Michigan School children are eligible for free or reduced lunches, up from 30.7% in 2000.
• In Oakland County, 11% of children are in poverty, compared with 8.6% in 2005.
• Statewide, 1 in 5 children live in poverty.
• Poverty is tied to a 16 percent increase in confirmed cases of abuse and neglect since 2000.
• Childhood deaths are down with 18.9 deaths per 100,000 children ages 1 to 14, down from 23.1 in 2000.
• The infant mortality rate is down at 7.8 deaths per 1,000 infants from 8.1 in 2000.
• The rate of births to teens fell 20 percent over the decade.

The article correctly points out that increased poverty leads to increased instances of abuse and neglect because parents can’t provide for their children’s basic needs or take out their frustrations for their economic troubles on their children.  It is interesting that in Oakland County, where poverty is on the rise, petitions seeking court jurisdiction over abused and neglected children are down.  Based on the correlation between poverty and child abuse and neglect, shouldn’t we see more petitions being filed?

Some attribute the cause of the lower filings on the fact that the new Oakland County prosecutor no longer co-petitions with DHS in child neglect matters.  Under this reasoning, the filings are down because DHS was being pressured into filing petitions by the previous prosecutor and the reduction is the result of DHS no longer filing petitions they consider unnecessary.  Another theory is that DHS has hired new staff and this staff is being retrained.  Whatever the cause, I find it hard to believe in these difficult economic times that child abuse and neglect is on the decline as the decrease in petition filings would suggest.

You can read the Detroit News Article here:  Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan.