Fountain Valley Schools’ Handbook Takes Aim at Child Abuse

Abused children are sometimes reluctant to confide in a schoolteacher or principal, but may be willing to talk to other school employees.

“Sometimes the people they’ll talk to about their problems are custodial workers at school,” said Fern Zahlen Williams, a Fountain Valley school administrator. “So this new law is a good one. It will help.”

The new law Williams referred to is a state statute that went into effect Jan. 1. It requires all school personnel--not just teachers and administrators--to report suspected cases of child abuse to county authorities.

Also, the law requires all school employees to “receive specific training” in how to recognize and deal with cases of child abuse.

Williams, who is the director of student attendance, health and safety in the Fountain Valley (Elementary) School District, is in charge of the district’s overall efforts to help children who have been abused by parents, guardians or other adults.

Last week, Fountain Valley’s school board unanimously approved the use of a handbook written by Williams that contains advice, instruction and guidance for school personnel on child abuse. As a result, the district is among the first in Orange County to implement the new state law with written specifics on child abuse for teaching and non-teaching staff.

“We’ve known since August, when the bill was signed, that this (new law) was coming,” Williams said. “So in Fountain Valley School District we’ve been preparing for it. We expect to start our first class (in child-abuse guidelines) next week.”

Williams acknowledged that Fountain Valley--a quintessential suburban community with no slums, housing projects or aging downtown--is predominantly middle- and upper-middle-class. But she said that child-abuse cases surface there, as in many other communities.

“There are child-abuse cases in every school district,” she said. “Those that say they don’t have any problem aren’t doing their job right.”

Williams added that many cases are hard to detect, especially when the children are primarily victims of emotional abuse and neglect, rather than physical beatings.

She noted, for example, the case a few years ago of an 11-year-old local girl who “was the worst case of emotional abuse I’ve come in contact with. She was never allowed to eat with the family. She had to eat out in the garage, and at one time they even put her bed out in the garage--like a dog.

“The child had to wash the family clothes by hand outside,” Williams continued. “In cold weather her hands got red and rough. That’s how it came to our attention. Her hands were so red and rough.”

Williams said the child was losing weight because of such emotional abuse. The problem was exacerbated, she said, by the family’s religious practices.

“From 8 o’clock to midnight, they’d do penance by being on their knees in front of their fireplace,” Williams said. “There were four children in the home, and each was abused. The oldest girl, an eighth-grader, was being humiliated by the family and forced to wear diapers to school.”

Williams eventually was able to document that one child lost 20 pounds in a month and a half. Eventually, the Orange County Child Protective Services agency proved that the parents were unfit, and the children were removed from their home and later adopted.

In another case several years ago, Williams said, the 10- and 11-year-old children of one “very wealthy family” in the Fountain Valley school district were routinely punished by being forced to eat maggots--the wormlike larvae of insects.

“The children’s aunt discovered this, but couldn’t handle notifying the county authorities, so she called me and said, ‘What can you do about this?’ ” Williams said.

Williams added that the family was investigated by county officials and the allegation was found to be true. The children were temporarily removed by county authorities until the parents were given guidance and rehabilitation, she said.

“The family later was reunited, which is always the goal whenever it’s possible,” Williams said.

In the Fountain Valley handbook written by Williams, school employees are reminded that, under state law, there is “no liability for reporting a known or suspected instance of child abuse or providing a requesting agency with ‘access’ to a suspected child-abuse victim.”

The handbook also points out that it is a violation of state law for employees to fail “to report an instance of child abuse which he or she knows to exist or reasonably suspects to exist.” Guilty persons can be fined up to $1,000 and sentenced to six months in county jail.

“Child abuse is everyone’s business, is a valid public concern, and the responsibility to report is not optional; it is mandatory,” the handbook says. “Educators probably have the best opportunity to identify a problem before it becomes a statistic.”

Williams said all cases of suspected child abuse are “kept strictly confidential and are investigated thoroughly by the Child Protective Services agency.”

She added that the handbook also includes recommendations on how school personnel can avoid situations that might lead to their being falsely accused of child abuse.

Williams, who is the mother of two daughters, said that as society becomes more and more aware of the extent of child abuse, more genuine cases are reported. The net result, she said, is that children can be saved.

“If the cycle is not broken,” she said, “the children themselves grow up into parents who are child abusers. Sadly, they think that’s the way parents are supposed to behave.”