News Release
December 2, 2019
San Diego Agencies Announce Plans to Improve Protection of Children from Abuse and Assault; District Task Force Highlights Collaboration Among Regional Agencies
SAN DIEGO – The lead agencies involved in protecting children from abuse and assault took part in an action summit today convened by the San Diego Unified School District.
Participating agencies, including the offices of the District Attorney and City Attorney, Child Welfare Services, the County Office of Education, and the San Diego Police Department, outlined specific actions they will take to take to improve collaboration in the region.
Dr. Karen Imagowa, director of the Audrey Hepburn CARES Center and Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, delivered a call to action at the start of the meeting by highlighting the long-term impacts of child abuse on the victims and on society as a whole. Dr. Imagowa is board-certified in developmental-behavior pediatrics, general pediatrics and child abuse pediatrics.
Child Welfare Services made one of the most significant commitments to come out of the action summit. The agency plans to increase the number of children who receive high-quality forensic interviews following an allegation of abuse, from 100 to 1,000, in the coming years. Child Welfare Services works principally with abuse that happens in the home and with students living in foster care settings.
“This represents a major commitment to help protect our most vulnerable students,” said Board of Education trustee Richard Barrera, who authored the resolution establishing the Multi-Agency Task Force to Recommend Comprehensive Strategies and Protocols for Inter-Agency Cooperation for the Protection of Students. “We need to make sure that any student who experiences abuse at school has access to these supports.”
Among other commitments made by local agencies at the action summit include:
· SDPD will provide School Police with all case disposition, as available, and present quarterly training to School Police on legal updates and best practices
· The District Attorney established the new Student Safety in School Systems Task Force and hotline to report child abuse
· The City Attorney will develop a public service announcement for students to understand what behavior may constitute a crime
· The County Office of Education committed to disseminate the DA’s Mandated Reporting information campaign to all county school districts.
· School Police added a child abuse reporting section on its Crime Stoppers app and will email reports to SDPD instead of delivering paper copies.
Superintendent Cindy Marten has committed to getting information from the task force out to the 100,000 students served by San Diego Unified in order to create what she called a culture of reporting, where every student and district employee feels comfortable reporting an allegation of abuse. She thanked all regional agencies for their participation in the task force.
“The families we serve will be heartened by the fact that every leading agency in our region that deals with the protection of children from assault and abuse has come together to make sure the public knows it should report these crimes, because our partners in law enforcement take every report seriously,” Marten said.
Chair of the task force, San Diego Unified School Police Chief Michael Marquez, said the summit represents a robust spirit of collaboration among agencies in the region.
“I’d like to thank each of our regional partners for their dedication and commitment to take meaningful action for the protection of our students.”
Contact: Maureen Magee, Communications Director, (619) 381-7930, mmagee@sandi.net
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