Modern-day slavery discussed at annual STC conference

MCISD discusses increasing fees for facility usage

Advocates march against child abuse

By Kathy Olivarez

“Child Protective Services saved my life,” stated Eric Garcia, who was once a foster child in Hidalgo County and a victim of child abuse. Garcia, now 25 years old, was the keynote speaker at the 10th annual March Against Child Abuse held Wednesday, April 7. The march started at CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and ended on the steps of the Hidalgo County Courthouse in Edinburg.

Garcia told the audience he was in foster care for two years. The oldest of nine children, he endured years of abuse and neglect at the hands of his mother and her boyfriend. Garcia said his mother hated the children when she was drunk or on drugs. She would hit them with a broom, a hammer, or anything else that was handy when she became angry.

He recounted his 12th birthday when his mother became angry with him and split his head open with a can of spray paint and then stabbed him. He credited his mother for introducing him to alcohol and drugs. While teachers at school would ask questions about their injuries, they always covered for her. It took 11 years for the courts to get enough evidence to remove the children from the home.

“It saved my life,” said Garcia,” because I got to see what normal was like. I lived in a home with air conditioning, wore good clothes, had my own bed and received love. It was easy to let go of Mom then.”

Garcia and five of his siblings went to one home. The limit was six and another brother went to another home. The youngest was only five weeks old when it was adopted. The baby was born in prison after his mother was sent to jail for child abuse. One family adopted five of the children.

Addressing children present who are still in foster homes, Garcia told them to hang in there, and learn to stand for something or they would fall.

The march is held each year to draw attention to April as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Marchers came from CASA offices to the courthouse, a distance of several blocks. Among the marchers were the children from St. John’s Episcopal Church in McAllen. With over 100 participants, it was the largest march ever for the local event.

Members of the Edinburg North High School Junior ROTC led the march carrying flags. As the program started they led the presentation of colors while the children of St. John’s Episcopal Day School led pledge of allegiance.

Bishop Daniel Flores of the Brownsville Diocese led the prayer for the safety of the children.

Letty Garza of Channel 5 acted as emcee for the event. She told the audience that because of her work with Wednesday’s Child for over 20 years, Child Abuse Prevention was a subject very close to her heart.

Other speakers included Daniel Santos, CASA board chairman, and Linda Morales, executive director of CASA.

Morales thanked asked the audience to remember the ten children who died in Hidalgo County in 2009 as the result of child abuse. She said the number had risen by two from eight victims in 2008. Morales told the audience to call Child Protective Services when they suspected a child was being abused. The number is 1-800-252-5400.

Child abuse and family violence is a significant problem in Hidalgo County. In 2009, the county had 11,713 alleged victims of some form of child abuse. Of that number 2956 cases are confirmed. The county has 553 children in foster care and another 225 have been removed from their homes and are staying with relatives or in orphanages.

Morales said these problems have to end. Being there for children is the first step.

CASA is a volunteer program where volunteers undergo a 30-hour training program on how to spot abuse in the home. They are assigned a special child and serve as an advocate for that child. They meet with the child once a month and act as the eyes and ears of the court. Their observations and recommendations are reported to the judge.

Georgina Morales, director of CPS for Region 11, asked people to please report child abuse. Children need to be removed from homes where abuse is suspected.

When the speakers were finished, Sandra Rodriguez, Family Protective Services director, rang a bell with one toll for each of the children who died in 2009 in Hidalgo County as the result of child abuse. As she rang the bell, Daniel Santos and Linda Morales released doves representing each deceased child’s spirit into the air.

The St. John’s Episcopal Day School Choir sang, “Jesus Loves Me” and other songs. Then Judge Ricardo Flores lit a tree in front of the courthouse. The lights are to remain on for the rest of the month. Crosses with the names of the children who died are in front of the tree on the courthouse lawn.

CASA of Hidalgo County has been advocating for abused and neglected children for 14 years. CASA trains community volunteers to serve as advocates for children who are in foster care because of abuse and neglect. They serve as friends during an overwhelming and often traumatic process of navigation through the court system, with the goal of helping each child find a safe, loving and permanent home. In 2009, CASA provided services to over 557 children and secondary victims, including parents, grandparents, primary care takers and siblings.

Family Protective Services is a division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Family Protective Services receives and investigates/assesses reports of child abuse and neglect by parents, family or household members. If services are needed after completing an investigation, Child Protective Services offers services to parents to help them alleviate their problems and learn how to care for and discipline their children in ways that do not harm them or place them at risk of abuse or neglect. In 2009, they investigated 6285 reported incidents of child abuse and neglect.

La Joya ISD teachers indicted

Seven current employees and two former administrators of La Joya ISD’s Juarez-Lincoln High School were indicted by an Hidalgo County grand jury last week.

Among those indicted is former Juarez-Lincoln High School principal Jimmy Portillo Gonzalez. He is charged in seven separate counts, which include charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, selling a school computer to a former school employee, and intent to defraud the school district by signing falsified extra duty pay/stipend pay requests for several school employees who did not work the hours as represented in the documents, according to the indictment.

Other employees of Juarez-Lincoln receiving indictments include Dora Linda Gonzalez, principal’s secretary; Xavier Ramirez, assistant principal; Juan C. Flores, school counselor; and teachers Jose Pena, Dario Garcia III, Mark Anthony Villalon and Jorge Alberto Gonzalez. A former district employee, assistant principal Marco Balthasar Ramirez, was also charged in the multiple indictments hand down March 31 by the grand jury.

Most of the charges against the seven current employees involve falsifying timesheets or other payroll records to receive pay for hours not worked.

La Joya ISD Police Chief Raul Gonzalez said Marco Ramirez was not involved in the alleged timesheet scheme.

“During our investigation, we found that the principal took a computer from inventory and sold it to the former employee [Marco Ramirez],” said Chief Gonzalez.

The investigation began last fall when an estimated $800 was reported missing from a school fundraiser. Chief Gonzalez said they were never able to determine who might have taken the fundraiser money, but during the course of the investigation they discovered a problem with the timesheets.

“We were informed that timesheets were submitted for work that was not done, and once the employee got paid, he gave the money to the principal because he had requested that they do that for him,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the seven indicted employees were suspended on Wednesday.

“Six of them are professionals, so they were suspended with pay, and the seventh one is a secretary, and she was suspended without pay.

The school district police department has concluded its investigation and anticipates no further indictments, Gonzalez said.

He added that the district’s first priority is to make sure they take care of the kids.

“We’re not going to deviate from our goal, and our goal is to make sure that the kids get a great education at La Joya ISD.”

Collective Bargaining Forum at Chamber

The Mission Chamber of Commerce will host a forum on collective bargaining on Tuesday, April 13 at 5:30 p.m. The forum to be held at the new chamber building located at 202 W. Tom Landry will give the public the opportunity to hear both sides of the issue and to make an informed decision on Proposition #1 on the May 8 ballot.

Proposition #1 calls for the adoption of collective bargaining for City of Mission fire fighters.

Cathy Garcia, chairperson of the chamber board of directors, said this is not a debate, but simply a forum where both sides will be allowed an opportunity to present their position. Each side is asked to provide a spokesperson who will be allowed an equal amount of time to explain their position. This will be followed by a question and answer period.

Modern-day slavery discussed at annual STC conference

By Edwina P. Garza

McALLEN — Ines was living in Albania when she was kidnapped by three men, raped and transported through different countries as she was sold for sex and beaten when she didn’t obey her owners.

From 1995 to 2003, Ines was one of the millions of victims across the globe living as a sex slave with no way to escape.

“I hated this work,” Ines told Siddharth Kara, an expert on human trafficking and slavery.

Ines, like a number of slaves that escape, was thrown back into the sex industry when she tried looking for work in Italy. She eventually escaped, and began living in a shelter when she became pregnant.

“Everyday I try to forget what I suffered,” she said to Kara, adding that she feared the men would find her and put her back into the trade.

Kara told her story on Wednesday at the South Texas College’s Human Trafficking Conference held this week. The event, in its fourth year, is hosted by the Women’s Studies Committee at the school. A number of experts have visited with students, faculty and law enforcement officials to discuss the rising number of slaves in the modern world. Kara was one of two keynote speakers at the event; he is the author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery.

“If you have no moral qualms, this is a great business model,” Kara told the audience at the Pecan Campus Cooper Center for Communication Arts.

According to figures he gathered by visiting 18 countries and investigating the area’s sex trafficking industry, sex slavery is a $38.8 billion business. Sex trafficking, like the business of drug trafficking, is governed by supply and demand.

With countries having little or no fines or criminal punishment for sex slavery-related businesses, the profits outweigh the possibility of conviction, which is what makes it so popular, Kara explained.

“The real risk of exploiting a slave is almost nil,” he said.

Kara, in his book, has developed seven global solutions to stop human trafficking. Those include law enforcement and community groups forming intervention forces to investigate and halt slave-related businesses, increasing raids on these businesses, increasing the salaries of people involved in prosecuting these cases, demanding fast-tracked court cases, fully funding witness protection for the victims and increasing the prosecution and conviction of criminals, among other solutions.

“I have little confidence in efforts intended to elevate the sensitivity and morality of men having sex with minors,” Kara said of current law enforcement methods in modern-day slavery.

The only way to stop trafficking of slaves is to elevate the risk. In the United States alone, Kara said human trafficking is 300 times more problematic than drug trafficking. And while the government spends approximately $7,700 per Iraqi citizen a year for liberation, only $22 is spent on anti-slavery per slave a year.

“Slavery is a stain on human kind,” he said.

While international coordination is improving, Kara said there is still a long way to go. He characterized the conviction rates across the globe as “pathetic.” There’s only a one percent chance of getting caught and a 99 percent chance of earning a huge profit.

“The penalty has to match the benefit,” he explained.

Kara, who most recently spoke to the United Nations about solutions to human trafficking and speaks and consults on slavery around the world, said it would cost about $450 million a year to fund the seven strategies he recommends to stop modern-day slavery. Currently, the U.S. government spends approximately $1.5 billion a day on defense. If the country could go without spending that money for three days, 10 years of his plan could be funded.

“The test of a nation’s leadership comes now,” Kara said.

The conference ends today with speakers from the FBI and the Office of the Attorney General speaking about the law enforcement side of human trafficking.

Recycled Rovers & Friends spotlighted

The Progress Times is beginning a new feature that we hope to run each week.

I recently discovered Recycled Rovers and Friends, a no-kill animal shelter located in Donna. The shelter takes in dogs and places them for adoption to good homes in the area.

I spoke with Ruben Gallegos, supervisor of the facility which currently houses about 137 dogs in clean, well-kept kennels. He said folks should call first before bringing in an animal to make sure they have room. They operate at full capacity and often it may take a couple of days for a vacancy to open up. Construction is now in progress to expand the facility to double the number of kennels.

They accept very few cats/kittens as they are not set up to handle them.

The facility is located at 302 El Dora Rd., Donna, and they are open 8-5, Monday-Friday. On Saturdays, the facility is closed, but they use that day to go to the public by setting up a big tent and display in front of both McAllen PetSmart locations. They take 15 to 20 animals with them that are up for adoption and visit with folks about their services from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are constantly looking for good homes for the dogs that come in to the shelter on a daily basis.

If the weather is rainy, they will not do the PetSmart locations.

For those who want to consider adopting a dog, such as Mickey, who is featured in this week’s spotlight, the process is simple. Fill out a brief application. Find the right animal for you. And pay a small fee, between $75 and $85. The fee includes all vaccinations and the spay and neutering services.

For more information, give Ruben a call at 956-562-4421 (office) or at 956-569-5910 (cell). He’ll be happy to hear from you.

THIS WEEK’S SPOTLIGHT

ADOPT ME

Hello my name is Mickey. I am a three-year-old Corgi Mix and I am looking for my forever home. I am housebroken and I love children and people. I walk well on a leash and like traveling. I have all my shots and I’m ready to move in with your family.

To adopt Mickey or another dog, contact:

Recycled Rovers & Friends
Ruben Gallegos-Supervisor

MCISD discusses increasing fees for facility usage

MISSION – Staff at the Mission Consolidated Independent School District this week recommended increasing fees for using the district facilities when used by for profit organizations.

The suggestion was made at this week’s committee meeting on Wednesday.

Lucio Mendoza, the assistant superintendent for finance and operations, said due to revenue limitations, the district needs to start looking for different sources of funds. One area the district is considering is renting MCISD facilities to for profit groups at a new rate.

Under the proposed plan, which will go through its first reading at the April 21 regular board meeting, satellite cafeterias will have a minimum charge of $150 for two to four hours. That cost includes custodial services; each hour after the initial two hours is proposed at $75 for the facility and $50 for each hour for the labor charge. Costs vary for different facilities, with the highest cost at $500 for four hours of use of the high schools’ fine arts buildings.

Mendoza said the district is also looking to discuss having personalized license plates with district emblems to generate more money.

In other items, members discussed having four-day workweeks for summer classes and office operations.

District donations for March totaled $10,737.27 with $8,000 from the Mission Lion’s Club for eight $1,000 scholarships at both high schools. The City of Palmhurst also donated $1,500 for R. Cantu Jr. High’s library and student activity funds. Other in-kind donations totaled $611, officials said.

MCISD board members also met with Daktronics officials to ask questions about the district’s future purchase of a new scoreboard.

Under facility issues, MCISD board members received updates on construction projects for 2006 and 2008 bond projects on schools around the district. Officials continue to discuss the field houses at both high schools, ironing out size and different specifications before beginning the design process.

The board will vote on these and other items at their regular monthly meeting on April 21 at 6:30 p.m.

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