Abuse rally honors memory of slain children/ Child-care center wants

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 3, 2003 | by ANSLEE WILLETT

The five trees with blue ribbons in planters along the wall looked insignificant at first.

Each had a sheet of paper hanging from the ribbons.

"Michaela/Age 8 years/Shot to death by father," one read.

Each tree represents an El Paso County child who was killed in 2002. The children remembered Wednesday at the Seventh Annual Child Abuse Prevention Rally were:

Michaela Hernandez and her stepbrother Mykal, 4, who were killed Dec. 20 by their father.

Jeremiah Santiago, 13, who was shot to death Feb. 16 by his father.

Christopher Young, 6 months old, who was suffocated June 30. His mother was arrested in connection with the killing.

Thomas McDaniel, 2, who died Aug. 28 after he was hit in the abdomen and on the head. His mother's live-in boyfriend was arrested in connection with the killing.

The trees will be planted at KPC Kids' Place Respite Nursery at 2503 Holiday Lane.

The five-bedroom house will become the state's first drop-off nursery for stressed parents in need of a break. It's expected to open this summer.

Wednesday's rally, held at the Hillside Community Center, was sponsored by Pikes Peak Family Connections and The Exchange Club of Colorado Springs.

April is child-abuse prevention month.

The El Paso County Department of Human Services receives about 8,000 child-abuse reports each year. In 2002, 800 cases were confirmed to be abuse.

The numbers indicate a significant problem, said Rita Wiley, director of Pikes Peak Family Connections, a nonprofit group that helps at-risk families.

"The impact of abuse is far greater than the visual effects we see," she said.

Abused children are susceptible to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and problems forming relationships throughout life, she said.

John Newsome, a prosecutor with the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office, said child-abuse cases are the toughest ones to prove.

"If a child is killed or hurt, very often it's the child's parents who have done it," he said.

And there rarely are witnesses, he said.

Newsome sometimes is asked why he does what he does, why he subjects himself to the horrors of child abuse.

"There's nothing in the world like achieving justice for a baby that has been killed," he said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0366 or awillett@gazette.com