Dreamcatchers Announcement

Benford Standley, CFO and Board Chair of Dreamcatchers for Abused Children, surprised us this evening with an amazing and heartfelt gesture. Benford helped produce a tribune film clip for Bruce Ricker. They put a DREAMCATCHERS FOR ABUSED CHILDREN ANNOUNCEMENT at the end of the Bruce Ricker Tribue Reel asking that donations be made to our organization in his memory.

Bruce was very close working with Clint Eastwood for over 30 years on many projects, and was a big fan of Benford’s annual Paso Robles Film Festival and State and Fate of the Children — and the gesture of Benford’s work with Dreamcatchers and for the concerns of children and youth.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THIS WONDERFUL TRIBUNE TO BRUCE RICKER

For more information on Bruce Ricker, please visit:

BRUCE RICKER

For more information on Benford Standley, please visit:

Paso Robles Film Festival Website

Benford Standley’s Paso Robles Film Festival Facebook Page

(Pictured: Bruce Ricker, Benford Standley, and Clint Eastwood)

MSNBC NEWS COVERAGE: PEDOPHILE CAUGHT IN ACT

Shocking Statistics

• One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.
  – Crimes Against Children Research Center
• 25% of children have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material online.
  – Crimes Against Children Research Center
• Only 1/3 of households with Internet access are actively protecting their children with filtering or blocking software.
  – Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• 75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.
  – eMarketer
• Only approximately 25% of children who encountered a sexual approach or solicitation told a parent or adult.
  – Crimes Against Children Research Center
• One in 33 youth received an aggressive sexual solicitation in the past year. This means a predator asked a young person to meet somewhere, called a young person on the phone, and/or sent the young person correspondence, money, or gifts through the U.S. Postal Service.
  – Your Internet Safety Survey
• 77% of the targets for online predators were age 14 or older.  Another 22% were users ages 10 to 13.
  – Crimes Against Children Research Center

• With an estimated 24 million children now online, one out of five have been solicited for sex in the last year. (Congressional Study)
• One in four children were sent pictures of people who were naked or having sex.
• An estimated 725,000 children have been “aggressively” asked for sex, defined as an offer to meet in person.
• A top Disney executive was recently arrested and charged with using the Internet to solicit sex with a minor
• 75% of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and services.
• Only 25 percent of the youth who encountered a sexual approach or solicitation told a parent
• One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.
• 77% of the targets for online preditors were age 14 or older. Another 22% were users ages 10 to 13
• 75 percent of the solicited youth were not troubled, 10 percent did not use chat rooms and 9 percent did not talk to strangers
• Only 17 percent of youth and 11 percent of parents could name a specific authority, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CyberTipline, or an Internet service provider, to which they could report an Internet crime.
• Experts, both within the FBI and in the private sector, revealed that the utilization of computer telecommunications was rapidly becoming one of the most prevalent techniques by which some sex offenders shared pornographic images of minors and identified and recruited children into sexually illicit relationships.
• Only 1/3 of the households with Internet access are proactively protecting their children!

REPORT CHILD SOLICITATION OR EXPLOITATION:

CyberTipline (www.cybertipline.com) or call (800) 843-5678

An American mother and her boyfriend were charged yesterday in the fatal beating of a toddler whose injuries initially were blamed on a hit-and-run accident. Online court records of Morgan County in Missouri show that 21-year-old Thomas Presley and 25-year-old Jamie Ann Litton face one count of second-degree murder in the death of 3-year-old Blake Litton. Litton also faces two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.  READ MORE HERE

ABBEVILLE, S.C. — The Abbeville police chief says a 4-month-old is lucky to be alive after being abused for his entire life.Police say they were called a home on Tuesday afternoon about a possible child abuse case.Officers say a Department of Social Services worker told them the child was taken to Abbeville Hospital for a swollen leg. READ MORE HERE

GREENWOOD COUNTY, S.C. — A 50-year-old Greenwood man is accused of raping a 13-year-old boy in a stairwell at a church and forcing the boy to perform sex acts on him.Greenwood police said that the boy was in a parking lot near a playground when he was approached by Gregory Jerome Thomas. The boy said Thomas touched him on the face and said, “I like your type.” He said Thomas asked if he was gay, and when the boy answered no, Thomas said he was going to have sex with him. READ MORE HERE

GRANT LAVELLE HUDSON, III

WANTED FOR: Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution – Child Molestation

Grant Lavelle Hudson, III, a convicted sex offender, is currently wanted in Santa Rosa, California, on a felony arrest warrant issued on October 28, 2003. Grant is charged with nine counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under fourteen years of age, two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child who was 14/15 years old, and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under fourteen years of age by the use of force, violence, duress, menace, and threat of bodily harm. These charges stem from Hudson’s alleged sexual molestation of a young female family member which occurred over a period of approximately eight years. Hudson has also been charged with failure to register as a sex offender. A federal arrest warrant charging Hudson with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued on March 31, 2006, in the United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco, California. READ MORE HERE

Field Office: San Francisco

Childhood abuse hurts the brain

Abuse during childhood can change the structure and function of a brain, and increase the risk of everything from anxiety to suicide. “These changes are not limited to physical and sexual abuse; there’s growing evidence that even verbal assault can alter the way a developing brain is wired,” says Martin Teicher, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. The ominous effects are tied to reduction in the size of sensitive areas of the brain and to abnormal brain waves that mimic epilepsy. READ MORE HERE

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Lecture on Child Maltreatment and Brain Consequences
by David McCollum, MD, delivered on April 6, 2007

COMMERCE CITY, CO– A 60-year-old Commerce City woman faces a charge of child abuse resulting in death for allegedly killing her four-year-old grandson. Doris Becky Trujillo was arrested Friday – the same day Gabriel Trujillo passed away from his injuries. According to Commerce City Police, emergency responders were called to the 6400 block of Siegal Court at about 2:00 p.m. Tuesday on a report that a child had fallen.  READ MORE HERE

A senior Chamber of Commerce figure and former RAF police officer raped a schoolgirl while his wife lay on the bed watching, a court heard today. Derek Chartres, 59, allegedly watched pornography and engaged in sex acts in front of schoolgirls and is also accused of raping a girl under 16. The former Chamber of Commerce president is accused of a string of sex acts against two girls, while his wife Pearl, 51, denies aiding and abetting the rape after she allegedly lay on the bed and watched.  READ MORE HERE

An elementary school teacher has been jailed for 40 years for having sex with a 14-year-old student. Shannon Alicia Schmieder, 39, was told she will have to serve 20 years – by far the toughest sentence ever handed out by a U.S. court to an educator accused of underage sex. Legal experts said the jail term was the same for manslaughter and other serious crimes. The 39-year-old knew the boy since he was born and was at one stage like a mother-figure to him, according to his family.  READ MORE HERE

LUCERNE VALLEY, CA– Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Thursday night after he allegedly beat his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son to death in a remote area of Lucerne Valley. Dispatchers received a call about 10:05 p.m. of a child who had been assaulted and was not breathing at a home in the 9200 block of Anza Trail. Deputies arrived to find paramedics administering CPR to 2-year-old Damian Negrete, according to a news release issued by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.  READ MORE HERE