nanabillie
05-02-2009, 06:29 PM
http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2009/04/29/crime_week/doc49f7e4536be5a180192210.txt
Crime Week
Abuse victim speaks out so
that others might speak up
http://images.townnews.com/mywesttexas.com/content/articles/2009/04/29/crime_week/doc49f7e4536be5a180192210.jpgDaniela Carrasco, CPS youth specialist, tries to hold back tears as she tells her story of abuse by her father and time in foster care Tuesday night at the Crime Victims' Rights ceremony. Photo by Tim Fischer 4\28\09
By Kathleen Thurber
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 3:27 PM CDT
Looking toward the ceiling to hold in her tears, Daniela Carrasco smiled and said her life is becoming one of those fairy tale endings she thought were reserved for other people.
Not that she didn’t dream of Cinderella like most little girls, she said. But, after being abused by her father, shifted between more than five foster homes in her teenage years and then being abused by her own boyfriend after her first year of college, happy endings simply seemed intangible — like something meant for kids who hadn’t seen the things she had.
Speaking to a group of more than 50 at the Midland Victims’ Coalition National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Ceremony Tuesday, Carrasco detailed the events that put her into foster care.
“I was abused by my father for a couple of years,” said Carrasco, who now works with Child Protective Services as a youth specialist. “I was young and I thought it was OK, but it wasn’t.”
Carrasco, her mother and her younger sister moved to Midland when she was about 11 to live with her biological father, whom she had never known. After their move, the abuse began. Then when she showed up at Goddard Junior High one day after missing school because her father had badly bruised her face, a counselor stepped in.
Though Carrasco said she lied about where the bruises came from, her counselor told her she knew what was going on and then listened as Carrasco broke down in her office, crying and talking about her life.
“I never went back home,” she said.
She and her then 2-year-old sister were placed in foster care. After being moved to their third home, her sister was adopted and Carrasco was sent to High Sky Children’s Ranch without her.
While growing up, she said, she was angry at her mother for not believing her and confused about why her mom wouldn’t have done something when she herself was being abused.
Going through each day, Carrasco said she was unable to forget the sound of her mother screaming while she and her sister sat in rooms nearby.
Part-way through her foster care experience, Carrasco said, her mother moved to Mexico with her dad, who fled the country to avoid possible jail time in relation to the abuse charges.
Still, Carrasco said, after years of hurt she eventually decided she wanted a relationship with her mother.
She planned a trip to Mexico to see her and learned her mom had finally decided to leave the abuse. She was working and renting a place of her own.
Days before her departure, Carrasco received a call.
Her mother had died.
“He killed her,” she said of her father. “He took her life.”
She paused and looked out at the group sitting silently inside a lecture hall at Midland College while waiting to hear what came next.
“I ended up settling with a guy,” she said, speaking softly of the years that followed her mother’s death. “I don’t know how or why I could have gone through the same things my mom did ... Now I know it’s not worth it.”
Looking down again, she said now she’s proving despite all of this she’s going to be fine.
Carrasco is finishing college — the first in her family to do so. She’s raising the 3-year-old child she had while living with her abusive boyfriend. And in the coming months she’s going to be married to a man who’s helping her learn what truly being loved feels like.
She keeps in contact with her sister, the only family from her past she has left and is working to help children going through the same things she went through.
“I thought I’d never have a forever home or even be happy,” she said. “I know if I can do it anyone else can.”
The group, which had gathered to recognize people like Carrasco for their courage in surviving and to remember the less fortunate people like her mother who lost their lives to violent crimes, applauded and smiled as they watched Carrasco quickly make her way to the side of the room.
“You are a fabulous example,” said Angie McCown, Texas Department of Criminal Justice Victim Services director who had traveled from Austin.
McCown said the system has come a long way in helping victims. Before the Victims of Crime Act passed 25 years ago, she said, victims were often re-victimized when they were left to deal with the system alone and to pay for any necessary medical or psychiatric care.
Now, she said, groups like the non-profits, law enforcement agencies and others in Midland and the rest of the country work to make sure victims are cared for through the process. If needed, they’re escorted to court. When they require a medical examination, staff and advocates are there to tell them it wasn’t their fault and to explain their options as prosecution against their abuser progresses.
Others spoke about their role in victims services and accepted awards for the work they did for Tuesday’s ceremony and the work they do for victims throughout each year.
“She’s living proof it can be done,” said Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter, looking toward Carrasco as he spoke.
Kathleen Thurber can be reached at kthurber@mrt.com (kthurber@mrt.com).
2008 Nationwide crime statistics
One person was murdered every 31 minutes
One person was raped every 1.9 minutes
One person was assaulted every 36.9 seconds
One woman was victimized by her intimate partner every 52 seconds. One man was victimized every 3.5 minutes
One person is killed in an alcohol-related traffic crash every 40.4 minutes
One person became a victim of identity theft every 4.9 seconds
One elderly person was victimized by a violent crime every 4.2 minutes
*According to the National Center for Victims
Crime Week
Abuse victim speaks out so
that others might speak up
http://images.townnews.com/mywesttexas.com/content/articles/2009/04/29/crime_week/doc49f7e4536be5a180192210.jpgDaniela Carrasco, CPS youth specialist, tries to hold back tears as she tells her story of abuse by her father and time in foster care Tuesday night at the Crime Victims' Rights ceremony. Photo by Tim Fischer 4\28\09
By Kathleen Thurber
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 3:27 PM CDT
Looking toward the ceiling to hold in her tears, Daniela Carrasco smiled and said her life is becoming one of those fairy tale endings she thought were reserved for other people.
Not that she didn’t dream of Cinderella like most little girls, she said. But, after being abused by her father, shifted between more than five foster homes in her teenage years and then being abused by her own boyfriend after her first year of college, happy endings simply seemed intangible — like something meant for kids who hadn’t seen the things she had.
Speaking to a group of more than 50 at the Midland Victims’ Coalition National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Ceremony Tuesday, Carrasco detailed the events that put her into foster care.
“I was abused by my father for a couple of years,” said Carrasco, who now works with Child Protective Services as a youth specialist. “I was young and I thought it was OK, but it wasn’t.”
Carrasco, her mother and her younger sister moved to Midland when she was about 11 to live with her biological father, whom she had never known. After their move, the abuse began. Then when she showed up at Goddard Junior High one day after missing school because her father had badly bruised her face, a counselor stepped in.
Though Carrasco said she lied about where the bruises came from, her counselor told her she knew what was going on and then listened as Carrasco broke down in her office, crying and talking about her life.
“I never went back home,” she said.
She and her then 2-year-old sister were placed in foster care. After being moved to their third home, her sister was adopted and Carrasco was sent to High Sky Children’s Ranch without her.
While growing up, she said, she was angry at her mother for not believing her and confused about why her mom wouldn’t have done something when she herself was being abused.
Going through each day, Carrasco said she was unable to forget the sound of her mother screaming while she and her sister sat in rooms nearby.
Part-way through her foster care experience, Carrasco said, her mother moved to Mexico with her dad, who fled the country to avoid possible jail time in relation to the abuse charges.
Still, Carrasco said, after years of hurt she eventually decided she wanted a relationship with her mother.
She planned a trip to Mexico to see her and learned her mom had finally decided to leave the abuse. She was working and renting a place of her own.
Days before her departure, Carrasco received a call.
Her mother had died.
“He killed her,” she said of her father. “He took her life.”
She paused and looked out at the group sitting silently inside a lecture hall at Midland College while waiting to hear what came next.
“I ended up settling with a guy,” she said, speaking softly of the years that followed her mother’s death. “I don’t know how or why I could have gone through the same things my mom did ... Now I know it’s not worth it.”
Looking down again, she said now she’s proving despite all of this she’s going to be fine.
Carrasco is finishing college — the first in her family to do so. She’s raising the 3-year-old child she had while living with her abusive boyfriend. And in the coming months she’s going to be married to a man who’s helping her learn what truly being loved feels like.
She keeps in contact with her sister, the only family from her past she has left and is working to help children going through the same things she went through.
“I thought I’d never have a forever home or even be happy,” she said. “I know if I can do it anyone else can.”
The group, which had gathered to recognize people like Carrasco for their courage in surviving and to remember the less fortunate people like her mother who lost their lives to violent crimes, applauded and smiled as they watched Carrasco quickly make her way to the side of the room.
“You are a fabulous example,” said Angie McCown, Texas Department of Criminal Justice Victim Services director who had traveled from Austin.
McCown said the system has come a long way in helping victims. Before the Victims of Crime Act passed 25 years ago, she said, victims were often re-victimized when they were left to deal with the system alone and to pay for any necessary medical or psychiatric care.
Now, she said, groups like the non-profits, law enforcement agencies and others in Midland and the rest of the country work to make sure victims are cared for through the process. If needed, they’re escorted to court. When they require a medical examination, staff and advocates are there to tell them it wasn’t their fault and to explain their options as prosecution against their abuser progresses.
Others spoke about their role in victims services and accepted awards for the work they did for Tuesday’s ceremony and the work they do for victims throughout each year.
“She’s living proof it can be done,” said Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter, looking toward Carrasco as he spoke.
Kathleen Thurber can be reached at kthurber@mrt.com (kthurber@mrt.com).
2008 Nationwide crime statistics
One person was murdered every 31 minutes
One person was raped every 1.9 minutes
One person was assaulted every 36.9 seconds
One woman was victimized by her intimate partner every 52 seconds. One man was victimized every 3.5 minutes
One person is killed in an alcohol-related traffic crash every 40.4 minutes
One person became a victim of identity theft every 4.9 seconds
One elderly person was victimized by a violent crime every 4.2 minutes
*According to the National Center for Victims