Quote:
Originally Posted by kittygilchrist
(Post 724642)
child abuse investigator--- sees babies with intentional iron burns, inflicted scalds, cigarette burns, torn bottoms and vaginas due to sexual abuse. Hears the childrens' stories of sexual abuse almost daily.
Knowing that cases are almost never prosecuted because the public (jury) believes child sexual abuse happens rarely and prosecutors only want cases they can win. Mothers prefer to keep the perpetrator and lose the child.
After 8 years in the profession, I burned out. My last day, I felt relief knowing that the baby my supervisors were discussing that had been thrown at the wall would not become my case.
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That's awful. I believe it depends on the person though when you break it down to individual experiences. I worked my way through college from 1976 through 1983 at the University of Nevada, Reno getting two BAs (Philosophy, History) as well as taking additional classes after dropping out of law school at BYU in September of 1982 . While I worked my way through school, I was in the employment of two guys in a partnership who ran food service at a ski training school (Slide Mountain), (Bower's Mansion), and a softball field (Idlewild Park). One of the partners, Craig F. was a nice guy as was the other Rich M. He seemed to often be looking for some way of making additional money or for more lucrative pastures. For some reason, he also was very taken by the movie
Breaker Morant about some soldiers from the Boer War who are accused of war crimes.
I did not hear that much from Craig F. nor from his partner Rich M. I left for Library School at Denver University in 1983. I worked my way through Graduate School at DU in three different jobs and then went to work for Information Access Company (IAC) in Belmont, CA in 1984 after graduating from the 12 month Masters Program at the University of Denver.
I worked at IAC for about two years writing abstracts for Area Business Databank and indexing for Magazine Index, Business Index, Newspaper Index and other reference resources then went to Law School at the University of Minnesota Law School. I had not thought all that much about Craig F. and Rich M. until I learned that after I graduating from Law School in 1989 that the Law Librarian Convention was in Reno, Nevada in 1989.
I was the cataloger of all the files on WESTLAW for a national project and was a minor celebrity at the law librarian convention in Reno, Nevada that summer of 1989. I had no control over the law librarian convention being in Reno, NV. It was just one of those strange co-incidences that life throws at you. Its being in Reno did have a profound affect on me as it brought back all my experiences with the Michelle Mitchell murder case which I did mention to some of the law librarians from the University of Minnesota who were with me at the convention in 1989. (I talk about this case more below.)
I tried calling Rich M. who I could find in the Reno, NV telephone book at the MGM Grand (Balley's ?) Hotel where the law librarian convention was that summer of 1989.
He told me to move on with my life and not look back. Which I did at that time. He also knew as well as did Craig F. about my interest in victims' rights as I had been one of two students who won the Michelle Mitchell Memorial Scholarship. This was awarded by the Mitchell family in honor of their daughter who had been murdered by a small group of conspirators in Reno, Nevada on February 24, 1976. February 24 also happens to be my birthday (2-24-1959) so this kind of really stuck with me. The Michelle Mitchell murder case and later trial was also a hot button issue in Northern Nevada newspapers from February 25, 1976 through at least 1983 or so.
I needed references from past employers because of ugly stuff I had very little control of at the University of Minnesota Law Library/School. I had wanted to be honest about a niche I saw in many law libraries with respect to victims' rights based upon my experiences --mainly in Reno but also in Denver, at BYU in Provo, and other places-- with a huge gap in services for underdogs in the legal system. I had found this huge gap while trying to help myself and others deal with the Michelle Mitchell legal case from late February 1976 onward. I found next to nothing of any practical value in libraries of all kinds in NV, CA, UT, MN, AZ, CO, TX and elsewhere.
I finally found Craig F. in all places-- running as warden one of the large prisons in the Nevada State Correctional System. Considering his interest in
Breaker Morant this was very interesting to say the least. I had worked with prisoners at Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater while a law student at the University of Minnesota Law School. This was probably my best experience at the University of Minnesota Law School as it was about helping clients without all the political BS you find when you throw in office politics, the rather ugly politics of law school academia, and the added other stuff about my concern about this niche I had spotted in services for the underdogs in the legal system connected with the Michelle Mitchell murder case.
My point in all this is that an individual like Craig F. seemed to have little or no trouble doing a job that would have been very tough for many others as a prison warden. And, I never felt safer that at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Stillwater. It was a very well run prison. The case files of some of the prisoners were quite shocking but water under the bridge for the most part.
The office politics at the University of Minnesota Law School were probably some of the most difficult experiences I had ever faced. You would not expect this in academia but wolves come in all kinds of clothing.
So, it probably depends more on what the individual was facing in whatever profession might be involved. I never heard of any other librarian having such as many tough problems I had trying to help underdogs in the legal system. I ran all this-- except for the Craig F. stuff--by a researcher at the University of California San Francisco Medical School Myra Y. who seemed rather as surprised by it as I was. This was in late 1992 and early 1993. I was subject #613 in a three month or so study on stress on the unemployed. She seemed to see that this was a worthy cause though but did not say this until the study was complete as she did not want to influence the study results. She just taped my telling of my experiences and nodded slightly every so often.
I tried getting as many people involved with spotlighting this niche from 1993 onward using the identifiers 224 and 613 to tell my story. I do believe that I made quite an impact for a while but probably ****ed off some of the people I was spotlighting even more. I had a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School (a Human Rights specialist) who had flunked me in Moot Court (I had quite a lot of trouble getting some legal arguments that seemed to challenge common sense, as some laws do) but his Student Assistant had found me in the law library while I was showing a library user the stacks and told me to never give up on this. Which I have not.
