Editorial Roundup: Missouri
Jefferson City News Tribune. August 30, 2023.
Editorial: Dark cloud hanging over state
Domestic violence is a dark cloud looming over Missouri’s landscape, as the number of cases tripled during the pandemic.
And unfortunately, the cloud appears to be growing darker as authorities expect the numbers to continue rising.
The Missouri Highway Patrol reports there were around 12,000 domestic violence cases in 2019. In 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, offenses doubled to around 25,000 cases. In 2021, cases jumped nearly 50 percent to 37,000 cases.
Last year, there was a slight decline, to 36,000 cases, but the numbers for 2023 are discouraging. As of Aug. 1, 20,000 cases had been reported.
Missouri nonprofits that work on domestic violence are projecting rates to rise in the coming years.
Officials note the uptick in reports doesn’t necessarily mean more domestic violence is happening. Instead, it may just be victims feel safer reporting the abuse and seeking services.
While it is progress victims are feeling safer coming forward, it offers little consolation.
Representatives of Rape and Abuse Crisis Service in Jefferson City and public health officials say they have noticed a few new features of domestic violence since the pandemic, such as its increasingly violent nature and oftentimes occurring online and through the use of technology.
As such, the local nonprofit has provided training for law enforcement officers on how to identify the primary aggressor as they arrive on the scene, what information to share with the survivor and what resources on site are available to survivors. The nonprofit has also dispatched staff to the scene to talk with survivors.
The partnerships between law enforcement and the nonprofits who serve domestic violence victims are incredibly important in this fight. And so are the courts that can provide accountability for the abuser.
Cole County courts are stepping up the challenge of addressing domestic violence through its creation of a court that funnels all potential criminal or civil court cases concerning a domestic violence defendant to one judge.
The system’s goal is to ensure families and defendants have access to resources to address potential underlying causes of the abuse.
The Department of Health and Senior Services also is launching a Justice for Survivors TeleSANE program statewide in 2024 that will establish a network of telehealth examiners providing forensic examination trainings for health care providers in sexual violence cases.
As Missouri ramps up its efforts to confront domestic violence, it will require all parts of the state -- law enforcement, the courts, the Legislature, health care workers, nonprofits and the community -- to find new and innovative ways to effectively address the cloud of domestic violence and to fund efforts to save and heal its victims.
Those efforts can be a bright ray of sunshine to pierce the dark cloud of domestic violence hanging over the Show-Me State.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch. September 1, 2023.
Editorial: An all-or-nothing approach to abortion rights will leave Missouri’s women with nothing.
The fight to restore abortion rights in Missouri faces some daunting obstacles. These include a Republican-controlled Legislature that is trying to move the goalposts on ballot referendums to make it harder for citizens to overrule their draconian new abortion ban, as well as procedural stunts by top state officials who are brazenly abusing their authority regarding the referendum process.
But a potentially bigger impediment to restoring abortion rights in this state may ultimately come from within the abortion-rights movement itself. Some activists in the movement have taken a go-for-broke attitude about what a ballot referendum should say, calling for language that would prohibit any state restrictions at any point in pregnancy.
This would be a disastrous political strategy, a sure loser at the polls and a gift to those who want to continue denying women any control whatsoever over their own bodies. Cooler heads must ensure that the ballot language is moderate enough to stand a realistic chance of passage in Missouri.
Under a Missouri law that took effect minutes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, abortion is entirely illegal here at any point in pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest, with a sole, vague exception for medical emergencies. Doctors who violate the ban can face up to 15 years in prison.
Polls consistently show that Americans, even in red states, don’t favor such extremist bans. A poll last year by St. Louis University and the polling firm YouGov found that even generally conservative Missourians favor abortion rights in the early stages of pregnancy. But the same polling shows overwhelming opposition to late-term abortion.
In the real world, late-term abortion that isn’t medically necessary is an almost nonexistent phenomenon; more than 90% are performed in the first trimester and fewer than 1% in the third. But opponents of abortion rights have nonetheless aggressively demagogued the issue because they know that even generally pro-choice Americans tend to oppose it later in pregnancy.
And some in the Missouri abortion-rights movement seem determined to play right into their hands.
Activists are currently debating which of 11 versions of a potential abortion-rights referendum to go with once they finally get ballot access. Some versions would use the fetal-viability standard that was in place under Roe v. Wade: Abortion was a protected right until the fetus was developed enough to viably live outside the womb. After that point, states could impose restrictions.
That’s the current standard in Illinois and most other blue states. It also jibes with what polling shows most Americans support.
But other versions of the proposed Missouri referendum contain open-ended language that appears to preclude any state restrictions at all.
As the Missouri Independent reported recently, the issue of which version to back has spawned heated debate within the abortion-rights movement. Some activists say they won’t back anything other than an open-ended right with no allowance for state restrictions at any point in pregnancy.
For an idea of how well that will go over with average Missourians, consider the ballot language that Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has cynically proposed for the referendum:
“Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to ... allow for dangerous, unregulated, unrestricted abortions, from conception to live birth ...?”
As we have noted here before, that wording is a blatant violation of Ashcroft’s statutory duty to provide unbiased ballot language. (The issue is currently in litigation.) But if activists press ahead with an open-ended referendum, Ashcroft and his ilk could arguably make the case for such an inflammatory description of it.
Do these activists really believe that any measure that could be summarized like that will draw any significant support at all in most of Missouri, let alone enough support to pass statewide? Why would they give Ashcroft & Co. that kind of ammunition?
Should referendum organizers blow this one, they won’t just deny biological rights to Missouri women, but will undermine an important narrative that has been building around the country since last year: Every single state so far that has taken up the issue on a statewide ballot (including several red states) has come down on the side of abortion rights. Not one has voted against them.
If Missouri ends that national momentum merely because abortion-rights activists here can’t resist the urge to overreach, it will be a grave disservice to women across America.
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Kansas City Star. September 1, 2023.
Editorial: Protesting parent arrested at Independence school: Is this how we police dissent now?
In Independence schools, a child’s parent or legal guardian can be barred from district property without recourse to appeal the banishment. Other Kansas City-area school districts operate in a similar manner, too.
How is that remotely fair? Well, it isn’t.
Ashley Richey is the parent of a former student at Glendale Elementary School in Independence. In May, Richey, 35, was told to stay away from all Independence School District property for a year. She was never informed of why she was placed on the restricted list. Nor did she have the option to argue against the ruling issued by Superintendent Dale Herl.
Due process is the cornerstone of democracy. And the Independence School District Board of Education must act. We encourage the board to revise its adult code of conduct policy. First order of business: Implement an appeals process for parents to oppose such arbitrary decisions.
Rules on restrictions vary from district to district and state to state, educators told us. But some metropolitan area school districts do allow visitors denied access to district property to communicate with the local school board in writing.
For example, In the Lee’s Summit district, banned individuals can regain their privilege to visit school but not without approval from the board of education first, according to board policy. Independence should enact a similar measure.
Parents of children in Center, North Kansas City and Park Hill schools also have the right to oppose a ban, officials told us.
District has no appeal process
We respect the role Herl sits in. When it comes to disciplining parents, the superintendent cannot be the sole judge, jury and executioner, though. Nothing keeps Herl or others in charge from silencing critics, such as banishing a protester from campus or the central office.
What better way to squash dissent? Checks and balances are good public policy, even for leaders such as Herl, who seemingly has rarely met a parental ban he didn’t agree with. He has not returned our request for comment as of publication time.
By not allowing parents to appeal these rulings, we believe the Independence school board is doing a disservice to district residents and failing to meet the needs of school children affected by such action.
Under state law, a school has the power to restrict unruly adults from entering district property. We have no issue with the statute. Educational leaders must consider: How is a child supposed to learn to their full capabilities if Mom or Dad can’t visit school to speak with a teacher or administrator about a student’s development?
In its welcome letter to families of elementary school students in the Independence School District, the stated goal is to provide a high-quality education for students and to nurture a lifelong love of learning for them.
“Our students’ successes are directly related to positive parent and family involvement,” officials wrote.
If parental involvement is paramount to student achievement — and it is — some parents in Independence are being left out of the equation. That cannot continue.
We get it: Rules are rules. And in a civilized society, we all have a duty to obey regulations put in place to keep the peace. Schools are no different. Campus grounds must remain safe. A structured environment is good for students, staff, parents and community stakeholders.
But shouldn’t parents in Independence schools and other area districts have a right to contest harsh or unjust rulings such as a building ban? We believe they should.
Mother allowed on property to enroll child
A week before Richey was arrested Aug. 22 for trespassing on Independence School District property, she was at district headquarters enrolling her child in school, she said.
Why wasn’t she placed in custody then? Was there a mix-up? Or did district officials in charge of admissions and enrollment simply not know of Richey’s status?
Either way, district leaders cannot pick and choose when to enforce policy. Inconsistency could lead to confusion.
At the behest of a district enrollment specialist, Richey was summoned back to the central office the day she was cited to submit proof of residency, she said. Independence Police officers later placed Richey under arrest and escorted her from the building in handcuffs.
“I was ready to give up on Missouri,” said Richey, a Nebraska native now living here.
Instead, she enrolled her child in a private school here and plans to fight with what she called unfair treatment of her child, who is Muslim. Expect legal action, Richey told us.
Last spring, she raised concerns about her child being bullied by staff and other students, saying school officials ignored her. She supplied us with letters she wrote to district leaders, and a copy of a police report she filed with Independence police against a janitor at the school.
Neither school officials nor police did anything to curb the alleged mistreatment, so Richey started protesting on a public street near Glendale, an action she continued this week.
Was ban from school grounds retaliation?
In May, Richey, a frequent critic of Independence schools, was banned from district property for a year. She still doesn’t know why. Herl signed a letter informing Richey to stay away for a year. We read that, too, and found it difficult to find evidence of wrongdoing.
Was Richey’s ban and subsequent arrest retaliatory? Quite possible. We have real concerns of how Independence School District leaders react to criticism.
To question how district officials handled Richey’s arrest is fair. On one hand, Richey should have known better than to set foot on school grounds. Other avenues to enroll children in the district exist, district officials and educators said. We could presume online registration would have kept Richey out of handcuffs.
But in this district, critics have routinely been silenced with threats of arrest.
We asked a spokesperson for the school district about its policy to ban parents or others from school grounds. We wanted to know: Does the district remind adults restricted from entering district property of their enrollment options at the start of the new academic year?
We’re still waiting for an answer.
We did review the school board’s policy on building bans, and nowhere in the document did we find an avenue to appeal the act.
In this country, placing dissenters under arrest for protesting their grievances is un-American. Independence school officials do it with ease.
Under the leadership of Herl, no one critiques how Independence schools operate. Or else they could face jail time and fines.
That is never OK.
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