Important Presentation - Save the date!

This Thursday, February 26, 2009:

The Children's Collaborative Action Team (CCAT), of the San Mateo County Child Abuse Prevention Council is putting on a FREE presentation discussing the need for citizens to take responsibility in reporting offenders, and experiences with reporting abuse in the william hamilton ayres case will be part of the discussion.

Please go to the CCAT website for the details, contact and R.S.V.P. information.
Follow the link below, and then click on the "click for more info" link in the box on the right hand side of the page.

http://www.smcccat.org/index.html

Date: Thursday, February 26, 2009
Time: 6-8 PM
Location: Human Services Agency, 400 Harbor Blvd. Bldg B, Belmont CA


CCAT FREE Community Presentation
CITIZEN WHISTLEBLOWERS:
TAKING ACTION WHEN NO ONE ELSE WILL

Join CCAT for a FREE evening presentation by Victoria Balfour, Investigative Journalist and citizens advocate whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine and many other publications and Jane Smithson (see NOTE below), Attorney at Law and Mandated Reporter Trainer, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.


From her own firsthand advocacy experience in the Dr. Ayres case, Balfour will offer her views on:

*Why it's important for parents to take their children's confidences seriously

*The damage done to children when they keep devastating secrets to themselves

*Options for parents who want justice for their children

*Working with law enforcement agencies when you're trying to make your voice heard


NOTE:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Jane Smithson will not be moderating. Standing in for her will be Patricia Bresee.

From Patricia's biography:

Patricia Bresee

A recognized expert in Juvenile Law, the Honorable Patricia Bresee (ret.) has devoted most of her professional life to children’s issues. When in private attorney, she represented children in juvenile courts who had been neglected or abused or who had been accused of committing a crime, and children who were caught in the middle of custody battles in family court. Serving as a Superior Court Commissioner in San Mateo County for 15 years, she was assigned to sit as a Juvenile Court Judge, and handled dependency and delinquency matters, as well as adoptions and guardianships. As an original member of the California Judicial Council Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee, she served as Chair of the Juvenile Law Rules and Forms Committee. She continues to participate as faculty for the California Center for Judicial Education and Research, and is a regular presenter at Beyond the Bench and other conferences. In 1994 Commissioner Bresee was named Juvenile Court Judge of the Year by the California Judges Association, and in 1998 the National Court Appointed Special Advocates awarded her the title of Judge of the Year. She served a full term on the San Mateo County First Five Commission. She is a Consultant to the Administrative Office of the Courts, Judicial Council Center for Families and Children in the Courts, and other public and private agencies and currently serves on the Board of Directors of California CASA. She is an American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley fellow. As former Chair of the Peninsula Community Foundation Board, she participated in the negotiations for, and implementation of the merger with Community Foundation Silicon Valley, and in January 2008 completed a term as Chair of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Board of Directors

Comment from guest contributor David Gross

David Gross, who has spoken publicly about william h. ayres on several occasions recently added the following comment to my "Stop Supporting Child Molesters" posting below, and with his OK, I've copied it here, so that it's not overlooked. Thanks for taking the time to read and post David!

Comment Follows:

First off I do not want to be labeled as anonymous. My name is David Gross and I was a victom of Ayers in 1974, and was referred to ayers by my pediatrician who was my father. I am a 50 year old gay male and while homophobia may keep staight men from wanting to talk about homosexual molestation, I have no qualms about discussing or admitting that these things happened.

I know both from having grown up in a medical household and being gay that ayers did what he is being accused of. As for the reasoning by some of his defenders that he was an outstanding shrink and that he did much good, I would like to point out that all of the people being brought forth in major embezzeling crimes for either millions and in 1 case billions of dollars anyone who gets away with crimes for years are all proficient at their jobs and are always well thought of, that is how they are able to get away with their crimes for years.

Boys do not make these claims because of the negative connotations that come with these acts and for years feel that it may be because they have homosexual desires that they are ashamed of. how any intellegent or professional person could think that all of these allegations are fictitious better look at themselves and figure out why they can not accept that this was happening.

I have not and will not try to gain any monetary benifits from this experience. Maybe because I am gay I can see the situation more clearly than most and would happily testify against ayers if asked. Unfortunately this whole situation has probably affected the relationship I have with my father, for while he hasn't supported ayers at all he hasn't publically denounced him and has not actively attacked him in the medical community, being obout the same age as ayers if it was me I would have looked him up and physically kicked his ass up and down the street. I would love the chance to confront him and will try to be at the trial if at all possible with my work schedule.

He is scum and should not be allowed to continue having his freedom and needs to spend whatever time he has left on this earth in prison for the lives that he has ruined. Anybody who had been informed of his actions and ignored the information is in my opinion an accessory to a crime and is lucky that they are not being prosecuted along with him, maybe this would have saved many young boys from having been victoms over the years after the 1st complaint was made. the longer this farse goes on with all the delays just prolongs the pain of the victoms.

If ayers was poor and had even one witness claim they saw him commit a minor crime he would be sitting in jail, yet money and his professional status has kept his freedom when this should make the crimes even more henous. I'll climb off my soapbox for now, but I may climb back on it if I deem it necessay to help get justice served. Thank you all for your time taken to read this.

David Gross

Victomized but not allowing myself to be a victom.
TAGS: Dr. William Hamilton Ayres Solveig Ayres Solveig Troxel pedophile child molester arrested charges president American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry AACAP San Mateo County Children and Families First Commission child psychiatrist psychologist Judge Marta Diaz Peninsula Psychiatric Associates Ronnie Sue Leith Etta Bryant Piero Cerruti Howard Hoffman Joanna Perry Jeffrey Weiner Hugh Ridlehuber Mike Callagy Melissa McKowan Rick Decker

Paging Dr. Dunsel… Paging Dr. Dunsel….

Here’s a well written article about sexual abuse in medicine and psychotherapy in general, and ayres specifically from “Annals” published by the “American Psychotherapy Association” (Not to be confused with the other APA: the American Psychological Association) Annals claims to be a peer reviewed publication.

http://www.annalsofpsychotherapy.com/articles/spring08.php?topic=article14
By Dr. Robert O’Block

[Update: That article now appears to be offline, but appears to have been copied at this location:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb013/is_1_11/ai_n29425800/?tag=content;col1]

The article speaks at length about the ayres case, and provides a pretty cohesive summary of the details of the case. Of interest specifically are comments about how ayres’ “controlling and vindictive… [] … hidden traits became public.”

Just go read it for yourself. It’s very well written.

At the moment, because I’ve been thinking about shrinks in general a lot lately, I’m mostly interested in some of the statistical information presented in this article, which unfortunately parallels my general thinking on the subject.

Some specific points pulled directly from the article (Paraphrased):

1. Of the practitioners accused of sexual misconduct, 97% are males ranging in age from 22 to 82, mean age of 53, and mean of 25 years in practice.

My comments:
This data counters the claim that ayres is no longer a risk because he’s “old,” which apparently was one of the arguments used when reducing his bail, along with the idea that he won’t offend any more because he’s not practicing any more, and that’s his modus operandi. (Who defined THAT as his MO?? If you ask me, the MO in this case is acting on homosexual interest in underage boys… getting paid by parents to have easy access and a good cover story, and having county and court officials select victims who won't be believed if they report are just added bonus... not MO. )

Criminy... it’s like saying that since he's no longer practicing, it’s not possible for the pervert to just trade child porn with buddies or go to downtown SF and pick up underage male prostitutes, pretty much with impunity, whenever he gets the urge. No! No chance he's still perpetrating! Good job protecting the population, judges! *golf clap*

2. Higher proportions of sexual misconduct reported for the following specialties: family practice, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry. The AMA reports that in the psychiatric specialty between five and ten percent of psychiatrists have had sexual contact with at least one patient, based on self-reporting studies.

My comments:
Okay! So: If you mistakenly decide that a shrink is the way to fix whatever thing you think a shrink knows how to fix, odds are fairly good that you’ll pick one who is really only planning to take advantage of your state of mind to USE YOU to get off to whatever bizarre sexual peccadilloes got them interested in psychology to begin with. (ref: Ted Bundy)

Maybe they won’t abuse your trust right away. Maybe they’ll wait until you’re really dependent on them for your mental health, and then they’ll really give you a good mind fuck.

Ever been robbed? Something minor...? Like maybe someone took some cash or a trinket while you weren’t looking? Remember how violated you felt? Well this is a whole lot worse; and it has the added benefit of lingering and festering for a good long time.

This is my advice to people who have children, and who think that their children could benefit from psychotherapy: Don't.

If the shrink is one of these 10%, and they do it to your kid, it will be something that they get to live with forever, warping the way they are able to trust other human beings, warping their self-confidence, warping their self worth; very deeply warping the very way that they perceive the world every day. Good luck fixing that.

What’s the answer if your child HAS to go to a shrink? I don’t know.

Probably start by eliminating male shrinks from your shopping list; that reduces the odds of abuse apparently; if you trust those statistics. Being upfront and very clear with the shrink about the corporal results they should anticipate for any perceived transgression is a good STARTING POINT.

I think at the very least insisting on audio/video recordings of all contact, or always being present is probably best. Good luck with that though. Shrinks will guilt you into feeling like you’re going to damage the “processes” by being present. Or they’ll tell you that you'd be violating patient confidentiality, or that maybe you’ll feel like retaliating for anything negative your child says, and you’re not smart enough to manage your feelings about what you hear… But ultimately they probably just like their privacy while they’re getting off.

So to be clear, if this article is correct about the AMA’s statistics, the odds that your shrink is sexually abusing someone are:

Better than the odds that you’ll win the lottery.
Better than the odds that you’ll be diagnosed with cancer this decade.
Better than the odds that you’ll get in a fender bender this year.
Better than the odds that you’ll win the door prize at your company picnic.
Better than the odds that you’ll get your neighbor’s mail in your mailbox today.
Better than the odds that you were planning to have pizza for dinner tonight.

Better think twice before going to see that shrink.

If you choose poorly and decide to go anyway, I hope he doesn't take a cotton to you.