So You’ve Given Birth to a Substance Exposed Newborn
By Deandra Arena and Isabel Ranney Imagine you have a friend, Chloe, a [...]
10 Years Post-Sandusky: CAPTA and Mandatory Reporting in Arizona
By Brad TenBrook and Isabel Ranney Originally Published 06/24/21 for the Maricopa County [...]
So DCS has invited you to a Team Decision-Making Meeting (TDM): Now what?
By Deandra Arena and Isabel Ranney In the grand scheme of nearly indecipherable [...]
How the Medical “Code of Silence” Affects Child Abuse Litigation
By Gregg Woodnick and Isabel Ranney Despite being the fifth-largest city in the [...]
Suspected child abuse during a trip to the emergency room
By: Gregg R. Woodnick I have been practicing law for over 20 [...]
QUARANTINED CHILD ABUSE
Since COVID-19 forced schools to close, reports of child abuse in Arizona have decreased by about twenty-five percent (25%). At first, this seems like one of the few silver linings of the pandemic (outside of Tiger King and attending business meetings without having to wear pants). However, after 20 years of litigating child abuse and neglect cases, I don’t believe this statistic is cause for celebration.
Rumors & Mandatory Reporting: Zamora reminds us the reasonableness standard is opaque warranting caution when dealing with any allegation of abuse
Brittany Zamora has garnered nationwide attention for her nefarious sexual relationship with her 13-year-old student. Zamora recently pleaded guilty to several sexual abuse charges and is now facing a lengthy prison sentence. However, a lesser known civil suit also surfaced, claiming Zamora’s school district[1] knew about the abuse months before the parents discovered it and did nothing to intervene.[2] Given a failure to report child abuse constitutes a class 6 felony under Arizona law,[3] we ought to be curious whether the district’s officials could be criminally liable, too.