CHILD ABUSE RISES WITH DRUG ABUSE

* Substance abuse has increased among Oregon parents with children in
foster care, a study says, with methamphetamine one of the biggest problems

In the months before her death, adults towered around Tesslynn O'Cull doing
things she couldn't understand. Police say the 3-year-old girl's mother and
the mother's new boyfriend smoked white powder or pushed needles into their
arms, drained bottle after bottle of alcohol, then brutally tortured the
Springfield child.

And before she was found burned, sexually abused and battered to death in a
shallow grave near Sweet Home, Tesslynn never learned about the substance
abuse that police say fueled the rage.

Probably the most well-known among 34 children killed by abuse in 1997, the
girl appears in the State Office for Services to Children and Families'
recent poster campaign to fight child abuse. Her mother, Stella Kiser, and
Jesse Caleb Compton are awaiting trial for aggravated murder. They have
pleaded not guilty.

In announcing last week the rise in child abuse deaths, confirmed cases of
child abuse and reported abuse, Kay Toran, director of the child-protection
agency, said the increase largely stems from the spread of drug and alcohol
problems in Oregon families.

"Drug and alcohol problems and violence toward children go together," Toran
said. And every year, more and more parents "are high, are not in their
right minds."

Substance abuse troubles about 62 percent of parents with children in
foster care, and substance abuse prevents about a third of the 6,100
children in foster care from going home, according to a new report released
by Portland State University's Child Welfare Partnership. Four years ago,
54 percent of parents with children in foster care had substance abuse
problems.

"It has to do with the drugs that are out there now," said Paul Bellaty, an
analyst with the partnership. "Especially with meth, parents are often a
criminally involved population. From what I've seen, meth makes them
aggressive and nasty, and it's highly addictive."

During the past four years, the Klamath County branch manager of the State
Office for Services to Children and Families has seen methamphetamine and
other drugs seeping deeper into communities.

In 1994, about 12 percent of mothers and 44 percent of fathers involved in
open cases at the branch used meth, Denise Rhode, the manager, said. By
1997, 53 percent of the mothers and 45 percent of the fathers used meth.

"It was a huge jump for us," Rhode said. "Parents who use other kinds of
drugs are often simply unavailable to children. Those who use meth are very
irritable, very angry, have huge mood swings, and the damage they do to
kids is dramatic."

In an unprecedented effort the child-protection agency started last year to
combat child abuse, parents who are drug-affected and don't undergo
rehabilitation to get their children back will find less patience from the
agency, said Betty Uchytil, field operations manager. In the past, social
workers gave parents chance after chance to solve their problems and get
their children back.

Lawmakers, in their last session, gave the child-protection agency an
unprecedented increase in its budget, agreeing to hire 160 new workers.
Legislators also passed a law, known as the Best Interest of the Child,
that sets a one-year deadline to find a child a permanent home after that
child becomes a ward of the court.

Of the 160 new caseworkers, the state has hired 120, 10 of whom are
protective workers, 30 of whom are adoptive workers, and the remainder of
whom are support staff, supervisors and others. All will be hired by April
1999.

Nearly every county branch in the state is trying to get more resources for
drug and alcohol counseling for parents and is working with partners such
as law enforcement and health agencies to provide more services to
drug-affected families. Alliances between the child-protection agency and
law enforcement can sometimes send a drug-affected parent into treatment
rather than to jail for a drug offense.

Taking children away from parents who can't break their drug habits is a
necessary but heartbreaking job for caseworkers, Rhode said.

A caseworker spoke with Rhode recently after taking away the fourth child
of a woman who couldn't give up her drug habit.

"The caseworker was standing there with the mother in the hospital, and the
mother was asking to kiss the baby one more time, and to name it, before
the caseworker took it away," Rhode said. The caseworker had been dealing
with the mother and her family for years, but still "barely made it out of
the room without breaking down and crying."

Kate Taylor, of The Oregonian's Family & Education Team, writes about
children's and family rights. Contact her by phone at 294-7692, by fax at
294-4039, or by mail at 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, Ore. 97201.