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Neela Sakaria: Thank you for joining us. For the benefit of our readers, can you please tell us a little bit about your motivation for writing A Child Betrayed and for making this story public.
M.J. Bovo: I have been active on many levels with this issue for over twenty years. I have consulted on cases, treated many survivors in my practice, and been an expert witness in court. Little did I have any idea that it would happen in my own family. I wrote this book for three very important reasons: " 1) I never want to see this happen to another child or have a child die from neglect of the Child Protective Services in this country not doing their jobs. " 2) I want to get Congressional Hearings on a nationally broken system. I don't want to hear from the state officials involved, but from the victims, families whose children were removed unfairly, and from survivors. I want Congress to hear their stories, not a politician's version of the system. This is the reason I am going to Capitol Hill the first week in November to speak with key members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and to give a copy of the book to every member of the House and Senate. " 3) I want each taxpayer to know that their 27¢ a day portion of the $22.2 billion dollars spent for Child Services in this country is only allowing continued abuse and death for the very children they are supposed to protect, because the people who are supposed to protect our children only collect paychecks but don't do their jobs-protecting our greatest national treasure, the children. 50 out of 50 states failed their Federal Review of the Child Protective Services in their state. This is not just a national problem, but also a national disgrace. Four children die daily from child abuse and neglect and over a million children are abused yearly, yet we don't hear about it. More importantly, we don't do anything about it.
Neela: I can only imagine that it must have been difficult to recount the past and remember events that only with hindsight seemed to be significant "clues" or indicators. Can you tell us what (if any) techniques you used to recall past events so that you could write about them in such great detail?
MB: I have kept a daily journal consisting of the day's events since I was about twelve or thirteen. I also keep paper trails for everything. I have every e-mail written to me since 1995; legal files; and just about everything else you could think of when it comes to documentation. Some may call me a 'pack-rat', but I have found over the years that most of it comes in quite handy at some time or other because selective memory is an all too human trait. Because I was badly misquoted in a print interview early in my career, I also keep tapes of business conversations, interviews and other things that are important so that I have verification of the conversation in the future. This book took longer to write than any other book I have written because I had to relive everything that happened again and again and because it constantly kept my grandson's absence in my life so much a part of every day. It took a great deal of help and encouragement from friends to continue and write - almost daily in fact. One of the things that did help was not using my grandson's real name.
Neela: Did you receive any negative feedback from your family as a result of making this story public?
MB: There was negative feedback from the actions I took to protect my grandson - they believed that I should never have been public by going to authorities on the situation, even though the same people witnessed physical abuse first hand. Only my sister Michele and brother Marc, and my aunt and uncle have been supportive and stepped in when physical abuse happened in their presence. My two other sisters are estranged and the relationship with my parents is quite strained, even more so than it was before these events. It's interesting that those of my family to whom I was close are still close. To my knowledge, other than my one sister, my bother, aunt and uncle, no other family member has read the book.
Neela: You have written several other books in addition to A Child Betrayed. Can you tell us, from a writing perspective, what was different about the process of writing this one?
MB: This one was a real story that happened to someone I love deeply. With my other non-fiction books, I was the objective doctor with some of the answers. In my forth-coming novels, I could make them end happily or not. This story has no happy ending, which made it a difficult book to write.
Neela: What steps can each of us take to make sure that we can prevent child abuse of any kind, or at least recognize it in its earliest stages?
MB: Know the signs of child abuse, both the obvious and not so obvious (They can be found on many sites on the Internet). Notice changes in a child's behavior. For instance, if the child is usually out-going and suddenly becomes reclusive, that is a sign that something is wrong. It may not be child abuse, but it is something. Notice changes in school performance. DON'T BE AFRAID TO GET INVOLVED TO HELP A CHILD. Call the police, district attorney and the child protective agencies; even though 50 out of 50 agencies are not doing their jobs you still must alert them. It is important to let all three of these groups know your suspicions.
Neela: In addition to writing this book, you have taken on the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services. Can you tell us about your experiences with the NJDYFS and what (if any) progress has been made in the organization since these events?
MB: My experience with New Jersey DYFS is well documented in the book. Things have not changed in the organization, despite it's supposed court-mandated over haul. The Star-Ledger of Newark reported in Wednesday, September 21, 2005 newspapers that a draft report by the court-appointed New Jersey Child Welfare Panel of experts, monitoring reforms, says that DYFS is not making enough progress and for failing a number of key areas: not training enough front-line workers; not locating enough foster homes for children housed elsewhere; and having a statewide hotline that "has had significant difficulties in adequately screening allegations." "For a few of the commitments New Jersey made, the state has not taken action," the draft report states. "For too many others it has taken actions that are late or incomplete." The comments are especially important because the final version of the report of the Child Welfare Panel's report will be used by the federal judge overseeing the 2003 lawsuit settlement requiring the state to make improvements to the child welfare system. So from that I take it as business as usual for DYFS - which to me means not doing a thing to help children in danger.
Neela: What kind of feedback have you gotten from readers so far? Any surprising feedback?
MB: I have been told that the reader could not put the book down until they finished it. Then they expressed outrage at a system so broken no one knows what to do about it. I have also had many people tell me similar stories over and over again in many, many states.
Neela: Are you planning any other writing projects in the near future?
MB: I have a new novel, From the Ashes that has been completed including the editing. A second novel, Taking Chances, parts of which I am re-writing. I have almost completed research for a third novel, One Brief Shining Moment. I have been thinking of doing a second edition of The Family Pregnancy, my first book, and doing a reference book for women called The Essence of Women, which would encompass all parts of a woman: physical, emotional, mental, sexual, and spiritual. All of the research is completed on Essence; I just have to write it.
Neela: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
MB: Unless everyone, and I mean every one of us, gets involved Child Abuse will not end. It self-perpetuates: many abused children become abusers because they know no other life. This is not an ethnic nor economic problem. It cuts across all races, creeds, and socio-economic levels. I know because I have treated survivors from every strata of life.
Neela: Thank you so much for your time.
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