Ex-Baltimore Officer Shot By Wife, Who Accused Him Of Assaulting Kids At Her Day Care, Is Charged With Child Sex Abuse, Police Say

 

James S. Weems Jr., 57, was arrested in the hospital on multiple charges Monday, accused of sexually abusing at least three children at a day care center in Owings Mills, Maryland.

By Marlene Lenthang

A former Baltimore police officer shot by his wife, who accused him of sexually abusing children at her day care center, was arrested Monday in the hospital on child sex abuse charges, police say. 

Shanteari Weems, 50, of Randallstown, shot her husband, James S. Weems Jr., 57, on Thursday at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in the 1300 block of Maryland Avenue in Washington D.C., according to a police news release.

Caution tape at the scene of a shooting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington on July 22.WRC

Detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department arrived to the scene after 7:30 p.m. on a report of a shooting and found James Weems in a hotel room suffering apparent gunshot wounds, the release stated.

He was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. 

At the scene, police found two guns in the room and letters Shanteari Weems wrote apologizing to the children, saying she didn’t know what was going on at the day care, NBC Washington reported.  

Shanteari Weems was arrested by responding officers and charged with assault with intent to kill with a gun. A preliminary hearing is set for her Friday. 

NBC News has reached out to her attorney for comment. 

Days after the shooting, an arrest warrant was issued for James Weems on accusations of child sex abuse Monday.

The warrant came after “allegations surfaced that Weems sexually abused at least three children while working at a day care facility in Owings Mills,” the Baltimore County Police Department announced Tuesday. 

According to records, Shanteari Weems owns Lil Kidz Kastle Daycare Center, which is in the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills. 

Detectives with Baltimore County began to investigate James Weems this month after they were notified of the abuse, and he now faces multiple charges, Baltimore County police said.

Baltimore County Police said he remains hospitalized in police custody in Washington pending extradition. It was not immediately known if he has legal representation.

Baltimore police did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for details on the charges.

Weems was hired by the Baltimore City Police Department in June 1996. He retired in 2005 and continued to work for the department as a contract specialist until 2008, the department said. Shanteari Weems told police she and James Weems were married for five years, according to NBC Washington.

The investigation into James Weems is underway by Baltimore County detectives, Metropolitan Police Department, the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Maryland State Department of Education and the Maryland Department of Human Services, Child Protective Services.

Police are asking for families who may have been affected to contact Baltimore County detectives. 

Sex Offender Jumps Elementary School Fence To Attack Child: Police

 A convicted sex offender is behind bars again on suspicion of assaulting a young girl inside a Riverside County elementary school bathroom.

Paige Austin,Patch Staff

Police arrested 32-year-old Logan Nighswonger of Riverside on suspicion of attempted sex acts with a child under the age of 10 and being a registered sex offender on school grounds. (Riverside Police Department)

RIVERSIDE, CA — A convicted sex offender is in custody today after allegedly hopping the fence at a Riverside County Elementary school and attempting to sexually assault a child in the girl's restroom, according to the Riverside Police Department.

Police arrested 32-year-old Logan Nighswonger of Riverside on suspicion of attempted sex acts with a child under the age of 10 and being a registered sex offender on school grounds.

The incident occurred at about 12:30 p.m. Friday at McAuliffe Elementary in the 4100 block of Golden Avenue, according to the Riverside Police Department.

"A man had jumped the school fence and entered the girls’ restroom," the police department said in a written statement. "A campus supervisor observed this man, later identified as Logan Nighswonger, come out of the restroom and heard a girl crying inside."

"The campus supervisor followed Logan Nighswonger as he jumped other fences to the parking lot and get inside a vehicle," according to Riverside police Officer Ryan J. Railsback. "He was then able to provide a detailed vehicle description and license plate as the suspect drove away."

"Nighswonger was located and safely detained, then transported back to Riverside and later booked into jail," the Riverside Police Department said in a written statement.

He was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center, where he is being held without bail.

Nighswonger's previous conviction stems from a 2016 conviction for annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18.

According to a 2015 statement issued by the Riverside Police Department, Nighswonger was arrested for two separate incidents involving inappropriate comments to children and one incident of exposing himself to elementary school students at Mark Twain Elementary in Riverside. He was caught thanks to several students who were able to get his license plate following the incidents, police said.

At the time, The investigation led investigating officers to believe these types of incidents might have occurred at other local elementary schools in Riverside and the city of Corona.

Anyone with information about Friday's incident and arrest or other incidents involving Nighswonger is urged to contact Detective Stacie Ontko at 951-353-7121 or SOntko@RiversideCA.gov.

City News Service contributed to this report.

FBI - 84 Minors, 141 Adults Rescued In National Sex Trafficking Operation

 

By Chris Williams

WASHINGTON - More than 80 children were identified and located in a national sex trafficking ring this month in "Operation Cross Country," the FBI announced Monday. 

The agency said the 84 minors were victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 37 of them were actively missing children. The average age of the victim was 15.5 years old with the youngest being 11, according to agents. 

Investigators also located 141 adult victims of human trafficking. 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, authorities identified or arrested 85 suspects accused of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking offenses. 

Human trafficking is among the most heinous crimes the FBI encounters," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a news release. "Unfortunately, such crimes—against both adults and children—are far more common than most people realize. As we did in this operation, the FBI and our partners will continue to find and arrest traffickers, identify and help victims, and raise awareness of the exploitation our most vulnerable populations."

"The Justice Department is committed to doing everything in our power to combat the insidious crimes of human trafficking that devastate survivors and their families," Attorney General Merrick Garland added. 

Operation Cross Country XII

The FBI said Operation Cross Country XII involved FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, victim specialists, and child adolescent forensic Interviewers. They worked in conjunction with 200 state, local, and federal partners and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to conduct 391 operations over a two-week period.

"The success of Operation Cross County reinforces what NCMEC sees every day. Children are being bought and sold for sex in communities across the country by traffickers, gangs and even family members," offered Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

The 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report released in June showed that more than half of all trafficking victims in the U.S. were minors in federal prosecutions last year.

Of the nearly 450 human trafficking victims involved in new U.S. criminal cases in 2021, 57% were minors, according to the report from the Human Trafficking Institute (HTI).

Texas, Florida and Georgia charged the most criminal human trafficking suspects last year. Districts that charged the most defendants accused of trafficking minors for sex in 2021 were, in order: southern Texas, South Carolina, southern Florida, eastern New York, southern Illinois, middle Florida, eastern Arkansas, eastern Texas, Nebraska, eastern Michigan and northern Illinois.

Since 2000, 55% of sex trafficking victims have been recruited online, typically through social media platforms, online chat rooms, messaging apps, dating apps or advertisements, the human trafficking research organization said in its report.

Snapchat To Let Parents See Who thTeir Kids Are Chatting With In App

But not what they’re saying

By Makena Kelly

Image: Snap

As part of Snap’s child safety efforts, Snapchat is launching a new supervision tool on Tuesday that the company says mimics how parents and teenagers interact in the real world.

Snapchat’s new “Family Center” hub allows parents and guardians to keep tabs on who their teens message with on the app without disclosing what it is they’re saying to each other. Both the guardian and the child must accept the Family Center invite before the oversight tools can take effect. Once the invites are accepted, a guardian can see the entirety of their child’s friends list and a list of accounts they’ve interacted with over the last seven days and report concerning accounts to Snap’s Trust and Safety Team.

“Our goal was to create a set of tools designed to reflect the dynamics of real-world relationships and foster collaboration and trust between parents and teens,” Snap said in its Tuesday blog post. The feature is meant to copy real-life relationships, like when a parent lets a kid’s friends come over but doesn’t monitor everything they say.

Snap plans to roll out new Family Center features over the next few weeks, including tools allowing parents to view the new friends their children have added along with additional content controls.

Snapchat’s Family Center allows parents to see who their children are talking to on the app.

 Image: Snap

At last year’s hearing, Jennifer Stout, Snap’s vice president of global public policy, said, “Snapchat was built as an antidote to social media” — distinguishing how Snap is distancing itself from Facebook and other social media platforms.

Haugen’s disclosures and the following hearings led to the introduction of a number of bills to tackle children’s safety online. Late last month, a Senate panel approved two bills that would restrict how tech platforms can collect and use data from young users, according to The Washington Post.

One bill, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, would ban tech companies from collecting the data of users between 13 and 16 years old without parental consent. A second bill, the Kids Online Safety Act, would create an “eraser” button allowing for young users to easily delete their data from platforms. The measures were approved amid a growing movement of advocates who are calling for lawmakers to raise the age limits in federal law to cover the privacy of children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old, rather than simply children under the age of 13.

Following Snap’s October congressional hearing, the company announced that it was working on the Family Center tool it announced on Tuesday. In a statement to The Verge last year, a Snap spokesperson said, “Our overall goal is to help educate and empower young people to make the right choices to enhance their online safety and to help parents be partners with their kids in navigating the digital world.”

In January, Snap launched a feature limiting the number of friend suggestions teenagers see on its app, via its Quick Add menu. According to the company, kids between the ages of 13 to 17 only receive suggestions for accounts that “have a certain number of friends in common with that person.”

14 Tech-Based Innovations Tackle Youth Mental Health Challenges

 by Elisha London, Founder & CEO, Prospira Global; and Anna Huber, Community Success Specialist, World Economic Forum

Young people today face an increasing number of challenges to their mental health, and systems worldwide are insufficient to meet the large and growing demand.

Depression, anxiety and behavioural conditions are the leading cause of illness for young people and suicide is the fourth most prevalent cause of death amongst 15- to 19-year-olds. Meanwhile, around 50 per cent of mental health conditions begin by the age 14 and 75 per cent by age 24. So, if youth mental health challenges and their environmental factors aren’t addressed, they extend into adulthood. Conversely, having good mental health means being better able to cope, connect and function, leading to more fulfilling and productive lives.

Quality access to support and education remains a challenge in all countries, while stigma and discrimination prevents many young people from reaching out for support when it is available. However, access to support is not the only challenge. So too are the social determinants which influence mental health including poverty, social inequality, marginalization, exposure to war, increasing uncertainty and access to quality employment and training, with girls being disproportionately affected.

As outlined in the recent WHO World Mental Health Report, a major transformation is required worldwide, including deepening commitment to change, reshaping the environments in which we live, and strengthening mental healthcare.

The Uplink Youth Mental Health Challenge by the World Economic Forum sought to identify some of the leading innovations around the world working to address these transformational needs, especially those led by young people themselves.

The challenge was funded by Salesforce, and supported by organizations leading mental health work around the world including UNICEF, citiesRISE, Z Zurich Foundation, 7 Cups, Healthy Brains Global Initiative, Karolinska Institute, Fondation Botnar, the MHPSS Collaborative, United for Global Mental Health, Deloitte, Harvard University, and Bertha Innovation Center.

One hundred and nineteen submissions were received from around the world and 14 Top Innovators were selected to join the UpLink Innovation Network. This network provides these organizations with access to connections, visibility and support to accelerate their impact.

Here are the top 14 innovators selected:

1. Attensi and Dr. Raknes have developed the learning simulation Helping Hand, with the aim of preventing mental health disorders in adolescents. The game takes players through a series of life-like scenarios to reinforce positive decision-making, facilitate talking about feelings and thoughts, helping others master challenges and asking for help when needed.

2. Neolth Inc. offers a range of activities to help teens build coping skills and learn about mental health. Upon sign up, its proprietary algorithm matches teens with content personalized for their health needs, such as educational videos by clinicians and stigma-reducing content about lived experiences by teens.

3. Onkout connects a culturally relevant and unique trauma-informed, collective mental health peer support program to a virtual business training program, and the financial tools to improve young people’s lives. It supports young people in conflict-affected countries to be able to access services that are currently not available

4. Opa Mind has developed a “Voice Driven” support platform for people who struggle with emotional & mental health pressures. Opa Mind’s voice input system can listen and display various emotional based metrics, vocal biomarkers and supports, enabling individuals to undertake actionable follow-up steps in order to improve health and wellbeing.

5. OPTT, together with Curatio, offer an online psychotherapy tool to provide a technology-embedded, peer-to-peer social network for improved health outcomes. They allow mental wellness content producers, mental health teams, local health providers, and communities to work together to offer solutions proactively to their community members.

6. Renewal International Trust developed Positive Konnections (PK), a mobile application with a mental health intervention for young people with HIV that is designed to counter effects of stigma and help them access services privately or anonymously. The PK model uses creative narrative therapy techniques delivered on an accessible, youth-friendly platform.

7. Sati App is an on-demand peer support application that links users to a trained volunteer listener as soon as one is needed. With the limited number of mental health professionals available, Sati App is tackling the lack of accessibility and affordability for mental health care in low resource setting.

8. Sehat Jiwa Bahagia is a program to arm up youth in facing daily challenges and to create a positive community. The program aims to build stronger intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships through lectures, mentoring, training, and individual projects.

9. SuperBetter applies a proven game methodology that uses the same psychological strengths we display in game play to build skills, overcome obstacles and achieve goals in the real world. Teachers host SuperBetter challenges that students play to develop life skills and increase their resilience & mental health.

10. The CETA Approach leverages a multi-problem design to assess, triage, treat, and monitor a wide range of the most common mental and behavioral health problems. From provider training and supervision to multi-problem screening, treatment, and monitoring and evaluation.

11. The Trevor Project works to always provide free, confidential, best-in-class counselling to LGBTQ youth who may not have access to mental health services. It serves the more than 40 million LGBTQ youth estimated to seriously consider suicide each year across the world.

12. ViveTeens is an AI driven, ultra-personalised wellness companion that provides teens with world-class content, tools, advice and human led support, all in one unified platform. Its AI identifies the specific needs of users at any point in time and nudges them towards the content, tools and services that could benefit them the most.

13. Wysa is an AI chatbot that leverages evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT) to make you feel heard. Blended with professional human support, Wysa provides 24/7 high-quality mental health support.

14. Zvandiri supports governments to connect young people living with HIV (0-24 years) with trained, mentored peer counsellors (18-24 years) known as Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters (CATS) who understand and respond to their needs. The trained, mentored CATS provide quality services and are integrated within the national health system.

This article first appeared on the World Economic Forum Agenda.

Image credit: Steinar Engeland via Unsplash

FLHSMV: Back-to-School Safety Checklist

It is back-to-school for Treasure Coast public school students next week on Wednesday August 10.

Here is a school safety check list from the FLHSMV Department.

Secure their future – buckle up and choose the right seat

• Seat belts save lives and are required to be worn by all drivers, front-right passengers, and anyone under the age of 18; however, FLHSMV strongly recommends seat belt usage for all ages.
  
• The best car seat is the one that fits your child’s size, is correctly installed, fits well in your car, and is used properly every time you drive.
  
• Be sure to read the seat’s instruction manual and the portion of your vehicle’s owner manual when installing a car seat in your vehicle.
  
• Remember to check for car seat and booster seat recalls and sign up to receive any potential alerts in the future.

Image Courtesy FDOT

/

Stop for school buses and slow down in school zones

• As of January 1, 2021, the penalties for failing to stop for a school bus and passing a stopped school bus on the side where children enter and exit doubled. It is imperative that all motorists properly stop for school buses so all of Florida’s children can arrive at school or home safely.
  
• Using a wireless communications device in a handheld manner while driving in a designated school crossing, school zone, or active work zone area is against the law and extremely dangerous.
  
• Be alert and watch for children especially near schools, bus stops, school buses and in school parking lots. Pay extra attention to the lower speed limits in school zones. Only drive or park in authorized areas to drop off or pick up children at school.

Move safely together – look out before you step out

• Always walk on the sidewalk if there is one. If no sidewalks are present, walk against the direction of traffic so that you can see oncoming vehicles.
  
• Cross the roadway where pedestrians are expected, at corners or in crosswalks, and watch for traffic when crossing the street.
  
• Pay attention. Avoid headphones so that you can hear the traffic and pedestrians around you. Never text or look at your phone when crossing the street.

Check for kids and pets

• As routines change, it’s imperative to remain vigilant and make sure all children are out of the vehicle and accounted for before leaving. Put your purse, phone, or shoe in the backseat as a reminder to check.
  
• Never leave a child or pet unattended in a vehicle. Florida temperatures are hot and will rapidly increase in minutes, even if parked in the shade or with a window cracked.

For additional safety tips, resources, and data related to child safety visit the FLHSMV Child Safety webpage.

TikTok to filter ‘mature or complex’ videos as child safety concerns mount

By  Theo Wayt

TikTok will start blocking underage users from seeing "mature or complex" content.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

TikTok said it is rolling out a new feature designed to stop underage users from seeing videos with “mature or complex themes” amid mounting scrutiny over the wildly popular video app’s effect on children

The move comes as TikTok faces wrongful death lawsuits filed earlier this month in California by parents who alleged that their eight and nine year-old children died after trying to recreate “blackout challenge” videos that had been served to them through TikTok.

In an effort to protect underage users from “content with overtly mature themes,” TikTok is introducing a ratings metric the company says is similar to systems used in the film, television and video game industries. 

TikTok will start introducing “maturity scores” in the coming weeks, the company said in a blog post.

     TikTok is cracking down on “mature” content.

     TikTok 

“When we detect that a video contains mature or complex themes, for example, fictional scenes that may be too frightening or intense for younger audiences, a maturity score will be allocated to the video to help prevent those under 18 from viewing it across the TikTok experience,” TikTok’s head of trust and safety Cormac Keenan said in a blog post. 

In addition to the maturity score feature, TikTok is introducing another tool for all users that twill allow users to manually block videos with certain words or hashtags from both their “Following” and “For You” feeds. 

For example, vegan users can block videos about dairy or meat recipes, Keenan said. 

Scrutiny of TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, ranges far beyond the “blackout challenge.” 

          An example of TikTok’s new filter tool. 

          TikTok 

American lawmakers have raised concerns about TikTok serving videos glorifying eating disorders and self-harm to children suffering from such conditions. They have also questioned whether TikTok shares data with the Chinese government, a practice the company has denied. 

In addition, consumer protection advocates have raised concerns about the spread of misleading advertisements for sketchy payday loans on TikTok, as exclusively reported by The Post in June. 

Following The Post’s reporting, TikTok banned several of the ads.