Physical Abuse

The Immigration and Naturalization Service said Friday that the rioting by 300 illegal immigrants at a privately operated detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., June 18 was sparked by mismanagement and possible physical abuse by guards. As a result, the INS added, it is ending its contract with the firm that runs the facility.

"A Separation" Hopscotch Films, Golem Distribution U.S. release: September The premise Nader (Peyman Moaadi) refuses to leave Iran with his wife because his aged father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi) suffers from Alzheimer's disease, causing a schism between the couple. She leaves him, and Nader hires a young woman (Sareh Bayat) to take care of his father, who is disoriented, incontinent and often wanders the street. When he returns to find his father on the floor, naked and barely responsive, he blames the girl and pushes her out of the house.

The line between battered women and battered viewers gets straddled quite a bit with the unsavory Dolly Parton vehicle "Wild Texas Wind" (an NBC movie airing at 9 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39), in which the serious issue of physical abuse really plays second fiddle to lots of good ol' country music and a teaser of a murder mystery. It's like a lowbrow "Burning Bed" for bumpkins, complete with a feel-good ending that has a no-longer-bruised Dolly yelping yoo-hoo!

Sen. Scott Brown, the Massachusetts Republican who shocked the nation by claiming Edward M. Kennedy's Senate seat last year, has revealed that he was a victim of sexual and physical abuse as a child. In an interview scheduled to air Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Brown said he was molested by a counselor at a camp in Cape Cod, Mass., when he was 10 years old. "He said, 'If you tell anybody, I'll kill you," Brown recounted to correspondent Lesley Stahl. He said his mother didn't know about the abuse.

Childhood neglect and abuse can leave mental and physical scars, but a new study suggests there may also be a correlation between abuse and obesity. Researchers looked at court records of 410 children up to age 11 from 1967 to 1971 in a Midwest county who had court-substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. They were matched with 303 children of similar ages, sex, race and ethnicity and social class who had no abuse or neglect. On a follow-up of both groups about 30 years later, their body mass index scores were compared.

In a case compared to that of a Virginia woman who cut off her husband's penis, a Los Angeles woman was accused Thursday of castrating her spouse with a five-inch pair of shears as he slept. Aurelia Macias, 35, was initially charged with corporal injury to a spouse, a felony that carries a maximum four-year prison term. But at a court hearing Thursday, Deputy Dist. Atty.

Suppose you're an elderly man living alone and using an electric wheelchair. Financial difficulties force you to pawn the chair, but you can't move without it. What do you do? Imagine you're an elderly woman living alone and a salesman knocks on your door, saying that one of your friends referred him. He comes in and describes the product, and you say you're not interested. But instead of leaving, he stays for hours until you sign a contract and buy the product. Now what?

State officials have suspended operations at a Hawthorne home for developmentally disabled adults and removed its 19 residents in response to allegations that some of them were physically abused by the center's staff. The state Department of Social Services received seven complaints between May and July that staff members at the Hawthorne Community Guest Home slapped, shook, hit and yelled at clients, according to the Aug. 15 suspension order.

Dad sees the writing on the wall. His teen-age son has become a local Casanova. Dad wants to prevent an unplanned pregnancy, but he's struggling. "Look . . . I don't know but . . . You're old enough to think for yourself. . . . You're not going to do anything stupid. . . . Why don't you visit the clinic or the health center? They can tell you more about this. . . ." "About what, Dad?" "Well, about how to avoid being an irresponsible parent. Go there. They'll tell you. Besides, it's free."

As Eleanor of Aquitaine mused in "The Lion In Winter," "Every family has its problems." Her life with King Henry, and their three royal sons, was certainly dysfunctional. Nowadays, most people, including the royals, it seems, are talking about family problems more frankly as a means of clearing the air. One playwright who is interested in family conflict is Studio City's Dennis Melonas, whose "Classical Sweets" opens this weekend at Actors Alley's Storefront Theatre at the El Portal.

Are people who suffer from mental illnesses more likely to commit violent crimes? That question has been on the nation's mind since a 22-year-old community college dropout with a history of odd behavior was charged with shooting 19 people outside a Tucson supermarket this month, killing six and wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who police say was his target. The answer may seem obvious to the general public, given the popularity of movies, TV shows and books in which mentally unbalanced individuals are portrayed as homicidal maniacs.

He meanders through a city park with friends, sniffing glue out of a plastic bag. Many nights he passes out on the sidewalk nearby. It's a bleak routine, but this 17-year-old prefers it to his stints at Choam Chao, one of the Cambodian government's controversial drug rehabilitation centers, where he was twice detained. "At night, when they got drunk, sometimes they'd beat me," he said, referring to older detainees deputized by the guards to enforce discipline. His tormentors were rewarded, he said, with occasional trips out of the center's compound, when they could buy their liquor.

The former wife of Oakland Raiders Coach Tom Cable and a recent girlfriend claim Cable has a history of violent behavior toward women, and asked that he seek help for his anger. Sandy Cable and Marie Lutz said in separate interviews on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that the first-year head coach physically abused them at various times during their relationships. Cable's attorney, Donald Yee, said in a statement Sunday that ESPN refused to provide details about the story when the network asked for comment.

Childhood neglect and abuse can leave mental and physical scars, but a new study suggests there may also be a correlation between abuse and obesity. Researchers looked at court records of 410 children up to age 11 from 1967 to 1971 in a Midwest county who had court-substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. They were matched with 303 children of similar ages, sex, race and ethnicity and social class who had no abuse or neglect. On a follow-up of both groups about 30 years later, their body mass index scores were compared.

A school bus driver has been charged with felony child neglect for allegedly doing nothing to stop three teenage boys from terrorizing female students on his route. Court documents say Terry Burch, 67, of Portage failed to prevent physical abuse to the girls or failed to report it. The documents filed Friday also say Burch did nothing when the three boys -- two 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old -- threatened Burch and others, exposed their genitals on the bus, exposed their buttocks to passing motorists, ignited a flammable body spray and created other disruptions.

"We were born. We grew up. We escaped." So reads the motto of ExScientologyKids.com, a website launched Thursday by three young women raised in the Church of Scientology who are speaking out against the religion. Their website accuses the church of physical abuse, denying some children a proper education and alienating members from family. One of the women behind the site, Jenna Miscavige Hill, is the niece of David Miscavige, the head of the church, and Kendra Wiseman is the daughter of Bruce Wiseman, president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a Scientology-sponsored organization opposed to the practice of psychiatry.

Carol met and Richard (not their real names) at a football game during her sophomore year at Woodbridge High School in Irvine. He was a college freshman at the time, so when he showed interest in her, she thought it was a dream come true. Little did she know then that her dream would turn into a nightmare of physical and emotional abuse that would last six months. What follows is a true story of ordeal experienced by many teen-age girls such as Carol who are victims of date abuse.

The number of children killed by their parents and caretakers jumped by nearly 33% in Los Angeles County to 61 victims in 1991, the highest level recorded since such statistics have been kept, according to two studies to be released today. Prepared by the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, the studies also show that 120,358 children in the county were sexually or physically abused, 11% more than the previous year.

Who cares if Bob Knight won 902 games? He was abusive and a bully as an educator/coach who was allowed to physically strike and threaten students by the universities that employed him. Knight was a coward in a position of authority. Schools turned a blind eye because of the revenues he secured. Student-athletes with their parents kept equally quiet for fear of losing scholarships or playing time. Everyone says he was just teaching the kids. If he couldn't think of another teaching method other than physical abuse, he should be gone.

Degrading treatment and psychological manipulation cause as much emotional suffering and long-term mental damage as physical torture, researchers reported Monday. Psychiatric evaluations of 279 victims of torture and other abuses from the Balkan wars of the 1990s showed that both types of ill treatment led to similarly high rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The victims themselves rated the psychological tactics on par with the physical abuses they suffered.