Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994                   TAG: 9412190035
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FEW CHILDREN ARE KILLED IN ROANOKE

At the time a woman was charged this month with drowning her 7-month-old son in a bathtub at her Ferncliff Avenue apartment, only two Roanoke children had died since 1988 as the known result of abuse or neglect.

A 17-month-old girl died of internal injuries from her mother's backhand punch to her stomach in 1988, and a newborn boy died five days after he was abandoned in a trash bin in 1990.

Statewide, 26 children died from abuse or neglect in the fiscal year that ended in June. That was the lowest count so far this decade, with totals for previous years at 43 in 1993, 32 in 1992, and 34 in 1991.

About two-thirds of the victims during those years were younger than 2, and the caretakers most often responsible for the deaths were mothers.

In 1992, birth mothers and foster mothers accounted for 48 percent of the fatalities. Fathers were responsible for 26 percent, and baby sitters and other caretakers made up the rest.

Barbara Rawn, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse, Virginia, said mothers are involved most often because they are the ones most frequently burdened with child-care tasks.

"Most often, it's the mother that gets up in the middle of the night with the crying child," Rawn said.

Despite Roanoke's low number of fatalities, the city's Department of Social Services has been busy looking into other reports of abuse.

In the 1993-94 fiscal year, the department investigated 963 reports of child abuse, according to Judy Brown, supervisor of Child Protective Services.