Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Sandy Thompson: Open hearings would strengthen child’s voice

WEEKEND EDITION: June 16, 2002

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4025.

OPINIONS ARE SPLIT on whether to open child abuse and neglect proceedings in Juvenile Court.

While there is a need to protect the confidentiality of children in certain cases, there are compelling reasons for open hearings. Not just for the media, but for relatives, interested parties and the children themselves.

Under Nevada law, abuse and neglect (dependency) hearings are closed. Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle, who handles dependency matters in Juvenile Court, is proposing that the statute be changed to open the hearings unless closure is in the best interest of a child. For example, a hearing may be closed depending on the type of proceeding (such as a sexual abuse case) and whether it would be potentially embarrassing for, or harmful to, the child.

According to a position paper Hardcastle prepared, open hearings would enable the public to become educated about the impact of child abuse and neglect "by putting faces on the victims." He contends media reporting of these cases can be distorted because of closed hearings and other confidentiality requirements that make it difficult for a reporter to get all the facts in a case.

Closed hearings also tie the hands of the child welfare system. "In the battle for public and private funding, the child welfare community is the only community that is restrained from making its case openly and publicly," Hardcastle says.

The bottom line, though, is the benefit to the children who are the subjects of the hearings. "Children cannot tell their stories or make their own laws. A way must be found to inject their voices into the public debate over child welfare services and other issues relative to child welfare," Hardcastle says.

Ed Cotton, the new director of the state Division of Child and Family Services, does not support opening every dependency hearing. Although he believes that a "system that airs its laundry in public is a better system," he prefers starting with the presumption that all hearings are closed, but certain ones could be open. Those would be cases where the children and family already have been publicly identified or if the death of, or serious injury to, a child is involved. He also would support relaxing the confidentiality rules in closed hearings to allow judges, attorneys or caseworkers to discuss certain cases.

Cotton is concerned about the impact of open hearings on children. He says child victims would be less likely to testify in a case. An 8-year-old boy who was forced to have sex with an adult would have a difficult time telling about his ordeal in a closed hearing, and even more so -- if he would testify at all -- in an open court session.

Cotton sees another drawback to open hearings. Motions would have to be filed to have the hearings closed, thus adding to the court's workload and affecting the timely processing of cases.

According to Hardcastle, 17 states allow either the press or public, or both, access to dependency proceedings. Under an open system, he says, judges, caseworkers and attorneys would exercise greater care and professionalism. The theory is that if they know someone is watching, they may be more thorough in their examination of a case and more thoughtful in their decisions.

According to the findings of a national symposium on family courts, open hearings are "a significant first step toward educating and reforming instead of naming and blaming."

That's a good point. While we need to protect children's identities and spare them further trauma and "re-victimization," responsible reporting of the hearings and related issues or the mere access to the hearings should help strengthen children's voices.

The legislative Committee on Children, Youth and Families, chaired by Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, will conduct a hearing on the proposed changes in dependency hearings at 10 a.m. June 28 at the Grant Sawyer Building.

We need to protect children from further harm. But secrecy rarely protects the innocent. As Hardcastle notes, "secrets serve the interests of failure, not success."

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