‘Babies Born Positive With Meth’: Northern Mariana Islands Child Abuse And Neglect Cases Rise

Mark
Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the
Northern Marianas correspondent

The Northern Mariana
Islands (CNMI) government recorded an increase in child
abuse and neglect cases last year.

The US territory’s
Division of Youth Services (DYS) reported that child abuse
and neglect cases rose from 455 cases in fiscal year 2023 to
535 cases (17.58 percent increase) in fiscal year
2024.

It also reported that child victims’ accusations
– both primary and secondary – increased by from 1184 to
1474 (24.49 percent) during the same period.

DYS
director Vivian Sablan said that secondary child victims’
accusations are typically other children in the case, who
are indirectly affected by the abuse as opposed to direct
victims.

“There is also a thing called indirect, but
they are classified as secondary because they also suffer
the emotional abuse, the other stuff that comes along, for
example, sexual abuse,” she said during a recent meeting
with the CNMI chapter of the Society of Professional
Journalists.

Data from DYS also showed that physical
abuse went up from 115 to 116, sexual abuse decreased from
109 to 95, emotional abuse rose from 257 to 266, neglect in
general from 203 to 258, and others (support services, teen
pregnancy, domestic violence, minor sex trafficking,
truancy, suicidal) grew from 190 to 297.

The DYS also
acknowledged economic hardships have an effect in the family
dynamic, specially when it comes to child abuse and neglect
cases.

“We know for sure that there is a correlation.
When parents are stressed, a lot of things can happen in the
home or not happen,” Sablan said.

“For example,
neglect. Sometimes medical needs are not paid attention to.
Food, maybe the living environment, conditions of the home.
But it does have a correlation.”

The issue also
trickles down to illegal drug use, she said.

“So far
this year, we had a total of three babies that were born
positive with meth in their system.

“We also had 28
calls of possible drug concerns in the home. So that is
where we go in and we just see if there is drug use and just
to make sure that the kids are safe. So that’s another issue
that we’re having,” she added.

The CNMI’s
multicultural society also poses a challenge for
authorities.

“I forgot what culture was [and what]
islands they [came from, but] waterboarding was okay for
them,” child protection officer Juanicia Villanueva
said.

“I mean regardless of the background they come
from, we still have to teach the parents and educate them
about the difference between abuse and discipline,” she
said.

Villanueva reminded parents that times have
changed and what was acceptable before isn’t acceptable now
and what’s acceptable in their home country isn’t acceptable
in the US.

“Even me, 20 years ago it was okay what our
parents did to us, but that has changed.

“It’s 2025,
we tell [parents that] you got to put those disciplining
methods, and I know culture plays a big part. But like I
said, we’ve evolved. We’re living in 2025.”

Sablan
said another reason for the rise in number of child abuse
and neglect cases the past couple of years is DYS being more
effective in its awareness campaigns.

“We like to look
at it as our awareness being better,” she said.

“The
community is more comfortable. We used to be thought of as
people that broke families apart. People are afraid of us.
We take their children away.

“But we are trying to
change that mindset and being able to make the families be
as comfortable as they can be coming to us.

“Not
necessarily wait until something happens, but to come to us
for help and support. We have invested a lot. There is a lot
of funding that is also going to
prevention.”

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