NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending December 16, 2025

● You know how family police agency workers often claim they can’t throw children into foster care entirely on their own? Check out this story in The Imprint that makes clear, once and for all: Most of the time, they’re lying. 

● From Courthouse News Service: 

A former University of Minnesota pediatrician filed a federal lawsuit against the university, its associated medical groups and several doctors on Friday, claiming his June 2023 termination was retaliation for exposing a fraudulent scheme to maximize child abuse prosecutions. 

Dr. Bazak Sharon accuses the defendants — including the University of Minnesota’s governing board and child abuse specialist Dr. Nancy Sanders Harper, among others — of civil rights violations and racketeering. 

Sharon, who served at the university for 17 years, says the scheme was intended to maximize the identification and prosecution of child abuse cases to secure funding and increase the prestige of the university’s child abuse fellowship program. 

You can read much more about this case here.

● The Nevada Current is the latest publication to report on children torn from their families because their parents lack adequate housing.  I have a commentary in the Current on their findings. 

● In Lucas County, Ohio (metropolitan Toledo) the family police agency is blaming the federal Family First Act for the fact that residential treatment centers are jacking up rates so the county has to spend more money (because it’s not like you could actually stop dumping all those children into institutions, right)? As I explain in a letter to the Toledo Blade (subscription required) the real problem is the agency’s own lack of guts and imagination. 

In this week’s edition of The Horror Stories Go in All Directions: 

● From the Boston Globe: 

The family of a girl who was repeatedly raped at a Springfield group home when she was 14 years old sued the state Thursday, alleging state agencies failed to protect her from terrible conditions at the facility.

● From the Times of San Diego: 

The city and county of San Diego, along with two private entities, have agreed to legal settlements totaling more than $31 million in the death of an 11-year-old Spring Valley girl. The settlements resolve a lawsuit brought on behalf of Arabella McCormack’s two younger sisters. All three girls were allegedly abused by their adoptive parents and grandparents. 

● From KLAS-TV, Las Vegas: 

Mom says daughter was forced to fight another child in Las Vegas group home; state revokes licenses 

The state of Nevada revoked the licenses of four group homes for children and teens after several reports by the 8 News Now Investigators. 

Nevada Health Authority’s Health Care Purchasing and Compliance Division sent notices of revocation to four psychiatric residential treatment facilities operated by Moriah Behavioral Health, also known as Ignite Teen and Eden Treatment, on Dec. 11, citing safety concerns, a lack of cooperation from the business and a lack of compliance with state and federal laws.