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A.J.'s Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in AJ's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

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In Loving Memory Of Andrew James "A.J." Schwarz April 24,1983 - May 2,1993 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."
This page contains articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel from the year 1994.

If you are interested in reading the FULL DETAILS of this case aside from what is posted here, please purchase "No One Can Hurt Him Anymore" by Carol J.Rothgeb and Scott H. Cupp. Mr. Cupp thinks it's the book that nobody will read...please show your support and show him that you care about AJ, too by ordering his book by clicking on the cover image below.

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And After AJ...? (9/4/94)
Our Reactions to a Savage Act, A Child Betrayed (10/30/94)
For Christina, Don't Look Away Again (11/2/94)
Protecting Our Kids (11/6/94)
How Can You Help Kids? Become a Guardian ad Litem (11/16/94)
For Parents, This is a Good Step (11/27/94)
Stepmom Gets 30 Years for Abuse of AJ -- Sentence Exceeds State Guidelines (12/10/94)
AJ's Stepmom Gets 30 Years For Abuse (12/10/94)
Make Children an Urgent Priority (12/11/94)
A Look Back at '94, From AJ to Ziles (12/30/94)

AND AFTER A.J. . . . ?
The Palm Beach Post
September 4, 1994

Last week, as Jessica Schwarz was being found guilty of abusing her stepson A.J., who died last year, Palm Beach County social workers were following rules that have been toughened in hopes of preventing another tragic death.
Suzanne Turner, Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services administrator for District 9 (Palm Beach County), wasn't working for HRS in May 1993 when A.J. Schwarz, a Lantana boy nearing his 10th birthday, was found dead in his backyard pool. Since taking over last August, she has made reform a priority.
But this year HRS got no more money for child protection than last year, though the number of cases has increased. So since she lacks the money to hire more caseworkers or increase salaries, Ms. Turner is stressing training and supervision. She promises that caseworkers will get clear direction, with their responsibilities in writing, and regular evaluations. Supervisors will review 25 percent of their cases weekly. One staff member will do nothing but review cases. Caseworkers will visit a child's home at least once a month, with other visits - to schools, for example - encouraged. New investigators will be trained by a protective investigator with a master's degree in social work.
Ms. Turner is trying to wring extra money from a tight budget to pay certain staff members more. In lieu of money, she's offering more training. A caseworker might be offered a course in drug involvement in child abuse. Someone who deals mainly with Hispanics might be offered a Spanish course at Palm Beach Community College. Caseworkers will get intensive training this year in investigative techniques for child sexual and physical abuse - at no cost to county taxpayers - when District 9 joins a National Institutes of Health research project.
Social workers face dangerous situations regularly when investigating child abuse. But they deserve to be held to high standards. HRS can't prevent every A.J. But HRS can promise to try.

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OUR REACTIONS TO A SAVAGE ACT, A CHILD BETRAYED
Sun-Sentinel
October 30, 1994
JOHN GROGAN

We go through life with certain assumptions that help us understand our world. One is the belief that a child is safe in her mother's care.
Christina Holt, killed by an angry stepfather as her mother watched, police say, is the latest throw-away child to prove otherwise.
Watching the mother's tearful televised plea for her daughter's safe return, a calculated sham as it turned out, every parent shared her dread. In the smiling face on the missing-child posters, parents saw their own sons and daughters.
Yet somehow there was an odd sort of comfort in knowing the girl's disappearance was the random act of a stranger. Our sensibilities remained intact - bad people prey on innocent children despite parents' best efforts.
But from the start a troubling subtext surrounded the young mother's story, and soon enough the police were confirming what many suspected but did not want to believe. Christina's monster was no stranger, but her own parents.
A trust betrayed
And now the questions have changed. We ask ourselves, what kind of a man could beat a 44-pound sapling of a child so relentlessly as to splatter her blood across the floor and walls? What kind of a mother could watch without intervening as the child she had carried in her womb convulsed and stopped breathing?
We want to believe parental abuse is an aberration. Yet the headlines come with numbing regularity: Bradley McGee, 2, plunged head-first into a toilet by his stepfather and killed; A.J. Schwarz, 10, found floating face down in the family pool in Lantana, his stepmother charged with his murder; Amy Mitich, 2 months, smothered, stuffed in a suitcase and heaved by her mother and the mother's boyfriend into a pond near Deerfield Beach; newborns tossed into trash bins.
And now Christina.
What began as every parent's worst nightmare - a child abducted from a public restroom - has become a public mirror to hold up to ourselves.
We see in it our own tempers, our own capacity to lose control, and we find a lesson in the virtue of patience with our children. We learn that once you cross that line, you can never take it back.
A primitive call
We glimpse our ugly side. We hate the feeling, but we want vengeance; we want Christina's killer to feel her pain and terror. As embarrassed as we are to admit it, we want to kick his sorry ass.
We see our community for what it is: a place so numb to the tragedy du jour that John and Pauline Zile thought no one would linger on their missing daughter. Their cynical assumption speaks to what we have become.
You find yourself wondering if the Armageddon crowd might be right and society is entering its final plunge into darkness.
In a simpler time, my parents were fond of saying, "To become a parent is a matter of mere biology; to be one is a lot of hard work."
What kind of a mother was Pauline Zile? Reluctantly, you must conclude she was no mother at all.
Pregnant at 16, hurriedly married, divorced a year later, her brush with parenthood was, in the words of one relative, a case of "babies having babies."
Christina suffered the consequences. Bounced from relative to relative, she finally landed, for want of anywhere else to go, in a motel-apartment with two virtual strangers she was told to call Mom and Dad. She survived three months.
Our assumptions are gone. All that remains is to hold your kids a little tighter, forgive them their trespasses and love them for what they are. None deserves what Christina Holt got.
John Grogan is the local columnist for the Sun-Sentinel's Palm Beach County editions.

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FOR CHRISTINA, DON'T LOOK AWAY AGAIN
The Palm Beach Post
November 2, 1994

Through her death, Christina Holt has defined the problem of child abuse so that we can no longer look away. Having ignored this problem so long that it has become a crisis, however, we seem to be making up for lost time in the worst way - by thinking of ways to kill Christina's parents.
But if we truly want to honor this poor little girl, who met death knowing she was unwanted and unprotected, we will not channel our energy into something as easy and unproductive as vengeance. We will not, as some moronic talk shows already are doing, discuss how the public can help John and Pauline Zile carry out their alleged suicide pact. We will not berate the criminal justice system.
Instead, we will find ways to help the other Christinas, the many children who are being abused right now. We will find the ways that weren't there to help children like those whose tragedies have been recent high-profile stories: Kayla Basante and Dayton Boykin of Royal Palm Beach, allegedly killed by Dayton's mother, and A.J. Schwarz, allegedly killed by his stepmother.
We will find ways to teach young people how to be responsible parents. We will be brave enough to report abuse if we think a child is in trouble. We will volunteer to work at schools with children from broken families. We will demand that politicians understand how children who turn out wrong prey on children who turn out right. We will realize that we are a community, that the children are part of our community. We will realize that child abuse - indeed, all family violence - is not ``so mebody else's problem.'' We will not look away again.
WARNINGS OF A HIDDEN TIME BOMB
\ It is understandable that some of us want to leave memorials to Christina at the apartment where her life ended and at the makeshift grave where her stepfather disposed of her. But it should also be understood that this goes far beyond Christina. The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services warned us for years that abuse and neglect of children had created a hidden time bomb. HRS workers who investigate child abuse were not surprised when juvenile crime exploded during the past few years.
``There's not a night that I go to bed that I'm not worried about what might happen to somebody,'' said Suzanne Turner, who runs the HRS district that covers Palm Beach County. Right now, 2,100 children in the county and nearly 15,000 in Florida are under the state's protection, meaning they have been removed from their homes or are being closely monitored. (And those are just the documented cases; Christina wasn't documented.) Investigators are examining 1,200 cases of suspected abuse in Palm Beach County alone. Children who are victims of sexual abuse must be put on a waiting list for counseling.

`THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL OF US'

In trying to find a solution, we must decide how far government can and should go. ``The problem is the responsibility of all of us,'' Ms. Turner says. ``We know we in government can't handle it all.''
For years abuse was seen as something bad people did. We responded with what might be called ``community sanctions.'' We didn't associate with such people, patronize their businesses or hire them. After all, before 1933, government wasn't asked even to prevent starvation.
A second, complicating factor is the fear of being sued. We think twice before calling the law on abusers. And what if we refuse to hire them?
Will abusive personality be covered one day by the Americans With Disabilities Act? In this age of victimization, who knows?
Whatever government can do, however, will only succeed if we help by reestablishing community sanctions. The community has to tell teenage mothers - such as Pauline Zile, who wasn't even 18 when she had Christina - that such behavior is irresponsible. The community has to tell fathers who walk away from their families that such behavior is irresponsible. The community has to stop violence in the home so boys don't grow up thinking it's OK to slap around a wife or child and girls don't grow up thinking they have to take it.

MAKE CHILDREN A PRIORITY

We have an election Tuesday. In this and all future elections we must demand that politicians put the children first, rather than use them as tools to get elected. It's easy to run down how our children have failed - and have been failed. It's harder to figure out how we can respond with more than just a plan to build enough prisons for children who survive their abuse and grow up. Merely planning for failure is a waste of money and waste of lives.
No political party created the child abuse crisis. No political party can solve it alone. Trying to gain a monopoly on ``family values'' will not help us. The causes of child abuse go far beyond anything you hear on talk shows or in 30-second commercials. Consider just two primary causes: the changing economy, which has created so many households in which both parents must work; and integration, which freed minorities to live where they wanted but took role models out of neighborhoods, leavin g a growing and increasingly isolated underclass. Those are problems of community, not politics.

COMMUNITY ASKED TO HELP

In an attempt to create that community awareness, there will be a news conference at 10 a.m. today at the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach. Officials from HRS, the Palm Beach County Children's Services Council and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office will be there. But so will business people and, it is hoped, members of the clergy.
``We wanted to have this meeting out of a government office,'' Ms. Turner said, ``because we are saying, `Come help us.' We're saying to businesses, for example, `If this problem gets worse, you won't be able to hire anyone to work for you.'
``We need manpower, we need money, and we need education.''

START NOW, SAVE OTHERS

The Christina Holt case may focus our attention on child abuse the way Nicole Simpson's murder got our attention on domestic violence. But it's clear that, because of the accused, we had more of an emotional investment in the Simpson case than we have had in any of the innumerable kids who walk by us every day in need of help.
And there is nothing glamorous about Christina's case. No slow-speed chase, just a slowly dawning horror of what happened before and after she died. All of her life, no one stood up for Christina. No one really wanted her. No one really looked after her. In that final hour, when she was being beaten to death, she could not run away, and there was no one to rescue her.
We can do nothing for Christina except mourn her short life. We can save other children. There's time - if we start now.

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PROTECTING OUR KIDS
The Palm Beach Post
November 6, 1994

WHAT THE COURTS ARE DOING
MOST CASES END IN PLEA BARGAINS

At the state attorney's office, most child abuse cases end in plea bargains. Half of the 16 defendants who went to trial this year were found guilty, seven were found not guilty and one ended in a mistrial.
``Cases that tend to go to trial are marginal, and that's why the defendant wants to go to trial, or we've offered such a high plea bargain that they decide to take a chance at trial,'' said Chief Assistant State Attorney Paul Zachs. ``The stronger cases, they just plead to.''
State Attorney Barry Krischer, who came to office in January 1993, has assigned seasoned trial prosecutors to the child division. Currently seven attorneys are assigned to prosecute crimes against children. Prosecutors say they do not keep statistics.

WHAT POLICE ARE DOING
MARTIN COUNTY: The Martin County Sheriff's Office did not keep statistics on physical child abuse cases prior to 1994. They set up a new computer system this year and are now tracking them.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, detectives have been assigned to investigate 89 cases of suspected physical abuse. That figure does not include very minor cases that were handled by road patrol deputies and did not require additional investigation. STUART: The Stuart Police Department has investigated 30 felony and misdemeanor child abuse cases since 1990, including 12 this year.
PORT ST. LUCIE: Port St. Lucie police investigated 57 child abuse or neglect cases in 1993 and 52 this year.
FORT PIERCE: Information not available.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY: The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office has investigated 134 child abuse reports this year.

WHAT THE SCHOOLS ARE DOING

INITIAL TRAINING
All Florida teachers are required by law to report suspected abuse or neglect to a state hot line.
At the beginning of each school year, Martin County conducts teacher training sessions on recognizing abuse and following proper procedures. Besides calling the hot line, teachers are told to let their bosses know of the call and fill out an HRS form.

WHEN TEACHERS SPOT ABUSE
Martin County teachers make about 50 calls per year to the hot line, and about 10 of those turn out to be actual cases of abuse or neglect, Martin County Director of Secondary Education Betty Coxe said. Neglect could mean a child lacks food or clothing.
The school district works with the sheriff's office and HRS to make sure students receive counseling, Coxe said.
The district refers children to several agencies in Martin County for counseling. Some agencies also counsel the parents about how to control their emotions and be better parents.
After the emergency counseling is over and the children are back in school, the school guidance counselor keeps track of the children to make sure their grades don't slip, that they are attending class, there are no marks on their bodies and they are in good mental health.
Teenage parents can get counseling on how to be better parents at Spectrum Junior/Senior High and the Indiantown Adult Learning Center. If a student's child is cared for by the school while the student is in class, the student is required to take parenting classes, Coxe said.
Teenage fathers are not required to attend the classes. A father can take the class if he gives a sworn statement saying he is the father, but the statement can be used to make him provide child support.
In St. Lucie County, teachers or other personnel who suspect abuse call the state abuse hot line, and teachers are asked to report the call to their principals, said Kay Davenport, director of student services for St. Lucie County schools.
Teen parents whose children are cared for while they attend school take parenting classes at the Anglewood Center or at Fort Pierce Central High School. The classes are available for those in middle school through high school, Davenport said.

THE PROBLEM

The 10 WAYS WE HURT OUR KIDS
10 most common forms of child abuse in 1992-93:
1. Sexual molestation
2. Bruises/welts
3. Excessive punishment, beatings
4. Sexual battery (no incest)
5. Drug-dependent newborn
6. Sexual battery (incest)
7. Sexual exploitation
8. Cuts, punctures, bites
9. Substance abuse
10. Other mental injury
* Source: Florida Abuse Hotline Information System.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

ABUSE HOTLINE
The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services receives 250,000 reports of abuse to its Abuse Hotline each year. About 50,000 cases eventually are confirmed. Officials say anyone reporting abuse also should call 911, especially if a child is in danger.

Here's how the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Service's Abuse Hotline works:

1. The person reporting abuse dials (800) 96-ABUSE.
2. A message in Spanish and English asks the caller to press 1 to report abuse, neglect or exploitation; or press 2 for information about services or general information.
3. A person calling with an abuse report will be directed to one of 86 counselors. The counselor will ask the caller for specifics. Callers do not have to leave their names, but if they do, HRS officials say, only the abuse investigator will have access to it.
4. If the counselor decides there is possible abuse or neglect, the report is entered into the state's computer system, known as the abuse registry.* The counselor then does a record check to see if there is a history of abuse.
5. A local investigator in Palm Beach County receives the message from the registry in Tallahassee, noting whether the situation requires immediate attention (when a child is in danger) or attention within 24 hours.
6. The local HRS official begins an investigation or helps the family get services. * A new system, expected to be in place by the end of the year, will allow local officials to delay placing a name in the abuse registry as a possible abuser until a special response team decides there is possible abuse.

WHERE TO TURN
Here are agencies that parents and caregivers can turn to before a bad home situation turns tragic.

BIG BROTHERS/ BIG SISTERS
Address: 185 S.W. Monterey Road, Suite 3, Stuart
Contact: Elaine Decker, executive director, 283-8373
Purpose: Provides adult role models and companionship for boys and girls and helps reduce stress in families.
Budget: $189,000
Employees: 5
Clients: 300
Volunteers: Call Decker.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES
Address: 1111 S. Federal Highway, Suite 119, Stuart
Contact: Pam Black, regional administrator, 283-0541
Purpose: Provides counseling and parenting training for children and families and custody evaluations for the court system. Spanish-speaking counselors are available.
Budget: $250,000
Employees: 11
Clients: 1,700 yearly
Volunteers: Call Black.

CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY
OF FLORIDA
Address: 1111 S. Federal Highway, Stuart
Contact: LaRue Barnes, 287-8009
Purpose: Works to prevent child abuse through parenting classes including classes for teen mothers counseling, in-home helpers and shelter for teens
Budget: $1.4 million
Employees: 45 (serving Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties) Clients: Maximum caseload of 160
Volunteers: Call Barnes.

CHILDREN'S SERVICES COUNCIL OF MARTIN COUNTY
Address: 742 Colorado Ave., Stuart
Contact: Harry Yates, executive director, 288-5758
Purpose: Provides grants to agencies for programs to prevent child abuse and acts as a clearinghouse for information and ideas to help children and their families.
Budget: $2.6 million
Employees: 4

EXCHANGE CLUB C.A.S.T.L.E
Address: 828 S. U.S. 1, Fort Pierce
Contact: Theresa Garbino-May, executive director, 465-6011
Purpose: Prevent or stop child abuse through parenting classes and family counseling. Budget: $500,000
Employees: 22
Clients: 2,000-2,500
Volunteers: Call 465-6011 or 220-0033.

HIBISCUS CHILDREN'S CENTER
Contact: Suzanne Cabrera, executive director, 334-9311
Purpose: Provides shelter for up to 24 children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned. Also provides parenting classes and soon will offer a program to temporarily house children whose parents fear they may become abusive. Budget: $1.2 million
Employees: 45
Clients: Up to 24 children at the shelter
Volunteers: Call 334-9311.

TREASURE COAST VICTORY CHILDREN'S HOME
Address: 602 S.W. Biltmore St., Port St. Lucie
Contact: Alan Weierman, executive director, 879-7181
Purpose: Provides shelter for abused and neglected children.
Budget: $191,000
Employees: 4
Clients: 14
Volunteers: Call 879-7181.

THE VICTIMS

JUDITH JEAN-JACQUES
Home: West Palm Beach
Date of death: Sept. 28, 1990
Age: 7 1/2 months
Cause of death: Head trauma
Circumstances: Skull crushed; family said baby fell.
Disposition: Stepbrother, age 12, convicted.

KENDRIC HUMPHREY
Home: Riviera Beach
Date of death: July 10, 1991
Age: 4 1/2 months
Cause of death: Shaken Baby Syndrome
Circumstances: Baby shaken to death
Disposition: Unknown

LOUIS RIVERA
Home: Lake Worth
Date of death: Sept. 30, 1991
Age: 21 months
Cause of death: Blunt head trauma
Circumstances: Parents said baby fell out of bed.
Disposition: Mother's live-in boyfriend charged. Trial set for Dec. 2.

SHARLENE DERONCELER
Home: West Palm Beach
Date of death: July 30, 1992
Age: 12 weeks
Cause of death: Head trauma
Circumstances: Beaten until semiconscious. Died at West Boca Medical Center. Disposition: Father convicted.

DONNIE DEVEAUX
Home: West Palm Beach
Date of death: Dec. 28, 1992
Age: 22 months
Cause of death: Head trauma
Circumstances: Parents had history of abuse.
Disposition: Father convicted.

ANDREW `A.J.' SCHWARZ
Home: Lantana
Date of death: May 2, 1993
Age: 10
Cause of death: Drowning
Circumstances: Bruised body found in backyard swimming pool.
Disposition: Stepmother convicted of child abuse, charged with murder.

KAYLA BASANTE
Home: Palm Springs
Date of death: Nov. 23, 1993.
Age: 9 months
Cause of death: Asphyxia Circumstances: Found at home.
Disposition: Baby sitter charged.

DAYTON BOYKIN
Home: Royal Palm Beach
Date of death: Oct. 27
Age: 5 months
Cause of death: Asphyxia
Circumstances: Found dead in crib
Disposition: Mother charged.

CHRISTINA HOLT
Home: Riviera Beach
Date of death: Oct. 28
Age: 7
Cause of death: Pending
Circumstances: Body wrapped in a blanket, tent and tarp and buried.
Disposition: Stepfather and mother charged.

ALEXANDER PURNELL
Home: Fort Pierce
Date of death: Sept. 29, 1990
Age: 2 1/2
Cause of death: Physical abuse
Circumstances: Shaken by his stepfather in 1989 and died a year later in a foster home.
Disposition: Stepfather pleaded guilty.

TORIANO SEARS
Home: Fort Pierce
Date of death: July 8, 1991
Age: 8 months
Cause of death: Blunt trauma
Circumstances: Suffered a ruptured intestine.
Disposition: Father pleaded no contest.

TERRELL JOHNSON
Home: Fort Pierce
Date of death: Nov. 24, 1992
Age: 6 months
Cause of death: Closed head injury
Circumstances: Shaken by mother.
Disposition: Mother pleaded no contest; sentenced to house arrest and probation.

SHANELLIE MCCLAIN
Home: Fort Pierce
Date of death: March 16, 1993
Age: 3 months
Cause of death: Blunt head injury
Circumstances: Slammed against the floor by mother, who is mentally retarded. Disposition: Mother pleaded no contest.

SHUNTA DENISE CARAWAY
Home: Riviera Beach
Date of death: Aug. 23, 1990
Age: 2
Cause of death: Blunt trauma
Circumstances: Beaten with wire, cord and belt
Disposition: Mother and boyfriend convicted.

SIGNS OF ABUSE
THE RED FLAGS
Any of these could be indications of physical abuse, particularly when physical signs are combined with emotional reactions:

PHYSICAL SIGNS
Sprains
Dislocated bones
Bone fracture
Burns and scalds
Bruises
Skull fracture, brain damage
Cuts, punctures and bites
Internal injuries

BEHAVIORAL SIGNS
Denial of abuse
Fear of family
Wary of adults
Looks for approval from parents before answering questions
Poor self-image
Self-blaming
Complains excessively
Overreacts
Hyperalertness
Overly dependent on non-abusive parent
Either overly passive or overly aggressive
Overly affectionate
Defensive of family
Does not look for reassurance from parents
No emotional bonding
Relationship between child and guardians poor
Role reversal
Fear of home
Becomes apprehensive when adult approaches a crying child
Withdrawn
Disruptive behavior
Regression in school work
Poor hygiene
Flinches from physical touch
Sleep disorders
Nervousness, stuttering and other speech difficulties

WHO DOES THE CRIME
While many think more men than women abuse children, that's not always true. In Martin County in 1992 -93, 54 percent of the adults who abused children were women. In St. Lucie County, 66 percent were
men.

VICTIMS BY AGE
The targets of child abuse span all ages but girls are more frequently abused than boys.

WHO REPORTS ABUSE
Only 17 percent of abuse complaints are anonymous. Relatives and neighbors call in the highest number of abuse tips - nearly 30 percent.

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HOW CAN YOU HELP SAVE KIDS?
BECOME A GUARDIAN AD LITEM
The Palm Beach Post
November 16, 1994
ALVIN MANN

The recent spate of child slayings, involving Christina Holt, Michael and Alex Smith, Bradley McGee, A.J. Schwarz and others, tears at our heartstrings.
These children may have died because a parent did not understand the meaning of parenting. Sometimes these crimes occur because the parents are children having children. The breakup of a family can be so traumatic to the parents that the children suffer needlessly.
One way courts try to stop such abuse is through the Guardian Ad Litem Program, a state-administered group of volunteers. We are appointed by the court to act in the best interest of the child in cases of neglect, abandonment and mental or physical abuse.

THE EYES AND EARS OF THE COURT

This ``best interest'' may not necessarily coincide with the desires of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, the parents or the child. We are the eyes and ears of the court, appointed to investigate and report. The guardian ad litem is not there to usurp the family, or to take away the authority of the parents, but to try to ensure that the child is protected.
We can think of the thousands of families and more thousands of children who have benefited from our work. We have interacted and intervened, we have enabled them to receive services, we have been a shoulder to lean on. Our work includes finding homes for abandoned cocaine babies and those who are HIV-positive.
When you are successful in family reunification or placement of a child, that is pushing back the tide of danger to children.
It is impossible to salvage every situation, but when you are successful, there is another child who will not become a negative statistic.
Working with HRS is not always the easiest task. Sometimes we oppose its recommendations. Our reports and summations give judges another viewpoint and a fuller understanding of the problems.
What does it take to be a guardian ad litem? A dedication to put the interest of the child foremost. A willingness to give of yourself. A promise that you will attend court and other hearings on behalf of ``your'' child. A smile, a hug, a look and a caring but non-judgmental attitude for all involved.
No special background or expertise is needed. You will be given all the training necessary and will be put with a mentor to help you along the way. The amount of time spent is your decision.

AN IMMEDIATE NEED FOR NEW GUARDIANS

How many nights do I wake up wondering what is happening with my cases? It is made worthwhile when I am greeted by the children with happy looks on their faces and sometimes by a ``thank-you'' from the parents.
The need for new guardians is immediate. The courts are appointing us on too many new cases for us to keep up with. Come join us in pushing back the tide. Let us not have to triage the cases for immediate action. Who knows what is really happening with the child until we look into it?
Call 355-2773 and speak to our training director, Lois Messer. It would be difficult to find a nicer group of people either in our office staff, circuit director or the hundreds of volunteers who know the meaning of the word satisfaction.

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FOR PARENTS, THIS IS A GOOD STEP
The Palm Beach Post
November 27, 1994

We have a desperate need to educate people about parenthood.
Millions of Americans who received back-of-the-hand upbringings themselves have no earthly idea how to raise their own kids. So we're seeing a sickening surge in child abuse and neglect, and in dead children: A.J. Schwarz, Christina Holt, Pauline Cone . . .
The first order of business is to get tougher about irresponsible childbearing. But for those who do become mothers and fathers, we should insist on a training course. Palm Beach County community schools offer a good one called STEP - Systematic Training for Effective Parenting.
James Rumble and Betty Lindner think every person responsible for a child should enroll. The Lake Worth neighbors have taken it twice and can't say enough about it.
Mr. Rumble, a construction company project manager, initially took the course for guidance with his 7-year-old son. He took it the second time because he gained so much personally about the dynamics of relationships.
``I loved it,'' he says. ``If I could, I'd get the owner of my company to recommend it to supervisors.''
Ms. Lindner, who works in customer service for Publix, signed up for STEP because of problems with her 8-year-old son. But she's delighted at how it's helped in her job.
``It shouldn't be called a parenting class,'' she says. ``It teaches you about life. You should take it for yourself, to motivate yourself. I wish I'd taken it years ago.''
She has a point about the name. Many people hesitate to admit they have a problem with a child. Perhaps it should be repackaged to stress the insights it offers about spouses and co-workers.
Last year, 17 STEP courses were offered to 320 participants at 14 Palm Beach County schools. That's a fraction of what we should be doing. But though schools send home fliers about the course with students, the response is poor.
Parent educator Judy Taylor teaches STEP and knows parents are interested. She hears that when they call for information. But she also hears what dampens their enthusiasm - no one to stay with the children, exhaustion after working all day (especially for single parents) and difficulty with transportation.
Some also feel embarrassment, and we need to get past that. Ms. Taylor thinks more people would take the course if they understood that it's mainly a simple way to create positive relationships. For information, call her at 434-7304.
``People tell me they use it with everyone,'' she says. ``The skills are based on mutual respect, and we don't have a lot of that these days. Everywhere you turn, you see negativism and cynicism.''
Yet STEP classes were cut back in recent years as the recession made state budget reductions necessary. The legislature should put that money back - and add some to increase classes.
That idea has plenty of supporters. Ken Hall of Adult, Vocational and Community Education would love to be able to offer more STEP courses. Bill Howden, a Pratt & Whitney executive and member of the county's Health and Human Services Board, would gladly lobby lawmakers for them.
``This course is not a trip to the woodshed,'' Mr. Howden says. ``It's what we were taught by doting grandmothers.''
Exactly. Parenting skills were once handed down from generation to generation like plowing and planting skills. More recently, in families with no grandparents nearby, parents have tried to teach by example, living responsible, caring lives.
But no one can deny that society's fabric has developed some dangerously threadbare spots. And while an eight-week course alone can't knit up such a raveled sleeve, doing nothing is no longer an option.
Fran Hathaway is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach Post.

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STEPMOM GETS 30 YEARS FOR ABUSE OF A.J.
SENTENCE EXCEEDS STATE GUIDELINES
Sun-Sentinel
December 10, 1994
Author: STEPHANIE SMITH Staff Writer
Estimated printed pages: 3

Jessica Schwarz's portrayal of herself as a loving and sacrificing mother failed to convince a judge, who sentenced her on Friday to 30 years in prison for aggravated and felony child abuse of her stepson.
The prison sentence is to be followed by 15 years on probation. She was not allowed to have unsupervised contact with children under 18 - including her two daughters, ages 5 and 12 - and ordered to pay $5,000 to a fund for abused children.
Circuit Judge Walter Colbath said the emotional abuse endured by Andrew "A.J."Schwarz, 10, rose to "barbaric and grotesque" levels and called for exceeding the state's sentencing guidelines of nine years in prison for Schwarz.
The former truck driver's protestations of innocence did not carry as much weight with the judge as the testimony of 17 neighbors and a teacher who said Schwarz put her stepson through a laundry list of torture.
Prosecution witnesses said Schwarz, 39, rubbed the child's face in urine-soaked bedsheets, kept him out of school to perform chores, forced him to run down the street naked and edge the lawn with scissors, and made him eat a cockroach.
The abuse ended on May 2, 1993, when Andrew's bruised and naked body was found floating face down in the family's above-ground swimming pool. Schwarz still faces trial on second-degree murder charges in the drowning. A trial date has not been set.
"Mrs. Schwarz, you continue to deny the allegations," Colbath said. "The only way those denials are believable is if there was a monumental conspiracy."
The boy's life was so punishing to his psyche that he dropped 15 points on his IQ in two years with his stepmother, psychologist George Rahain Jr. testified on Friday.
Rahain, who specializes in abused children, compared the level of stress endured by the boy to that of people in a concentration camp.
"He compensated. He got crazy; he got psychotic," Rahain said. "That's the worst mental damage you can get.
"If the abuse had gone on, I truly would have expected him to be someone who took his own life or someone else's life."
Schwarz took the stand at her sentencing on Friday and said her Lake Worth neighbors lied when they testified that she was a brutal and stern taskmaster who meted out bizarre punishments.
"I simply never did these things, I'm not that type of person," she said.
Schwarz said her stepson was troubled before he moved in with her and she tried her best to make him at home. Andrew moved in with his father and stepmother after the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services took him away from his biological mother because her husband sexually abused Andrew's older sister and physically abused the boy.
"I'm still not guilty," a dry-eyed and smiling Schwarz said at her sentencing. "A.J. came to me with a lot of problems. He lived in our home for four years. We tried to live as one family, which he never had."
Her dedication to her family was demonstrated in her refusal to return Andrew to HRS despite his many problems, Schwarz said.
"I always had the option of sending him back. `Help, take him, I can't handle it anymore,'" she said. "We just kept trying."
Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp told Schwarz she should have let the child go. "Maybe if you had given Andrew up, he'd still be alive," Cupp said.
Andrew's biological mother, Ilene Schwarz of Fort Lauderdale, said she was pleased with the sentence.
"She hurt mine. She's not going to hurt anyone else," Ilene Schwarz said.
Jessica Schwarz's husband, David "Bear" Schwarz, was absent from his wife's sentencing on Friday as he was at her September trial. He has moved from the family's home in Lake Worth, which has been foreclosed upon.
Schwarz's mother and oldest daughter were at the hearing. At the end of the sentencing, the judge allowed Schwarz to visit with her daughter under the supervision of sheriff's deputies. Schwarz has never been accused of abusing her daughters and is known to have doted on them.
"With the state's help, I've lost my children, my home and my freedom," Schwarz told Colbath. "Whatever you're going to do, you're going to do, but God will be my final judge."

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A.J.'S STEPMOM GETS 30 YEARS FOR ABUSE
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
December 10, 1994
CHRISTINE STAPLETON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

An exasperated Jessica Schwarz described herself as a loving mother on Friday before a judge sentenced her to 30 years in prison for the ``barbaric and grotesque'' abuse of her stepson.
Schwarz rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief during much of the testimony about her stepson, Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz.
``I never did these things,'' Schwarz said. ``I never hurt him. I never hurt anyone.''
But George Rahaim, a psychologist who specializes in child abuse cases and who reviewed the extensive records of A.J., said the abuse left the boy an emotional ``zombie.''
Schwarz of Lake Worth rubbed A.J.'s face in his urine-soaked bedsheets, forced him to wear a T-shirt on which she had written a humiliating obscenity, forced him to eat a cockroach and made him eat from the floor.
``He came to know and believe that he was worthless, garbage, less than dirt,'' Rahaim said. ``He was taught that it was his own damn fault.''
Schwarz still faces trial for second-degree murder in A.J.'s death. The 10-year-old's bruised body was found in his family's backyard pool May 2, 1993. Autopsy reports showed head injuries so severe that had he not drowned, he would have died from the blows.
Schwarz attorney Rendell Brown asked Circuit Judge Walter Colbath not to exceed the 9-year sentence recommended by Florida's sentencing guidelines. Brown reminded the judge that the case had stirred strong anger and sadness in the community.
Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp asked the judge to exceed the sentencing guidelines and impose a 45-year sentence.
Only a ``monumental conspiracy'' by A.J.'s teachers, friends and neighbors would make his stepmother's story believable, Colbath said. ``It is inconceivable that such a conspiracy could have succeeded without coming apart at the seams,'' Colbath said.
Schwarz will be on probation for 15 years after she is released from prison. The judge also ordered Schwarz to pay a $5,000 fine to a child abuse organization .

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MAKE CHILDREN AN URGENT PRIORITY
Sun-Sentinel
December 11, 1994

The circumstances are becoming all too disturbingly familiar in South Florida: A child unwanted by its natural parents dies in the care of foster parents hand-picked and subsidized by an agency of state government.
This unconscionable sacrifice of innocent lives must end. Gov. Lawton Chiles and the Legislature must make the protection of Florida's castoff children an urgent priority in the 1995 session.
The latest chapter in the sad litany occurred Wednesday when a Palm Beach County grand jury charged a Lake Worth couple with killing their adopted daughter. Paulette and Timothy Cone were indicted on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the Nov. 10 death of 2-year-old Pauline Cone.
Prosecutors said the child was asphyxiated when a makeshift plywood lid attached to the top of her crib fell on her neck. Pauline shared the crib with her adopted sister, Deana, 31/2. Both were the children of cocaine-addicted mothers.
The Cones are accused of abusing Pauline, Deana and a 17-year-old mentally handicapped girl who had been placed with them for foster care by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. Since they were licensed by HRS as foster parents in 1991, the Cones have cared for as many as 65 foster children.
HRS deserves a large share of the blame for the tragedy. Despite Timothy Cone's two drunken-driving arrests and 27 police calls to the Cone house on complaints of drunkenness and fighting, the couple continued receiving HRS' blessing as foster parents and state payments that often exceeded $1,100 a month.
There has to be a better way of dealing with the wrenching problem of castaway children.
HRS needs to reconsider the too-high priority it often places on returning troubled children to dysfunctional families. The welfare of the child should always be paramount, not some misguided notion of reuniting families at all costs.
Prospective foster parents must be screened much more thoroughly and then monitored regularly by competent personnel after being entrusted with young lives and taxpayers' money. Children should be removed from foster homes at the first sign of parental unfitness, neglect or abuse.
It's pointless to speculate whether a more alert HRS might have spared the lives of children such as Pauline Cone and A.J. Schwarz, but their unnecessary tragedies should prod government to resolve to do a much better job of protecting potential victims in the future.

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A LOOK BACK AT '94, FROM A.J. TO ZILES
Sun-Sentinel
December 30, 1994
JOHN GROGAN

Another year comes to a close, and what a year it has been.
Call 1994 what you will, but don't call it boring. Toyotas plowing through storefronts, Mercedes Benzes careening into swimming pools, condo commandos coming to blows over dog doo-doo. Whew! Give us tranquility in 1995.
As we prepare for the New Year, let's pause to recall the best and worst of 1994:
A bad year for cops, parents
-- Best Imitation of a Vulture: Sheriff's Deputy John Abbananto was charged with stealing a Rolex watch off the wrist of a corpse at the scene of a fatal car crash.
-- Parent of the Year: John and Pauline Zile stand accused not only of murdering 7-year-old Christina Holt, but of sleeping near her rotting corpse for four days before finally burying her behind a Kmart and fabricating an Emmy-quality kidnapping tale.
-- Loving Stepmom of the Year: Jessica Schwarz was convicted of mercilessly tormenting her stepson, A.J., 10, and she awaits trial for drowning him. Among her parenting techniques: making the boy write over and over again, "I should never have been born."
-- The `Don't Blame Me, Blame My Childhood' Scapegoat Award: Clover Boykin, 19, admitted strangling her 5-month-old son and a friend's 9-month-old daughter but said she thought she was choking her abusive father.
-- On Second Thought, Forget the Flu Shot: A nurse at West Boca Medical Center accidentally injected a 91-year-old woman with potassium chloride, the same drug used on some Death Row inmates, killing her.
-- Luckiest Dog: Lucky, a Labrador mix, took five bullets from a Boynton Beach cop and lived to bark about it - and file a $15,000 lawsuit against the city and officer.
-- Second-Luckiest Dog: Dudley, a Yorkshire terrier owned by Joseph and Sandra Ciuccio of suburban Boca Raton, was named a finalist in the American Family Sweepstakes. The letter reads: "If you return the winning entry, we'll say, `Dudley, it's confirmed, you're our new $10 million winner!'"
Big bucks and big hearts
-- Our Tax Dollars at Work: A new $4.5 million on-off ramp opened on Interstate 95 in Boca Raton, leading to only one place: a pasture owned by developer Bill Knight.
-- Goodwill to Man Award: Blockbuster Entertainment empire builder Wayne Huizenga tied up a mom-and-pop pizza parlor in court over its name, Buster Block's Blockbustin' Pizza. The owner changed the name to Buster Clock's Clockbustin' Pizza and then to Buster Baker the Pizza Maker, but Huizenga's lawyers persisted. Facing mounting legal bills, the pizzeria went out of business.
-- Goodwill to Man Award, Runner Up: Boca Raton residents picketed at expressway ramps to protest the presence of beggars.
-- Dumbest Anti-Crime Ploy: Merchants tried to scare off drug dealers along West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach by playing round-the-clock Barry Manilow tunes.
-- To the Mayor Go the Spoils: Boca Raton Mayor Bill Smith used an on-duty city police sergeant to evict two unwanted guests from a home his family owns west of Delray Beach.
-- The Eveready Battery Award: Housewife-turned-hooker-turned-stripper Kathy Willets managed to extend her 15 minutes of fame by inserting a flashlight where no flashlight was meant to go during a nude stage act. When arrested on an obscenity charge, she claimed the act was constitutionally protected "artistic expression."
-- Who Says Crime Doesn't Pay? Delray Beach police Lt. Richard Senff, caught shoplifting baseball cards while in uniform, was allowed to take early retirement instead of being fired. Under the buyout, Senff, 39, will receive $2,300 a month for life.
-- Most Optimistic Assessment of the Afterlife: Anti-abortion fanatic Paul Hill, sentenced to die for the murder of a doctor and his escort, proclaimed: "I know for a fact that I'm going to go to heaven when I die."
And the Lord sayeth unto him: "Don't pack your bags yet, Pauly."
Local columnist John Grogan's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

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