COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Families and educators in Ohio aren't the only ones coping with back-to-school challenges during a pandemic.

Domestic violence shelters also are working tirelessly to turn safe spaces into learning spaces.

Terri Heckmen, CEO for the Battered Women's Shelter of Summit and Medina Counties, explained their residents have children in 14 different schools; some attending classes in person, and others online.

She said they were ready when classes started for their current residents, and hope to move quickly to get any incoming children connected for their schooling.

"When we bring families in, the average is children are missing two days," Heckmen said. "We can get some of them back up the next day, depending on complications of the actual domestic violence. But we would like kids to not miss any schooling. If we can get them up and running right away, we'd like to be able to do that."

To accommodate learning, some shelters are converting living areas into classroom spaces; others are changing mealtimes to match school schedules. And Heckmen said they're working with local districts to bring in tutors, and have hired a new staff member with educational experience to work with kids.

Sonia Ferencik, youth advocacy and trauma-informed services coordinator for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, said life is turned upside down for children entering a shelter setting with a parent.

Most have experienced a great deal of trauma from witnessing violence, which she said can take a toll on learning.

"A lot of times kids have difficulty; 'stressed brains,' it's been said," Ferencik explained. "It's hard to learn, because you're in your 'survival brain,' as opposed to your prefrontal cortex or your 'thinking brain.' "

Ferencik said there are specific advocates in some shelters working with kids on calming activities to help them feel safe and ready to learn. And then, there are the practical considerations for getting school work done.

"Do they have a desk?" Ferencik asked. "Shelters are always looking for people to help with school supplies, backpacks, and it may be access to laptops and hotspots to be able to reach your school."

She added the shelters have done tremendous work to stay open and clean during the pandemic, and will continue to adjust their operations to ensure the safety of survivors and their children.

New data show a 27% increase in rape kit testing across Mississippi since the state implemented a 2023 law requiring all new sexual assault evidence to be processed.

While officials report progress on addressing the backlog, advocates cautioned the full scope of untested kits remains unknown without a complete statewide inventory. The rise follows the required testing of all new sexual assault evidence, which experts said is helping to debunk common assumptions about sexual predators.

Ilse Knecht policy director for the Joyful Heart Foundation's End the Backlog initiative said testing is uncovering critical patterns about offenders.

"Rapists are not specialists. They commit all kinds of crimes, anything from homicide to burglary to domestic violence, child abuse, you name it," Knecht explained. "They commit crimes against people they know and people they don't know. They rape acquaintances and strangers, so they cross over, many of them, and they really don't stop until they're stopped."

Despite the clearance of some kits, Knecht stressed without a full audit of Mississippi's untested evidence shelved across hospitals and law-enforcement agencies, dangerous offenders likely remain unidentified.

Knecht argued the state's testing increase, while positive, only addresses part of the problem. She redirects focus to survivors, describing forensic exams as "very invasive and uncomfortable" even under ideal conditions.

"Nobody wants to go through that but survivors do it because they want that person who hurt them really to be held accountable," Knecht pointed out. "Many survivors that I talk to also say that they don't want that person to hurt anybody else."

Advocates said the findings underscore the need for continued testing and better coordination between law enforcement and victim services. As Mississippi works through its backlog, they say each processed kit could reveal connections to other unsolved crimes across the state.


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By Mary Claire Molloy for Mirror Indy.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the Mirror Indy-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration.

A little more than a year after launching a plan to address the needs of Black women, the Domestic Violence Prevention Network is in turmoil.

For months, several staff have been challenging leadership over concerns that the nonprofit is failing to meet the plan’s promise following what they describe as years of mismanagement and toxic workplace culture. Since 2022, two Black employees have been fired and there have been at least four resignations, including by two Black employees. One of them filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint.

The conflict came to a head in February. That’s when nine unnamed employees submitted a nearly 70-page letter to the nonprofit’s board, detailing their complaints about the organization’s executive director at the time.

In the letter, the employees called for her to be fired.

“We cannot, in good conscience, continue to promote inclusivity, equity and healthy relationships if those principles are not genuinely reflected within the organization itself,” staff wrote in the letter.

The tensions couldn’t come at a worse time. The nonprofit is already at risk of losing some funding as the Trump administration targets programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. DVPN has locked down parts of its website, including information about programming and an about page.

It’s also a bad time for Indianapolis, a city where Black residents face a disproportionate amount of domestic violence. For years, DVPN has provided an important service here, helping thousands of victims by training community members and local organizations to recognize signs of abuse.

Now, the nonprofit is leaderless. A week after employees sent the letter to the board, executive director Kelly McBride resigned, ending her nearly 12-year tenure leading the organization.

Reached by phone, McBride declined a Mirror Indy request for an interview but agreed to respond to emailed questions.

“These claims are false and inconsistent with my character and leadership style,” McBride wrote March 17. “At no time did I behave in an illegal, improper or unethical manner.”

McBride did not specifically answer Mirror Indy’s question about why she resigned. But in an email to supporters and community members, McBride said she “decided to embark on a new chapter in my professional journey.”

The nonprofit’s board, meanwhile, told staff in a March 10 email about plans to update the organization’s discrimination policies and provide harassment training. That decision came after the board hired an attorney to conduct an internal investigation.

Board president Kristen Moreland declined to specifically answer Mirror Indy’s questions about allegations of a toxic workplace and the experiences of Black staff under McBride. In a phone call, Moreland said she couldn’t comment because they were confidential personnel matters.

In a follow-up statement emailed to Mirror Indy, Moreland said McBride’s resignation was a “personal decision” and noted the internal investigation found no evidence of illegal activity.

“Our priority remains clear and focused: supporting victims of domestic violence, promoting prevention efforts and enhancing the services we provide to our community,” the statement said, in part.

To do that, according to 12 current or former employees interviewed by Mirror Indy, the nonprofit’s board must first repair the years of harm. But most remain skeptical about the board’s motives, believing the members are trying to maintain a positive image publicly while neglecting their duties inside the workplace.

Mirror Indy agreed not to publicly identify the current employees because they feared they would be fired for speaking to journalists.

That fear appears to be justified. On March 10, Moreland sent an email to staff saying they could lose their jobs for speaking with the media.

“They’re trying to make it look like DVPN isn’t as harmful and dysfunctional as we are,” one employee said.

‘I was the Black poster child’

Niesha Neal, 44, knows what it’s like to suffer in silence. She carries the scars from being stabbed by a previous partner.

Two decades later, in September 2021, she started working for the Domestic Violence Prevention Network to help other survivors.

Inside the office, though, Neal said she was underpaid and tokenized by McBride.

Neal is one of at least four Black staff members who have been fired or resigned under McBride’s leadership since 2022. All told Mirror Indy their departures were part of a pattern at the organization: They said Black employees were paraded around donors and community members, then discarded when leadership decided they weren’t useful anymore.

Neal said McBride “dumbed down” her title to pay her less than the previous person who held the same position, according to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint filed in February 2023. At the same time, according to the complaint, McBride, who is white, sent Neal to predominantly Black neighborhoods — including a time when Neal said she was told she needed to be “the face of DVPN” in a community video “if she wanted to get paid.”

“I was the Black poster child for the organization,” said Neal, who resigned in October 2022.

The last straw was fried chicken. That’s what McBride wanted to serve people in Martindale Brightwood for a Thanksgiving meal, Neal said.

“Out of every protein we could serve the Black community,” said Neal, pointing to the damaging history of the racial stereotype. “I was taken aback.”

In her statement to Mirror Indy, McBride did not specifically address the concerns about the Thanksgiving meal.

“I have worked hard to ensure that education and support services are available throughout all areas of our community,” McBride told Mirror Indy in her statement, “especially with historically marginalized communities.”

McBride also said that she initiated a study to ensure staff were being compensated “fairly and competitively,” and noted that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found no wrongdoing by her or DVPN.

Neal, however, said the commission gave her the right to file a discrimination lawsuit and the matter was resolved through her lawyers. She declined to specify whether she reached a settlement with the nonprofit.

In 2023, Elle Roberts and Charlie Redd were hired to start a restorative justice program, which focuses on repairing harm. They would use a $250,000 grant from the Hogsett administration and the Indianapolis Foundation to lead healing circles with victims and perpetrators of domestic violence in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

But in a letter shared with the board, Roberts and Redd said they were abruptly ousted in June 2024 after McBride verbally accused them of “stealing” the restorative justice framework from the organization to start their own projects.

McBride did not respond to Mirror Indy’s questions about the reason behind the terminations.

Roberts and Redd said they were hired because of their past work freelancing in wellness and equity spaces, and they still don’t have formal documentation about why they were fired.

“The wildest thing is that nobody owns restorative justice,” said Redd, 35. “This is a pattern of leadership being so flippant with the hiring and firing of Black queer people.”

Redd and Roberts said McBride verbally cited two other reasons for their terminations: They used “outdated” marketing materials and took too long to respond to emails.

That reminded Imani Jones of their time at DVPN. The 26-year-old said they resigned as the youth program coordinator in March 2024 after finding out leadership had documented six infractions against them.

“There was no communication about what I did wrong,” Jones said. “I didn’t feel safe.”

Witnessing Roberts and Redd’s firings — among others — reminded them of their own abusive childhood home.

“It’s the way they just give people infractions and fire them and then say they have grant money and can send you on trips,” Jones said. “Throwing gifts on top of issues and errors to keep people comfortable.”

Board threatens staff with terminations

Multiple employees interviewed by Mirror Indy said they felt hopeful in January 2024 when the nonprofit announced the “Beyond Equity” plan to focus on the needs of Black women.

At a launch event that month, McBride said the nonprofit would move beyond “white feminism.”

Since then, though, the employees said they’ve grown frustrated by the organization’s failure to address the concerns of employees. Now, they believe the publicly released plan was for posturing more than anything else.

Six employees spoke to Mirror Indy on the condition that they not be publicly identified because they feared they would lose their job or otherwise face retaliation from DVPN. Another two employees initially agreed to be identified, but then asked to withdraw their names from this article.

That happened after Moreland, the president, emailed staff to tell them it was against policy to discuss “confidential personnel information” with the media.

“If we learn that any employee has violated this policy, (they) may be subject to discipline, up to or including termination,” Moreland wrote.

In follow-up emails, Moreland sent a list of talking points developed by a PR firm to share with funders and the public.

“We are in crisis communication mode,” Moreland wrote in a March 14 email.

Employees said the board didn’t take their concerns seriously until they started speaking to journalists. And rather than spending money on the mission, they said, the board is protecting the Domestic Violence Prevention Network’s image.

One employee pointed to a portion of the PR document: “What is DVPN doing to address the harm caused by this situation?”

“As an organization committed to restorative justice, we are taking steps to acknowledge, address and correct any harms caused,” the PR response said. “We believe in leading by example and in the power of collective action to heal and move forward.”


Mary Claire Molloy wrote this article for Mirror Indy.


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April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Crimes against men and women ranging from grabbing and fondling to rape to criminally deviant conduct are more common than people want to believe.

Beth White, president and CEO of Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault, said three in five women and one in four men in Indiana will experience a sexual assault in their lifetime, and added that a stigma exists among victims of sexual assault and sexual violence, causing too many incidents to go underreported.

"People are afraid to come forward," she explained. "They think they will be blamed and shamed based on what's happened to them. So in the month of April in particular, we talk about how important it is for people to realize they are not alone."

Another misconception is that the crime is a random act by a stranger. White said the vast majority of sexual violence occurs between people who know each other - a trusted family member or an intimate partner - which only adds to the victim feeling they will be blamed, especially if alcohol or another substance was a factor.

Historically, sexual assault reports by women point to a man as the aggressor. But those statistics are changing. White asserted that sexual abuse is an equal opportunity crime, and explained that men, non-binary and transgender people are more at risk. The organization works with law enforcement to underline that when men report a sexual-violence incident, they should be believed.

"When people come forward, we start by believing them, and then we make sure that they can seek the help they need. They do not have to suffer in silence, whether they are men, women, transgender, or nonbinary people, it's really important to understand this happens to anyone," she continued.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center website lists sexual abuse, assault and harassment to include sexual exploitation and trafficking and nonconsensual image sharing or coercion, including AI-generated imagery.