The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 13

Sacramento Bf Final Saturday August 271994 From Page one BeeSkip Shuman Mother mixes A love training to help kids i ud By Nancy Weaver Bee Staff Writer Linda Winn a foster mother who has cared for more than 100 drug-exposed babies loves to prove the doctors wrong Her two adopted children were foster babies delivered into her care with severe medical problems And brain damage from both their drug use during pregnancy my children were sent home basically to Winn said Instead she pulled them through 1 with her special training and her love Recently her 6-year-old girl played happily at her feet with a bright pink toy car while her 2-year-old son napped in the next room The key to these children is early shesaid 1 Winn who has been a foster parent for 21 years gets the very sick children She often picks up infants at the hospital while they still are going through drug withdrawal Their limbs are rigid and stiff and they break out in a sweat The babies cry a lot sometimes holding their breath Winn recognizes the odor of the drugs on their bodies 1 Some go through withdrawal for as long as six months she said They are easily overwhelmed by sights and sounds so Winn beds them down in a semi-dark room Sometimes she leaves a radio playing softly in the background to drown out the household sounds As they get older some children have trouble eat- ing Winn said they need baby formula and pureed baby foods longer than usual to make sure they get adequate nutrition Some toddlers sleep with a machine to detect sleep apnea which is when they stop breathing while they sleep An oxygen machine is necessary for others a real involved she said But Winn is specially trained to care for them And she can recite a list of all services from the Sacra- mento County Schools to the Alta Regional Centei that are available to her foster children These days Winn only provides respite care for other foster parents She has taken a break from fos-j ter care to care for her two adopted children who rej quire special care and for her other children Both children have attention deficit disorder in adj dition to brain damage Both have seizure disorders and neurological problems The youngest boy has been revived by paramedics and put on life support to survive a crisis She said at least one will be unable to live alone as 1 an adult and will need a care-giver kids will never be said Winn they are so higher functioning than was ever projected for them Babies: Early intervention treatment can help Continued from page A1 ble focusing or maintaining attention i But 60 percent to 70 percent seem to be doing he said Chasnoff is conducting the longest study on the subject in the United States He is inihis ninth year of following the progress of 300 babies bom to cocaine-addicted mothers children doomed They have difficulties and problems that have to be addressed But not the gloom and doom that everyone was talking he said Other studies have offered similar hopeful results At UC Davis Medical Center one study compared 30 babies who were exposed to drugs in the womb with 30 infants whose mothers did not take drugs The study found no difference in their intelligence you look at overall learning and cognitive abilities there any statistically significant said Hansen But she warned some children may not be able to perform at their best because they have trouble concentrating or have other problems in the classroom "These children should not be labeled as a group and stereotyped as brain-damaged or learning disabled children" she said Another study in Sacramento County compared the 'progress of 100 5-year-olds 50 had been prena-tally exposed to drugs and 50 had not and found that most of the children did not have lingering problems Some children have severe learning disabilities seem to be a larger group that are nearly school age that seem to be doing much better than we said David Raske professor of education at California State University Sacramento who conducted the study with state and local educational officials However Raske and other experts warned that the findings do not mean it is safe to take drugs while pregnant There is no such thing as a safe amount of drugs or a safe time to take them Hansen said The study results instead encourage look at these children as children not as drug babies and provide them with appropriate education and Raske said Those with developmental problems which can start to show up at age 3 or 4 can be helped through early intervention and treatment Chasnoff said Only recently has Kelce started to have a few problems that may be related to her drug exposure Her speech sometimes is unclear and she seems to be a little delayed developmentally her mother said The Cobbs are prepared to offer whatever special help she needs to do well in school After her birth mother confided her use of several drugs during the early months of her pregnancy the Cobbs took classes on drug exposure arranged by Sierra Adoption Services But Tana Cobbs said none of the dire possibilities Kelce Cobbs sits between her adoptive parents posed to drugs before being bom Kelce has de- David and Tana Cobbs Although she was ex- veloped Into a friendly happy 3-year-old But made progress in the past three years since Hervey enrolled her in a special program offered by Sacramento City Unified School District The results have just been she said can read able to concentrate not long periods of time but able to Teachers are learning special techniques needed to help drug-exposed children learn said Lynn Lago-marsino city program specialist for special education Some preschoolers do well in a large open classroom but are fine in a smaller area enclosed by bookcases she said First-graders may have trouble concentrating on the assignments They may want to run around the room Their language skills may be lacking They sit by themselves in the cafeteria and pick at their food Insecure children may insist on holding a stuffed animal in class Lagomarsino said teachers are being trained to modify some classroom activities to address those problems What they improve is the home life of children who still live with drug-abusing parents Researchers are continuing to study the effects of a neglectful home Raske hopes to study another 1000 children in Sacramento County in the coming year The big question mark is if they are doing OK now are they going to continue to be OK" he said have come true for her daughter were more than ready for what came" she said been very fortunate She seems pretty Chasnoff said early intervention and treatment for the children with problems related to drug exposure have proven successful Such results are encouraging since an estimated 500000 children are exposed prenatally to cocaine and other illegal drugs each year in the United States Chasnoff said A statewide study of perinatal substance exposure in 1992 estimated that 1135 percent of all newborns or 69000 babies had been exposed to drugs or alcohol The same study found that Sacramento County had one of the highest rates of exposure to drugs and alcohol 15 percent of all births in 1992 Not all children born drug-exposed have done as well as Kelce Yvonne Hervey adopted two girls who now are 10 and 5 years old When she brought the first girl home at 6 weeks she refused to believe anything could be wrong with such a perfect baby was so smart But when she turned 3 she started going Hervey said When the neighbor children told her at age 7 that she was adopted she tried to set fire to the house She used a bottle until she was 8 She either acts like a baby or sasses her mother like an ill-humored teenager Hervey said TV: Affiliate shifts abound: (j I more ahead? Last December CBS also lost its share of the National Football League contract to Fox a loss that angered affiliates used to making millions off the NFL The NFL was worth $1 million per season to Channel bottom line which now stands to make some of it (but not all) back with Monday Night in prime time take some of the pain said Saunders There have been dramatic changes in the traditional affiliate-network relationship since May when the Fox Network in a deal with New World Communications Group added a dozen stations that had been affiliated with the other networks Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch called it greatest realignment of television station affiliations in the 60-year history of American Since then networks have plundered each station lineups either to fill vacancies or strength-' en their status in the major markets (top 30 or so) Said Malara: kinds of things as seen in your market are going to continue for a w- kT Continued from page A1 with CBS went to New York to see what our options said Rick Blangiardi Channel 13 vice president and general manager expect have very good numbers with CBS We come off feeling good about this Channel shift may have more to do with ABC solidifying its hold in the larger market of Dallas where WFAA an ABC affiliate is among the strongest stations in the country CBS seeking a VHF affiliate (channels 2-13) in Dallas after Fox raided its stations last May (CBS lost eight stations nationwide) the network had reportedly been talking to WFAA about switching from ABC ABC got wind that CBS was sniffing around WFAA it said bloody way said a source who asked not to be identified in the mood to switch anyway but Belo sees leverage and says we want ABC for Sacramento (ranked 19th in the country) ABC says make a deal and put this thing to bed for 10 years" Belo also announced Friday that it had signed 10-year deals with ABC for WFAA and WVEC in Hampton and Norfork Va While Saunders denied that Belo used WFAA as leverage he did say to WFAA with a longterm deal was certainly a smart thing to Channel 13 had rocked the Sacramento TV market in July by announcing it had signed veteran Channel 3 anchor Stan Atkinson to a long-term contract wait to come up to the network premiere party in Sacramento" said Tony Malara CBS president of affiliate relations want to have may picture taken with Stan Atkinson Man really impressed with anybody that can create that kind of coverage We pick up the No 1 news broadcaster in the While defection was the hot topic of conversation in Sacramento Channel 10 and Belo were quietly going about the business of acquiring the ABC affiliation I were going to switch take said Channel 3 owner Jon Kelly think Channel 10 got the edge The worst (audience demographic) in the business is CBS is very good and the nightly news on ABC is a better product than CBS i (i Harass: Attorney had other troubles Continued from page A1 gal giant could have stumbled in its handling of sensitive sexual harassment complaints and others qpio marvel at how easy it would be to stumble While law firms have counseled clients on the emerging field of harassment law the case has Highlighted how law firms may3be constricted in policing themselves by their partnership structure in which partners share profits and have a vested interest in protecting each other a very collegial cooperative philosophy that drives a partnership so within the context of that culture to have a conversation about his or her improper behavior i said Elizabeth Walsh Pino ombudsman for sexual harassment complaints at the Boston firm of Palmer Dodge the only such position in the na- ierarchical companies have an easier time she said because the structure affirms that it is proper for a manager to review a Review of a behavior is all the more difficult when the partner like the 49-year-old Greettstein is called a someone who brings in sizable billings In case his intellectual property practice in Palo Alto-and Chicago brought in $615000 in 1990 The firm with 1700 lawyers 500 partners and offices in 30 countries had gross revenue of $512 million in 1993 Greenstein resigned from the firm in October 1993'just before a meeting in which he was going to be expelled from the partnership grounds were not sexual harassment but professional that had to do with alleged backdating of legal documents Events leading up to the trial began in August 1991 when Weeks 40 a neophyte legal secretary and Greenstein 49 walked together to the parking lot of a Sizzler restaurant after a group lunch near the Palo Alto of- fice According to Weeks Greenstein grabbed her breast while dropping candies in the pocket of her blouse Then he held her arms behind her back 6he Friday with her lawyer Philip Kay after a Jury awarded her $50000 Crime: 2400 applications for cop funds stead of prisons for youthful offenders and other programs aimed at youths Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said the federal money will help him accomplish his goal of hiring 4000 more police officers over the next five years perhaps doing so sooner than anticipated Some mayors expressed appreciation to Clinton for the ban on 19 types of assault-style weapons a provision pushed by Sen Dianne Feinstein D-Calif Refer- ring to this section Mayor Eman-1 uel Cleaver II of Kansas City thanked Clinton the fact that you pardon the pun stuck to your on the assault weapon ban in the office kitchen reached down her blouse and asked her you wearing a black bra?" Afterward she said she left threw her key to the office in a trash bin and never returned to work Carlsen testified that Greenstein had asked her if she wanted to get a social disease Other complaints include those of Melinda Faier a 1988 associate at the Chicago office who said Greenstein crawled under a table to tickle her feet threw pencils at her chest wrote her a lewd note and said he found her weekend office attire of shorts and tank top sexually arousing The firm said it responded swiftly to each complaint while it did not know whether Greenstein had indeed sexually harassed the women After complaint Robert Cunningham who was the chairman of the Chicago office said he the riot to Greenstein And after Weeks filed her complaint the firm sent Greenstein to two sessions of counseling which were held at his home said and pushed her chest forward and asked which breast was larger Greenstein denies that account He testified that 6he held the pocket of her blouse open while he delicately dropped in the By October Weeks had left the firm after working there three months After her departure she filed a sexual harassment complaint Her complaint brought forward the complaints of other women including two anonymous secretaries in the Chicago office an associate at the Chicago office and six secretaries at the San Francisco or Palo Alto offices from 1987 through 1991 Six of the women testified at the trial In his deposition preceding the case Greenstein denied harassing any of the women But at the trial after watching the testimony of two secretaries Elyce Zahn and Twila Carlsen he said that he believed what they Baid and he must have done it although he had no recollection of it Zahn testified that Greenstein had approached her from behind I certain to grow larger with new sentencing guidelines About 40 states are under court orders to ease prison overcrowding and 30000 violent criminals convicted in state courts were released last year without spending a day behind bars More prisons also will be needed because of the crime strikes and provision which requires life sentences for those convicted a third time in federal court of a violent crime or drug offense No new taxes are needed to pay for the legislation The entire $302 billion is to come from a special trust fund fed by planned cuts in the federal bureaucracy of 250000 positions over the next several years At the insistence of some Republicans and conservative Demo-crats a number of crime prevention programs were stripped from the bill to guarantee its passage But a section that remained earmarks $20 million the first year for military-style campij" in Continued from page A1 president would sign it after Labor Day when he returns from a vacation at Vineyard in Massachusetts Congress has yet to appropriate the $302 billion in spending authorized by the crime measure But to help the government hit the ground running Justice Department officials are to begin distributing by October $200 million in previously appropriated funds The money was approved by Congress last year for police hiring for the fiscal year starting Oct 1 Justice Department officials said they already have more than 2400 applications pending for new police hires Besides the matching funds for police the crime bill includes $98 billion in grants and matching funds for construction of more prison space and reimbursement to states for the incarceration of undocumented immigrants The US inmate population now is about 14 million up 55 percent from about 900000 in 1987 and Setting It Strasght Country singer Steve concert at the California State Fair will take place at 8 tonight The date was listed incorrectly in a Btory in Ticket.