MANSFIELD — Stephanie Finoti began a career in health care at the age of 16.
Crowned Miss Ohio in June 2024, Finoti first worked in a nursing home before shifting to adult care and ultimately landing in pediatrics.
“When I went into pediatrics, something that I had to learn to do, aside from just my job and my job duties, was that I had to be a mandated reporter,” Finoti said Wednesday.
“As a mandated reporter, you have to be aware of the signs and symptoms of abuse so you truly understand whether the story of where the injury occurred is true or if the injury occurred by a family member,” she said.
Finoti, along with several Richland County leaders, spoke to staff and residents of The Waterford at Mansfield on Wednesday morning as part of Child Abuse Prevention Month.
She encouraged everyone to watch for signs of child abuse because children have a more difficult time speaking up for themselves.
“Children are afraid to speak out against their parents,” Finoti said.
“That’s who they grew up knowing was their protector and sometimes their protector may be suffering from some kind of mental illness and they’re not able to truly be that protector for their child and instead they harm their child,” she said.
‘It shouldn’t be, but it is’
Long-time community activist Doc Stumbo was pleased to see a room full of blue.
Wear Blue Day occurred Wednesday to spread awareness on the important issues of child abuse, neglect and dependency. Several Waterford staff members and residents participated in the statewide initiative.
“It (child abuse) shouldn’t be, but it is,” Stumbo said. “We’re here to bring awareness out about child abuse.”
Richland County Children Services Executive Director Tara Lautzenhiser said more than 1,100 cases of child abuse, neglect and dependency were investigated by RCCS last year.
Anyone can contact the agency’s Child Abuse Report Hotline 24-hours a day, seven days a week by phone at 419-774-4100.
RCCS is currently working to develop a child advocacy center, Lautzenhiser said.
“We’re hoping (it) will be completely in place in a couple of months,” she said.
“That’s a place where children who have sexual abuse concerns can go and it’s kind of a one-stop place that they can be interviewed, seen medically and then also law enforcement, counseling, any kind of services, advocacy, will be in just that one place for those victims,” the executive director said.
(Below are photos from Wednesday’s Child Abuse Prevention Month at The Waterford at Mansfield. Photos of the blue pinwheels were taken on the front lawn of the YMCA of North Central Ohio – Mansfield branch,750 Scholl Road. The pinwheels represent every report of child abuse and neglect received in Richland County by RCCS last year.)
Everyone ‘has a role’ to help prevent child abuse
Richland County Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher said the words “community” and “team” are interchangeable.
“Just like a team, your community is only going to be as strong as its weakest links,” Schumacher said Wednesday. “Within that team or within that community, each one of us members has a role.”
The prosecutor said the community’s children represent its future. But when children become victims of abuse, it can cause them to “lose hope.”
“They (children) lose that feeling that they’re loved,” Schumacher said. “They become confused with whether or not they really matter.
“I ask you to stand up, stand arm-in-arm with the prosecutor’s office, Richland County Children Services, Doc Stumbo and The Waterford and stand up against child abuse,” she said.
