Latest news with #Paskett
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Many unaware of links between HPV, cancer, poll finds
Many Americans remain unaware of the cancer risk for both men and women posed by human papillomavirus, a new Ohio State University poll has found. Most people don't know much about HPV and its long-term cancer risks, and also have key misperceptions about how the virus is spread, the poll found. For example, the majority of people are unaware that the virus is more common among men than women, and is associated with rising rates of cancers that directly impact men. Instead, people still see HPV as mostly associated with cervical cancer risk in women, and shrug off the importance of vaccination for men, results show. This lack of awareness might explain why HPV vaccination rates have been slow to increase, researchers said. "We have a vaccine that has been shown to reduce the risk of HPV infection by up to 90%," Electra Paskett, a cancer control researcher with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a news release. "This is a powerful tool for cancer prevention that has only been available to us in the past few decades, and we are seeing the impact of those vaccines now through the scientific data," she added. The federal Healthy People 2030 goals call for at least 80% of teens to be vaccinated against HPV by the end of the decade, according to the National Cancer Institute. But only about 57% of boys and 61% of girls have gotten the HPV vaccine, the NCI says. For the survey, Ohio State researchers asked people if they agree or disagree with basic statements about HPV. Responses showed an astonishing lack of knowledge. For example, about 42% of people believe HPV is more common in women than in men, the poll found. "This is concerning because more men are infected with HPV than women and they could unknowingly spread it to their partners," Paskett said. Likewise, nearly half of respondents (45%) didn't know that HPV is linked to cancers other than cervical cancer in women. In fact, HPV does cause more than 9 out of every 10 cases of cervical cancer, but the virus also causes cancers of the penis, anus, head and neck among men, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 4 out of every 10 cases of cancer caused by HPV occur among men, the CDC says. Every year, more than 15,000 American men develop cancers caused by HPV. There also have been rapidly rising rates of HPV-related tonsil and tongue base cancers, noted Dr. Matthew Old, a head and neck surgeon with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. These cancers could become one of the top three cancers among middle-aged U.S. men 45 to 65 by 2045, and the most common cancer in elderly men in the next 10 years, recent estimates suggest. In the new survey, 40% of poll respondents believed that people with HPV have symptoms. In truth, HPV infections are largely silent for years, with symptoms developing only after the virus has caused cancer. "It can take years or even decades for the genetic changes caused by HPV to take effect and transform into cancer," Old said in a news release. CDC stats show that the vaccine has been effective in cutting down on HPV since its approval for girls in 2006 and subsequent approval for boys in 2009. Infections with the HPV strains that cause most cancers have dropped 88% among teen girls and 81% among young adult women, the CDC says. HPV is sexually transmitted, and once someone is infected there are no drugs that will rid them of the virus, experts said. The HPV vaccine, Gardasil 9, is recommended between ages 9 and 12 for maximum effectiveness, prior to potential exposure, Paskett said. However, she added that the vaccine also is now available to adults up to age 45. "Many who are unvaccinated unknowingly carry and spread high-risk strains of the virus," Old said. "That's why vaccination is so important." More information SOURCE: Ohio State University, news release, March 4, 2025 Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Meridian mom says her 3-year-old was assaulted at a gym. No one told her for months
Amber Paskett had worked at Axiom Fitness in Meridian for roughly three months when she witnessed what she said was a 3-year-old girl being sexually assaulted by another young child in the gym's child care center. Paskett told the Idaho Statesman that she reported the incident to her supervisor. She said gym management later assured her that the girl's mother had been informed of what happened and had asked that the matter be kept 'private.' So Paskett was confused when, week after week, the mother continued to bring her daughter to the child care center. Paskett said five months had passed when she ran into the mother while working out one day in November. Paskett said the mother mentioned how safe she felt with her daughter at the gym, and it dawned on her that the mother didn't know about the incident after all. Paskett decided to tell her. The mother told the Statesman that Paskett's revelation made her 'physically ill.' Now the Meridian Police Department is investigating the alleged assault, according to police records obtained by the Statesman. Paskett was fired and is pursuing retaliation claims. And the mother has been left to deal with the emotional fallout of the incident on herself and her daughter. She says she does not want the child who allegedly assaulted her daughter punished but seeks to hold the gym accountable for failing to report what happened to her or the authorities for nearly half a year. The gym was one of four Axiom Fitness centers in the area until California-based Villa Sport Fitness bought the local chain in 2022, though the new owners did not rebrand the gym until roughly two months ago. Villa Sport declined to comment for this story. The Statesman is identifying the mother only by her middle name, Rae, to protect the identity of her daughter. When Rae first brought her 3-year old daughter to the Axiom gym at the corner of Meridian and Overland roads, she said, she was nervous to make sure that her daughter would be safe. The Meridian mom had previously used another Axiom gym at The Village at Meridian, where she said she was horrified one day when she learned that her daughter and another young child had wandered out of the child care center and down a flight of stairs, and were found unattended by the gym exit. After moving to the Meridian Road gym in May, Rae told managers about her concerns. She told the Statesman in a phone interview that they assured her that her daughter would be well taken care of. Around that time, Paskett, a new employee, was starting to question how the gym's child care center was being managed. Paskett, who previously worked as a state-licensed nanny, told the Statesman she witnessed multiple incidents that left her deeply concerned, and she noticed gym staff and administrators responding in ways she felt were 'dishonest.' When an infant showed signs of a spinal injury after being placed in an upright bouncer, Paskett said, her supervisor opted not to tell the infant's parents. The supervisor told Paskett, 'When they get home, if they see something's wrong, they'll take her to the hospital,' according to a statement Paskett filed with Meridian police. Paskett said these incidents and the way her managers responded made her distrustful of the gym. 'I kind of already felt like stuff was being swept under the rug,' Paskett told the Statesman by phone. She relied on the child care center to look after her own daughter while she worked, but after the play-structure incident, 'I felt uncomfortable leaving my daughter there,' she wrote in her statement to police. On June 10 — only a few weeks after Rae started bringing her daughter to the gym — Paskett saw a young boy acting 'inappropriately' toward the 3-year-old and being 'very handsy,' according to Paskett's police statement. Though Paskett tried to 'correct' the behavior, she reported that she saw the boy approach the girl from behind, pull down her pants and underwear, and attempt to stick a toy into the girl's buttocks and anal area. Paskett later told the Statesman she was 'in shock' but helped separate the children. The boy was removed from the room by his mother, another employee, according to Paskett. Paskett said she believed the boy was 5 years old. Minutes later, Rae arrived to pick up her daughter, Paskett said. No one mentioned the incident to her. A day or so later, Paskett said, she reported the incident to her supervisor, who brought her to the gym's general manager. Paskett said that she then filed a written incident report to the general manager, and that over the next week she asked several times if the managers had reached out to the girl's mother. She threatened to quit and inform the mother herself, she said. 'As a parent, I would want to know,' Paskett told the Statesman. Eventually, managers told Paskett that they had informed the mother, who had asked that 'nobody mention it,' according to Paskett. Paskett said she continued to see Rae come into the gym with her daughter for the next five months before she began to suspect that the mother still didn't know about the incident. 'If they fire me, they fire me,' Paskett told the Statesman, recalling the moment she decided to tell Rae. 'She has every right to know.' Rae told the Statesman that after hearing from Paskett what had happened to her daughter, she confronted gym management that day and demanded to see the gym's video footage of the incident. According to an audio recording of the conversation between Rae, her husband, and gym managers that Rae provided to the Statesman, the general manager, Jeff Bruns, said he reviewed video footage when the incident was reported to him. 'I don't know exactly what the employee said, but I do remember statements being put in, us putting a lot of effort into it, sending it off to make sure we had multiple eyes on it,' Bruns said. 'And there was no evidence of any type of sexual assault. 'If there was, you would have known. We would have told you.' Bruns also said in the audio recording that he informed his superiors at owner Villa Sport's national office and spoke with the mother of the boy. According to the recording, neither Bruns nor Annie Ostolasa, Villa Sport's national vice president of operations, were able to locate within their digital records the incident report Paskett said she filed to Bruns detailing the assault. But Bruns did show Rae and her husband the video. After reviewing almost four hours of footage, Rae said, she and her husband recognized immediately the moment she believes her daughter was assaulted. 'This is exactly what (Paskett) said happened,' Rae told Bruns when they reached footage showing 11:09 a.m. on June 10, according to the audio recording. She told Bruns the footage matched what Paskett told her 'word for word.' 'It's not very clear,' Bruns said on the audio recording. The Statesman reviewed the video and confirmed, from what was visible through the camera angle, what appeared to be the boy grabbing the girl's pants from behind and thrusting the toy toward her. Rae later told the Statesman by phone that the gym took 'zero accountability' for the incident. 'They went into cover-up mode,' she said. On Nov. 16, a day after seeing the video, Rae reported the incident to the Meridian Police Department. She told the Statesman that she detailed both the assault and the gym's failure to report it. She also told police that Paskett told her she had 'completed an incident report and passed it on to her supervisor,' according to a copy of the police report. The next day, Nov. 17, Paskett made a statement to the police, reporting three incidents she said she witnessed at the gym, including the one involving Rae's daughter and the one with the infant placed in an upright bouncer, according to a copy of the statement that Paskett shared with the Statesman. A few days later, Paskett said, she was called into a meeting with a member of the gym's human resources department. Paskett said the employee showed her the video and asked her to explain her actions. 'They were trying really hard to flip it on me,' Paskett told the Statesman. 'They tried to tell me that my body language was laughing.' Paskett denied laughing and said she put her hand over her mouth 'because it was shock.' A week and a half later, Paskett said, she was called into another meeting with the human resources employee. According to an audio recording Paskett made of the meeting, the employee said Paskett had 'created gossip' by speaking to Rae and to other employees. 'What we have now is parents and members who, with your help, and quite frankly, as a result of the conversation that you had with (Rae), (are) convinced that the company mismanaged the incident and mismanaged the care of their child,' the employee said. 'And that's not true.' Paskett said she had been told falsely that the mother had been informed. She said she felt 'lied to' by her managers. 'We cannot corroborate that,' the employee responded. The employee asked Paskett if she still felt she belonged at Villa Sport. 'Yeah,' Paskett responded. 'We do not feel the same,' the employee said. 'Today will be your last day with the company.' According to the copy of the police incident report Rae provided to the Statesman, the police logged her complaint as an allegation of lewd conduct with a minor, a felony under Idaho Code 18-1508. The copy, which Rae received through a public-records request, did not mention any allegations against the gym, though it was heavily redacted and excluded nine pages on the grounds that the case is under investigation. Rae told the Statesman that she has no desire to see criminal charges pursued against the boy, and she did not request any. She said she is more concerned with 'the adults' at the gym 'who watched my kid and failed to disclose a crime.' According to emails to Rae from the police, as of Nov. 30, no detective had been assigned to the investigation. On Dec. 22, in another email, Meridian Police Officer Shane Beaston told Rae that the department 'did some follow up' but that, 'The report is now inactive with no further investigation.' Beaston also wrote that the department conducted a home check on the boy, with 'no concerns.' But the department's public information officer, Jordan Robinson, told the Statesman in an email Jan. 9 that Meridian police are 'aware of the situation and have an investigation going.' Robinson did not specify whether the police were investigating allegations that the gym failed to report the incident. Responding to follow-up questions on Jan. 13, Robinson declined to 'provide additional details,' noting, 'Cases in the investigative phase must remain confidential to protect their integrity.' 'Our detectives are dedicated to thoroughly investigating every case and ensuring that the appropriate resolution is achieved based on the facts and evidence,' Robinson wrote. When asked why the case was reportedly inactive on Dec. 22 but active as of Jan. 9, Robinson declined to comment and directed the Statesman to the city's public records portal. After receiving her partially denied records request, Rae followed up with Beaston on Jan. 30, asking if the case had been reopened. Beaston replied the same day, saying the case had been reopened only a day earlier and assigned to a detective. According to Shawna Dunn, the chief criminal deputy for the Ada County Prosecutor's Office, 'There are practical and logical limitations of how young of an offender will be charged.' In an email to the Statesman, Dunn cited Idaho Code Section 20-520, which says that no offender under age 10 may receive consequences in the form of detention, making it 'generally impractical to charge kids under that age,' she wrote. J.W. Bond, a juvenile attorney in Boise, told the Statesman that in most juvenile cases, including felony allegations, police will conduct an investigation and then present information to the prosecutor's office, often without making an arrest. The prosecutor's office can decide the best course of action. According to the prosecutor's office, that course tends to focus on treatment. 'For kids younger than 10, and for many kids older than 10, law enforcement, the schools, the Bridge and Ada County Juvenile Court Services all provide various types of diversion or treatment-focused programs which can be helpful in these circumstances,' Dunn said. 'In some circumstances the Department of Health and Welfare may also be involved and offer certain kinds of programming to both kids.' The Bridge is an Ada County youth and family resource center providing early intervention services like behavioral screenings to 'keep youth out of, or prevent further involvement in, the juvenile justice and child welfare systems,' according to its website. AJ McWhorter, a public information officer for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, told the Statesman in an email that, 'in a case where there is an incident between two young children the question for child welfare would be if the parents were providing appropriate supervision to those children to ensure those incidents did not reoccur or continue.' McWhorter said he could not comment on specific cases. It is still unclear whether Meridian police are investigating the gym for failing to report the incident with Rae's daughter, as the only police documentation the Statesman has obtained classifies the incident as alleged lewd conduct. Rae told the Statesman she felt confused and frustrated when police suggested that gym employees seem to sit in a 'loophole' where they are not required to report. Robinson, however, told the Statesman that gym employees are considered mandatory reporters of child abuse under Idaho law, along with all other adults in the state. The Department of Health and Welfare confirmed the same. Under Idaho law, failing to report suspected child abuse to the police or the health department within 24 hours is considered a criminal misdemeanor. The law applies to any suspected victims under age 18 and includes reports of 'conditions or circumstances that would reasonably result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect.' In a Feb. 4 email from Meridian Detective Thomas Erickson to Rae, Erickson wrote that the case 'was reopened to take a further look to see if there were any additional incidents with other potential victims.' 'Ultimately, it will be closed to file,' Erickson continued. 'We just want to make sure we are covering all our bases. At this point no further contact with the gym has been made,' because the mother of the young boy is no longer an employee of the gym, he said. Rae said she is concerned by what feels like a lack of transparency. 'I'm not getting the same answers, straight answers,' she said. On Feb. 5, Erickson told Rae in a text message that he had found 'another report' filed at the Villa Sport child care center regarding another alleged sexual incident involving different children — months before the incident involving Rae's daughter. He messaged Rae that he would be 'forwarding the two reports to the department of licensing.' The Statesman was unable to determine which department the detective was referring to. Unlike traditional child care centers, gym child care centers are not typically licensed or regulated in Idaho, according to IdahoStars, an organization funded by the Department of Health and Welfare. The organization is tasked with evaluating whether child care centers have met licensing requirements. McWhorter confirmed that gym child care centers are not licensed, because they provide 'occasional care exclusively for children of parents who are simultaneously in the same building,' an exemption laid out in Idaho Code 39-1103. Licensed child care centers must pass fire, safety and health inspections. Employees must undergo background checks, obtain first aid and CPR certifications, and 'receive annual training about health, safety, and quality in child care,' the IdahoStars website says. An IdahoStars employee told the Statesman by phone that the training requirement is for eight hours and that state licenses are good for two years. McWhorter told the Statesman in an email that the training must cover health and safety and behavior management and support, and that licensed providers must 'certify that they will not harm, shake, or abuse children, and that children in their care will not experience maltreatment.' Training and policies can vary among unregulated gym child care centers. Paskett told the Statesman that when she was hired by Villa Sport while the gym was still branded Axiom, she completed an online video training that included a section on how to recognize signs of child abuse. She recalls that the video instructed employees to inform their managers if they observe such signs, and the managers would reach out to law enforcement. Rae said she wants other parents to know that gym child care centers are not held to the same regulatory standards as other day care centers, which can create 'a false sense of security.' Rae told the Statesman that her attorney, Mark Nicolarsen of Boise, reached out to Villa Sport but has received no response. She said she wants to sue. Nicolarsen told the Statesman in a text message that he is 'looking into potential civil claims.' Paskett, meanwhile, told the Statesman that she is still unemployed and saddled with credit card debt as she attempts to keep up with her bills. Paskett said she is looking for work but finding it is 'difficult' to do while caring for her 14-month-old daughter. She said she is too afraid to send her daughter to day care. 'I'm kind of scarred,' she said. Paskett, who said she was abused as a child, said she has 'nightmares' about her time at Villa Sport and that she still cannot drive down Meridian Road past the gym. She filed a complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration alleging retaliation by her former employer. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor told the Statesman in an email, 'As a policy, we do not confirm or deny whistleblower complaints or identities of the complainants.' Paskett also said she reported the incidents to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and asked that it conduct a wellness check on the boy, noting her concern for the boy's well-being. Rae told the Statesman that the incident has also taken a toll on her and her family. 'It's sickening,' she said, noting she has struggled to sleep and to 'pick up the pieces.' She said she and her daughter have been in therapy since learning about the incident. She said her biggest concern is the gym's failure to inform her, which she added left her daughter without any support or resources for five months. 'So here's my poor, little baby thinking that this is OK,' Rae said. 'You didn't even let me comfort her, get her help, because all you cared about was saving your own a—. 'You took that from me.' ——— If you suspect that a child is experiencing abuse or neglect in Idaho, you are required by law to reach out to the Department of Health and Welfare or law enforcement. Several organizations in the Treasure Valley offer services and resources for victims of child abuse and sexual assault, including Faces of Hope, which offers free crisis intervention services to men, women, and children from its office at 209 W. Main St. in Boise. The Ada County Victim's Service Center provides free medical care and forensic examinations for victims, as well as assistance with filing police reports and mental health care. The center is located at 417 S. 6th St. in Boise, next to St. Luke's CARES, or Children at Risk Evaluation Services, which provides youth-specific services and resources including medical evaluations. Taylor Marschner, a public relations coordinator with St. Luke's, offered the following advice if a child discloses abuse: DO: Remain calm. Believe the child. Allow the child to talk. Show interest and concern. Be mindful of conversations about the alleged abuse around the child. Reassure and support the child. Take action and report the abuse. DON'T: Panic or overreact. Press the child to talk. Promise anything you can't control. Confront the offender. Blame or minimize the child's feelings. Overwhelm the child with questions. The Idaho Sexual Offender Management Board also has resources, including treatment for individuals who may have committed sexual offenses. The board also partners with the Women's and Children's Alliance and the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. The Bridge provides additional support for youths in Ada County. Boise police hired Meridian officer amid 'use of force' investigation. Then this happened 'It's horrific.' Young man faces trial after Meridian officer presses knee into his neck Accused of killing stranger on Vegas street, 18-year-old Meridian student dies in jail 'Reprehensible:' Ex-Nampa School District employee sent to prison for possessing child porn
