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Toledo native helped push JOBS Act

By
Caitlin McGlade
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Reagan McKee Anderson

Viewers who caught President Barack Obama on television signing the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act a couple of weeks ago were watching the culmination of a year’s worth of work for a native Toledoan.

Reagan McKee Anderson, vice president of governmental affairs for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), grew up in South Toledo. Now she is a mainstay on Capitol Hill, lobbying for business advancement.

“What it comes down to is me being able to take rather complex issues relating to the financial services industry and you’ve got five minutes to explain something to a member of Congress,” Anderson said.

She harnessed that skill to push pieces of the act that the NYSE prioritized. One bill, the Onramp for Emerging Growth Companies, allows companies seeking to go public up to five years to comply with regulations such as a portion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that includes a requirement mandating an auditor’s attestation report on internal controls.

The bill also allows companies to provide reduced executive compensation disclosures, lifting a restriction within the Dodd-Frank Act.

The other bill, the Small Company CapitalFormation Act of 2011, permits companies to raise up to $50 million in public markets without registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The present limit is $5 million.

Anderson said this amount was so small that companies were not using it and she sees the new bill as an opportunity for business to “test the waters” before they launch an initial public offering.

The act passed 73 to 26 in the Senate andObama signed it April 5. Dissenters have argued that the bills lift the reins on transparency, enabling less disclosure is risky for investorsand
that soliciting the public for private investments could lead to more fraud. Anderson, however, is pleased with the act.

“It was such a great honor to be in the Rose Garden, standing next to the CEO of the stock exchange, a company that is recognized around the world, and to watch the president sign into law something I’ve worked on every day for the past year,” she said.

Anderson didn’t always see herself as a future stock exchange expert. She graduated from Notre Dame Academy in 1995 and attended Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism for a magazine journalism degree.

After briefly working for a public relations firm in Toledo that no longer exists, Andersonmoved to Georgia to assume the role of director of congressional affairs for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.

After completing nearly four years of work there, she became a legislative assistant for Mel Martinez, then U.S. Senator from Florida. She served as his liaison for the Senate banking committee. About a year and a half after she started that job, she took a position at Fannie Mae for two and a half years, followed by an associate vice president position at the Private Equity Council.

She has worked for the NYSE since 2009.

Anderson said being a strong writer was helpful to her entire career.
“I knew in college I was interested in journalism because I love to write,” she said. “You have to be able to write.”

Amid the commutes from New York and D.C., the long hours traipsing around Capitol Hill and the various Congresspeople and legislative staff members with whom she wrangles on a daily basis, she has not forgotten Toledo.

Anderson doesn’t come home enough, she said. But when she does, she always hits Grumpy’s in Downtown Toledo.

“I just feel like the pace of life here in D.C. is so fast; it is so political and in Toledo you cango out to dinner with some people and have real
lives,” she said. “They don’t live in this bubble of D.C. people and are doing much more interesting things than what we’re doing here.”

Anderson grew up in south Toledo.

“Taking our dog for a walk in Walbridge Park and going to Wixey was like heaven,” she said.

Retirement guys: Two strategies to implement in good markets

By
Mark Clair & Nolan Baker
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Many investors are starting to get their investment statements for the fi rst quarter of 2012. Have you opened your own statement yet? If not, go ahead, it’s probably good news.

Wow, what an incredible start to the year the stock market had!
The S&P 500 gained 12.6 percent (total return) during the first quarter of 2012. The last time the stock index gained at least 10 percent in the first quarter was 1998.
(source: BTN Research).

Two strategies the average investor can learn from the past to make smart financial decisions about the future are to rebalance and avoid chasing performance.

The problem for many investors is that when everything appears to be going well, it is easy to become complacent or worse yet, to chase performance. Remember, the past is history, it’s done and over with. Instead, apply what has been learned from the past to making better investment decisions in the future.

Investments that went up recently already went up, and that doesn’t mean those investmentswill keep going up in the future. Remember how good technology stocks
were in the late ’90s before the 2000 crash? Or how easy it appeared to be to make money in real estate in 2007, before the 2008 crash? Mark Twain once said, “History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot.”

If history continues to repeat itself, the stock market could do greatthe rest of this year. According to www.seasonalcharts.com, from 1900 through 2004 an election year has historically been a good year in the stock market. Further supporting a strong stock market in election years according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the S&P 500 has risen in the
final seven months in 13 of the past 15 presidential elections years since 1950.

Plus, overall, the stock market is still at a discount compared to its all-time high. As of March 30, the S&P 500 iscurrently 11 percent under its all-time
closing high of 1,565 on Oct. 9, 2007 (source BTN Research).

We hope history repeats itself this year and the stock market keeps going up.

We recommend two strategies to follow even when the market is good.

First, investors should remember to rebalance their accounts in all markets. Rebalancing is the process of selling investments that have outperformed and buying investments that have under-performed to reset the allocation of the overall portfolio back to the original plan. This is an important but hard-to-follow strategy of buying low and selling high. Stick  with this disciplined investment approach, even when emotions say
otherwise.

The emotional battle the average equity investor may be having right now is: Why change when everything seems to be making money?

One easy way to remove emotions and accomplish rebalancing in a portfolio is to set it up on an automatic change cycle, such as monthly, quarterly or yearly. This could help the average investor keep the plan on autopilot.

Another option is to rebalance when the desired asset allocation changes beyond a set point. For example, an investor who starts with 50 percent stocks and 50 percent bonds, may need to rebalance if stocks get more than 60 percent and bonds are now only 40 percent. This approach involves keeping a closer eye on the asset allocation of the plan to help determine when it’s time to rebalance.

Second, avoid chasing performance results. We have heard over the years people say “Things look betternow so I’m ready to buy,” or, “Look how good that investment has done recently, shouldn’t I buy that?”

That is a good question, but we suggest that you step back for a minute before buying any investment. Is that the right strategy? Ask yourself, have the individual investment goals changed?

A conservative investor, who changes investments and gets much more aggressive after seeing results already go up, can dramatically increase risk.

Instead of making major changes, consider making gradual changes.

Although last year’s top performing investments could be winners again this year and next, remember that at other times the best performing investments of last year turn out to be the worst performing investments the following year. Prime examples are the technology stocks before and after 2000 and the financial and real estate stocks before and aft er 2008.

Instead, try and focus more on long-term investing based upon your own individual goals and objectives, and less on other short-term results. Chasing results can be like being the last one to show up to a party, realizing too late the party is going to end.

✯
For more information about Th e Retirement Guys, tune in every Saturday at 1 p.m. on 1370 WSPD or visit www.retirementguysradio.com. Securities and Investment Advisory Services are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC. NEXT Financial Group, Inc. does not provide tax or legal advice. The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. The office is at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537. (419) 842-0550.

Rathbun: Prices and earnings

By
Gary Rathbun
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Last week on the WSPD radio show “Eye on Your Money,” I received a call asking about the relationship between the price of a stock and the earnings of the company and why this is so important.

The question made me realize that I sometimes take for granted the technical aspect of investing and think everyone knows all the terms and definitions.

The price of a stock and the earnings of the underlying company have a very important relationship that will help you make the decision whether to invest or not. Actually, it is the ratio of the earnings to the price of the stock, or the P/E ratio, that is important.

One of the most popular stocks is Apple (AAPL) and it is priced today (late April 2012) at $560 a share, which is 16 times annual earnings. Another way of looking atthe same ratio is that it will take Apple 16 years at current earnings to equal today’s price of $560.

This may sound like a long time,but historically a P/E ratio of 16 is not considered too bad, especially considering this is a technology company. IBM, long considered the blue chip of blue chip stocks, trades at just under 15 times earnings.

If more people would have stuck to only investing in companies with low P/E ratios, no one would have been burned during the dot-com bubble. I remember some stocks were trading at 600 times earnings; that’s 600 years of earnings to justify the price of the stock. That is a long time.

Many of the dot-com companies didn’t have any earnings at all but people kept buying and the stock kept going up. What we commonly call “irrational exuberance.”

Getting back to a reasonable P/E ratio, it has been my experience that any stock trading at less than 17 or 18 is worth looking at, along with other fundamentals of the company.

ConocoPhillips, for example, is trading atless than 8 P/E. Compared to Apple, this looks like it should be twice as good an investment but you have to take into consideration the industry. Technology is more volatile than energy. Everyone needs energy but not everyone needs an iPad.

Another important fundamental in looking into a stock is the volume. It is important that a stock have sufficient volume to create the liquidity needed to keep the price from being too volatile.

If a stock is thinly traded and you wish to purchase or, more importantly, sell a large amount of shares, your trade could cause a serious price swing.

I have personally had this happen many years ago, once on the purchase side and once on the sell side. From that point on I set my price — either selling or buying — and if I don’t get my price I don’t do the trade.

A lot of volume during the day will make these trades less troublesome and ensure you that you will buy what you want at the price you have set.

Over the next several columns we will look at some of the different fundamentals that are important as well as take a look at some of the technical chart indicators to look for when evaluating a stock.

The market is an irrational animal regardless of the research you do and the cautions you take. There are always “black swans” out there that no one can see coming.

Regulation is always another important aspect to consider when looking at a particular company. Do you want to invest in a company that is in the regulatory sights of Congress? How about a drug company that is trying to get a new drug approved by the FDA?

Many variables go into evaluating a stock; you should learn which are important to you and stick to them when deciding what to invest in. ✯

Gary L. Rathbun is the president and CEO of Private Wealth Consultants, LTD. 

Better Business Bureau hosts Secure Your ID Day

By
Brigitta Burks
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The Better Business Bureau (BBB) in Northwestern Ohio and Southeastern Michigan invites area residents to safely shred any documents with pertinent information on them
at Secure Your ID Day on April 21, 2012.

Patrons can bring three boxes or bags of documents to the event for free shredding. Once unloaded, AccuShred, LLC and AllShred Services, Inc. will be on site to shred the documents — a process customers can watch.

Some of the documents recommended for shredding so they don’t get in the wrong hands include credit card bills, credit card applications, mortgage applications, correspondence with attorneys, medical paperwork and any other legal or banking paperwork.
BBB Secure Your ID Day is 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 21, 2012, at the Sears parking lot, 3408 W. Central Ave., Toledo.

‘Track meet’ set to commemorate, extend aid to teachers and students

By
Caitlin McGlade
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After having rushed to countless scenes to help people in the snares of tragedy, two Toledo-area residents became victims.
Charlie Adair, 45, and Ron Lumbrezer, 64, were both struck by cars and killed last year.
Adair, a volunteer firefighter, had stopped to assist crews in a car crash Oct. 28 when a passing vehicle struck her.
Lumbrezer was hit Jan. 11, 2011 while he was crossing the road in front of his house.
Lumbrezer’s son, R.J., and Adair’s husband, Craig, planned a community track meet April 29 at Holy Trinity School. Tickets are $5, or 5 for $20, for a full day of dashes, runs, relays and mother/daughter and father/son competitions. There will be tug of war, baseball
throwing and hitting competitions, a corn hole tournament and a foul shooting contest.
Various fire departments will also play a tug of war for donations to their department and the Charlie Adair and Ron Lumbrezer Memorial Fund.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Department will attend to fingerprint kids and the North Star BHP Steel company will discuss safety and demonstrate to children the differences between candy and medicine.
“It’s not just a track meet,” Craig Adair said. “It’s more a family get-together and have fun day and that’s what she would always want to do.”
Following Adair’s love for children and involvement with the Holy Trinity, the memorial fund will be split up among scholarships for students and teachers.
Present or future students who need financial help to attend the school will be eligible for scholarships from 75 percent of the memorial fund. The other 25 percent will go toward a teacher’s assistance fund, R.J. Lumbrezer said.
Adair taught sixth grade, coached volleyball and helped struggling kids get through their homework in tutoring sessions. She had started talking about wanting to become a volunteer firefighter in 2001.
Always known for getting things done, Adair made it happen a few years later. She was a volunteer firefighter for about six years, Craig said.
“If there was more of her in the world it would be a lot better place,” he said.
Lumbrezer also had a history of serving. He was in the National Guard and also the Metamora Fire Department years ago. He then worked in the insurance business for more than 40 years, starting with Prudential and later owning and operating Lumbrezer-Malone Insurance Agency until 2008.
He served musical tastes too. Lumbrezer played guitar in his band Sound Garden for 25 years. The group played covers of many genres, including country, pop
and rock, for weddings and other formal events. They also played for square dancers.
R.J. said the funeral was packed, with a two-and-a-half-hour wait to see the casket.
“He was very well-liked,” he said. “He was very good with people and it didn’t matter who you are, Dad could identify with you regardless of social differences on any end of the scale.”

April 22 Yell & Tell rally places focus on child abuse

By
Brigitta Burks
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When Yell & Tell: Stop Child Abuse Now, Inc. had its first rally in 2004, founder Pamela Crabtree wasn’t sure it’d ever have another. However, years later, the organization is planning its ninth rally.

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re not a threat to any of the big guys. We want to work in concert,” Crabtree said. Her group will have its ninth annual Yell & Tell: Stop Child Abuse Now Rally on April 22 at the Walbridge Park Shelter House. April is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The first rally took place in Washington, D.C., and due to high costs, Crabtree wasn’t positive it would happen again. At her family’s encouragement, however, she brought the rally to Toledo where it has flourished. Throughout the years, keynote speakers have included Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and State Rep. Teresa Fedor.

“Each year, since 2005, we have grown in stature and respect,” Crabtree said.

This year, University of Toledo head football coach Matt Campbell will give the keynote speech and Becky Shock of 93.5 WRQN will emcee the rally. For entertainment, the Distinguished Clown Corps and soloist Amy Gibson are set to perform.

Several local groups including Lucas County Children Services, Family and Child Abuse Prevention Center and Mercy Health Partners will be on site with more information. In addition, the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office will provide fingerprinting of children and give parents the records, Crabtree said. A silent auction gives eventgoers a chance to bid on Toledo Mud Hens tickets, car services and other prizes. Children will also receive a coloring book in English or Spanish that outlines inappropriate touching.

Crabtree, a survivor of abuse, was inspired to start her group after an experience on an Internet message board that she frequented with other survivors. The message board would occasionally get posts from young people who said they were being abused. Crabtree knew she had to do something.

“I got to the point where I posted a message where I said, ‘We’ve got to do more. We need to walk the walk,’” she said. “We have to tell [the children] to yell immediately. They have to yell and tell.”

Crabtree did not come forward with her story until she was in her mid-40s. “I did not feel comfortable telling anyone because I thought I had done something dirty. I was oblivious to the fact I was a victim of a crime,” she said. Crabtree also wrote a book based on her experiences “The Gift of Hurt,” available at www.pamelacrabtree.com.

“I know now of the importance of survivors, be it boys or girls, to come forth immediately,” Crabtree said, adding that some survivors can become depressed or turn to substance abuse so getting help is crucial.

Society should work toward ending child abuse and make sure to report cases of suspected abuse, Crabtree said. The average amount a family pays in taxes because of child abuse is $1,460 annually, she added.

“If you don’t want to go strictly for the compassionate side of helping kids because you’re afraid to report the abuser … Well, then look at the figure that’s taken out of your budget each year,” Crabtree said.

Some people don’t report suspected child abuse because they fear separating families, which is a misguided notion, Crabtree said.

“I can tell you that the police, Lucas County Children Services or any other child protection order, they don’t want to go in there and pull that child out; they want to help that child,” she said.

In 2011, Lucas County Children Services received 4,148 referrals of suspected child abuse involving 6,046 children. The agency learned that 587 area children were abused or neglected. Thirty-two percent of children served stayed in their own homes, 31 percent lived with a relative, 32 percent were placed in foster care and 5 percent went to a group home or private institution.

Crabtree also recommended that guardians keep open lines of communication so children feel comfortable talking to them. Parents and adults should also be careful to observe signs of child abuse such as changes in sleep patterns or even pregnancy.

In addition, parents should be certain it is safe to leave children with the parent’s boyfriend or girlfriend before doing so.

“Once we can protect our children, the ripple effect will be mammoth and we can stop child abuse, that’s something we do have control of,” Crabtree said.

The free rally is 1 p.m. April 22 at the Walbridge Park Shelter House on Broadway Street, across from the Toledo Zoo. For more information or to donate, visit www.yelltell.org. To report a case of suspected child abuse, call (419) 213-CARE.

Toledo woman worked on three Dick Clark shows

By
Jeff
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Letters and photos from Barbara John's decades-long friendship and professional relationship with bandleader and TV impresario Dick Clark. Toledo Free Press photo by Sarah Ottney

Barbara “Bobbie” John paused for nearly a minute when asked to recall her favorite memory of Dick Clark.

The 86-year-old Toledo woman was a personal friend to Clark for more than 50 years, having worked on three of his shows, including a Saturday night version of “American Bandstand” in New York City. She also worked on his music show “Where the Action Is” and created a music show called “Swingin’ Country” that he produced.

Clark died April 18 of a heart attack at a Santa Monica, Calif., hospital, a day after he was admitted for an outpatient procedure, according to his spokesman. He was 82.

Her favorite memory, she finally decided, was when she once called Clark, years after they had last spoken, asking for some old TV clips for a project she was working on.

“I hadn’t seen him in at least 10 years, but it was like we had talked two days before,” John said. “It wasn’t like, ‘I vaguely remember you.’ There was no hesitation. He said, ‘Sure, come on out. Anything in the library is yours.’ That to me personified him.”

John also treasures a letter she received from Clark in 2010 in response to a package of memorabilia she sent to him.

“I wrote quite a long letter reminiscing with him and he answered back,” John said. “His handwriting is wiggly, but he did it. It’s a lovely letter. The fact that just two years ago, he took the time to answer my letter and we’ve been in touch. That’s something. That’s a treasure.”

 

Letters and souvenirs from Barbara John’s friendship with Dick Clark.

The typewritten letter with a handwritten signature reads: “It was great to hear from you, Bobbie. Thank you so much for sending along the script, album cover, credit crawl from ‘Swingin’ Country’ and picture of Debbie [her daughter]. You sure brought back a flood of memories! Thanks once again. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness. Sincerely, Dick Clark.”

America’s oldest teenager

Known for his youthful appearance, Clark produced and hosted a number of television shows, most famously “American Bandstand,” which aired for more than three decades starting in the early 1950s.

He also produced and hosted the year-end countdown from Times Square on “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” a role he continued in part even after suffering a massive stroke in 2004 that affected his ability to speak and walk. Clark’s handpicked successor, Ryan Seacrest, became the main host.

Among John’s other “treasures” from her time with Clark are a typewritten script from one of the early New York City shows.

Clark hosted “American Bandstand” five days a week in Philadelphia and then filmed a Saturday night show at The Little Theater off Times Square in New York, officially called “The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show” after its sponsor, Beech-Nut Gum.

John served as assistant to the producer, typing scripts and song lyrics for ABC to approve, as well as prepping the performers.

“Tony Mammarella booked the talent, but I had to make them presentable for TV,” John said. “They were all unknowns. I took Connie Francis and her hovering father shopping to buy her first formal to wear on the nighttime bandstand. I took Frankie Avalon shopping and tried to pick his brain about what looked good to him. I was the one who ended up deciding on white shoes and V-neck sweaters.”

Seeking fortune

A graduate of Libbey High School and Bowling Green State University, John went to New York City to “seek her fortune” several years after getting a divorce. She had been living in St. Louis, working as a writer and producer at a local radio and television station to support her two daughters. After five years there, John left her daughters with her mother in Ohio and moved to New York City.

Unable to find a job right away, she lived in a YWCA dorm room and sold jewelry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before catching her big break — an interview with Charles Reeves, executive producer of Clark’s Saturday night show.

She met Clark for the first time when she and producer Louis Heyward went to Philadelphia to watch “American Bandstand.”

“I didn’t know anything about pop music and he didn’t either. Neither one of us really knew how we got hired,” John said. “We decided we’d better see what ‘Bandstand’ was all about. So he took me on a train trip to Philadelphia and that’s the first time I met Dick.”

John said she remembers Clark as kind, generous and honest.

“He was a gentleman,” John said. “He was very undemanding. He didn’t hover over your shoulder or make many suggestions or say, ‘That won’t work.’ He hired people because he believed they knew how to do the job. I have tremendous respect for him.”

After leaving the Saturday night show, John developed game shows with actor, comedian and ventriloquist Paul Winchell. However, their work was halted due to the payola scandal, which shut down production at major networks, so John moved to California, where there was an opportunity to air the shows on an independent station unaffected by the scandal.

Soon after, Clark moved to California as well. He wanted to get into game shows, but didn’t know where to start.

“He asked people all over Hollywood, ‘How do you learn to do this?’ and three different people told him to talk to me,” John said. “I was producing [country music show] ‘Melody Ranch’ for Gene Autry at a local station in LA and Dick hired me away from that.”

Although Clark later got into game shows, he and John started working together on a music show called “Where the Action Is.” John was the talent coordinator, booking performers, scouting locations and deciding when songs would air.

When Clark decided his next project would be a show featuring country music, he asked John to develop a concept.

“All these reports that say he stayed current, he stayed ahead of the times, they are very true. He knew country music was going to happen, so I created a show called ‘Swingin’ Country,’” John said. “It was typical Dick Clark. He sold the show [to NBC in New York] and then came back and said, ‘OK, what are we gonna do?’ So we built the show.”

The show featured Rusty Draper as host and Roy Clark as band leader.

“I don’t remember how I found Rusty. He was working at a country club in Lincoln, Neb.,” John said. “Roy Clark should have been host. The network turned him down, but I talked his manager into letting him come on the show as band leader. That was his introduction on national television and in four weeks he really was the star. That was the kickoff of his major career.”

John’s connections to country music were solidified when she served as Johnny Cash’s manager for seven years.

“Swingin’ Country” was credited as “Created by Dick Clark and Barbara John.”

“I had a big fight with Dick about it,” John said. “I said my name should be first. He said, ‘No, I’m better known.’ I said, ‘That’s why my name should be first, so I get to be better known.’”

John sued Clark over it; his name stayed first, but he gave her $100, she said.

“He and I have laughed about it since,” she said.

Staying in touch

John periodically stayed in touch with Clark after the end of their working days.

“I heard he still came to the office every day, even after his stroke,” John said. “He kept his finger on the pulse of everything.”

On the evening of April 18, John watched “American Idol,” where host Seacrest offered a short tribute to his mentor.

“You could tell Ryan’s face was just tight. That had to be the most difficult show he ever did. Dick signed off every show he ever did with a salute and a ‘So long’ and that’s what Ryan Seacrest did. He ended with the salute and said ‘So long, boss,’” John said, her voice cracking. “I didn’t cry when I heard the news. I wrote both my girls immediately and said, ‘I’m not sad. I’m glad he didn’t have to suffer anymore.’

“On all three shows, I felt I worked with him, not for him.

He never came on as, ‘I am the boss.’ I feel privileged to have worked with him.”

Victims of underreported crimes sought

By
Caitlin McGlade
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She blamed herself.

She was 18. She was at a friend’s house drinking beer. She started getting so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. She remembered her friend leaving the room with a partner, leaving her alone with a man she hardly knew. Then, nothing.

She awoke the next morning naked. In bed next to the man she hardly knew. Fumbling to get dressed and still feeling woozy, she fled the room before he awoke. She never saw him again. But she hasn’t completely recovered nine years later. She doesn’t think victims really ever do.

Days later, her so-called friend approached her and admitted she had drugged her drink. She was too uptight about men, her friend told her, so this friend figured she’d make things a little easier.

Sharon (not her real name — Toledo Free Press does not identify rape or sexual assault victims) was “uptight about men” because she was molested as a child.

Victim blaming

Even still, Sharon said she fell victim not only to a man, but to her own self-doubt.

“Victim blaming — it is a huge reason why victims do not come forward and it starts long before the victim goes to court,” said Deborah Stoll, director of the YWCA H.O.P.E. Center. “Many people believe and accept the myths of rape. We accept as truth that somehow the victim is responsible for what happens to her; that she shouldn’t be out at night, shouldn’t be drinking, she shouldn’t flirt, she shouldn’t be wearing certain kinds of clothing.”

Fearing that type of reaction, Sharon didn’t talk to her friends or family. She did not report the rape to the police. She worried that she would get in trouble for underage drinking.

“At the time, I didn’t completely understand that it was rape,” she said. “I felt like I had that drink, I wasn’t able to say no, so if i didn’t say no was that really rape? In my mind, that was the process I was going through. It took me a while to come to the conclusion that what happened to me wasn’t my fault.”

It took nearly five years. One of Sharon’s friends had a similar experience and came to her to talk. Sharon found herself repeating to her friend that it wasn’t her fault. That she shouldn’t feel guilty. That she was a victim. And then it clicked.

“If I feel this way about her then why am I so hard on myself?” she wondered.

Reassuring a victim in the same way Sharon did to her friend is one of the most important offerings toward recovery you can make, Stoll said.

Reporting

Reporting a rape is intimidating, Sharon said. There’s the courtroom experience, in which the defense sometimes alleges a victim’s history of flirting or promiscuity or blurs the line as to whether the victim provoked sexual activity between herself or gave tacit consent to the alleged rapist. And prior to that, victims fear being charged with falsifying a police report if his or her story has any holes or discrepancies, Sharon said.

Fifty-four percent of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. And 97 percent of rapists will never go to jail, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey. Nationally, nine out of 100 rapes end up in prosecution.

According to the City of Toledo’s 2010 Annual Report, 140 rapes were reported in 2010.

That was down from 165 the year prior. The clearance rate in 2010 was reported at 34.3 percent, down from 37.6 percent the year before.

Sharon started volunteering at the H.O.P.E. Center a few years ago. She said she wished she would have used some of the services following her incident but that she feared to come forward.

The center will participate in the Victims’ Rights Survivor Night on April 25 with the goal to reach out to more men and women who have yet to seek aid.

The H.O.P.E. Center has a 24-hour crisis line, often used by individuals who have been raped in the past and are facing the depression, the insomnia and eating disorders after the assault. The organization also has a program that sends an advocate to emergency rooms to talk to victims who share what their options are if they want to report to the police. The center also has support groups for the victims. There are about 160 victims a year.

Misconceptions

Sharon grimaces when thinking about the common perception that rape victims are typically accosted by “that guy in the bushes” or in a “dark alley.”

Her assailant was an acquaintance. About two-thirds of rape victims across the country also know their aggressor, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Stoll has a theory as to why misconceptions about rape still exist despite the data.

“We  believe them for self protection; if we say we can protect ourselves by not going out at night or watching where we park then we feel safer,” Stoll said. “And I think it also is why we point fingers at victims and we look for things that they did wrong so we can avoid those pitfalls.”

Victims’ Rights Survivor Night focuses on bullying awareness

By
Toledo Free Press
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Ruthanne Johnson said "a lot of light was sucked away" from her life by bullying. Toledo Free Press photo by Joseph Herr

She described it as a gray period of her life, a period when she scrutinized her friends, searching their eyes for contempt. A period when box cutters and hedge clippers and X-ACTO knives climbed from the drawers of the art room and crept into her nightmares.

She was in the sixth grade.

“A lot of light was sucked away” she said.

Now, Ruthanne Johnson is in the seventh grade. Her eyes, behind rounded glasses, drop to her lap as she reflects on the days following the heavy wrecking ball that nearly knocked her down. But the wrecking ball — which took the form of of a number of bullies at her her school — did not succeed.

Her sullen gaze lasts only a few seconds before her eyes shift upward and a broad grin spreads across her face. She drops her hands low to the ground and explains that back then, during that gray period, she was down there. Then she raised her arms high over her head and says, “Now, I’m up here.”

She and her parents have asked the media not to print the details of events that temporarily broke her apart. She had been bullied before, but the various name calling jabs she endured in years prior barely compared to what her friends and acquaintances did to her last year. She feared for her safety.

The Shift

Ruthanne said she leaned on her family to gain her strength back. She stood on the shoulders of supporters at church. She took walks in her backyard. She even found comfort in an abandoned baby raccoon that she nursed back to health. Lady Gaga empowered her to use her voice.

She later met Lady Gaga through Oprah Winfrey at the kickoff of Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation at Harvard University.

Ruthanne’s mother Becky said Ruthanne’s school, Toledo School for the Arts, handled the case well and has become a strong support system for Ruthanne. But she added that she thinks some schools seem fearful to admit bullying happens.

“We’ve got to shift the paradigm and say it’s OK that it happens; what isn’t OK is that you don’t have a program in place to try to teach these kids tolerance and empathy and respect for one another,” Becky said. “That you don’t have a proactive plan in place to teach these kids what they’re obviously not learning, that you don’t have something in place that says ‘You have people to talk to and you have resources.’”

Ruthanne Johnson

Not for schools in Wood County. Greg Bonnell leads the Safe School Healthy Initiative program for the nine school districts in the county. Both he and Ruthanne will talk about bullying at Victims’ Rights Survivor Night on April 25.

This is the first year that the event has included a program on bullying. Russ Simpson, of Parents of Murdered Children, said the decision followed a number of discussions about recent bully-prompted suicides that shook the national news last spring.

Bonnell will host a booth with information about the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, an initiative started in Norway that Bonnell now implements in 24 Wood County schools. The program operates on a five-year grant that funds other school safety programs as well.

Last spring, about 4,970 male and 4,860 female students in Wood County schools responded to a survey about the prevalence of bullying. Nearly 27 percent reported having been victimized at least once within the past 30 days. About 94 percent responded that they felt safe at school while about 13 percent stated that they had gotten into a physical fight within the past 12 months.

The initiative has since hosted workshops that train teachers and staff to identify the victims, bullies and bystanders. One of the components includes teachers and students having weekly discussions about how to create a safe environment by analyzing why fights break out or what leads to student altercations.

“We’ve finally turned the corner with people becoming more sensitive and more compassionate and it’s a civil rights, an individual rights kind of an issue,” Bonnell said. “I was a principal and a teacher for 40 years and I spoke out against it and I had staff members that would tell me the typical, ‘Oh, that’s part of growing up, boys will be boys and we can’t do anything about it.”’

He said school leaders might be reluctant to address bullying when the families of the bullies have been rooted in that particular school district or private school for years.

School of fish

After the onslaught of Ruthanne’s fame as a result of Oprah’s attention and Ruthanne’s organization BeYou  YouthEmpowerment, she has fielded countless emails from bullying victims.

People write to Ruthanne to tell her that bullying had once pushed them to drug addiction, gave them suicidal thoughts or even triggered attempts.

Ruthanne said she is often asked about whether one should embrace his or her sexuality.

Becky said she feels blessed that her family is so close and that Ruthanne could turn to a support base for help. But then she wondered just how often even loving parents of preteen kids might become part of the problem.

She described a typical scene when the child comes home after a long day of school and the parents start haranguing him or her for leaving shoes in the middle of the hallway, leaving the bathroom a mess or for missing homework assignments.

“So they think, ‘My parents are always yelling at me, they’re always disappointed in me, ‘I’m always in trouble,’” Johnson said. “They feel that at this age, and so they can feel alone even if they’re not.”

Ruthanne admits to having assumed the bully role before. She has also been a bystander.

Now she wants to provoke bystanders to act. Bonnell said his goal, too, is to empower the bystanders.

The Olweus program has apparently influenced the bystanders before. About 3,400 students in Pennsylvania high schools who participated in the program between 2008 — 2010 were surveyed about its impact.

The results charted a 41 percent drop in the number of kids who reported being bullied.

There was a 33 percent decrease in the number of students who said they would watch their peers be bullied.

“It’s like fish swimming in the sea. You have your sharks, you have your school of fish and you have the pretty rainbow fish at the top and the sharks are going to try to get through to the school of fish and of course they will because they are going to scare them and get to the other fish,” Ruthanne said. “Being in the school of fish is a lot easier because you’re hiding in your little huddle and there’s power in numbers.”

Going Global: Cause for encouragement

By
Dan Johnson
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It has been painfully slow to come, but it does appear to be coming. I’m talking about an economic recovery. And, thankfully, this economic recovery includes Toledo and Northwest Ohio. For the first time in more than three years, there is genuine cause for encouragement.

There are some hard facts on employment that are difficult to refute. Unemployment in the Toledo Metropolitan Statistical Area is beginning to decline. Last year at this time the unemployment rate for the Toledo area was 10.1 percent; today it is 9.3 percent and slowly declining. While 9.3 percent is still much too high, we can be encouraged that it is moving in the right direction. Equally encouraging is the larger employment picture in Ohio. February brought decreased unemployment rates in 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties and a statewide reduction in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from 8.9 percent last year to 7.6 percent.

There are additional hard facts on exported goods and services that were reported in the March 25 Toledo Free Press, “Brookings Institution: Toledo economy improving.” These figures on the growth of Toledo exports alone give us reason to be even more optimistic. According to the Brookings Institution, Toledo “is now ranked third among the nation’s top 100 metro areas for export growth from manufacturing contributions.” This could very well be the new beginning of an important growth sector of Toledo’s economy — global trade.

There are many more subjective factors that give cause for encouragement. Among the most important is the leadership role of Mayor Mike Bell in exploring and attracting foreign investment in the Toledo region. This is a new role for Toledo’s mayor and one that we want to applaud and encourage. Foreign investment is critical if our city and region are to successfully compete with other progressive cities. Enlightened cities around the world are actively, even energetically pursuing foreign direct investment. Mayors must play a leadership role in these efforts if cities are to be successful in attracting international investment.

The mayor cannot do this alone. It requires a concerted, coordinated and collaborative effort from the region’s economic development agencies and organizations. I’m more optimistic today about our region’s economy than in previous years because of the growing levels of cooperation and collaboration among these agencies and organizations. At a recent event on international trade I overheard the leader of one of our economic development organizations refer to himself and his colleagues as the “Mayor’s team.” This is cause for encouragement.

Then there are the Toledo-area business leaders who are venturing into the global marketplace with their goods and services. This can be a daunting venture for first timers and even veterans of international marketing. There is much to know about international markets, business and trade policies, and cultural practices that vary considerably from country to country. I am also pleased and encouraged that our area institutions of higher education — University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Lourdes University and Owens Community College — are stepping up to the plate by offering courses and programs to help prepare newcomers to international marketing.

At UT the College of Business and Innovation is providing special training for those who want to break into the rapidly growing international markets through its program, Global Target. In addition, most of UT’s colleges — Pharmacy, Engineering, Medicine, Law and others — are expanding their outreach and engagement to include foreign countries through recruitment of international students, study abroad, faculty exchanges, and collaborative research. These efforts and the UT’s new strategic plan for global initiatives will be strongly supportive of the role Northwest Ohio will play on the global scene.

Those who have traveled to India, China, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere know we have only scratched the surface of this opportunity. There is a vast global market for Toledo products and services waiting to be appropriately tapped.

For these and many other reasons, we have cause for encouragement as we look ahead to the remainder of 2012 and beyond. Are we out of the woods yet? Not quite, but we are headed in the right direction.

(For information on Global Target, contact [email protected])

Dan Johnson is director of global initiatives, president emeritus and distinguished university professor of public policy and economic development at the University of Toledo. Email him at [email protected].

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