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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat beautiful children. Pics of some who died in care of Florida's childrens' services.
I was remembering some of them I have written about through the years when I read TheNutcracker's post about DCF at DU today.
There was this child who was found wrapped in plastic in the back of her adopted father's truck.
WFOR-CBS4
Handout photo shows Nubia Barahona, a 10-year-old whose body was found wrapped in plastic in a pest control truck. The girl's adoptive father, Jorge Barahona, is being held as a suspect in the girl's death.
Florida's childrens' services sued to keep media from covering death of child, torture of brother.
On Valentine's Day, 10-year-old Victor Barahona was found with life-threatening chemical burns in a pickup truck on the side of Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach. The battered-and-decomposed body of his twin sister, Nubia, was dumped in the back of the truck like so much garbage.
The real trash was spewed by the "child welfare" system that allowed Jorge and Carmen Barahona to "foster" the twins, and later adopt them despite unmistakable evidence that the couple was torturing the children to whom they were supposed to be loving saviors.
..."The miracle that Jackson Memorial's medical team had worked on Victor was a bright and badly needed point of light in this dark drama. After days of shocking revelations about the vile stew of bad social work, bad management and bad lawyering that these children had sustained, finally there was one picture worth a thousand words of thanksgiving.
You'd think the folks at the DCF would praise the Lord and pass the popcorn. Instead, they hauled Channel 7 into court to try to stop the broadcast.
Then there was Rilya Wilson.
They never found her body.
A caretaker for Rilya Wilson, the foster child whose disappearance four years ago exposed serious flaws in Florida's child-welfare system, was indicted Wednesday on charges of murdering the girl, who was 4 years old when she vanished.
The caretaker, Geralyn Graham, was also charged with kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. Rilya's body has never been found.
Here is a collage of other children missing from DCF care.
Could Florida's DCF Have Prevented These Children's Deaths?
The recent deaths of so many children who had had contact with DCF has brought renewed scrutiny on a troubled agency: (clockwise from the top left, name, followed by their age at death, if known) Dontrell Melvin, unknown; Antwan Hope, 4; Dakota Stiles, 3; Ezra Raphael, 2; Aliyah Branum, 2; Jayden Morales, 2; Jewel Howard, 3; Cherish Perrywinkle, 8; and Christian Byrd, 2.
A Miami Herald investigation uncovers another 16 children who died in recent months even though their families were involved with the Department of Children and Families.
"Is anybody here not outraged?" demanded one foster parent at a recent town hall, where a group of lawmakers heard from the public and received blame as well.
Also, in just two months, Floridians are supposed to be able to shop for health insurance as part of Obamacare. But Florida Governor Rick Scott is now worried about the privacy of patient information.
There are way too many more. I worked with social workers many times when I was teaching. I admired every one of them. They were concerned about the systemic failures and had a fear of being equated with a few who did not do their job correctly.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)prayin4rain
(2,065 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)and them dump them in the back of a truck like so much trash?????
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)hedda_foil
(16,379 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)That article with the picture composite is from 2013. I am seeing new articles every time I search.
Nay
(12,051 posts)don't do much crying over the end of the human race coming up in a couple of hundred years. I am over us. I suspect the planet is, too.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Heartbreaking.
Duppers
(28,134 posts)are those against babies like these children.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)gordianot
(15,261 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)So sad.
gordianot
(15,261 posts)secondvariety
(1,245 posts)cruel joke. The department is sub contacted out to the lowest bidder and staffed with over worked and under experienced pawns. Legislative Democrats pushed hard for privatization right along with the Republicans.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)And it has failed miserably.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)http://www.local10.com/news/trial-date-set-for-jorge-barahona/31523286
The trial date for a man accused of torturing his adopted children and killing his 10-year-old foster daughter has been set.
Jorge Barahona waived his court appearance Friday morning as a Palm Beach County judge set his court date for Sept. 28.
Barahona and his wife, Carmen Barahona, were arrested after the body of Nubia Barahona was found in the back of a truck on Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach on Valentine's Day 2011. Her twin brother, Victor Barahona, was also found in the car with chemical burns to much of his body.
lpbk2713
(42,777 posts)Those people are subhuman. I hope they get life without parole.