The little girl celebrated her sixth birthday silently, on life support — something no child should ever have to experience.
Her father’s girlfriend called 911 last year to report the girl had fallen off a bunk bed in their D.C. home. But medical professionals soon discovered injuries far worse than could be received from a simple tumble.
First responders found the girl in the bathtub, ice-cold water running over her stiffened body, dressed only in her underpants. She had soiled herself.
The child’s eyes were fixed and dilated. Her brainstem was being compressed.
A fall from a bunk bed would’ve meant scalp and skull injuries. But this looked like abusive trauma, said the doctor at Children’s National Hospital. The child was “neurologically devastated.”
Scans and more exams showed a tiny body that had been injured in many places, many times over her short life.
Some of her internal organs were injured. Her ribs, wrists and a leg had all been fractured. Some were old enough to have healed.
“The extent of her injuries, that they are varying ages, depicts repeated events of trauma and would be consistent with torture as a means of child abuse,” the doctor’s report in the court documents said.
Because the little girl is still alive, this horrific case won’t come before the D.C. Child Fatality Review Committee, the folks who work to answer one of the toughest questions that come with a tragedy like this: “How could this happen?”
That commission is the board that oversees the way the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) handles abuse cases that end in death.
But no one oversees the way abuse cases that end in near-death were investigated.
“No one in the city reports on near fatalities,” said Marla Spindel, executive director of DC KinCare Alliance and a longtime child advocate in the city. “Not the [Child Fatality Review Committee], not CFSA in its annual child fatality reports, not MPD, not the [attorney general] — no one.”
[Child abuse has gone unreported during the pandemic as children’s injuries are hidden at home]
When investigators interviewed the couple’s 2- and 3-year-old daughters, they described a hellish life of beatings and fear.
The interview is a tough read.
“Papa slap me.”
“Papa hit me.”
“On my feet.”
“With a belt.”
The couple had a boarder living with them. In court documents, that person told police about ongoing abuse, including a punishment that had the little girls doing squats against a wall for hours, and the 5-year-old girl being forced to hold a push-up in a tub filled with water for “several hours.”
[A counselor broke the rules and saved an abused boy]
The girl’s sixth birthday came and went. Machines kept her little heart beating and her lungs filled with air. No one had answered for her devastating state.
Finally, last month, D.C. police arrested the father and his girlfriend and charged them with first degree cruelty to children.
Because of federal privacy laws, CSFA can’t disclose where the girl is or who has custody of her now. They also can’t disclose whether the family has been on their radar.
But sources familiar with the case said the family isn’t a typical or well-known case to city social workers. The alleged abuse hadn’t been reported. As far as everyone knew, that happy social media life was their reality.
This case is one that makes the argument for an independent ombudsperson for the District’s children now that the primary agency — CFSA — has ended 31 years of court-ordered oversight.
Spindel also argues for a law that requires near-fatalities like this tragic case be reviewed, a law that exists in more than a dozen states because a fatality and a near-fatality “are essentially the same problem.”
The D.C. Council voted in favor of such oversight. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) vetoed the bill, noting there already is an internal ombudsman, and the council overrode her veto. Now it comes down to whether money will be there for it in the budget. It’s an ongoing fight.
But even if there was an official review, little wrongdoing could be found on behalf of social workers who never received reports about the family in the first place.
In this case, it may be about vigilance. And the people who saw something, but kept quiet.
Both the father and his girlfriend told police that they disciplined their kids the way they were disciplined by their parents.
Those kids needed a neighbor, teacher, friend or bystander to speak for them. It takes a village, remember?
The hotline for child abuse and neglect is 202-671-SAFE or 202-671-7233.
Twitter: @petulad
Read more Petula Dvorak: A Virginia veteran’s life was destroyed by an old pot arrest. Now, it’s legal in that state. Can he recover? The teen summer job is back. Just in time. The dog acknowledged they were a couple. The military did not. She’s a fighter pilot who saw a UFO. For real.
The Link LonkJuly 09, 2021 at 05:01AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-little-girls-tragic-abuse-case-shows-need-for-independent-child-ombudsman/2021/07/08/604d63fc-e010-11eb-b507-697762d090dd_story.html
A little girl’s tragic abuse case shows need for independent child ombudsman - The Washington Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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