Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2014 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 1:50 p.m.
State child-protection investigators can’t be expected to predict
the future, but they should be able to protect children when there is a
history of abuse and neglect.
On that count, they
failed miserably in the case of a Bell man who last month shot to death
his daughter and six grandchildren before killing himself.
Yet
the Department of Children and Families’ interim chief showed a
stunning lack of accountability last week in determining that nothing
could have been done to prevent the tragedy.
 |
| DCF Interim Secretary Mike Carroll |
DCF
Interim Secretary Mike Carroll made the claim in a review of 18 cases
of domestic violence, drug use, neglect and other mistreatment involving
Don Spirit, 51, and his family members. On Sept. 18, Spirit killed his
28-year-old daughter, Sarah, and her six children, ages two months to 11
years old, before turning the gun on himself.
Carroll
wrote in an executive summary of the report that there was “no evidence
to suggest that anyone, at any time, could have known” that Spirit was
capable of the massacre.
While
no one might have predicted a massacre, there was clearly enough
evidence to raise concerns about escalating violence that could lead to
something even more terrible. Since 2006, DCF had been involved in
numerous cases in which Don Spirit was alleged to have physically abused
family members.
The
report failed to mention several of those cases, including allegations
of Spirit threatening to kill himself and his ex-wife. In 2013, Spirit
was reported to have firearms in his home despite his status as a
convicted felon.
The report did acknowledge
that a DCF agent ignored a 2013 recommendation from a University of
Florida Child Protection Team that Spirit have no unsupervised contact
with his grandchildren. Carroll wrote that DCF agents might have gotten
complacent after investigating eight years of similar cases.
Given
DCF’s history, the excuse is particularly galling. The Miami Herald’s
“Innocents Lost” series this year told the stories of hundreds of
children that DCF was also charged with protecting but who ended up
dead. They include the case of 4-year-old Kristina Hepp, who was beaten
to death by her father in Gilchrist County in 2009.
Carroll
has outlined a five-part plan to prevent future tragedies. It includes
statewide training for child-abuse investigators and hiring more staff
to complete case reviews that could spot future trouble.
DCF’s
history means local officials and advocates for children must monitor
the agency to ensure these and other reforms are implemented. They must
also ensure that the lines of communication are open between agencies
and law enforcement to ensure warning signs aren’t missed.
And
while the DCF report on the Bell massacre didn’t attribute problems to
the caseload of workers, the number of case workers and state funding
for the agency deserves continued scrutiny.
DCF’s
default position after a tragedy can’t be excuses and a lack of
accountability. The agency will never be able to prevent every tragedy,
but it must do a better job than it has been doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment