UPDATE, July 7, 2009: Woman sentenced to 50 years for death of Christopher Thomas
______________
UPDATE, January 27, 2009: Crystal Keith
______________
UPDATE, December 4, 2008: Denise Revels Robinson
______________
UPDATE, November 26, 2008: Protest planned next week over child welfare agencies
______________
Christopher L. Thomas Jr.'s biological grandmother, Shantrice Freeman-McClellan, is saying that she was given approval from the state to have Christopher and his sister live with her.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Two months before police say 13-month-old Christopher L. Thomas Jr. was beaten to death by his foster mother and his 2-year-old-sister was rescued from months of torture, the state approved placing the children in their biological grandmother's home, their grandfather said Monday.
The children, however, were never moved.
Week after week, the grandfather, Kenny McClellan, said repeated calls to the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare asking to have the children moved from their foster home and placed with their grandmother went unanswered.
Even calls warning the bureau that the siblings might be being abused were never returned, he said.
"This is a professional, public organization?" McClellan asked. "C'mon."
McClellan, however, was unable to recall the full name of the person that he and his wife say they called.
Attempts Monday to speak to Denise Revels Robinson, bureau director, were unsuccessful. A receptionist told a reporter to call the media number for the state Department of Children and Families, where questions were left in a message bank.
Altogether, three couples have now said they tried to adopt Christopher or have him and his sister placed in their homes after they were taken from their birth mother in March. Two of the couples have said they alerted the child welfare bureau to possible abuse.
Crystal P. Keith, 24, the children's aunt, is charged with killing Christopher and abusing his sister after state officials placed them in Keith's foster care in June. Christopher died of his injuries Nov. 11. His sister remains hospitalized.
This is inexcusable.
Apparently, Christopher and his 2-year-old sister were to be placed with their biological grandmother, but it never happened.
Why?
Why would the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare allegedly fail to return repeated phone calls?
When the agency receives warnings about the possible abuse of a foster child, why isn't there an immediate response?
McClellan, 36, worked for Cooper Industries in Wisconsin. Last November, he was transferred to Cooper Wiring Devices in Atlanta, where he is a senior electrical technician. His wife, Shantrice Freeman-McClellan, 38, is a personal care assistant. Her daughter, Candace Glover, 23, is the mother of Christopher and his sister.
The grandmother, Shantrice Freeman-McClellan, is just 38 years old. Only 15 years separate her from her daughter, Candace Glover, mother of Christopher and his sister.
It's another instance of a child having a child. Freeman-McClellan is easily young enough to be the biological mother of her own grandchildren.
Earlier, the Journal Sentinel reported that the great-grandparents of Christopher, Katherine and Frank Shaw, had "begged a state case worker in September to immediately remove the then-11-month-old and his 2-year-old sister from their Milwaukee foster home."
Katherine Shaw reportedly raised Glover, not Freeman-McClellan. Obviously, there are issues in this family when it comes to raising one's own children. Freeman-McClellan didn't raise her daughter, Candace Glover, and Glover wasn't raising her daughter and her son, Christopher.
On the matter of caring for Christopher and his sister, communication within the family seems to have been a problem.
Anyway, the children's biological grandmother and great-grandmother both attempted to have them removed from the care of foster mother Crystal Keith, confessed torturer and murderer.
How many red flags need to be raised before the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare takes notice that there's a serious problem?
Child services removed the children from Glover's home in March.
In April, as soon as she found out, Freeman-McClellan petitioned to have the children placed with her. The children at that time were in temporary foster homes.
The children's case worker, McClellan said, told them the agency would not place the children in a home in another state. So Freeman-McClellan rented an apartment in Milwaukee and moved here.
In September, McClellan said, they were informed the children could be placed with their grandmother.
"We got the paperwork, everything seemed ready to go," McClellan said.
McClellan said the couple thought they would get the children in their care, and then tackle the issue of state residence.
His wife, he said, tried over and over to contact the children's case worker, but her calls were never returned.
Nor, McClellan said, was his wife allowed to visit the children. When Glover reported to them that the children seemed injured, Freeman-McClellan called the children's case worker. Those calls also were not returned, he said.
To say that this case worker was incompetent is an understatement.
Multiple calls from multiple relatives were not returned.
Both Freeman-McClellan and Shaw left their homes and traveled to Wisconsin to get the children.
It's odd that the case worker would be assisting more than one relative to pursue having the children placed in their homes.
Was more than one case worker involved?
Whatever, signals were crossed.
Here's a strange twist:
McClellan said, however, that when he and his wife returned to Milwaukee after Christopher's death, they spoke to the case worker, at the hospital where their granddaughter is being treated.
"She said, 'I just want you to know I got your messages,' " McClellan said.
She was apologetic, McClellan said. He wanted to know why she did not call them back.
"It was never clear why she didn't return the messages," he said.
That's just weird.
It sounds like the case worker needs a case worker. She certainly doesn't appear fit to be handling matters involving something as important as the welfare of children.
Bottom line: Repeated attempts were made by relatives to have the children removed from their foster home.
The system was unresponsive in spite of the relatives' concern that the children were in an unsafe environment. There was no sense of urgency shown by the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare.
Christopher and his sister were abused by their foster mother, Crystal Keith, and on a different level, by Milwaukee child services.
No comments:
Post a Comment