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Community, Advocates Demand Change to Florida Department of Children and Families and Private Lead Agencies Hired to Protect Children

March 12th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Advocacy

The report is in from the panel investigating the death of Nubia Barahona, 10, and critical injuries to her twin brother, Victor (read the report here). An editorial from WPLG Channel 10 in Miami held no punches in calling for a total overhaul of the Florida Department of Children and Families for its inability to prevent abuse to children. The Palm Beach Post questioned the role of private lead agencies serving DCF — and requests by them to provide sovereign immunity protections that will cap personal injury damage claims by lawyers.

WPLG wrote how “…past failures have prompted changes at DCF, just not enough. A broken, bureaucratic system needs to be dismantled and staffed with people held accountable. Children’s lives depend on it.”

At the same time, Gov. Rick Scott is calling for deep cuts to DCF, and Secretary David Wilkins blamed issues on high turnover, during a hearing before state lawmakers.

The take-away is this: Our Kids, the lead agency responsible for the overall system, needs to be held accountable for permitting the adoption of Nubia and Victor Barahona. If CEO Fran Allegra does not admit fault, improvement will not come — and more children will slip through the cracks of this dysfunctional and unaccountable system. And more harm will come.

Palm Beach Post Editorial: Protection for Child Welfare Failure?

March 11th, 2011   No Comments   Advocacy, Damage Claims, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

An editorial in today’s Palm Beach Post raised serious issues regarding calls by private lead agencies serving the Florida Department of Children and Families ( DCF ) to provide sovereign immunity protections that will cap personal injury damage claims by lawyers.

Many attorneys and child welfare and foster care advocates agree: Such protections will save no money. In fact, there will be a total loss of accountability for these providers’ services. More importantly for children harmed or injured while under the care of these companies or agencies, there will be no claims for damages.

Attorneys for children like Victor Barahona, who was critically injured (while his sister, Nubia, was killed), won’t be able to sue these private providers. Damages would be capped. Meanwhile, Victor’s hospital bills will far exceed any coverage limits.

As the Post wrote, “As the secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families acknowledged this week, 10-year-old twins never should have been adopted by Jorge and Carmen Barahona.

(more…)

Panel Issues Scathing Report on Florida DCF, Our Kids in Adopted Girl’s Death, State Oversight

March 11th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

A task force empaneled to study the death of 10-year-old adopted child, Nubia Barahona, and the critical injuries to her twin brother, Victor, could not have been more direct in its assessment. They called the Florida Department of Children and Families’ oversight “a case of fatal ineptitude” and questioned the “quality of the services performed by Our Kids and its subcontractors. Our Kids of MiamiDade / Monroe receives about $100 million per year from DCF to perform contracted services.”

Nubia Barahona

Nubia Barahona

Guardians, advocates, attorneys and others in attendance heard a scathing assessment. From DCF to the investigators it employs, the panel cited “a litany of bumbling by state child welfare workers,” noted the Miami Herald, and a host of “missed red flags” — any one of which should have set off alarms among the agency and its people. Read the entire DCF Report here.

Even Pete Digre, a DCF deputy, in apologizing for the agency’s woeful efforts to protecting the Nubia, said, “Our sorrow is compounded by the realization that there were many missed red flags and many missed opportunities that might have created a better outcome. The performance of our staff and community partners is completely unacceptable. Nubia did not receive the care, and prompt and urgent attention that each of us would have given our own children. As such, we failed miserably.’’

That about sums it up. Read the entire article here.

Stories: Palm Beach Children’s, Mom’s Death Show Cases of Rushed Adoptions, Lax Oversight

March 10th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption

The horrible tale of two Palm Beach County children and their mother found dead this month points to key issues related to how the Florida Department of Children and Families handles adoptions among at-risk or violent families — and whether the lure of federal money drives state decisions.

In a story, “Rare adoption ends with mom and kids dead,” the Miami Herald revealed how “a mother, stripped of all rights to her oldest child, later was allowed to adopt him. The two and a younger daughter are now dead, raising questions about whether the state should have allowed the adoptions.” Now a boy, Jermaine McNeil, 8, his sister, Ju’tyra, 5, were found stuffed in luggage, and their mother, Felicia Brown, was found in a county landfill. Read the entire story here.

At the same time, a family member has been left to grieve and wonder. In an Associated Press story, “Relative grieves 2 kids found dead in Fla. canal,” the grandmother of Ms. Brown and her children spoke out about their loss. Read the entire story here.

‘Broward Awards and Reception’ Hosted by Florida’s Children First

March 9th, 2011   No Comments   Advocacy, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Florida’s Children First (FCF), the state’s leading child advocacy organization for foster, neglected and vulnerable children, held its eighth annual “Broward Awards and Reception” event last month. More than 200 child advocates, elected officials, judges, and community and business leaders attended.

The group gathered at the Tower Club in downtown Fort Lauderdale to recognize former Secretary of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) George Sheldon and other special honorees for their advocacy and contributions for protecting Florida’s youth.

“Having personally worked one-on-one with these individuals, it was such an honor to be able to recognize these amazing people for their tireless work on behalf of Florida’s abused, abandoned and neglected children and youth,” said FCF Executive Director Christina Spudeas. “FCF is truly grateful for their support, in addition to the many wonderful sponsors who make these events possible.” Read the entire story here.

Florida DCF Report: State Child-Welfare Oversight Left Wanting in Barahona Twins Case

March 8th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Shoddy, lacking and frustrating are just some of the terms that can or have been used to describe the work of state Department of Children and Families child welfare workers in the case of Nubia and Victor Barahona, the Miami twins at the center of a horrific death and abuse case.

“In the immediate aftermath of a Miami girl’s death, state child-welfare workers acknowledged privately that the work of agency investigators left much to be desired,” wrote the Miami Herald. In the meantime, the children’s adoptive mother, Carmen Barahona, has been charged with murder.

“Four days after Nubia Barahona’s decomposed body was found in the flatbed of her adoptive father’s pickup truck, state child-welfare authorities…concluded that a series of abuse investigations lacked ‘a sense of urgency’’ and contained several instances of shoddy case work,” the paper reported.   Read the entire story here.

Child Welfare Officials Chastised by Florida Department of Children and Families Panel Over Barahona Twins’ Death, Injury

March 8th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

At what has become a rough and enlightening display of dismay by community and empaneled officials, child welfare officials were questioned about what they knew and what decisions they made — and when — regarding the death of Nubia Barahona and critical injuries sustained by her twin brother, Victor.

As written in the Palm Beach Post, panelists challenged “the level of urgency given to a call made to the Florida Abuse Hotline the day before Nubia was killed” and criticized a child abuse investigator for not doing enough to find Nubia and her twin brother, Victor, the day before the young girl died.

“The panel once again said the child welfare system may have missed key
opportunities to keep the 10-year-olds safe,” the paper wrote. Read the entire story here.

Palm Beach Post Commentary: Private Child Welfare Providers Must Carry Adequate Insurance

March 8th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Advocacy

By CHRISTINA SPUDEAS

How dare they? As The Post’s Pat Beall reported Friday, Florida’s privatized child welfare companies want to limit their liability and accountability by asking the Legislature to let them off the hook for having to pay for kids who are badly injured while in their care.

These companies should be cringing, knowing that their bill came out in the midst of a public investigation into the Barahona case in Miami-Dade County, one of the most horrific child-abuse cases involving foster care our state has ever seen. This bill should be called the Barahona Child Abuse Enabling Act.

Spudeas is Executive Director of Florida’s Children First, the leading statewide child advocacy group. Read her entire Letter to the Editor here.

Adoptive Parent Beat Nubia Barahona to Death Day After Child Welfare Visit: Police

March 7th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Victor Barahona, who’s 10-year-old twin sister, Nubia, was found dead last month, heard their adoptive parent beating her to death one day after a child-welfare worker visited the home, police say Victor told them.

According to the Miami Herald, “Miami-Dade police believe 10-year-old Nubia Barahona was murdered by her adoptive parents the day after a child welfare investigator visited the family’s west Miami-Dade home, according to arrest reports unsealed Monday.”

The paper continued, “Nubia’s twin brother, Victor, told detectives that he heard his adoptive father, Jorge Barahona, beating his sister to death on Friday, Feb. 11, while Victor remained bound and locked in the bathroom of the house. Barahona’s wife, Carmen, later told Victor that his sister “had been sent away,” the police reports say.” Read the entire story here.

Twins Nubia, Victor Barahona Foretold of Mortal Fears Before Adoption

March 4th, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

The tale of adopted Miami twins Nubia and Victor Barahona grows more distressing with day’s news and revelations. A panel investigating the child-abuse death of Nubia and serious injuries on twin brother Victor learned that the two had told a psychologist of their fears of death or injury.

According to the Miami Herald, in the months before a Miami-Dade judge approved their adoption by longtime foster parents, the 7-year-old twin siblings told a child psychologist they sometimes had thoughts of killing themselves.

Nubia also confided that she wished she had more friends. And that she was “sure that terrible things are going to happen to her,” the Herald reported.  Despite their fears, the judge approved their adoption in May 2009.

In time, the children’s worst — and professed — fears came true. Read the entire story here.

South Florida’s Horror Continues: Two Children Found Dead in Luggage

March 3rd, 2011   No Comments   Abuse

The brutal deaths of South Florida children continue. Police in Palm Beach County found the bodies of two young children stuffed in luggage and submerged in an area canal within hours of each other Wednesday, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Meanwhile, the region still is in shock over the death of Nubia Barahona and critical injuries to her twin brother, Victor.

In the latest discovery, a girl between 6 and 12 years old was found dead in a black duffel bag about 9 a.m. in a canal, Delray Beach police Sgt. Nicole Guerriero told the newspaper. About six hours later, police divers from Delray Beach and Boca Raton found a canvas suitcase with the body of the boy, about 10 to 12 years old. This find was about a half mile west of where the girl’s body was found, Guerriero told the paper. Read the entire story here.

Miami Herald: Therapist’s Call to Abuse Hotline Reveals Details in Barahona Home

March 1st, 2011   No Comments   Abuse, Adoption, Department of Children & Families (DCF)

Tales of alleged abuse were recounted in the transcript of a Feb. 10 call received by Florida’s child abuse hotline, the Miami Herald reports. Lisa Reiss, a children’s therapist, made the call after speaking to a child who was related by adoption to 10-year-old twins Victor and Nubia Barahona. Nubia now is dead; Victor is recovering from critical acid burns.

A task force formed by new Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins to investigate the Barahona twins’ case continues its meetings today.

Read the entire Miami Herald story here.

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