PHOTO CREDIT: Kat J and Unsplash
Before I rant here's one quote:
"Suffolk County Department of Social Services Commissioner Frances Pierre said in a statement at the time of Valva's arrest that child neglect was alleged in the household in 2018, triggering a one-year child supervision program."
In 2018. I'll say that again, in 2018.
So this was known. Reunification of families (keeping kids in their homes) is a federal mandate. But here there are several layers that make the gaps in protection horrific in evidentiary failure:
1. Youth with ASD have added protection sensitivity as they are classified as not only minors to be kept safe from abuse, but they are a"vulnerable population." The state and others have a responsibility to act at a higher level when reports are made.
2. A parent in law enforcement is not a more protected (shielded) class in abuse scenarios. They, law enforcement, "by their public service" are also to be more closely scrutinized when abuse is previously substantiated, as it was in 2018. Again, a higher level of protecting the child is indicated, especially with law enforcement as the perpetrator.
3. Some states see schools as an institution of protecting youth as a status to attend to - with greater sensitivity as well. In other words, if abuse is found in those instituions (discovered, reported) Shevchenko if child welfare act more quickly.
4. In this case, I can almost bet with high certainty there were multiple prior abuse reports from the school to the child protecting agencies...multiple enough that they lead to a one year supervised visitation with the dad and his ASD children, a police officer, with vulnerable population status youth, from the school to child welfare.
5. The above, with only a little speculation on my part (see number 4), is sufficient given what is now known in 2020 and in 2022, to merit a full discovery and disclosure of the institutions involved in the oversight of these kids, looking at every protocol for the affected/ involved schools, child welfare agencies, law enforcement, social workers teachers, legal parties previously involved, GALs (guardian ad litems), mental health providers ... where many many gaps are why and how this child died.
It is not enough to focus on the abuse of a perpetrator of such crimes when this many people were already involved in this kids life long before he died. Those systems must be evaluated, correctively acted upon, with program improvement and change.
I wrote extensively about this topic in 2004, 2009 and again in 2019. You can search "Adult Welfare by Kurt LaRose" and the initial 3 minute read will reference many many
scenarios to consider ... or go here.
Someday, we will find a way to help. When a system keeps missing things, with high profile leaders at the helm of the headlines (like police officers killing their ASD child when child welfare was involved many times prior, where schools and social workers and mental health providers were involved in diagnostics by the ASD label alone) imagine how many more non high profile cases are prolific in the US.
