Foster Abuse Understatement

January 19, 2011 permalink

This year's US report on child maltreatment is in, covering the year 2009. Chapter 4 deals with fatalities. It reports 1676 fatalities in the US. The detailed table on Table 4–6 Child Fatalities by Perpetrator Relationship, 2009 is the only place where foster numbers are presented. Just 42 states with 1247 fatalities contributed to the numbers. They show seven categories that represent deaths after removal from parents by force of arms.

In addition, there is the catchall category called More than One Nonparental Perpetrator with 38 deaths. There is no telling how many of those were in foster care. Our list of foster and adoptive fatalities shows 83 deaths in the US during 2009. Since the list, drawn from press reports, has only one out of 20 foster deaths, it is safe to say that the official report is grossly understating the level of American deaths in foster and adoptive care.

In the category Foster Parent (Female Relative), foster aunt Jennifer Campbell and her partner Louis Ross are both suspected in the disappearance of five-year-old Hassani Campbell, an autistic boy missing since August 2009 from Oakland California. Aunt (or sister) Katie Payne and foster aunt Sharon Payne Turnell and her husband Charles Turnell are all accused in the multiple-injury death of four-year-old Landon Payne in Kearney County Nebraska. And foster grandmother Angela Barksdale is accused in the battering death of four-year-old Kevion Shand aka Smith of the Bronx New York. The report showed no deaths in this category.

In the category Foster Parent (Male Relative), foster uncle Ayrin Vick was accused in the battering death of three-year-old Natalia Santillan in Peoria Arizona. Foster cousin Kevin Buehler is accused in the battering death of eight-month-old Iyana Perez in Pueblo Colorado. Foster uncle Matthew Wyrosdick is accused in the shaken baby death of seventeen-month-old Zachary Cole Johnson in Lakeland Florida. And finally foster uncle Jamal Anderson is accused in the shaken baby death of Keisha Tate in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The report showed no deaths in this category.

In the category Foster Parent (Nonrelative) foster mother Christy Shaffer is accused in the death of one-year-old Alissa B Guernsey in Topeka Indiana. Foster mother Mary Katherine Downing is accused in the battering death of one-year-old Heaven Arizmendi Hernandez in Livermore California. Foster mother Angela Deniece Dukes is accused in the death by taped pacifier of nine-month-old Curtis Terelle Jivers aka Williams in Columbia South Carolina. Foster father Robert L Clark Jr is accused in the shooting death of six-year-old Michael Douglas Levigne in Commerce Georgia. The real parents sued foster mother Gwendolyn Williams for causing the death by chest injury of three-year-old Kennedy Compton in Alexandria Louisiana. Foster mother Cynthia Marshall and her partner Darrell Spencer are accused in the knifing death of seventeen-year-old Jamia A Hazel in the Bronx New York. The real mother sued foster agencies for repsonsibility for the death by automobile of fifteen-year-old Catherine or Katherine A Willis in Queens New York, driven by Sheila Bethea, a relative of foster mother Genevieve Bethea. Foster mother Bonnie Pattinson is accused in the battering death of one-year-old Tiffany Sue Banks-Cross in Champion Ohio. And finally, foster mother Amy Holder is accused in the battering death of two year old Naomi L Whitecrow in Edmond Oklahoma. The report showed only three deaths in this category, well short of the nine here.

In the category Legal Guardian (Female) adoptive mother Gloria Grayson is accused in the battering death of five-year-old Kevin Michael King né Daniel Adkins in Bakersfield California. Adoptive mother Sabrina Banks aka Sabrina Stafford is accused in the death of three-year-old Lavender Banks in Elk Grove California. Aunt and adoptive mother Lorrie Mae Thomas is accused in the starvation death of nine-year-old Shylae (Shylea) Myza Thomas of Flint Michigan, found in a storage locker in Vienna Township. Adoptive mother Alfreedia Leona Gregg-Glover is accused in the drowning death of thirteen-year-old Alexis (Lexie) Agyepong-Glover in Manassas Virginia. The report showed only one death in this category.

In the category Legal Guardian (Male) Robert Blurton, nephew of adoptive parents and grandparents Donnie Luetjen and Sharon Luetjen, is accused in the shooting death of fifteen-year-old Taron D Luetjen in Cole Camp Missouri. Christopher Brian Gilreath, the partner of adoptive mother Miriam Pinckney, is accused in the battering death of two-year-old Joshua Pinckney of Cumming Georgia. And Nanette L Craver and Michael J Craver are accused in the battering death of their seven-year-old adopted Russian son Nathaniel Michael Craver né Ivan Skorobogatov, Dillsburg Pennsylvania. The report showed no deaths in this category.

In the category Group Home Staff seventeen-year-old Alexis Evette Richie died of restraint in the SSM DePaul Health Center in Saint Louis Missouri. The report shows two deaths in this category, the only one where the report shows more than the press.

The full report Child Maltreatment 2009 is available online from the Administration for Children and Families or you can download our local copy (pdf).