Last Saturday, a seventeen year old Dallas mother of two left her children at the home of Detress Richmond in order to go to work. She needed money and she had been hired to braid hair. Richmond had assured her that she would watch her two daughters. The decision to rely on the woman’s promise turned out to be tragic.
A nine year old boy, who lived in the home, stabbed her two year old daughter to death with a knife. Apparently, no adult was in the home. Richmond left her fifteen year old daughter in charge of at least twelve children. The daughter was downstairs, while all of the children were upstairs. Richmond allegedly left for the evening to play bingo.
She is the mother of at least thirteen children. None of them could give police an exact count as to how many siblings there were in the home. Her neighbors said that there had been trouble at the residence since she had moved in. They elaborated that her children were unruly and almost always unattended. Another neighbor said that it was not unusual for a large group of the children to play in the street until very late in the evening.
Richmond is unemployed. Her home had been reported to Texas Children’s Protective Services for such things as neglecting the children and not feeding them. In twelve years, state investigators had inspected her home a total of eight times.
On each occasion, the home was found to be lacking, but no children were removed. A spokesperson for the state said that in order for the children to be removed, they had to be in probable peril. There never had been a finding that the children were in danger to that degree.
A child is dead. All of the children in this story are in grave danger most of the time. The neglect and abuse of children in our country is a national disgrace.
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The Child Protection System is in Trouble