Posted on 06/27/2005 6:58:32 AM PDT by Conservatrix
The grieving dad of the 11-year-old mentally troubled New Jersey boy who suffocated in a car trunk with two younger pals blames the state's social-services agency, saying it should have put his son in a facility where he could have gotten help.
"If he would have been put in a safe place, this wouldn't have happened. The child needed a lot of help," Anibal Cruz Sr. said yesterday. -snip-" [The division] did nothing," Cruz said. "Why didn't they lock the baby somewhere safe? When kids need help, they have to help them."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I believe parents were separated, father moved to Philly, not too far away. He has made statements that he believed estranged wife unable to properly care for their (retarded?, emotionally disturbed?) son and had called DCS on several occasions to check on son. He specifically mentioned being worried about son wondering off from mother's home. I don't know if any of this has been confirmed.
It must be hard enough to deal with their case load, but when there is a possibility of parental antagonism fueling the fire these things might go to the bottom of the to-do list at DCS. If the father is being truthful (hard to tell) DCS may indeed have dropped the ball where it IS their job to step in when parents are unfit, and they have been alerted.
Yes, he was retarded.
Who left the trunk open and forgot about it?
It is too bad the father wasn't around his boy and his friends that day playing with them...
Thanks, if he is retarded, that's one thing, but I have seen up close and personal this ADD nonsense or whatever it's called, and the vast majority of them are brats, plain and simple, parents make one excuse after another for them.
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Why? Based on what? The very first reports of their disappearance statedx that the older kid had problems and was mentally like a six year old. There has been asbsolutely nothing to indicate otherwise in any reports issued since. Yet you and that other class act decide that this dead kid was undisciplined, unbridled and a brat. What do you have to back that slur on a dead kid uo, other than your own opinion? Anything?
"Some high schools are even providing, or thinking of providing day care for the children who are having children."
They recently built a new high school here and I noticed a nice playground on the side. I figured it must be for the student's kids. How sad.
That does not seem right. Most car trunks are either open or closed and unless someone deliberately left it open or forgot to close it it will be locked.
Someone left that trunk open.
I agree wrt orphanages but I am just a heartless conservative.
If "lawsuit" has become a negative word it is not because there aren't some cases worthy of filing one but the rampant abuse by lawyers of the judicial system. That negative implication should not be extended to cover worthy cases. But a huge number of these filings are nothing but legal fishing expeditions to try and take advantage of brain dead juries.
I am sorry to hear of the tragedy involving your family and hope you find resolution and peace.
Looks like a nerve was hit, must be something close to home.
Nope, just a low tolerance for yahoos who will believe the worst in spite of the fact there is no evidence to support what they spew. In this case your target was a dead boy....get it? You speak ill of a dead child with absolutely nothing but your own imaginings to support your calumny.
My friend was step parent to two girls for 10 years. The youngest was thrown down the stairs by her abusive mother when she was 18 months. Her father got custody at 3 (after battling the courts because courts seem to think that ONLY bio mothers can parent) and my friend raised her untill 13 (last year). They are now 13 and 14. Her moron of a husband decides to leave her for a super trash woman who didn't even have custody of her own children. He has restricted access to their 'mother' (who until she can afford a divorce has no visitation rights or custody rights) and their NEW stepmother is a monster. The youngest has ran away three times now, walking down a main highway to get away. The house is extremely filthy and the girls went from A/B student (the slower girl is in Special Ed, but still A/B) and the older on the honor roll to both girls FAILING last year. My friend has called DCFS repeatedly to beg them to take a look and see what the h*ll is going on because she has no access to even talk to them. Their new stepmother (and I say that loosely, she is living with a married man) won't even let them go to their grandparents house because they still have contact with my friend. DCFS told my friend that they were closing the case because they think it's a jealous wife issue/custody issue. They never even talked to the kids or went out there. If something happens to these girls, you can bet your ass it will be their fault. For not protecting these kids FROM their parent.
If you want cynical, I'll give you cynical. And this comes from a reformed ambulance chaser. If Family Services had taken control of this child, the same people who are decrying their inaction would have been screaming about how the child should have been mainstreamed. No matter what, Family Services would be party defendant. A classic Scylla-Charybdis situation indeed. Mark my words, this tragic child will be morphed into a cash cow by greedy, unprincipled lawyers.
I doubt you have the full story at this point. More will come out, it always does.
I agree. I would also put the father on suicide watch.
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Do you have the "full story"? If yes then share your info. If not, then show some class and lay off the dead child until you know for a fact that contrary to everything written from day one he was not impaired but just, as you called him, a brat.
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