We Join The Louisville Courier Journal In Asking Governor Steve Beshear To "Spare The Child".
Editorial | Spare the child
What does it take to get Gov. Steve Beshear to give his undivided attention to deaths from child abuse and neglect in Kentucky? What does it take to move him to forceful action?
One must hope that the answer to both questions will be Amy Dye.
Amy was 9 years old when she was murdered last February. Her adoptive brother, Garrett Dye, 18, awaits sentencing Wednesday for beating her to death with a jack handle.
In a heartrending account Sunday, Courier-Journal reporter Deborah Yetter reconstructed the tragedy and violence of Amy’s short life. After being shuffled among relatives and foster parents in the Northwest, she moved into the home of her great-aunt, Kimberly Dye, in Todd County in 2006 and was adopted the next year.
Amy repeatedly arrived at school with bumps, bruises and abrasions, and told alarmed school officials that her brothers had hurt her. The educators reported potential abuse to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, but social service officials either declined to investigate or decided the allegations were groundless.
The cabinet apparently took no notice that it had substantiated abuse of Garrett Dye in 2003 at the hands of his father, Christopher Dye, who moved back into the home after Amy’s arrival despite being divorced from her great-aunt. Mr. Dye acknowledged subjecting Amy to harsh punishments, including having left her alone in a Clarksville, Tenn., hotel parking lot.
This is only the latest horror. A series of special reports in The Courier-Journal in 2009 showed that almost 270 Kentucky children, including 41 in a 12-month span, had died of abuse or neglect. Like Amy, more than half were known to state officials.
It is simply outrageous that the cabinet continues to resist Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s order that it release records and reviews related to child fatalities. It is inexplicable that the Governor, who stresses education and family issues, sits on his hands.
Instead of urgent recognition of the dimensions of this tragedy — instead of telling the cabinet that he demands transparency, accountability and full compliance with Judge Shepherd’s order — the Governor seems to take a lawyerly but passive position that the legal wrangling should play out. That, of course, could take months or even years, while children continue to suffer and die.
Gov. Beshear surely recognizes the need for systemic reform in the child welfare system. If he resists changing its culture of secrecy and its unwillingness to take responsibility, he will have failed to protect terrified and abused children from sadistic adults. That will be some legacy.
What does it take to get Gov. Steve Beshear to give his undivided attention to deaths from child abuse and neglect in Kentucky? What does it take to move him to forceful action?
One must hope that the answer to both questions will be Amy Dye.
Amy was 9 years old when she was murdered last February. Her adoptive brother, Garrett Dye, 18, awaits sentencing Wednesday for beating her to death with a jack handle.
In a heartrending account Sunday, Courier-Journal reporter Deborah Yetter reconstructed the tragedy and violence of Amy’s short life. After being shuffled among relatives and foster parents in the Northwest, she moved into the home of her great-aunt, Kimberly Dye, in Todd County in 2006 and was adopted the next year.
Amy repeatedly arrived at school with bumps, bruises and abrasions, and told alarmed school officials that her brothers had hurt her. The educators reported potential abuse to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, but social service officials either declined to investigate or decided the allegations were groundless.
The cabinet apparently took no notice that it had substantiated abuse of Garrett Dye in 2003 at the hands of his father, Christopher Dye, who moved back into the home after Amy’s arrival despite being divorced from her great-aunt. Mr. Dye acknowledged subjecting Amy to harsh punishments, including having left her alone in a Clarksville, Tenn., hotel parking lot.
This is only the latest horror. A series of special reports in The Courier-Journal in 2009 showed that almost 270 Kentucky children, including 41 in a 12-month span, had died of abuse or neglect. Like Amy, more than half were known to state officials.
It is simply outrageous that the cabinet continues to resist Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s order that it release records and reviews related to child fatalities. It is inexplicable that the Governor, who stresses education and family issues, sits on his hands.
Instead of urgent recognition of the dimensions of this tragedy — instead of telling the cabinet that he demands transparency, accountability and full compliance with Judge Shepherd’s order — the Governor seems to take a lawyerly but passive position that the legal wrangling should play out. That, of course, could take months or even years, while children continue to suffer and die.
Gov. Beshear surely recognizes the need for systemic reform in the child welfare system. If he resists changing its culture of secrecy and its unwillingness to take responsibility, he will have failed to protect terrified and abused children from sadistic adults. That will be some legacy.
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:30 AM
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