System Failure? D.C. Examines Girls' Deaths
Social Worker Repeatedly Tried to Alert Officials
Jan. 16, 2008 —
The fallout from the discovery of four children discovered dead last week in their Washington, D.C., home has led to the firings of six people and put a charter school's actions under intense scrutiny.
The city council is holding hearings in the 9-month-old deaths of 16-year-old Brittney and 11-year-old Tatianna Jacks and their half-sisters 6-year-old N'Kiah Fogle and 5-year-old Aja Fogle. Their bodies were discovered last week when U.S. marshals went to their home to serve an eviction notice.
Residents aren't just shocked at the fact that authorities have charged the mother, 33-year-old Banita Jacks, with murder; they are also shocked over the revelation that the city knew of the problems at the home and failed to help the girls.
"This is not how this case should have been handled, and this is not how cases will be handled going forward," said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
Five different agencies had contact with Jacks during the past year and a half and reports of drug problems also existed, officials now say.
When Jacks' husband died of leukemia last year, she pulled her children out of school shortly afterward in February 2007.
Vincent Blount, Meridian Public Charter School assistant principal, said at a District of Columbia Council hearing Tuesday that school officials didn't follow up after the children's godmother, a former employee of the school, told them that the children's mother was going to home-school them, according to The Associated Press. The school's principal still feels it acted properly, but stopped short of saying it did everything correctly.
The girls' absence from school prompted a social worker to visit their home. Jacks refused to let the social worker enter the home and the worker called child services.
"The home did not appear clean. The children did not appear clean and I assume that the mother is suffering from some mental illness," she said in a phone call.
No one followed up, and the social worker called again this time to the police three days later. Her frustration in trying to reach authorities clearly was audible in the call released this week by the city.
"I've been transferred all over, I need someone to come out to a home where I believe abuse and neglect is occurring," the social worker is heard saying on the call. "And I don't want to be transferred to someone else. It's an urgent matter."
The city said Tuesday that six employees had been fired for their involvement in the case.
The revelations have forced the city to re-evaluate its system and officials have expressed their disappointment.
"Here are all these government agencies [that] are supposed to be involved yet no one was involved," said council member Carol Schwartz.