Boy, 9, suspected in stabbing death of Dallas 2-year-old

[proud2BlibKansan]

The Associated Press

DALLAS | A 2-year-old girl left with a dozen other children in a home without adult supervision was stabbed to death, and police suspect a 9-year-old boy was responsible.

No charges have been filed in the death of Damya Jefferson, and police were still trying to piece together what happened when the girl was stabbed Friday night, Senior Cpl. Janice Crowther of the Dallas Police Department said Sunday.

Damya’s 17-year-old mother, Tiara Jefferson, had asked a friend’s mother to care for her 2-month-old daughter and the toddler.

The caretaker, Detress Richmond, then left 11 of her own children along with Jefferson’s children with a 15-year-old baby sitter, police said, though they did not say where Richmond had gone. Jefferson said she believes Richmond left to play bingo.

more . . .
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/16314389.htm

[Deja Q]

1. Sigh. Children having children who like to stab.

:(

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. And the 'adult' in charge went to play bingo

Hope she had a great time. :sarcasm:

[Warpy]

4. After producing 11 children, I don't know if my faith in luck

would be intact! Plus, it suggests Detress had more than 11 of them.

The accountability buck is going to stop with Detress, not the poor kid whose baby was stabbed to death. Leaving a huge mob of kids with the most competent 15 year old sitter in the world is a recipe for disaster. The babysitter would simply have been overwhelmed by the numbers.

Detress was undoubtedly desperate to get some time, any time, to herself without kids pulling at her.

This story is tragic all around and likely to get worse. If the DA is a Repug, expect to see the 9 year old kid get charged as an adult. Expect both mothers to lose their kids to the foster care system.

I have cousins who grew up in a family of ten children. Unless there is a lot of support from an extended family living nearby, growing up in a large family like that is a horror show for everybody but the father, who gets to pat his loins and strut while he leaves them alone to fend for themselves (he was always on the road).

One of the most serious failures we have in this country is the failure to support overwhelmed mothers. Adding poverty to the enormous stress they're under is a recipe for multiple disaster. Of course, the media will always blame the women, never the underlying problems. Recognizing what mothers are up against might cost them a buck.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. You've got that right

I don't know what the ratio is now in day care, but when I did that I think it was one TRAINED adult for every ten kids or so. In home daycare won't allow more than 6 children under the supervision of one adult. So the babysitter won't be held liable, but the mother who hired her will. And, sadly, you're right-the kids will more than likely be taken from her and put in foster care. Too bad TX wouldn't allow a loving gay couple to maybe adopt some of them...

edited because I misread where the event took place.

[havocmom]

3. With a nation full of people not dealing with reality has kids they don't take time to raise

those kids will have trouble with reality too.

Sad, but true. We have become a nation full of people who are just not there.

[ab hollow]

6. Home where 2-year-old was fatally stabbed had been on CPS' radar

Home where 2-year-old was fatally stabbed had been on CPS' radar

Situation never reached level necessary to take children, official says

11:34 AM CST on Monday, December 25, 2006

By SCOTT FARWELL / The Dallas Morning News

Caseworkers for the Texas Department of Child Protective Services have investigated the welfare and safety of Detress Richmond's children at least eight times in the last 12 years.
more:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-oakclifffolo_25met.ART.State.Edition1.3e208d7.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Gee that's comforting

NOT

[FormerOstrich]

8. Very sad....

However, I find it rather ironic they are faulting the 17 year old mother for using poor judgment and removing her child. What does that say about the state, which had investigated 8 times! Are they going to remove the caseworkers children from their homes because obviously their parents have poor judgment! Personally, I think she used poor judgment in having two children by 17. Wonder where the fathers are....for all fourteen of these children...if we are talking poor judgement.....

Damya's 2-month-old sibling was also removed from the care of her mother, 17-year-old Tiara Jefferson, and placed in foster care.

Ms. Jefferson said she thought she was leaving her daughters in the care of an adult when she dropped them off Friday night.

But Ms. Gonzales said state officials were worried about the young mother's judgment after she left her children in the Arkan Parkway home.

"We're concerned about her leaving very young children in a situation where they may or may not have been supervised properly," said Ms. Gonzales. "Based on our conversations with police, the home was dirty."

Since 1994, state caseworkers have investigated Ms. Richmond's home at least eight times based on allegations that her children were neglected, not fed or living in filth.

In each case, the allegations were "ruled out," according to Ms. Gonzales.

Instead of removing the children, state workers referred Ms. Richmond to parenting classes as well as helping her find work and food.

[TheMadMonk]

9. Ah, so the young inexperienced mother should have known...

...what the state was unable to determine in the course of eight investigations.

Sounds perfectly fair to me.


What's the bet the one woman progeny production line is a "good churchgoing Christian".


Question will the 2 mo turn up on the adoption market?

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. The 'adult' who lived in this house had 11 kids!!

That is another issue entirely, but I do think it was pretty dumb for this mother to expect her 2 kids to be adequately supervised in a home with so many kids.

[rebel with a cause]

20. In most cases, children cannot be taken out of a home simply because

it is dirty. There must be other factors involved. Also, I have seen case workers take children from homes only to have them returned by ruling judges. I am unsure of how things are in Texas or even how they are here in today's political environment, but in the past, I have seen children returned to homes because there was a federal investigation being carried out on their parents, because a judge had been adopted himself and was bitter about it, and because people were so afraid of the parents they would lie about the situation in the home to the investigators. Don't get me wrong, some CPS case workers are pretty bad in carrying out their duties, but I have seen some very hard working, caring ones who were so frustrated by the system that it was heartbreaking.

I have also worked within the child welfare system, and I have no idea what should be done with some of the children in it. I worked hands on with the children. In the beginning it was with regular abused children, then it became children that were involved in crimes, and then it became primarily with youth predators (children who sexually preyed on other children). Most of these children were young, only a few were even teenagers. The stories that I could tell, but then even if I did tell them no one wants to hear them. I honestly don't know what is the best way to take care of these children. I fear what those I worked with will be doing now that they are young adults. The sad thing is that if there were things that could have been done to help them, the system did little to provide it.

[opihimoimoi]

10. Send the lady a TV set fgs....11 kids??? Holy shit....

[951-Riverside]

11. I blame video games, penthouse, rap music, etc

:sarcasm: :eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. And I was thinking it was Clinton's fault

:)

[Quantess]

12. Events like these

make me wish abortions were free of charge.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Amen!!

[Quantess]

16. Whew!

What a relief that someone agrees with me. I was worried people would jump on me for being "mean".

Abortions should also be widely available, as well as affordable to everyone.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. I have spent nearly 3 decades teaching the children of our

underclass. I have seen far too many pregnant 12 and 13 year olds. And I have taught their children. Our society does NOT take care of these kids. They are especially ignored by Republican politicians, who seem so damned determined to make sure they have a right to life. Then they are forgotten once they are born.

Improved access to affordable birth control, as well as safe, legal and rare abortion, would go a long way towards improving the quality of life of our underclass.

[beam me up scottie]

18. I also agree with you.

Unfortunately, the women who really need to have that choice are the ones who can least afford it.

And if the "moral" majority and the politicians they own have anything to do with it, none of us will have that option.

[beam me up scottie]

19. It gets worse:

"We don't know when he got the knife. We don't know how he got the knife," Sgt. Nichols said. "All we know is that the stabbing did occur, and he said he did it."

One of the older children brought the little girl downstairs and laid her on the kitchen floor.

"They didn't even realize she had been stabbed," she said. "They were trying to figure out why all this blood was coming out of her nose and mouth. There was no blood coming out of the wounds themselves. All they knew that something was wrong with the baby. They were all pretty upset, needless to say."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-oakclifffolo_25met.ART.State.Edition1.3e208d7.html

I hope all of these kids get the help they need.