Child abuse, deaths in Manatee County alarming

Four. Not a big number, but big when it comes to children. Four deaths last year from child abuse. Four. The dreadful year set a record as the worst in 15 years.

The horrific story of Janiya Thomas illustrates all too graphically how adults lose control of their emotions. There's no other explanation for placing an 11-year-old with a medical condition into a freezer dead allegedly by a mother now accused of this crime.

Across the country child abuse and neglect accounted for 1,520 deaths in fiscal 2013, according to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, a federal agency that collects data on this issue. That's actually a decrease by 12.7 percent from 2009 to 2013. But the agency admits some maltreatment deaths do not get reported to state child protection services. Most disturbing is the fact that the youngest children -- younger than 3 years -- account for almost three quarters of all child fatalities nationwide.

Manatee County Sheriff's Office Major Connie Shingledecker addressed this issue at this month's Manatee County League of Women Voters panel discussion on "Helping Children at Risk." While last year was a particularly violent year, there have been eight confirmed child abuse deaths in the past 15 years. In six of those cases, men killed the children of the mothers they were dating.

And five were males who suffered head injuries, an important factor for social service workers and law enforcement, Shingledecker told the record crowd at the league event.

Nationally, the Child Abuse and Neglect Data System links child maltreatment to financial instability and other poverty issues, namely parental participation in public assistance programs. Almost a quarter of states reported that 25.8 percent of child fatalities were tied to caregivers on public assistance.

The disturbing fate of Janiya Thomas put the issue of child abuse front and center into the public consciousness here.

The disappearance and death of the 11-year-old gripped this community since her body was found in October locked in a freezer placed by her mother, Keishanna Thomas, at a relative's home on the pretext she was being evicted.

The state of Florida should be a case study in deficiencies, which came to glaring light here in Manatee County in Janiya's case. Janiya vanished more than a year ago after the Department of Children and Families quit supervising her chronically troubled mother, who had been the subject of 10 child abuse hotline calls and a dozen Child Protection Services investigations since 2003.

As we opined days after Janiya's body was discovered, the years-long involvement of caseworkers and investigators indicated systemic failures in the child protection system. A DCF report confirms that point by detailing the mistakes.

In Janiya's case, the blame is widespread -- from DCF child abuse hotline operators to agency lawyers who insisted the agency quit supervising Thomas to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office's child protection investigators and Sarasota Family YMCA case managers who concurred with DCF.

Even after Florida adopted a broad child-welfare reform law in early 2014 -- including the requirement that child-protective investigators focus on risks to children instead of relying on promises from parents -- the system needs more work, as Janiya's case clearly points out, as we opined in November.

State statistics show the imperative need for more child protection. Florida tied with California with the second most reported child fatalities in 2013 -- at 121, the latest figures from the federal agency show. Texas led the nation with 150. More than 3 million children are abused across the nation annually, government statistics show.

Vulnerable children need community support. Law enforcement, the courts, the state and various social service agencies -- and Manatee County taxpayers via the Children's Services Tax -- serve this purpose. Family, friends, teachers and everyone else should be alert to signs of child abuse -- and report their suspicions.

Everyday citizens can help, too, and they did in droves when the call went out for volunteers to serve as Guardians ad Litem -- being the voice for children in crisis removed from their homes for safety's sake.

A record 821 children suffered that fate last year, almost twice the 412 in 2014, mostly because of our heroin epidemic. Dozens and dozens of applied to be GALS, as the guardians are known. Kudos to one and all.

Child abuse and neglect is an insidious defect that deserves our utmost attention. Education, parenting and anger management classes are available, if only those who need them would join.

They need community pressure to be better, caring people.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Child abuse, deaths in Manatee County alarming."