Kansas Democratic members state wide have been stunned as 3-Year-old Evan Brewer was found encased in concrete, murdered. Evan is the grandson of Carl Brewer, former mayor of Wichita and one of the four declared candidates for Kansas Democratic governor in 2018.
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Wichita police Lt. Jeff Gilmore told reporters that the body found Saturday in the rental home is likely that of 3-year-old Evan Brewer, though authorities are awaiting DNA results for final confirmation.
The boy’s father, Carlo Brewer, contacted state officials and local police over the welfare of his son, who at the time was living with his mother and her boyfriend.
The murder of the child is the latest in a series of failures by Kansas Department of Children & Family Service (DCF), and unfortunately, the script is all too familiar.
It cites four complaints dating as far back as July 2016 and as recently as April. One allegation references an injury to his nose and contends the boy was “filthy and without appropriate clothing.”
One witness statement cited in the PFA alleges the boy had been beaten “to the point of death” while in the mother’s care.
The reports to Department of Children and Family Service in Kansas citing child abuse, and the failure to effectively mitigate the case, have become common themes under the Brownback administration.
The case of Mekhi Boone, a few years ago, is so strikingly familiar it bears repeating.
The story of Mekhi Boone began the discussion on the lack of services being provided by DCF. Admitted to a Kansas City, Missouri hospital, doctors described him as the “worst case of abuse I’ve ever seen.” The case presented an inside look at the handling of abuse cases, and a call to action for the Department of Children and Family Services. Teachers, school nurses, and other community members had all reported incidents of abuse; in one instance, a DCF worker witnessed the young boy with two black eyes and was told he had simply “fallen” onto a futon.
“Children’s Mercy personnel including a medical doctor who had observed approximately 15,000 victims of child abuse, described (Mekhi’s) injuries as the worst ever seen for a child that age, and that there was not two inches of (Mekhi’s) body that did not have bruising on it,” the lawsuit reads.
The situation has continued over the years since Mekhi Boone, with cases such as Evan Brewer all too often appearing in the media.
A case in Kansas City, Kansas garnered national attention as another child abuse case was reported repeatedly to DCF, with video & audio explaining the abuse. But there was no action — not in time for Adrian Jones, who was murdered and fed to pigs. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC AND TROUBLING PICTURES OF CHILD ABUSE.
The Department of Children and Family Services, faced with these issues hasn’t moved to improve service options, instead, they have focused on how to cut cost and move to a politicize the bureau.
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Kansas is using unlicensed workers to investigate suspected child abuse and neglect -- with the only formal education requirement that they have a high school diploma
Last week, the Kansas DCF moved to further politicize the agency, by tying potential pay raises of 2.5%, the first in years, to an agreement with employees to give up worker’s protections. Those changes would effectively encourage workers to generate less work for an agency trying to save money, and, following the political whims of the leadership, focus more on politically hot button cases like LGBT foster parents.
The crisis in Kansas Department of Children and Family service is no surprise to too many Kansans. Service run cheaply, with few workers, and under trained employees is simply unprepared to handle the situation at hand. The government, it seems, sometimes has a cost.
The question is whether or not that cost should be one that we as taxpayers put forward to protect small children or the lives of small children.
More on Kansas DCF Concerns:
Kansas DCF ties pay raises to loss of worker’s protections
Bombshell against Kansas DCF endorsing discriminatory practices
Child murdered, fed to pigs, as DCF fails to follow up
The conflicts and misuse of resources at Kansas DCF
Kansas DCF goes political, speaks to discriminatory group
Kansas DCF uses untrained investigators to devastating results