Just over a week after lawmakers opened hearings into the Department of Human Services'(DHS) admitted failings in the case of a 15-year-old Baxter County boy found locked naked and unfed in a bathroom, a State Senator says further investigation and accountability are needed to make sure it never happens again.
Arkansas State Senator for District 23, Scott Flippo, has been closely following the case since the boy’s abuse was uncovered in November of last year. Initially, DHS had promised local prosecutor David Ethredge that it would release a report and investigation into the nearly 30 complaints made on the boy’s behalf over a 10-year period. That report was never released, prompting Ethredge to continue pressing the agency for more information. A letter later sent to the prosecutor included an admission of DHS’s failure to act, even in the face of repeated abuse reports.
Senator Flippo says further meetings are being planned to get answers and fix the failed system that led to these events.
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Mandated reporters including teachers, health care workers, and law enforcement did their job dozens of times by reporting the young man’s plight, while the state of Arkansas has spent millions of dollars on software to improve DHS. How could this many mandated reports of abuse for one child not have triggered the system to act appropriately?
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It has been nearly a year since the discovery of the scope of DHS’ failings. Why does it seem that so little progress has been made?
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The senator admits that accountability lies with all lawmakers including the governor’s office and the administrations that came before Governor Sander’s.
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The legislature has already asked a number of questions regarding the criteria used to screen calls to the Child Abuse Hotline after it was discovered that only about 55 percent of reports made to the hotline between January and March this year were assigned for actual investigation.
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