Bubbaworld

“Justice For Joshua” is the latest rallying cry for Oklahomans determined to force improvement upon the Department of Human Services (DHS).

“Joshua” is 2-year-old Joshua Minton, of Sperry, Oklahoma.

Joshua lost his precious young life last month in a Tulsa day care operated by Vicki Chiles who has been charged with first-degree murder in Joshua’s death.

At the instant Joshua was struggling for life in Chile’s day care, DHS employees were arriving to shut the facility down owing to another child being abused there during April.

Once again, DHS did too little, too late and another Oklahoma child is dead.

DHS had cause to know that Vicki Chiles was a child abuser as she admitted it to DHS workers on April 13, 2007, acknowledging striking a young boy several times with a fly swatter on April 10.

It took DHS 34 days, between April 13, 2007 and May 17, 2007, to decided to shut down Chiles’ day care. During that entire time none of the parents that entrusted their children to Chiles’ care knew of either the current abuse allegation against her or her admission to that abuse.

DHS defends itself by claiming that Oklahoma law prevents it from revealing abuse complaints against day care operators until the allegation has been confirmed.

DHS by way of Chiles’ own admission on April 13 confirmed the the allegation regarding the child being beaten with a fly swatter. Yet DHS did nothing until May 17th, the fatal day and then only because on the prior day the Tulsa County DA had filed felony child abuse charges against Chiles for the April 10th incident.

So why the delay between April 13 when DHS knew Chiles was a child abuser and May 17 when it finally acted to shut down Chiles’ day care?

That is a good question and one deserving of an answer.

Unfortunately DHS continues to hide behind rules, regulations and laws that make it answerable to no one.

And now the name of Joshua Minton joins those of William Barnard, Keenan Taylor, Kelsey Briggs, Melissa Ellison and Ryan Luke among others as Oklahoma children killed simply because of DHS bungling, bureaucracy, excuses and hiding behind laws. Laws which rather than protecting children, protect DHS from the consequences of its own inaction and blunders.

With most new child death scandals that rock DHS, the Oklahoma Legislature writes a new law named after the child victim, DHS promises to ‘do better’ and yet the needless deaths of Oklahoma children keep occurring at an alarming pace.

The best way to obtain justice for Joshua, William, Kennan, Kelsey, Melissa and Ryan is to eliminate DHS completely from the child protection landscape of Oklahoma and replace it with a real law enforcement agency. One more interested in protecting the children of Oklahoma than it is in protecting its own reputation and turf.

The Oklahoma DHS is not the solution, it is the problem.

Only an insane person will make the same mistake over and over again expecting a different outcome each time.

It’s time that Oklahomans demanded sanity in its child protection system.
That means getting DHS out of the child protection business and fast.
Otherwise the next Oklahoma child to die owing to DHS bungling may be yours…