How Could You? Hall of Shame-Tirel Hill case-Child Death

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Antioch, Tennessee, “Tirell Hill, 14, was a troubled teen in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services for nearly eight months before he was shot and killed Friday [June 9, 2017] after running away from an Antioch foster home.

He was among the children for whom DCS was having trouble finding a stable placement. A Tennessean report last month found that some kids taken into state custody were sleeping on couches in DCS offices or in a room of a Bellevue church because state officials could not find a stable place for them to go. Tirell was among them.

Tirell’s mother, Jessica Barefield, said DCS was a last resort for finding therapeutic care she could not afford for her son.

Instead, she received texts from his DCS caseworker saying Tirell would have to sleep in a state office building because there was no appropriate care available for him.

 

Without a stable treatment facility for her son, Barefield said she worried he would run away and place himself in danger. She feared his immaturity and emotional instability had already led him into confrontations with gangs.

A tragic end

According to Metro Nashville police, Tirell was shot just before 11:30 a.m. Friday in a residential Bordeaux neighborhood nearly a month after he had run away from his Antioch foster care placement. Police believe the shooting was targeted. 

A DCS spokesperson cited state confidentiality laws during an ongoing child death investigation in declining to answer questions about where Tirell had been staying since The Tennessean reported in early May about a lack of stable housing for the teen.

The department’s ongoing investigation means it cannot answer whether the Antioch foster home Tirell ran away from was a permanent placement or a one-night temporary placement, whether Tirell was receiving therapeutic care, counseling or gang protection services, or whether he had spent any of the last weeks of his life sleeping on a state office building sofa.

DCS on notice

DCS’ challenges in finding stable homes for children in its custody have gotten the attention of Davidson County Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway, who issued an unusual order after The Tennessean’s report highlighted Tirell’s mother’s concerns about her son.

The May 16 court order by Calloway, obtained this week by The Tennessean, put DCS on notice about kids in custody with no stable place to stay.

Beginning June 1 and continuing indefinitely, Calloway’s order said, DCS officials are required to appear in her court to account for any child who wasn’t securely placed in a foster home or therapeutic facility.

“It has come to the attention of the Court that there are children in the custody of the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) without a placement, including children sleeping in offices or being held in secure detention facilities without appropriate services,” Calloway’s order said.

Calloway’s order requires a DCS official designated by the commissioner to appear before her courtroom each weekday morning at 8:30 to account for how many children in Nashville lacked a stable place to go the previous night.

The order requires DCS officials to show they made reasonable efforts even when they failed to find a stable place for children in their care — and to describe any services they provide children “to address the trauma of being held in custody without a placement.”

On Monday, Calloway said in a statement that she was “deeply saddened by the killing of fourteen year old Tirell Hill here in our community.”

“When children run away from DCS placements, we need to determine what caused the child to run and work to address those issues. It will require assistance from the whole community — not just DCS and Juvenile Court — to stop the senseless killing of our children,” she said.

No home for troubled youths?

Since June 1, 12 delinquent youth and 14 abused or neglected children in DCS custody were spending their nights in temporary placements without a stable home, according to data provided by Rob Johnson, a DCS spokesman.

Johnson said those children weren’t sleeping in DCS offices, but rather in temporary foster homes or juvenile detention centers.

DCS did not provide information on how long those children had gone without a permanent and stable place to stay.

One source who works closely with DCS said that at the first June 1 hearing before Calloway, DCS officials reported that one 12-year-old child had been temporarily placed in a Madison County detention facility for more than 70 days, although DCS’ own policy states children should not be held in such temporary facilities — which often lack education, counseling and other support — for more than 30 days.

The children without stable residences include those removed from homes where they were abused and neglected as well as delinquent children whose brushes with the law land them in juvenile court.

The shortage of beds is particularly acute for kids found to be delinquent who have been sent into state custody by the juvenile courts for truancy, crimes or other offenses. The most serious offenders are sent to secure youth development centers. Of the 1,000 teenagers found to be delinquent, only 180 are sent to youth development centers, leaving DCS to find alternatives for about 820 kids who can’t go to traditional foster homes.

Barefield, the mother of the slain 14-year-old, did not respond to a request for comment after the death of her son.

She had previously told The Tennessean that she was desperate for DCS to find therapeutic care for her son and feared for his safety because he was “hanging out with the wrong group of kids.” He had behavioral problems the single working mother with three other children was not able to address.

“The state is not helping him,” Barefield told The Tennessean in May. “I just want my son in a therapeutic program, but they are in so much need of placements for kids that they either try to send him back home where he will run and get hurt out on the street or have him sleep in an office. How could he get help in an office?””

Runaway killed amid scrutiny over lack of available care

[The Tennessean 6/13/17 by Anita Wadhwani ]

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