I don't know why the Mr. Lockhart, the father, merits such a wall of protection from legitimate scrutiny. Too many people keep trying to make excuses for him. The bottom line is this: the living situation and people directly involved (e.g., Antoinette Davis, her HIV-ridden boyfriend with a criminal record), were truly extreme that it did not present any challenge to any reasonable person in figuring out it was flat-out dangerous for a child. How could he *not* know? How many damn red flags do you need?! Hell, how could he *not* even know his child was no longer in school? They have cell phones these days and he could have easily been alerted. These are truly staggeringly simple questions. Honestly, the man should be charged with negligence (He won't be, of course). *His actions were truly egregious and reckless.* What he did was no different than than leaving his daughter with a random prostitute and drug user in a horribly bad neighborhood with equally bad, criminal associations. If some parent did that would you not charge them even if they honestly claimed they had "no idea" any serious harm would come to their child? Of course not. Imagine the uproar if the genders had been switched and a white woman had left her little girl to a black father with a troublesome background and living situation. I fear subtle, unconscience racism and, mostly, sexism has played a role in shielding Mr. Lockhart from full blame.
The fact that there were *two* homes open to Shaniya Davis and the father absolutely *insisted* on this little girl living with A. Davis is downright cruel on his part (Yes, those families should have called local child welfare services, but it doesn't cancel out his actions or his responsibility). Again, the red flags were too many and absurdly obvious. No one is that stupid. Something is up with him. Why was he so determined to have this child live like that? I don't buy for a second that he just planned on her visiting for a while. He had little Shaniya switch schools during the school year and couldn't even be bothered with the fact she was no longer enrolled in any school, which is against the law.