FL - Police investigate 7-year-old's hanging death

[lizzybeth]

I wonder if Gabriel had been allowed to continue to see his mother he might have felt he had some hope. That one day she would come home, be clean, and they would live together?

Such a short, sad and tragic life.

RIP sweet Gabriel. You'll be with your mom again one day and now no one can ever hurt you. The one you're with doesn't think you're a liar or bad. He loves everything about you.

 

[MomofBoys]

And they chose to dump this child on an inexperienced 19 year old. I don't see this as DCF making a scapegoat out of these people. Not at all.

I'm not saying they were in the right, but it was just one of the many failures along the process. It sounds like this child should have been in a long-term, intensive, therapeutic environment. It sounds as though he was over-medicated, scarred, and in such a state that he shouldn't have been one lapse in judgement away from death.

So even if they're not scapegoats, I think that officials will try to put as much as possible on this foster family. And while that might be justified to an extent, it's a very easy way for them not to have to turn their eyes inward and see their own culpability in this. If this child was bad off enough that they felt prescribing those drugs to him seemed to fulfill benefit over risk, then he was pretty bad off indeed. Either the doctor was a quack, or this child needed to be in a mental health facility.

 

[Mendara]

My heart breaks for this child. Was he ever loved by anyone? Was he ever hugged kissed and laughed with? Makes me want to take a chidl in like this just to show them life can be wonderful. My mother was a foster mother for many years - as I grew up we had babies in and out - crack babies with huge problems. My mother loved them all so much that when she had to give them back to thei rm other's after these mothers claimed to be clean, my mother would breakdowna nd cry for days, wondering if giving them back was right. They never gave my mother updates and after taking in my brother (a baby left in the hospital with no name by his 14 yr old mother) my mother could not continue the heart break - my brother was adopted by my parents 5 years later, he is now 19 but still has trouble with depression and anxiety.

Why do doctors medicate these kids? This child was 7 - only a baby - never taught to cope or heal and face his feelings of anger, instead give him a pill to make him feel like a zombie for a while so that others around him could live in peace. What about HIM????

I am so sad right now.

 

[Mendara]

Where is his mother now?

 

[Lyn1001]

As a Foster parent I can tell you WE DO sign papers saying we will not leave our foster children with someone not approved. It sounds like this child was most likely in a theraputic foster home and should of never been left alone with someone not trained and or approved by the state. This child took special care and that care was not given PERIOD.


We foster parent are held above others and if they can not or don't want to accept that then they should not be a foster parent. We get children that have already been harmed (abuse neglicted ect) and that is NOT like raising a child that has not been abused.

IMO this child should of been in RTC and not a foster home. He sounds like he needed a lot of help .

THIS IS why he was moved from home to home. He would get to be to much for a foster parent and they would have to find a new home instead he should of been inpatient in RTC getting the help he needed around the clock until he got better. It is time for the state to stop being CHEAP and get our children the help they NEED.


and BTW that babysitter seems CREAPY to me.


BTW.. I want to add. I can not and will not fault any of the foster homes that could not care for them as his needs was more then they could handle. They tried to get him into a home that could which is a lot better then keeping a child you can not handle and yes a 7 year old CAN be a lot to handle with all of his issues. Some can control the whole home with their fits ect. THIS IS NOT HIS FAULT. The state should of had gotten this child FULL TIME 24/7 HELP.

First, let me say thank you for being a foster parent. It is a difficult job, and it's hard to find good foster parents. You are probably appriciated far more than you know. Second, thank you for explaining a little bit about what is expected of foster parents.

Now, I have to respond to putting the child in RTC. I can not speak for every state, or every center, as every place is different. I do know that in some states, there are few, if any, RTCs that will take children that young. They are not licensed/equiped for that. To get a child under the age of 12 in can be difficult. To get a child under the age of 9 in, if there is some place that will accept the child and is equiped to care for the child, there are other channels to go through to get it approved. That includes the court ordering it as well as people "near the top" of the state agency approving it. To approve it for a child that young, they will need a tremendous amount of paperwork documenting that the behaviors are too severe for any foster family to deal with. This includes written documentation from the foster parents (not just a letter, things such as a log of behaviors, steps taken to help the child, behavior plans, etc.), therapist, doctor/psychiatrist, and the state worker. Also, RTCs aren't always the best places for children. They tend to have more children who are acting out behavioraly, rather than those that have extreme emotional problems. For extreme emotional problems, there are psychiatric hospitals. However, the stays there aren't very long and you have to go through a huge process to have the child admitted. That process doesn't deal as much with the state/court as it does the crisis or hospital staff.

Once again 6angels, thank you for being a foster parent. And thank you for realizing that caring for a foster child is not like caring for a child who hasn't been in the system. You are a blessing.

 

[capoly]

I'm not saying they were in the right, but it was just one of the many failures along the process. It sounds like this child should have been in a long-term, intensive, therapeutic environment. It sounds as though he was over-medicated, scarred, and in such a state that he shouldn't have been one lapse in judgement away from death.

So even if they're not scapegoats, I think that officials will try to put as much as possible on this foster family. And while that might be justified to an extent, it's a very easy way for them not to have to turn their eyes inward and see their own culpability in this. If this child was bad off enough that they felt prescribing those drugs to him seemed to fulfill benefit over risk, then he was pretty bad off indeed. Either the doctor was a quack, or this child needed to be in a mental health facility.

Usually I would agree but in this case, once the news reporters put out the correct story, feel that Florida's DCF was the only entity in this boys short life that tried to do right him.

Gabriel was in the FL DCF system only ten months. There's 1,400 + pages documenting his care. There is absolutely nothing to suggest DCF was negligent with his care. I can't find anything that indicates they had reason to suspect these foster parents were anything but a godsend to them and the child.

The foster parents knew the process and chose, not once but a number of times, to leave the child improperly supervised. He was not on heavy meds until the move to this foster home. He threaten suicide many times over the months yet he acted on it while in the care of these very qualified foster parents. imo this was not a lapse of judgment but an act of convenience. He died on what should have been their watch.

I'd like to know what kind of hell he was living in Ohio. And what part the grandparents played in his thinking he was bad and a born liar. What was done about the boy who was sexually abusing Gabriel? What did Ohio DCF (?) know & do?

WTF kind of grandparents leave a defenseless child with an habitual drug user just "because she wanted him back"? Didn't take long for her want of drugs to land her back in jail. And the uncle....the child has sexual abuse issues yet the uncle whips him across his naked butt with a belt. How humiliating.

imo It would be a shame if FL DCF took the fall for this child's death and all these other fools went free.

 

[capoly]

6angels,

I add my thanks to Lyn1001s. imo Your knowing the need for parenting skills that differ from the norm means your children will be raised properly. Properly raised.....there's an old-fashion warmth and stability to those words. :hug:

 

[Salem]

I think it is very telling that the police have not ruled this a suicide as of yet and the investigation is ongoing. I'm taking this info from the link showing the babysitter's interview.

Salem

 

[txsvicki]

I don't know about the anti depressant, but the medications the boy was on are pretty standard. The article did say that he was taken off the antidepressant. If the meltdown began with him throwing his food in the trash, then that could have been extreme irritability from the stimulant vyvanse wearing off around suppertime. My grandson is on that and while it's supposed to last longer, it does not last up to 12 hours. It can also severely affect a kid's appetite and make them even more picky about what they want to eat. I've been there and done that with the meltdowns and fits thrown over not getting him the specific hamburger that he wanted.

 

[k4kathy]

Just an FYI. My daughter began trying to commit suicide at eight. She has continued through myriad inpatient facilities and meds and counseling. She is now 26. Both of my Foster children did the same. We had a lot of experience in Mental health facilities for children. There have been children in the facilities we frequented on a daily basis as young as 4 that were consitant in suicidal ideation and attempts. It does happen and probably more frequently than most people know.

I will apologize right off the bat to anyone who finds my opinions to be critical,but I can't buy this BS that a young child has suicidal thoughts.This is not an inborn behavior.How could such a young child decide that suicide would be an option for their problems.But...this day and age when little children are exposed to everything under the sun,well who knows what goes through their little minds.

 

[txsvicki]

My grandkids' cousin on the other side of their family was threatening suicide and threatening to kill his mother along with violence at school. He was only about 7 when finally put into the hospital for about a week and diagnosed with bipolar disorder. ADD stimulants made him worse, which was of course the original diagnosis as usual.

 

[Lovejac]

Broward child's suicide raises questions about medication
A Broward foster child who killed himself last week had been prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs, some of which the FDA does not approve for children.



(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/1011223.html

Also has a picture of Gabriel.

Oh dear God, he was beautiful. What a waste, this boy was failed by so many.

snipped from link

Jon Myers, the uncle who cared for Gabriel after abuse investigators found him in a car in a Denny's parking lot after his mother had passed out, questions whether Gabriel needed such potent medications to begin with.

Myers said the boy's pediatrician had discontinued all psychotropic drugs while Gabriel lived with him, and the boy did well, earning A's and B's at the Hollywood Christian Academy

 

[capoly]

Oh dear God, he was beautiful. What a waste, this boy was failed by so many.

snipped from link

The problem is the uncle's statement is contradicted by his prior words and actions.


Jon Myers, the uncle who cared for Gabriel.....

.... said the boy's pediatrician had discontinued all psychotropic drugs while Gabriel lived with him, and the boy did well, earning A's and B's at the Hollywood Christian Academy.

''We did not have any issues with him having tantrums,'' Myers said. ``He would get upset, like little boys do.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/1011223-p2.html


So why did he place Gabriel in foster care? And why the need for corporal punishment?


In October 2008, Gabriel was placed in foster care after his aunt and uncle felt they weren't able to handle his behavioral problems. Gabriel would throw severe temper tantrums, according to child welfare officials

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...l-myers-hanging-death-b041709,0,3540017.story



....... he was moved to the home of his aunt and uncle. He lived there for some three months until Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) investigators received a report alleging sexual and physical abuse.

While investigators found no signs of sexual abuse, the uncle revealed he "did try corporal punishment" and hit the child with a belt. A Broward County judge issued an emergency order and moved Gabriel Myers back to the licensed home.

http://cbs2.com/national/Gabriel.Myers.troubled.2.994826.html


:waitasec:

 

[Lovejac]

Thank you, capoly! In my sleep deprived fog I totally missed that. I just re-read both articles and now I see it.

 

[capoly]

Thank you, capoly! In my sleep deprived fog I totally missed that. I just re-read both articles and now I see it.

When I saw you here during the night did wonder if you have trouble sleeping. I do and it is beyond annoying at times.


It'll be double uke:uke: time for me if (or should that be when) that family sues. The uncle's words sounded like a lead-in to me.

Am tired of users & abusers & their hearts of greed.

 

[daisy7]

State probes apparent suicide of foster child, 7
A work group has been appointed to investigate factors leading up to a 7-year-old foster child's apparent suicide.

Florida's top child-welfare administrator has appointed a work group to look into the April 16 death of Gabriel Myers, the 7-year-old boy who took his own life at a Broward County foster home after a stormy nine-month odyssey through the state foster-care system.

At the top of the priority list for Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon will be an examination of the state's reliance on psychiatric drugs for children in state care.

`CHEMICAL RESTRAINTS'

The issue has troubled the department since the early 2000s, when a Broward child advocate claimed the drugs were being used as ''chemical restraints'' on unruly children.

Sheldon has asked administrators to begin reviewing the files of 2,200 children, or about seven percent of those in state care, to determine precisely which medications the children are being administered, he said. Gabriel, who was originally from Ohio, had been prescribed a handful of mind-altering drugs in his final months, DCF has said.

''I have serious concerns about a 7-year-old on the number of medications he was on,'' Sheldon said. Because DCF acts as the parent for foster kids, Sheldon said, the agency must ensure that children are being administered only the medications they truly need.

(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1024800.html

 

[daisy7]

Child-welfare panel: Psychotropic drugs relied on to manage foster kids
Florida's mental health system for foster kids relies far too often on drugs, with little oversight, according to a draft report on the suicide of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers.

Admitting for the first time what critics have claimed for years, state child-welfare authorities say caregivers for children in state custody frequently use powerful mind-altering drugs to manage unruly kids, rather than treat their anger and sadness.

A panel of child-welfare experts, including two top administrators from the state Department of Children & Families, examined the death of a 7-year-old Broward foster child who was on psychotropic medications -- without the required consent -- when he hanged himself in a Margate home.

The panel's report, expected to be released publicly later this month, says child welfare authorities too often rely on the potent medications to manage abused and neglected children -- but fail to offer psychiatric treatment to help them overcome the trauma they suffered.

(snipped)

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1183698.html

Workgroup on Gabriel Myers findings:
http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2009/08/12/20/GabrielMyersFindings1.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf

 

[6angels]

and yet no arrest yet.. he was failed yet again. JMO

 

[Sissy1355]

I just came across this story. So sad for the little boy who thought the only way out was death.

I saw in earlier articles that he was on a variety of drugs, including an anti-depressant. I have heard that certain meds can cause suicidal thoughts and that is why they suggest they aren't used on kids under 18. I have to wonder if the meds he was on may have contributed to his thoughts of suicide.

 

[oh_gal]

I wish, in cases of childhood suicide, there were "do-overs".