Reply #2: What a crock!

[Mithras61]

In the three years before her brain injury, DSS received 16 reports of abuse or neglect about Haleigh. But caseworkers believed that all her injuries were either self-inflicted or accidental, and allowed her to remain with her stepfather and adoptive mother

Uh, how many reports of child abuse are usually required to remove a child from a situation like this? If the injuries were self-inflicted, shouldn't authorities have had her in some sort of psychiatric counseling? If they were accidental, isn't 16 reports pretty damned high?

It sounds to me like the DSS is probably like so many other states' protective agencies - overworked, huge caseloads and no chance that they will be able to prevent this sort of thing from happening the first time. They may be able to keep the Stricklands from doing this to another child, but poor Haliegh has paid a mighty high price for the state's institutional incompetance.