Six D.C. government employees who failed to help Banita Jacks before she allegedly killed her four daughters were fired Monday, as Mayor Adrian Fenty rolled out a lineup of reforms aimed at fixing mistakes that contributed to the tragedy.
The employees — front-line social workers, supervisors, call-takers and the child protective services director among them — all work for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency. Two other staffers stand to be fired as the investigation advances. Their names and official titles were not released.
“CFSA had all the information they needed,” Fenty said. “That’s why we think the buck stops at CFSA.”
Jacks, 33, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children: Brittany Jacks, 17, Tatianna Jacks, 11, N’Kiah Fogle, 6, and Aja Fogle, 5. Brittany is believed to have been stabbed, while the three youngest were likely poisoned or asphyxiated. The girls may have lain dead in their Sixth Street Southeast row house since May.
Child and Family Services bungled the case badly, Fenty said. The agency was alerted several times to Jacks’ troubles starting in mid-2006 — warnings with buzzwords suchas “substance abuse” and “mental illness.” CFSA closed the case on May 16, wrongly believing the family had moved to Maryland.
Geo T. Johnson, executive director of AFSCME District Council 20, said the D.C. government can expect a “legal battle” over the firings, which he described as a “knee-jerk reaction” to a broader systemic problem. The union represents five of the six employees who were let go, Johnson said.
Fenty left CFSA Director Sharlynn Bobo in place to reform the agency. Those efforts are to include more exhaustive case review, stronger reporting, and the establishment of a truancy reporting agreement with the charter schools.
“I deeply regret our failures in responding effectively and rapidly to this family,” Bobo said.
Fenty praised Kathy Lopes, a social worker at the Booker T. Washington Public Charter School, as the one “hero” in the case. Lopes made numerous efforts in late April to investigate and report on Brittany’s disappearance from school, only to be bounced around and brushed off.
“I need someone to go out to a home where I believe abuse and neglect is occurring,” Lopes told a 311 call-taker on April 30. “It’s an urgent matter. CFSA is pretty much sitting on it.”
D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells has scheduled an oversight hearing on the case for today.
Fenty’s five steps for reform in D.C.
– Exhaustive search for families in abuse and neglect cases, to include a minimum three visits to last known address
– Detailed descriptions of hotline calls reported to Child and Family Services Agency management within 24 hours of receipt
– No closed cases until a child alleged to have been abused is located, his or her safety ensured
– Established agreement with the public charter school system on reporting truancy and neglect
– Reopen and review the 300-plus child welfare cases in the last year that were closed as “incomplete”
READ all stories on Banita Jacks.
Watch the slideshow as this tragedy unfolds.
Read the Editorial on the Banita Jacks case.
Hear the 911 calls made in the Banita Jacks case on April 30, 2007 and April 27, 2007.
