Pontiac mom Kelli Bryant charged with abandoning 3 kids in house of squalor.(Sheriff's photo)
Headlines in recent weeks have included horrifying stories in Metro Detroit: two children freezing to death in Detroit, three abandoned children living in squalor in Pontiac, and a boy, 9, found buried in his backyard, with his mother being charged in his death.
All, which has resulted in a Detroit Free Press examination of why the system is failing these children.
In a story titled, "Freezing deaths, living in squalor and shocking murder: Are Michigan's children OK?", the Freep writes:
Advocates, educators, policymakers and experts are asking how numerous state and local social safety nets allowed a cascading slew of tragedies to occur — with children slipping through the cracks — over just a few months. And they wonder, how much more calamity could be taking place that hasn't made headlines.
"Children in general aren't a priority in our country and in the state sometimes," said Peri Stone-Palmquist, co-executive director of the Ypsilanti-based Student Advocacy Center of Michigan. Some people and organizations do prioritize children, but as a society, she said, "If they really were a priority, we wouldn't allow a family to be sleeping in a parking garage in Michigan winter. We wouldn't stand for that."
Families on the brink of crisis shouldn't be isolated, experts say. There should be resources to help. People to intervene. Authorities to investigate. But in case after case over the past several months, advocates said, all the mechanisms that exist to help children in trouble seemingly never materialized to help, at least enough to avoid tragedy.
To read the full story by reporters, Lily Altavena, Kristi Tanner, Nushrat Rahman, Christine MacDonald, Tresa Baldas and Gina Kaufmanm click here.
