DHS fails another girl, who dies after years of horrific abuse

Philadelphia's Department of Human Services has failed, again, to help a girl who had been reported to them. This time, it was Charlenni Ferreira, a 10-year-old dead of an untreated lung infection, whose body showed signs of years of physical and sexual abuse, including "a gash on her head that had been covered with a hair weave" and other "severe head trauma, bruising of her back, leg and torso, a recent fractured hip bone and injuries."

Her neighbors said she walked funny -- that is, the few times they saw her outside her house. Police are calling her injuries evidence of "years of horrific, tortuous abuse," including sexual assaults and clear indications of severe beatings.

Where was DHS? A school nurse reported Charlenni multiple times to DHS, but the DHS pediatrician didn't think that Charlenni's funny walk, multiple bruises, and swollen face indicated abuse. DHS sent one of its private contractors to check up, but they closed her case.

Sound familiar? DHS's trained-monkey outside contractor failed Charlenni during 2006, the same year Danieal Kelly was found starved to death and covered in bedsores after DHS outside contractor MultiEthnic Behavioral Health falsified documents saying that they had, in fact, checked up on her and that she was, in fact, thriving. This time, a group of trained monkeys called Family Preservation, a family support services program by Congreso, are the ones who closed Charlenni's case after a mere 3 months of investigation.

We're 3 years past Danieal Kelly's death. Why hasn't DHS gotten their act together yet? How much money are they pouring into these outside contractors, who clearly do no work at all? Who the hell is the pediatrician who decided that Charlenni wasn't being abused, and where is he or she practicing? How many more children are going to die on DHS's and that pediatrician's watch?