The family of 3-year-old Ke’Torrius “K.J.” Starkes Jr. is remembering the little boy as a “joyful,” “brilliant” “happy boy who loved life, who would light up any room that he would enter into.”
The toddler died after he was trapped inside a hot car while in the custody of a worker contracted by the Alabama Department of Human Resources, the state’s child protective services agency, according to the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office and the state Department of Human Resources. The Birmingham Police Department is investigating the death.
K.J. had been left inside a car parked outside a home in Birmingham for several hours during the middle of the day on Tuesday, the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
For…several…HOURS
I know it’s horrifying. This isn’t a momentary lapse there’s no defence for it. It’s so bad I’m wondering if it’s deliberate
Yeah when it’s the parent who does it, it’s usually because they’re completely exhausted from trying to tend to the baby and… Tragic.
But this is a person in the clock…?
I mean idk I’d like to know more about this person’s general wellbeing/state. Are they working 3 jobs? Dealing with loss or something? Or was this just a day at work?
If you have ever met an actual cps worker you would know. They don’t take that job for the money. They are asked to work in often horrible circumstances, with thier hands essentially tied behind thier backs. Just imagine taking a child to visit a parent who isn’t allowed to be alone with thier own kid. That often is going to be heartbreaking and insanely stressful.
Mistakes happen. If the state/community really cared, there would always be at least two workers with a child in custody at any time. And they would be paid better so that the hiring manager could be more choosy about who they hired. Google spends more on redundancy alone to ensure you can always read your email. So don’t blame the person, blame the system the put them in over thier head.
I don’t care how “tied” your hands are. A child in a hotbox for HOURS is on you. Unless they had been awake for 36 hours straight or something there’s no excuse and even that excuse is weak. You don’t just FORGET that you put a child in a fucking car for hours. Not unless there’s a severe cognitive issue like drug use or exhaustion.
well, what you are saying is just not true. Someone in these comments posted a link to some science providing evidence to the same.
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Yep or they’re just abusive/neglectful parents. Surely the staff member must have told colleagues they’d collected the kids? You don’t just do it on a whim, there’s procedures, laws and policies in place so managers must have known. And NONE of them realised the child was in the car?