Toddler Javon Thompson Starved to Death by Members of Cult

It may seem like I’m on a rampage about dead kids this week, but I promise this will be my last post about the topic. For the week.

I hope.

I’ve honestly been extremely sensitive about dead kids ever since Andrew McClain’s death back in 1998, and it still upsets me beyond words to learn about a child’s death. Andrew’s death was entirely–I said entirely–accidental, but Javon Thompson’s death was not. Not an accident. No way. No how.

Anyway, Javon was a cute-as-the-dickens baby whose mother had joined the 1 Mind Ministries (read cult) run by a woman who called herself “Queen Antoinette”.  Shortly after baby Javon and his mother, Ria Ramkissoon, moved in with the group. Queen Antoinette declared that Javon should say “Amen” after grace like the older, school-aged children did.

Fifteen-month-old Javon refused to-could not-would not-who-knows-why-he-did not-he-was-a-baby-for-god’s-sake say “Amen” and the Queen decided to punish Javon by withholding food and water until the next meal, at which time he was given another chance to say it.

He didn’t say it then either, and again food and water were withheld. And again. And again.

His skin color darkened, his eyes grew darker, he became dehydrated, and he starved. He died.

But, wait! It doesn’t end there. Cult members packed Baby Javon’s body in a green suitcase and poured Lysol over his body and put some scented fabric softener sheets in for good measure. To keep the smell down, y’know. Then the cult made several moves, carrying the green suitcase with them with Javon’s rotting body until they finally got kicked out of where they were living (except that Javon was dead) with a man in Philadelphia.

The man apparently liked them enough, though, so he told them they could leave some of their stuff in his shed. The suitcase remained there for a year.

Rather than my starting to sound like CSI, there are links here and here with more specific details on the case. Let it suffice to say here that homicide detectives finally found Queen’s green suitcase with Javon’s long-dead body inside.

I can just about imagine Ria Ramkissoon’s attorneys posturing about how she was brainwashed and is not/was not/never was responsible for the death of her son. About how she didn’t know he was dying. How she should be given another chance.

Crap! She killed Javon, and she has been properly charged with first-degree murder. She should be punished for taking her child’s life, as should all the other members of the cult who were complicit in Javon’s death. They were all old enough to know better.

And I won’t even get started on Cayley Anthony. Yet.

Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) Involved with Child’s Death. Again.

Although I’m very happy with my move to Virginia, I like to keep up with what’s going on in Connecticut, especially because I lived and worked there for so long.

And any news story that concerns the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) immediately piques my interest. Usually, not in a good way.

After Andrew McClain died while being restrained at Elmcrest Psychiatric Institute, naturally enough I did some snooping around to find any other similar instances, of which there were many.

One of the first which I became aware of was 12-year-old Robert Rollins who died while being restrained at Devereaux School in Massachusetts, not far north of where I lived in Connecticut. Robert was in the custody of Connecticut DCF, yet was placed at Devereaux in Rutland, Massachusetts. I have since learned that it is not uncommon for children in state custody to be placed outside of their home state.

Robert died while in a face-down restraint, similar to that in which Andrew McClain died. Robert died after a dispute with staff over a teddy bear.

My point is that these kids died while in the care and custody of the State of Connecticut, and now we learn of the death of 7-month-old Michael Brown, Jr., who had been placed in the home of Suzanne Listro as a foster child one week previously. Ms. Listro has now been charged with manslaughter, and is being held on $1 million.

What makes things worse in my mind is that Ms. Listro is a 15-year employee of DCF, most recently working as a children’s services consultant.

AND, she had been investigated twice–in 2006 and 2007–on allegations that she had abused her own child, a child whom she had adopted through an international adoption agency.

Who knew?

I know working with troubled kids and families is hard. I’ve been there. And there are so many families who need help and the case loads just keep growing and growing and it seems like things are not improving.

But someone along the way should have seen the red neon signs flashing and young Michael should never been placed with someone with previous abuse allegations (and, yes, I know they were found to be unsubstantiated) nor with someone who worked with DCF. There is a definite conflict of interest there, and it was wrong to allow it.

Now we have a dead child, a grieving family, a woman charged with manslaughter, a sad internationally-adopted child whose mom may go away for many years, and another stain on the Connecticut Department of Children and Families.

DCF Commissioiner Susan Hamilton’s remarks about the situation can be found here.

“Tummy time” doesn’t mean go grab a snack at the commercial break

When each of my children was born, the proper thing to do was to place them on their tummies for their naps and at bedtime.

There they would lie, snuggled into the sweet-smelling sheets, heads turned gently to one side or another, with a soft, sweet smile that would from time to time break into lip-pursing and sucking movements.

That position, used popularly since the 1960s, placing babies on their tummies for sleep, was the most common one used at that time by parents after their new infants came home from the hospital. My babies were happy with it, I was happy with it, and my babies’ granny was happy with it.

Then, by the 1990s, as reported by a 1993 article in The New York Times, a change was afoot. Evidence had begun to mount that seemed to indicate that babies who sleep face down are at greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS or “crib death”) than those who sleep on their backs or sides, and parents were advised to place their children to sleep on their backs for safety.

Now, an August, 2008, article in ScienceDaily, reports that the American Physical Therapy Association is urging parents and caregivers to give babies supervised ”tummy time”" throughout the day to avoid motor delays that may accompany lack of “tummy time” i.e., time infants spend lying on their stomachs while awake. The article includes many ways to increase “tummy time” with an awake infant, and includes a link to an excellent brochure, Tummy Time Tools.

While SIDS is still a mystery–with infants continuing to die of crib death, whether sleeping prone or on their backs–at this time and until we hear otherwise, we should place babies on their backs for sleep unless told otherwise by our child’s own pediatrician. In the meantime, you and your baby might enjoy a little fun, awake tummy time!

Okay, let’s see now … a little pill or hard-won insight. Which shall it be?

I came across an interesting article in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times about a study that reports how medication is increasingly replacing psychotherapy. The report that appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry said that the percentage of patients who received psychotherapy fell to 28.9 percent in 2004-2005 from 44.4 percent in 1996-1997.

Researchers attribute this shift to insurance reimbursement policies that favor short visits for medication management over longer and more-costly psychotherapy visits, as well as to the introduction of a new generation of psychotropic medications with fewer side effects.

Even as long ago as the early 1990s when I was working on an inpatient children’s psychiatric unit in Connecticut, even the very youngest children were very quickly after admission placed on psychotropic meds, meds which often yielded unpleasant and unwanted side effects.

On the other hand, I have seen incredible, almost-immediate, positive changes in patient symptoms with some of the psychotropic medications now available.

Parents should be aware that not all medications prescribed for children are approved for the use in people under the age of 18. They can be used with children, but must be used cautiously. Parents must ask questions–and should expect to get answers to their questions–about medications. There is a list of suggested questions in The Forgotten Future: Adolescents in Crisis to get a discussion started.

Medication or psychotherapy? It doesn’t have to be either-or. You can do both. You can have a psychiatrist prescribe and monitor your meds and see a psychologist, social worker, or licensed professional for psychotherapy. Logistically, that requires more time and more planning, but aren’t you worth the best?

Danieal Kelly Should Not Have Died This Way

If you’re squeamish, don’t read this post. It’s about maggots and feces and a hot, airless room where a young girl of 14, weighing only 42 pounds and begging for water, died.

Danieal Kelly was under the care and protection of the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. The department’s social workers, along with Danieal’s mother, and family friends, watched this young girl, who suffered from cerebral palsy and had maggot-infested bed sores, die on a putrid mattress in her mother’s home. The floor was covered with feces.  

So, are you grossed out, yet?

Are you enraged, yet?

I am. I am just so pissed off that I just about can’t speak!

This young girl’s story is one that everyone who cares about kids should know about. I should have learned about it. You should have been told about it.  Certainly people in Philadelphia should know about what goes on right under their noses. Danieal died two years ago, in 2006.

I came across this horrendous tale two days ago, in an Associated Press story that was buried on page 5 of The Virginian-Pilot. A 258-page grand jury report that was released last week charges nine people–Danieal’s parents, four social workers, and three family friends–in her death.

Reportedly, Danieal’s mother, Andrea Kelly, was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn’t want to touch her, change her diapers, take her out in public, or even provide her fluids. Andrea Kelly has been charged with murder.

These are troubled times, and, as always, there are not enough child welfare people to take care of those who need their help. But this story, Danieal’s story, is beyond troublesome. It is a barbaric way in which a child was put to death.

This kind of stuff has to stop.