This is the second in a two part series concerning the self-admitted failure of the Arkansas Department of Human Services to deal effectively with the case of a 15-year-old male who was kept locked in a bathroom at a local apartment complex naked and unfed. Members of the Arkansas General Assembly are pushing to get answers from the agency about what happened in the local case and others around the state and to urge changes in the system so similar situations will not happen again.
Another aspect related to DHS’ self-admitted failure to act even in the face of almost 30 abuse reports being called into the Child Abuse Hotine, is that members of the State House and Senate are also asking for answers from DHS.
A local state senator Scott Flippo, who is chair of the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs, the Joint Budget Committee and the Senate Human Services Subcommittee has already been in touch with DHS officials to ask questions about the Baxter County case and what is being done to correct the mistakes made by DHS that allowed the abuse of the teen to continue for more than a decade…