Briana Hunt was picking up extra work at a hair salon in Washington, D.C., when she got a chilling phone call: Her 1-year-old daughter had nearly drowned in the bathtub in their Bronx apartment while under the care of the toddler’s dad.
Hunt rushed home in an Uber and arrived to find her child in a coma. Outside her daughter’s hospital room, another shock awaited Hunt: a representative from the city’s child welfare agency.
That night, Hunt’s three older children were taken away on allegations of neglect by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, or ACS — the agency responsible for investigating child abuse cases — even though Hunt wasn’t there during the incident. Once her youngest recovered three months later and was discharged, she was also removed from Hunt’s custody…