JUSTICE 4 ALEX AND MAKE CPS CHANGE!

I'm using go fund me to be able to commute to more activist, and stop the killing of children, not only in texas, but the whole US! I can't afford any grief counseling or medication... these past 4 years has put me to rock bottom. Almost homeless. Most important i need to put Alex's story out to bigger agencies that can help me change cps for everyone! Their stealing our babies and i want to STOP it! Cps should be one unit! Not branched out so they don't have to deal with placing children! And don't get me started on how much money they make to adopt out your kids! I could go on and on about cps, dcf ext... i need the worlds help to get justice for not only my angel but all the other families out there that have lost their babies to soon and those that still have a chance for theirs to return home

Mother of murdered Central Texas foster child calls for changes
STATE & REGIONAL GOVT & POLITICS

By Julie Chang - American-Statesman Staff
Posted: 3:57 p.m. Thursday, July 21, 2016

Highlights
Mary Sweeney is suing the state over the death of her 2-year-old daughter in 2013.

State officials said that seizures weren’t the only reason that Alex was removed.

Sweeney wants better services for parents who want to regain custody of their children.

Three years later, Mary Sweeney hasn’t stopped thinking about how close she believed she was to getting her 2-year-old daughter Alex back. Sweeney told a judge she had left her abusive boyfriend, remained drug-and seizure-free for months, and complied with orders to go to parenting classes and therapy.

But a few weeks later, Alex’s foster mother — a Rockdale woman — bashed the child’s head so hard into a carpeted floor that the girl died on July 31, 2013 in a Temple hospital.

“I didn’t have enough time,” Sweeney said through tears during a recent interview with the American-Statesman.

READ: Despite reforms, Texas child abuse deaths rise, investigations lagging

Amid state reports that have highlighted child abuse deaths and scores of problems with the foster care system, Alex’s case is a prime example of what’s wrong with Child Protective Services, Sweeney’s attorney Marty Cirkiel said. Agency shortcomings include failure to conduct proper background checks on foster parents and provide services for parents who want to regain custody of their children, and missing signs of abuse, said Cirkiel, who was a social worker before becoming an attorney and represents another Central Texas family whose child died in foster care.

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Mary Sweeney speaks with the American-Statesman last week about the death of her 2-year-old daughter in 2013. She is suing the ... Read More

In April, Cirkiel updated a federal lawsuit against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the umbrella agency over CPS, accusing the agency of discriminating against Sweeney because she had a disability. The state removed Alex and wouldn’t give her back to Sweeney because, among other reasons, Sweeney experienced seizures that the state argued would have put the child in danger, Cirkiel said.

“You can’t make having a seizure be a barrier to having your child,” Cirkiel said. “That issue had been addressed. She’s stable, she’s taking medication, she’s going to the doctor, she hasn’t had a seizure for six to eight months.”

Sweeney said she hasn’t had a seizure since the month before the state removed Alex.

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Alex Hill is treated in the hospital on July 29, 2013. Photo courtesy of Mary Sweeney

State lawyers have denied the thrust of Sweeney’s claims, saying that seizures were not the sole reason that Alex was removed. Court documents show that Sweeney and Alex’s father Joshua Hill had a history of marijuana use and doctors had diagnosed Sweeney with depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety.

Although Sweeney had never harmed Alexandria, state officials feared that Sweeney’s emotional instability meant that she could, according to court documents.

“I would never hurt my child,” Sweeney said.

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Mary Sweeney, left, and her daughter Alex Hill. Photo courtesy of Mary Sweeney

Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the state’s protective agency, said that they don’t typically comment on pending legal cases.

‘I wonder what she would be like?’

The state removed Alex from Sweeney and Hill’s home Nov. 1, 2012, first placing her with Hill’s parents, then a group foster home and finally with Sherill Small.

Sweeney said that Alex’s behavior deteriorated the longer she stayed in foster care. She had bruises, was terrified of water, pulled out her hair and bit other children.

The last time she visited Alex before she was murdered, Sweeney said the girl begged Sweeney not to leave her.

“She had that child glow and it disappeared gradually and at the time of the last visit with her, she threw a complete tantrum that she had never thrown before,” Sweeney said. “The last thing I told her was that I loved her so much.”

Small, 54 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison for Alex’s death.

READ: Death of 2-year-old points to lack of accountability

A Statesman investigation shortly after Alex’s death showed that Austin-based child-placing agency Texas Mentor had approved Small as a foster mother, even though she was facing theft charges at the time. Small’s two adult daughters also had criminal records and regularly visited the Small home.

The Statesman also drew attention to the family’s unstable source of income. Small worked temporary jobs; her husband ran a weekly karaoke show. State rules require a foster family to be financially stable.

Cirkiel said that CPS has inconsistent requirements and that one of the reasons Alexandria wasn’t returned to Sweeney was because Sweeney didn’t have a job.

“I should be able to hold her,” said Sweeney, who moved to Colorado for a fresh start. “I wonder what she would look like, what she would be saying now, how she would be enjoying school, what she would have grown up to be because she was so smart.”

More services for parents

After Alex’s death and the death of a Williamson County foster child — Orion Hamilton — three months later, the state increased the number of unannounced visits to all foster homes, limited the number of medically needy foster children that can be placed in one home and issued quarterly trend reports on child deaths from abuse and neglect.

It also suspended placements with Texas Mentor.

Even with all the promised changes, child deaths have increased since 2013.In 2015, 171 children died of abuse and neglect, up from 151 in 2014, as investigators missed red flags and failed to analyze critical data during abuse investigations, the Statesman revealed. There are 29,000 Texas foster children.

During a hearing last week before a Texas House committee, new Department of Family and Protective Services commissioner Henry “Hank” Whitman said that his agency will provide forensic training for abuse investigators and criminal background checks on potentially abusive families before caseworker visits.

Sweeney said that parents whose children are in the foster system should get better support, including more hands-on parenting classes.

Cirkiel recommends that the state appoints attorneys to parents who are fighting for custody of their children and that the state continues to pay for services for parents who need it, particularly if their child dies in the foster care system.

Sweeney still suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and depression but can’t afford therapy in Colorado, she said.

“In this case, the state put money into foster families that failed. And it would be much, much better for the state to put money into (biological) families,” Cirkiel said.