DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Clermont, Florida - 1998)

Custodial dad RICHARD L. ADAMS was charged with murder after confessing to the beating death of his 6-year-old daughter. After that, the State of Florida planned to "tighten" its child welfare policies to keep such an occurrence from happening again.

You know, if I had a dollar for everytime Florida child welfare screwed up, and promised to "revamp" or "tighten" its policies and procedures SINCE 1998, I'd be wealthy and happily retired. Maybe with a nice retirement place in Florida. Or maybe not. Seems to be a lot of killers down there.

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/05/us/florida-will-tighten-child-welfare-policies-after-father-s-killing-of-girl-6.html?scp=25&sq=father+murder+child+custody&st=nyt

Florida Will Tighten Child Welfare Policies After Father's Killing of Girl, 6
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: Saturday, December 5, 1998

Florida child welfare officials plan to revamp workers' training and the way they handle child abuse cases after failing to act on signs of abuse in a 6-year-old girl who was ultimately beaten to death by her father, the secretary of the State Department of Children and Families said today.

''In my judgment, it could have been avoided,'' Secretary Ed Feaver said. ''That's what makes it so difficult for us.''

More than 500 volunteers helped law-enforcement officials search for the girl, Kayla McKean, after her father reported that she was missing on Thanksgiving. Five days later, the father confessed to fatally beating Kayla and led officers to the remote area where he had buried her, the authorities said.

The father, Richard L. Adams, 24, of Clermont in Lake County, north of Orlando, was charged with murder after confessing that he beat Kayla the night before Thanksgiving when she soiled her pants, the authorities said. His wife and Kayla's stepmother, Marcie Adams, 22, has been charged with a felony count of aggravated child abuse by neglect.

The death culminated abuse that had been documented in several reports to child welfare officials since April 1997, but that inexplicably prompted no action to protect the girl, Mr. Feaver said.

Typically, Mr. Adams would attribute Kayla's injuries to accidents, and she would be released to him.

Mr. Adams was given informal custody of Kayla by her mother, Elizabeth McKean, last April, officials said.

Mr. Feaver said the case was still under investigation but enough was known for his department to change the way child abuse investigations are handled. He said, for instance, that investigators would be prohibited from relying on anything but their examination of a child to determine whether injuries are accidental or inflicted. He said that in Kayla's case a child protection team relied on a telephone consultation with emergency room doctors to determine that her injuries were consistent with an accident.

Mr. Feaver said department workers would have to turn over their entire case files to the court when judges were considering placing the child in protective custody. That would give a judge enough information to assess whether the child should be removed from the family, he said. In Kayla's case, a judge complained that he would not have returned her to her home had he known of her history of injuries.

Mr. Feaver said training would be changed to emphasize closer scrutiny of cases.

He said Kayla first came to the attention of his department last year when her school reported that she had a bruise under her left ear and was shy and withdrawn. He said the girl's family said the injury had been caused by spider bites or anemia and a department doctor released her.

This May, after Kayla had moved in with her father and his wife and the couple's year-old child, she was taken to an emergency room with injuries that included black eyes and a fractured nose and hand. Mr. Adams said that she had fallen off her bicycle.

Mr. Feaver said that after a telephone consultation, workers with his department accepted the view of emergency room doctors that the injuries were consistent with a fall. At a subsequent court hearing, a department lawyer recommended the girl be returned to her family.

In October, prompted by a report from Kayla's school, child welfare workers investigated more injuries, including a bump on her head and black eyes. Mr. Adams said she had fallen in the bathtub and the family's dog had stepped on her face.

An investigator determined a low risk of harm to Kayla after the girl reported that she was treated well at home, Mr. Feaver said. He said there were several other reports that met a similar fate.

''Our staff should have seen that pattern,'' he said, adding that disciplinary action is being considered.

''That's the thing that drives me crazy. Over and over again there was just too much that happened,'' he said. ''Our first instinct should have been let's protect the child.''

Florida has up to 300,000 reports of child abuse each year. Seventy-five thousand reports were substantiated last year, a 10 to 15 percent increase in abuse cases over the total registered for the previous two years, Department of Children and Families officials said. The state records about 100 child abuse deaths a year.

The department has a $3.4 billion budget, $550 million of it for child protection services.

Governor-elect Jeb Bush has said that the system needs improvement, and has proposed privatization of foster care and more involvement from local law-enforcement agencies.

''He wants the local sheriff's office to work hand in hand with child abuse investigators,'' said Mr. Bush's spokesman, Corey Tilley.

Cindy Kinat, the principal of Minneola Elementary School in Lake County, which Kayla had attended since last April, said her death caused ''a lot of anger'' among school staff members and parents.

''When the situation was investigated it was just passed over too lightly,'' she said of the state inquiry into the reports of Kayla's injuries.

Ms. Kinat said good may come out of the case if it reminds everyone involved with children of the need to be vigilant about their well-being.

She described Kayla as a ''fairly quiet and shy but loving'' first grader.

''She did not have a lot of interaction with the other children,'' Ms. Kinat said. But she added, ''It was a safe place for her to come to school and she seemed to enjoy it.''