Girl handcuffed by custodial dad says teachers were her "guardian angels" (Cleveland, Ohio)

We've reported ont his case before. Now we finally find out that abusive dad DONALD E. MILLER assumed custody after the "sudden" death of the girl's mother in 2006. It was at that time when she was "placed" with Daddy. So it appears the parents were separated before the mother's death. Hmm. Makes me wonder what role he had played up until then, if any. Well, thank goodness this girl is in the care of her maternal grandparents now.

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=151966&catid=3

Handcuffed girl said teachers were her 'guardian angels'
Eric Mansfield Updated: 10/5/2010 9:03:10 AM Posted: 10/4/2010 6:13:28 PM

CLEVELAND -- Relatives of an 11-year-old girl who spent hours, and even days shackled to a desk and often without food thanked her teachers for repeatedly reporting the abuse and offering her aid.

Chris Havlik and his wife, Paula, are now caring for their granddaughter at their Northeast Ohio home. Police in Louisiana rescued her two weeks ago after a teacher complained of suspected abuse.

The girl weighed just 56 pounds and suffered a black eye and chipped tooth from an alleged beating while handcuffed. The victim's father, Donald E. Miller, 33, faces multiple charges in Louisiana.

Havlik said his granddaughter's mother died suddenly in 2006 and that's when she was placed with Miller, who grew up in Summit County and who lived with the girl in the Akron-area before leaving for Louisiana in 2007.

After Millers' arrest, Chris Havlik drove to Louisiana to get his granddaughter and learned that her teachers had been filing written complaints of suspected abuse for several years.

Those teachers also became her heroes.

"They would take her off the bus and take her into the office and give her a bath," Havlik said. "Give her clean clothes and shoes that fit. Send her off to school for the day, and at the end of the day, she would change back into the dirty stuff to go home."

Havlik also credits a social worker named 'Miss Tina' who cared for her 'like a daughter' from the time police rescued her.

Havlik said the challenge now is to help his granddaughter develop emotionally and physically after enduring so much pain in her young childhood.

He says he doesn't have the finances to raise another child, but he'll do whatever it takes to protect her and help her to heal.