Remembering Marcus Fiesel

Most of you probably don’t remember Marcus Fiesel …. He was one of many children who were killed in foster care during the last decade. Marcus died at the age of three in August 2006, alone, tied up with duct tape and wrapped in a blanket in a closet while his fosterers were out of town for a family reunion.

The perpetrators of this crime are in prison. Liz Carroll received a sentence of 54 years to life; Her husband, David Carroll’s sentence is 16 years to life. Hopefully neither of them will be released, ever.

In an article about Marcus by Michael D. Pitman, published this week in The Oxford Press, The case is recapped with interviews in retrospect from some of the major players. There’s a footnote about how the Ohio child welfare system has been “overhauled” because of this foster child’s death.

I would like to believe the system was overhauled, but the fact is that in situations like this, only minor changes are made, then the public is misled to believe that somehow children will be safer. In this case the overhauls brought more than $10,000,000 in additional federal funding during 2008-2009 and resulted in a better connection to the criminal justice information system. Why that cost so much money is anyone’s guess. This is more evidence of the child welfare system being a jobs creation program for systemites – people who make money from the traumatization of children and destruction of their families.

The new system lets Ohio’s child protective services system know when a foster “parent” is involved in a crime or even gets a speeding ticket. That seems a fairly simple matter that should have been put in place many years ago, when the system started.

Big change. Not.

How about a big change that would have allowed Marcus’ mom, Donna Trevino, to keep her children in her home with the help of benevolent social workers who could help her work on the problems she faced? I’d like to see a child welfare system that helps families rather than destroying them with the heavy hand of selfish greed.

In his article, Michael D. Pittman mentions other children who died at the hands of Ohio’s Butler County Children’s “Services” …

“While his death was the breaking point to prompt reform in Ohio’s foster care and children services system, other children died while under the charge of Butler County Children Services: Tiffany Hubbard, 3, of Hamilton in 1986; Randi Fuller, 2, of Hamilton, in 2000; Christopher Long, 2, of Middletown, in 2001; Courtney Centers, 3, of Middletown in 2002; Jesus Rodriquez, 7 months, of Hamilton in 2003; and Justin Johnson, 13 months, of Middletown in 2004.”

That’s a lot of children killed by only one county in middle-America during a five-year period! You can bet there’s hundreds or even thousands of other children dying in foster homes all over this country, and in every other country where a child protective services type agency has been established. Foster parents are never a good substitute for parents that truly love and are attached to their children. I’m not saying there aren’t any good foster parents because of course, there are. But the bonds of birth and blood are strong.

This article isn’t about all the children killed while being “protected” by child protective services. It is about Marcus Fiesel, a small three year old child who suffered because of the gaping deficits in the child welfare system. He died missing his parents and siblings, tied up with duct tape, wrapped in a blanket, in a dark closet, alone, and not comforted by any human hand. I hope that when he passed there were angels to greet him and welcome him into a world better than this one.

…

Source: Young boy’s death at hands of foster parents led to change: Marcus Fiesel was killed five years ago, prompting overhaul of child welfare system, by Michael D. Pittman, published on August 7, 2011 in The Oxford Press.

Filed under: CPS,Foster Homes,Ohio — Linda Martin @ 12:10 pm

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Remembering Marcus Fiesel

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