What is the threshold?

The mother’s room was described by deputies as abnormally clean. She had a closet full of clothing and even bags of snacks in her bedroom. Her bed had linens and her room had a flat-screen T.V.

Here we have what appears to be a mother putting herself first and her children last. They have been reportedly going to school with filthy clothes, some of which are covered in excrement. When asked, the children cannot remember the last time they bathed. At one point, hundreds of bugs crawled out of a backpack belonging to one of the children while at school.

When she was arrested and the Department of Children and Families visited the home, looking at the trash, rotten food, cat feces, human feces, roaches and downright filth and determined it did not meet the threshold for removing the children. They reportedly went to stay with a family member until mom was released from jail and they went right back home.

This latest arrest nearly mirrors the one in 2016, three years ago. The same situation, the same mother, the same children, the same living conditions. She was arrested. The Department of Children and Families went to the home and removed the children. She was ordered to complete pre-trial intervention. She was made to bring the home into compliance according to state standards in order to have her children returned to her. She did and they were returned to her. In 2016, the Department of Children and Families decided she met the threshold. The situations as far as we can see from court documents are the same. Yet, once they were removed and once they weren’t. Once it met the threshold and once it didn’t.

We are left to ask – is this an arbitrary threshold? We are scratching our heads trying to figure out why the Department of Children and Families has closed this case. In two years will we be reading about it again?

Just months ago, a man made news in Pensacola when he was charged with animal cruelty because his dogs were underfed and lived in squalor. The arrest report said the dogs were living in a home full of excrement and bugs. The dogs were removed – and never brought back to him. He will serve jail time for the cruelty. In a similar circumstance, an animal boarder in Crestview had dogs seized from him for the horrible conditions they were living in. These animals will never go back there.

And yet, we have five children who live in rancid conditions and we keep sending them back. It has happened twice in their young little lives. We don’t like the idea of children being torn from their mothers, but we also don’t like it when they are forced to live in those environments. Since when do our dogs get treated better than our children? Since when do they have more protections than our children do?

Department of Children and Families should take a long hard look at their threshold. If it is an arbitrary invisible line that can move one way or the other, then there is no protection for these children. The deputies that responded knew better. They looked inside and said this is not acceptable living conditions for the children and according to statutes she is neglecting her children. In fact, the arrest report says “willfully and continuously” neglecting her children. The law says she is neglecting her children.

In this case, we had someone who reported the neglect out of concern. We had two deputies respond to check out the home. Three people were acting in the best interests of the children. All three people at some point said to themselves, something has to be done. It met the threshold of the state statutes. Why didn’t it meet the threshold of the Department of Children and Families?

The system is failing these five children. I hope they don’t wait until it is too late to help them.