A caregiver contracted to watch a 16-year-old foster youth who died in a Baltimore hotel room told police that when she initially couldn’t wake up the girl, she thought it was because she was a “heavy sleeper,” according to a Baltimore police report released Friday.
Almost five hours later, the caregiver said she tried again, but found Kanaiyah Ward with “no visible signs of life,” according to the report. A medic pronounced the girl dead, and the medical examiner’s office subsequently ruled the death a suicide.
The report provides a few new details about the death, which had prompted outrage over the practice of housing foster youth in hotels and other inappropriate settings.
While the Maryland Department of Human Services, which operates the foster care system with local agencies, is discontinuing the practice, Republican members of the state House of Delegates have called for DHS Secretary Rafael López to be fired.
According to police, the “chaperone,” whose name was redacted, said she went to wake Kanaiyah up in her room, in the Residence Inn by Marriott, at around 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 22 to go to school. The girl, who had lived with her family in Prince George’s County, had been a 10th-grade student at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts.
Although the company the caregiver works for was redacted, a spokeswoman for DHS told The Sun that local agencies have “ceased referrals from local departments of social services to Fenwick Behavioral Services on September 24.”
The caregiver tried “multiple times” to rouse the girl, but she was unresponsive, according to the police report. The woman said she had been advised “by other staff that [Kanaiyah] was a heavy sleeper,” and returned to the room at about 10:30 a.m. to try again to wake her up.
“Upon closer inspection, she observed that [Kanaiyah] was not moving and had no visible signs of life.” The woman realized the girl was not breathing and called 911, according to the police report. A medic who arrived pronounced the girl dead, and homicide detectives and the medical examiner’s office were called as well, the report said.
Police said they saw “multiple self-inflicted cut wounds” that were old injuries on the girl’s body. The officer said bottles of prescription medicine were also found, but the names were redacted.
The medical examiner’s office determined the death was caused by diphenhydramine intoxication. The autopsy report said an empty bottle of the antihistamine, available over the counter and known more commonly by the brand name Benadryl, was found on the scene, along with a “detailed note,” and that Kanaiyah had “a clinical history of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and prior suicide attempt.”
Child advocates have long protested the housing of foster youth in hotels because they tend to be those with mental health and behavioral issues that require more care than can be provided in such a setting. They’ve also questioned the qualifications of caregivers, known as “one-on-ones,” whose companies are under contract to the state to watch over the youths.
DHS has said in the past that they use hotels only as a last resort when other placements are unavailable, but youth have ended up staying for months sometimes. Last month, amid the outcry, DHS announced it was discontinuing the use of hotels.
Baltimore Police spokeswoman Lindsey Eldridge said police closed their investigation of the death after the medical examiner ruled it was by suicide. DHS has said it was continuing to conduct its own investigation.
“This case remains under review,” DHS spokeswoman Lillian Price said Friday in an emailed statement, “and we therefore cannot comment further on any details at this time.”
Price said as of Friday, there was one youth, out of the 3,757 foster children in out-of-home care, still staying in a hotel.
Have a news tip? Contact Jean Marbella at jmarbella@baltsun.com, 410-332-6060, and on Bluesky as @jeanmarbella.bsky.social.
from Baltimore Sun https://ift.tt/KBl37cI
via IFTTT
