SAD AND AN OUTRAGE!!

I found this in today's edition of the Springfield newspaper. Get your kleenex out, you can't finish reading the article without shedding a lot of tears.

'Somebody didn't do their job'

Boy's grandparents, others ask: What more could we have done?

Amos Bridges
News-Leader

Barry County Coroner Skip White spent the evening before Thanksgiving preparing a 6-year-old boy for burial, and he wants to know why.

Dennis Frederick Parker III — known as D.J. to classmates at Shell Knob Elementary School — and his father were killed in a car crash near Jenkins on Nov. 22.

White and others in the boy's hometown are demanding to know why D.J. was even in the car.

"This young boy was living in a situation he shouldn't have been living in," White said. "Somebody didn't do their job."

At least a half dozen hot line calls were made this year to the Missouri Department of Social Services Children's Division regarding the boy's welfare at the home he shared with his father, 45-year-old Dennis Parker Jr., White said. It's unclear what, if any, action was taken by the state.

Family members said the father had a long history of drug abuse and overdosed on the prescription painkiller OxyContin — sometimes called hillbilly heroin because of its popularity among illegal drug users — less than two months ago.

"That boy should have been taken away out of that household a couple of years ago," said Dennis Parker Sr., D.J.'s grandfather. "My son was on drugs quite a bit, and I begged with him, I don't know how many times, to go into rehab and we would keep the boy, no worries. But he wouldn't have it."

A witness to the Nov. 22 crash said Dennis Parker Jr. was swerving back and forth across Missouri 39 for several miles before crossing into the northbound lane and crashing into a dump truck.

"He was all over the road," said witness Larry Woody.

A toxicology test on Dennis Parker Jr.'s blood has not been completed, but White said almost 300 tablets of OxyContin were found in the wreckage of the car.

Woody, who at first didn't know a 6-year-old was in the car, helped extinguish the fire after the crumpled wreck burst into flames.

"I knew the dad was dead immediately," Woody said, but something prompted him to check the passenger side, where he found D.J.'s body beneath the air bag. "Then I just backed away."

Life before the crash

Although limited in what they can say due to privacy laws, officials at Shell Knob Elementary School described D.J. as a sweet boy who was well-liked by students and faculty.

"That was D.J.," said school counselor Susan Wilbanks, pointing to a recent photo of the grinning boy trying on a firefighter's helmet and coat at a school function.

Superintendent Katherine Miller said D.J. always wore a smile when she saw him.

"He was happy here," she said, despite having to repeat kindergarten following extensive absences his first year.

But the school day only lasts so long, and D.J.'s home life apparently had little of the brightness he showed at school.

His parents divorced in 2002, court records show, and his mother, Kelly Stevens, no longer lives in the area. Attempts to contact her for this story were unsuccessful.

She came to Shell Knob to supervise D.J.'s funeral, but no phone number could be found for her in Davenport, Okla., where she is listed in the funeral program as living.

Dennis Parker Jr. was granted sole custody about five months ago, and D.J. was left to live with him in a run-down mobile home in Shell Knob, tucked out of sight of the houses owned by lakefront vacationers and retirees.

The living conditions in the trailer were "unbelievable," said Faye Parker, who saw little of her stepgrandson during the past two years because of poor relations between Dennis Parker Jr. and his father.

D.J. often had to cook dinner for himself and his father, she said, and slept on a bed made of old foam padding laid on the floor.

About seven weeks before the accident, Dennis Parker Jr. had apparently overdosed, Dennis Parker Sr. said. Emergency responders were called after D.J. went to a neighbor's house and said he was afraid his dad was dying.

Faye and Dennis Parker Sr. took D.J. home with them after his father was taken to the hospital. They kept D.J. at their lakeside home south of Shell Knob for a single night.

"He was such a sweet boy," Faye Parker said Wednesday, her eyes clouding with tears. "That day he came out here, he asked, 'Grandma, can I come to live with you?'

"I just want to know why nothing was done."

They noticed a dramatic change in his behavior when they went to pick up his father from the hospital the next day.

"He was a good little boy all the way down there, talking and smiling," Faye Parker said.

The smile quickly fled when Dennis Parker Jr. got in the car.

D.J. spent most of the car ride home wringing his hands so forcefully his knuckles showed white, she said, as his father harangued him for calling for help.

"It was like he was standing on egg shells around his dad. ... He was a nervous wreck," Dennis Parker Sr. said. "It was mental abuse. He didn't have no marks on him, but he sure had some scars on his heart."

Concern for the boy

It is unclear what actions were taken by local and state agencies concerning D.J.'s living situation and welfare before his death, but the number of complaints on his behalf appears to have been extensive.

White, the Barry County coroner, said he called the Children's Division after the wreck and was told that D.J. had been reported to a hot line nine times.

"Eight times out of Stone County and once out of Barry," White said. One or two calls were from 2004 and the rest from 2006.

According to the Missouri Department of Social Services Children's Division's Web site, the child abuse and neglect hot line accepts confidential reports of suspected child abuse, neglect or exploitation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Faye and Dennis Parker Sr. said they called the state Children's Division offices in Jefferson City and Galena after the overdose incident and were given a case number that had been generated in response to earlier complaints filed with the child welfare agency.

"We made several calls to them, and to date no one has ever called us back," Faye Parker said Wednesday.

Her husband said they were told during those calls that D.J. could not be removed from the house without a court order.

"As far as I can see they did nothing," he said.

When contacted by the News-Leader on Tuesday, department spokeswoman Celesta Hartgraves said the Children's Division has not decided whether it can release records related to D.J.'s case.

The News-Leader filed a formal information request with the department late Thursday. No response was received by late Saturday.

As a general rule, most Children's Division records must remain confidential, but Missouri law specifically allows the release of information about cases that resulted in a child fatality or near fatality.

"At this stage, we are reviewing the case and will determine if this is a case where the statute would allow us to release information," said Hartgraves, who did not elaborate. "Until that time, Missouri law prohibits the release of information on specific children and their situations."

Miller said she was unable to talk specifically about whether hot line calls about D.J.'s situation were made by Shell Knob Elementary employees, who are considered "mandatory reporters" and required by law to report signs of abuse or neglect to the Department of Social Services.

"There are limits to what an educational agency can do to reach beyond the walls of the school," Miller said. "But we did make every effort, including following the letter of the law."

Faye and Dennis Parker Sr. said they thought about simply taking D.J. from the home, but were advised not to by a friend in law enforcement.

"(Dennis Parker Jr.) hated his dad so much he would have had us charged with kidnapping," Faye Parker said.

Instead, they pushed for criminal charges with the Stone County Sheriff's Department and Prosecutor's Office over illegal drugs that were allegedly found in the mobile home after the 911 call.

"That was the only way I knew to get my son into rehab, because he wouldn't go voluntarily," Dennis Parker Sr. said.

Dispatchers for the Stone County Sheriff's Department said no one was available Thursday or Friday to process or approve a request for records of the incident at Dennis Parker Jr.'s home two months ago.

The Parkers said they were told that the sheriff's department's report had been forwarded to Stone County Prosecutor Matt Selby, but no charges had been filed by the time of the accident. A call to the prosecutor's office Friday also was not returned.

"The deputies bent over backwards and were wishing they could help," Faye Parker said. "One deputy had tears in his eyes but said they weren't allowed to take him out."

She said she called the prosecutor's office Wednesday to say their services would no longer be needed.

"We're not angry at all," she said. "We know where the little child is and we know Dennis Jr. is out of his misery. But we don't want it to happen to another child."

Call to action

At Shell Knob Elementary, D.J.'s nametag hung on a wall in the kindergarten room Wednesday.

His absence was a fresh wound, Miller and Wilbanks said, but frustration with the lack of answers about his death and a system that failed to prevent it appeared to block out the grief somewhat.

"In my 34 years in education, this is probably my biggest frustration," said Miller, the superintendent. "We really don't have a protected environment for children anymore. ... We are not trying to lynch anyone. We all just want to know where the gap is."

Any change will come too late to save D.J., Wilbanks said. "But there are other D.J.'s out there, in our school and every school. ... We need to fix (the system)."

The counselor said she's talked with friends about organizing a group to speak out on the issue.

"A friend of mine suggested we call it 'D.J.'s CASE' — 'Can't Act Soon Enough,'" Wilbanks said. "That summed it up for me. Let's err on the side of the kids. Let's keep them safe."

White agreed, saying changes need to be made to ensure children are removed from potentially harmful environments more quickly.

"I'm a right-wing conservative ... but there is a time when the government should step in," White said. "When a child has been hotlined nine times, someone should step in ...

"Don't we err on the side of the child?"

Like Miller and Wilbanks, White isn't pointing any fingers. But he wants to know how the system failed and how it can be fixed.

"It's easy to judge people when you're not in their shoes," White said. "I've never been a (Children's Division) worker. ... We need to ask them, 'Where can we help you? Where are your hands tied?'

"If it's because workers are too busy, there's too many kids out there, then hire more people. Spend the money."

That way, D.J.'s death won't be in vain, White said. "This little boy can help somebody else down the road."[/b]