Failing Rica: B-N Girl's Death Exposes Holes In State's Child Protection System

Rica was exactly the kind of kid who needed protection. Her family had a history of domestic violence and substance abuse. Rica’s parents, Richard Rountree and Ann Simmons, split up in 2015 and later divorced. That family fractured further in 2016, when Rica was still living with her mother. Police raided her mother’s home and Simmons was arrested on drug charges. Rica, then 6, was sent to live with her father, Richard, and his girlfriend, Cynthia Baker.
Mommy goes to prison for drugs, gets shipped off to her 'father' and his coalburner.
By mid-2017, Rica was raising concerns about Baker, court and Normal Police records show. She was visibly fearful around Baker, Simmons said. Rica claimed Baker was regularly whipping her with a belt, and her father would force her to stand for long periods of time while holding cans as a punishment, Simmons told a Normal police officer in 2017, according to his report. Rica stayed with her mother during a subsequent investigation, though DCFS found no credible evidence of abuse.
Her father, apparently, was a typical nigger father.
In April 2018 during a visit at Rica’s school, Simmons said she was shocked to see her daughter with a split lip, black eye, a broken tooth, new and old scars on her neck, and her hair cut really short. When DCFS investigated, Rica explained away her injuries as clumsy accidents at home, according to a DCFS timeline of her case. Rica denied anyone was hurting her in the home or that she was fearful of anyone, DCFS said. The abuse claims were determined to be “unfounded.”
“He was telling me I need to find a knight in shining armor to save Rica, because he didn’t want nothing to do with her. He don't want to pay child support. He didn’t want visits. He didn't want to be her father. He just wanted her to be adopted out, so they didn't have any obligation to her,” Simmons said.
Good grief.
https://www.wglt.org/post/failing-ri...ystem#stream/0