A decade of abuse ends in death R.I.P. Shavon CPS you suck

During the first years of Shavon Miles’ life, doctors and counselors warnedstate child welfare officials that she appeared to have been abused. She endedup in foster care, blind, and suffering from seizures and a mental disability.In the last years of her life, the pattern emerged again, with schoolofficials and a relative warning the Department of Children and FamilyServices about Shavon’s safety.Shavon’s mother and stepfather are scheduled to appear Monday in CookCounty Circuit Court on murder charges, and will enter their pleas in thedeath of the 13-year-old girl last month.But records obtained by the Tribune point to at least 10 separateallegations of abuse against Shavon investigated by the state, including aswollen face and arm fractures.Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris said he believes DCFS ignored agrowing mountain of evidence in the case.“You’d have to work really hard not to notice she was in danger,” Harrissaid. “It’s a sad state of affairs when the child welfare system that is putin place to protect children doesn’t do it, either on purpose or turns a blindeye.“I don’t know if it was deliberate indifference or negligence. It probablyveered over to deliberate indifference just because of all the signs that werethere, all the calls that were made from people who would be in the positionto be credible.”DCFS officials have said they are “deeply saddened” by the tragedy, butthey declined to make further comments or to address Harris’ charges.Shavon, a fraternal twin, was born March 10, 1994. Within months, she andher brother were in the hospital, where doctors determined that the twinshad internal injuries and were blind from being shaken. Caseworkers tookcustody of the children.In an unusual letter sent at the time, a doctor warned DCFS of thepotential dangers in the birth home, saying blunt trauma caused some of thechildren’s injuries.“The still unidentified perpetrator is likely to have sadistic tendenciesthat could lead to very serious harm even of an older child,” he said. “I askthat you and your co-workers keep this in mind.”In 1997, a counselor wrote in an evaluation that the severity of theinitial abuse should not be forgotten.“No perpetrator has been identified,” the counselor said. “It is criticalin this case that we don’t lose sight of this obvious glaring fact ofomission.”A year later, the mother had complied with court-ordered counselingservices, and the twins were returned home.After their return, caseworkers investigated the family five times, butthey did not find credible evidence of abuse or neglect. The details of thoseallegations were not available.In 2006, a teacher told DCFS that Shavon had come to school with a swollenright shoulder, an injury that the girl initially said was caused by carryinggroceries.When school officials called Shavon’s stepfather, he told them that Shavonwas clumsy and was faking her injury, according to state documents.Shavon then told a doctor that a bully at school had caused the injury, acharge school officials denied. The doctor said the injury was not consistentwith carrying groceries but could have been caused by a bully.For some teachers, the injury was yet another sign that things were goingwrong in Shavon’s home.“[Shavon] is always observed with bruising and scratches on face and arms,”the teacher told a child-care worker. “[Shavon] will come to school sleepy,dirty and interaction between child and parents is not good.”When interviewed, Shavon told a DCFS worker that “she is sometimes afraidof [her] parents,” according to state documents. When asked what happened athome when she got into trouble, Shavon “closed up and did not respond,” statedocuments show.A DCFS supervisor reviewed the allegations and found “concerns regardingthe injury and the many inconsistencies reported by the family and the child.”Within weeks, Shavon came to school with a swollen, bruised face. At onehospital, a doctor suspected abuse.“A doctor informed[state workers] that from the X-rays, he could tell thatthe minor has been abused, but he reported that he could not differentiate ifthe abuse was from someone hitting the minor or if the minor fell,” accordingto a state document.But at a second hospital, doctors concluded the girl had severe allergies.In July, a relative called DCFS and said she was very concerned aboutShavon and her brother. DCFS investigated but found no abuse or neglect.One month later, the girl was dead. Shavon’s mother and stepfather havebeen accused of beating her to death after she fainted outside the family’sMarquette Park home.Lynnesia Hiles-Sloan, 34, and Gabriel Sloan, 31, have been charged withfirst-degree murder. Judge Raymond Myles ordered them held without bail.Assistant State’s Atty. Luann Snow said that after Shavon fainted,Hiles-Sloan and Sloan became enraged.“[Sloan] accused the victim of faking it, then threw her inside the houseand bashed her head against the floor and wall,” Snow said.Snow said that Hiles-Sloan then whipped her daughter with an electricalcord and beat her with a 2-by-4. When the two noticed that Shavon wasunresponsive, they called 911 and said she had suffered a seizure.Shavon was extremely underweight, according to state documents, and had”unexplained marks to her neck and head.”A DCFS worker interviewed Shavon’s brother after his sister’s death, andwrote: “Minor would state ‘I don’t know,’ when questioned about injuries orwhether someone in the home physically abused them.”———-