This Is the story of Shavon Miles & why I fight for reforming child service's

During the first years of Shavon Miles’ life, doctors and counselors warned state child welfare officials that she appeared to have been abused. She ended up in foster care, blind, and suffering from seizures and a mental disability.

In the last years of her life, the pattern emerged again, with school officials and a relative warning the Department of Children and Family Services about Shavon’s safety.

Shavon’s mother and stepfather are scheduled to appear Monday in Cook County Circuit Court on murder charges, and will enter their pleas in the death of the 13-year-old girl last month.

But records obtained by the Tribune point to at least 10 separate allegations of abuse against Shavon investigated by the state, including a swollen face and arm fractures.

Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris said he believes DCFS ignored a growing 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 probably veered over to deliberate indifference just because of all the signs that were there, all the calls that were made from people who would be in the position to be credible.
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DCFS officials have said they are “deeply saddened” by the tragedy, but they declined to make further comments or to address Harris’ charges.

Shavon, a fraternal twin, was born March 10, 1994. Within months, she and her brother were in the hospital, where doctors determined that the twins had internal injuries and were blind from being shaken. Caseworkers took custody of the children.

In an unusual letter sent at the time, a doctor warned DCFS of the potential dangers in the birth home, saying blunt trauma caused some of the children injuries.

“The still unidentified perpetrator is likely to have sadistic tendencies that could lead to very serious harm even of an older child,” he said. “I ask that you and your co-workers keep this in mind.
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In 1997, a counselor wrote in an evaluation that the severity of the initial abuse should not be forgotten.

“No perpetrator has been identified,” the counselor said. “It is critical in this case that we don’t lose sight of this obvious glaring fact of omission.
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A year later, the mother had complied with court-ordered counseling services, 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 those allegations were not available.

In 2006, a teacher told DCFS that Shavon had come to school with a swollen right shoulder, an injury that the girl initially said was caused by carrying groceries.

When school officials called Shavon’s stepfather, he told them that Shavon was clumsy and was faking her injury, according to state documents.

Shavon then told a doctor that a bully at school had caused the injury, a charge school officials denied. The doctor said the injury was not consistent with carrying groceries but could have been caused by a bully.

For some teachers, the injury was yet another sign that things were going wrong 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.
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When interviewed, Shavon told a DCFS worker that “she is sometimes afraid of [her] parents,” according to state documents. When asked what happened at home when she got into trouble, Shavon “closed up and did not respond,” state documents show.

A DCFS supervisor reviewed the allegations and found “concerns regarding the injury and the many inconsistencies reported by the family and the child.
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Within weeks, Shavon came to school with a swollen, bruised face. At one hospital, a doctor suspected abuse.

“A doctor informed[state workers] that from the X-rays, he could tell that the minor has been abused, but he reported that he could not differentiate if the abuse was from someone hitting the minor or if the minor fell,” according to 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 about Shavon and her brother. DCFS investigated but found no abuse or neglect.

One month later, the girl was dead. Shavon’s mother and stepfather have been accused of beating her to death after she fainted outside the family’s Marquette Park home.

Lynnesia Hiles-Sloan, 34, and Gabriel Sloan, 31, have been charged with first-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 house and bashed her head against the floor and wall,” Snow said.

Snow said that Hiles-Sloan then whipped her daughter with an electrical cord and beat her with a 2-by-4. When the two noticed that Shavon was unresponsive, 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.
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A DCFS worker interviewed Shavon’s brother after his sister’s death, and wrote: “Minor would state ‘I don’t know,’ when questioned about injuries or whether someone in the home physically abused them.
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