Four year old Dontel Jeffers was buried on Wednesday, March 16th. He was in state custody at the time of his death, even though family members had been trying to obtain custody.

And the manipulative whines for more federal funding began that same day. Society gets blamed as a whole. Social workers and foster parents let go cries for more federal and state funding.

To every agency member out there joining in the manipulation of tugging at society's heart-strings using this child's death as your tool: You aren't fooling anybody this time. Society knows what you did. You ran Dontel Jeffers' family through the usual course of corrupt bureaucracy. At that little boy's expense, you justified your actions to protect when you could not and did not protect. At that little boy's expense, you manipulated the laws to create delays, to meet your own agendas. At that little boy's expense, at the cost of his very life, snuffed out, you put that family through emotional torment and suffering for the months leading up to his death, and now increase the suffering by claiming all that was needed was more money. More money? It doesn't take more money to DO WHAT IT TELLS YOU TO DO IN YOUR MANUALS AND ON YOUR WEBSITE. To quote: Whenever the department removes children from their home, attempts to identify family or extended family members are conducted for placement. AND: The department seeks to place siblings together.


As the yelling, hooting and hollering go on for more federal and state funding, Dontel Jeffers, age four, and in the custody of the state of Massachusetts, which took full responsibility for his well being, is dead in a casket, unable to even whisper "please don't use my death to beg for money. I wanted to be with my family. Why wouldn't you let me be with my family?"

His family, at times sitting in stunned silence, must wonder why they weren't given custody sooner. You can see the cries and yells of anguish on the faces of relatives who were trying to get custody of Dontel so they could protect him, love him and care for him. You must wonder why these agencies and agency members would act so callous as to use this child's death as a tool of manipulation to get public sympathy for more funds when it's glaringly obvious the problem was not in the lack of money, it was in the department's incompetence in utilizing resources readily available: family members who were willing to take in the child.

Family members who were jumping through all the hoops, getting court dates, getting paperwork settled. Doing all they had to do, and in their exhaustion and frustration are now sitting in grief without a goal date of reunification anymore. The wake and funeral were and will be the only unification they get for all of their time, dedication and love for Dontel Jeffers.

All that needs to happen at this time would not cost tax-payers a dime. Information must be shared agency to agency in a more prompt, efficient manner so that family visits and phonecalls are not interrupted when a child is moved from placement to placement. Family contact may have been helpful for Dontel Jeffers, as his family could have had the chance to notice any warning signs of abuse.

Family members that are willing to take in children should be immediately background checked and cleared in a shorter period of time; this could be achieved by allowing any paperwork to be hand delivered to the department office instead of setting court dates. In Dontel Jeffers case, the only thing that appeared to be stopping his grandmother from obtaining custody was a paper stating the place she lived didn't have lead paint. I'm wondering what other claim was going to be made to stall the process even more at the upcoming court date that now won't take place because Dontel Jeffers is dead.

Agencies don't need more funding; they need to use their time and energy more efficiently, more logically, and they must follow their own protocol set forth in their manuals. Agencies must stop believing their own federally-funded caregivers are the better enviroment for children; the statistics already prove this is not the case.

If family members are willing and capable, as Dontel Jeffers' family was, allow them to take temporary custody after a background check while your agency sorts out the red tape and details. The odds are better for the children not to be abused in their own family members' homes than they are once they are placed in the 'system' (and has been proven with FACTS, not assumptions of lead paint.)

Don't let another child die in order to take these very simple steps. There are more than enough examples nationwide of how the system has failed at doing what is in the best interest of the child. Don't let proffesional ego or statistical duty get in the way of doing what is right. And don't think for a minute that the American society isn't paying attention. It's why the funding was cut in the first place. With statistics and lawsuits against your agencies (that I've linked to), it's time to make a change... from the inside, as it is your agencies that are the root of the problem, not the families you target. Your best foster families and social workers leave or quit the agencies not because of lack of funding, but because they aren't willing to lie, scheme and steal people's children to get state and federal funding and higher statistics to obtain that funding.

Let Dontel Jeffers death be your wake up call; society has been awake for years, we don't need to reflect on our actions, as it was not our actions that resulted in the death of a four year old little boy who will never get to hug his grandmother again.