FORMER minister of gender, youth and child development Verna St Rose Greaves believes the Children’s Authority failed two teens who were killed after running away from one of their facilities.
Greaves, a career social worker and activist, responded to questions by Sunday Newsday on the double murder of Antonio Francois and Semion Daniel, both 15. The teens were shot dead on March 28. The two were among five boys who ran away from a children's home in Valsayn by squeezing through the burglar-proofing on March 20.
“The authority failed miserably in their handling of this atrocity.
"Some of what irks me may seem pedestrian to people outside the field of work. The humane aspect of the situation is critical to the work that we do. Being humane must be the essence of what we do, who we are, and who we strive to be.”
She said she felt that director of the Children’s Authority Nichola Harvey-Mitchell was “abandoned” by the Ministry of Child and Gender Affairs, headed by Ayanna Webster-Roy, after the double killing.
The day after the teens were murdered, Harvey-Mitchell held a media conference where she said there was a gap in the security and supervision but disagreed that the authority “failed the boys.”
“And while the authority will take some measure of responsibility for the lack of supervision for the short moments we didn’t have the proper supervision, as well as when we didn’t have the security in place on Saturday, we want to also make known that this is a national problem. We would get children at the end of the pipeline; we get the children when they are abused,” Harvey-Mitchell said then.
Greaves said: “The boys put into her care for safekeeping, were dead, but she insists that the authority had not failed them. Even as the situation was unfolding she sought to deflect from their murders to the shortcomings of parents. The silence from the minister and board was deafening and downright disrespectful, not only to the director, but to the parents of those boys and to our children.”
Greaves proposed a governing body to supervise the Children’s Authority. She said with the authority being “fairly new” it warrants closer scrutiny, suggesting the appointment of an “Ombudsperson/ Children’s Guardian” to “guard the guards.”
She said the Children’s Authority must accept liability for the teens’ deaths and “fully supports” the mothers of the children taking legal action against the state.
“Yes, of course they should be held liable. I fully and actively support the parents pursuing legal action against the state and its agents. I think that for too long we have depended on supposed ‘people of conscience’ to do the right thing. Over and over calls for justice have been ignored.”
Teens complained of abuse
Francois’ mother, Nicole Braithwaite, told Sunday Newsday that her son complained to her a month before he ran away that he was being abused at the facility.
Francois, who began "acting out" after the murder o
