Kevin Rennie: DCF owes Connecticut children a standard better than ‘not that abysmal’

“Not that abysmal.”

That is a phrase that a  Department of Children and Families worker used to describe the conditions in the Hartford apartment where toddler Corneliuz A. S. Williams fell from a third floor window on July 22 and died two days later, according to a police report on the incident.

If “not that abysmal” is the new standard of living conditions that the state’s child protection agency sees as adequate of defensible, then it is discarding its obligations and Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration is creating a chilling legacy.

Corneliuz was in his family’s Capitol Avenue apartment on Saturday, July 22 with his four sisters, the oldest of whom is 12, according to a Hartford police report obtained by the Courant. A neighbor saw him fall from the window. Police and medical assistance arrived shortly after and took Corneliuz to a hospital, where he died two days later.

The little boy’s death is not the only tragedy in this sorrowful event. The police report describes the allegedly squalid conditions Hartford officers found in the family’s apartment when they arrived on the scene. The air inside was “heavy with an overwhelming odor,” according to the police report. One office reported his boots stuck to the floor as he walked around the apartment.

The report details stains, spoiled food, garbage and the smell of urine and feces emanating from bedrooms. The one adult and five children residing in the apartment, according to the report, lived in an “abysmal” state. The conditions announced themselves as the officers climbed the stairs to the third floor. They were living in alleged squalor in one of the nation’s wealthiest states.

Only a month before, according to one DCF official who spoke to police, “the condition of the apartment was not that abysmal.” At least one DCF worker had been at the apartment in June, about a month before Corneliuz fell to his death. DCF was in the process of closing its case when Corneliuz died.

In mid-June, we are asked to believe, five children between the ages of 12 and 2 were living in conditions that caused no urgent concerns at DCF. About a month later, that same apartment was in such an allegedly putrid mess that a police officer could smell it in the stairwell to the third floor.

As attention and dismay grew in the aftermath of Corneliuz’s death, DCF commissioner Vanessa Dorantes intervened with a request. “Please pause any judgment on individuals who are subject to maltreatment allegations,” Dorantes wrote in an unusual public statement.

Corneliuz’s mother, Tabitha Frank, was not home when her son fell from a window. She has been charged with 10 counts of risk of injury to a minor and first-degree manslaughter. Frank, like every American, enjoys the presumption of innocence. In her grief, Frank may be imprudent to reduce what happened to the mistake of leaving her children alone before Corneliuz’s father arrived at the apartment to watch their son. Frank is free to try her case on the steps of the courthouse, but that’s not often a winning strategy inside the courthouse.

Dorantes carries a different burden. She is accountable to the public now. DCF is limited in the details it can reveal but it will damage itself if it tries to divert and obfuscate. The Office of the Child Advocate will conduct an investigation. It enjoys sweeping powers to gather information that can pierce the thick layer of secrecy that allows DCF to keep the public and public officials from gaining a clear view of the agency’s action — or inaction.

As the public reeled from the revelations of the conditions in the Frank family apartment, Dorantes delivered a homily on how the world works. “It takes the collective efforts of all members of our community — family members, neighbors, professionals, and concerned citizens — to ensure that children can safely remain at home,” Dorantes declared. “A simple gesture of offering help may change the life of a child and their caregiver.”

It takes parents to create a safe home. It is not an undefined community’s fault that five children were alone and living in alleged unrelenting filth on a Saturday afternoon last month. But it might be Dorantes’ agency’s fault. A “simple gesture” might have been someone reporting concerns to DCF in June. The agency might then have engaged with more than a simple gesture. It might have acted in a meaningful way to help five children and their struggling mother.

We provide DCF with resources, including 3,300 employees, to assist families with services that will help them stay together under conditions that allow children to live free from danger, neglect and abuse. The agency’s first duty remains ensuring that children are living in conditions far better than “not that abysmal.” That is not a standard, it’s an admission of fatal failure.

Kevin F. Rennie of South Windsor is a lawyer and a former Republican state senator and representative.