Current Events > 3 year old died after social worker left him in car

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Ke'Torrius Starkes Jr was reportedly trapped inside a vehicle on Tuesday after a supervised visit with his father while under the care of the state's department that oversees social services.

A 3-year-old boy died after being left in a hot car for more than five hours while in the custody of a contractor working for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, according to multiple outlets.

Ke'Torrius Starkes Jr, known as KJ, was reportedly trapped inside a vehicle on Tuesday after a supervised visit with his father while under the care of the state's department that oversees social services like child protective services and foster care.

According to information provided by the family's attorney to The New York Times and CNN, the boy was picked up from daycare at 9 a.m. by a woman who was contracted through Covenant Services, Inc. for the supervised visitation.

Instead of immediately returning him to daycare afterward, the worker reportedly made several personal errands with Starkes buckled in the backseat before returning to her home in a suburb of Birmingham.

The child was then left in the backseat at the worker's residence for more than five hours before they called 911. Starkes' aunt told The New York Times that he was left in the car from about 12:30 p.m. to about 5:30 p.m.

The Birmingham Police Department, which is investigating the death, told the newspaper that officers were dispatched shortly after 5:30 p.m. to respond to a report of an unresponsive child who "accidentally left inside of a vehicle while in the care of a third-party contracted worker through the Department of Human Resources.

An official cause of death has not been determined yet.

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in the 90s on Tuesday afternoon in the Birmingham area with a "feels like" temperature of 103 degrees when humidity is factored in.

The Alabama Department of Human Resources provided Scripps News with the following statement:

"A child in DHR custody was being transported by a contract provider when the incident occurred. The provider has terminated their employee. Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment further regarding the identity of the child or the exact circumstances."

what the fuck

How do you forget there is a kid in your car when the job you are doing is transporting a kid?

Yeah that's what's really bizarre. The way the article describes it, it's as if the woman picked up this kid, and just like...spent the entire day playing hooky at work

It's a real phenomenon actually. There was a pulitzer winning article on how parents who leave kids in cars don't do it consciously at all. That's probably what happened here.

The damning thing is how she decided to do personal errands rather than take the kid back IMMEDIATELY. She probably just straight forgot she had the child and thought she dropped him off already.

Parents do it cause they're physically exhausted, mentally drained, and suddenly fitting an infant's needs into their daily routine while sleep deprived.

Presumably this social worker didn't have those same factors playing against her cause it's literally her job to drive children from one place to another, so it's worse when she does it since she is supposed to have a million factors weighing on her mind that should be reminding her that there should be a baby in the backseat, she just chose to play hooky from work and someone else paid the price for it.

Child protective services shouldn't be contracted out third parties in the first place. Backwater state.

Child protective services shouldn't be contracted out third parties in the first place. Backwater state.

what the fuck

According to information provided by the family's attorney to The New York Times and CNN, the boy was picked up from daycare at 9 a.m. by a woman who was contracted through Covenant Services, Inc. for the supervised visitation.

Instead of immediately returning him to daycare afterward, the worker reportedly made several personal errands with Starkes buckled in the backseat before returning to her home in a suburb of Birmingham.

Why the fuck did I read this? Now I'm just angry.