Lack Of Answers Persists In David Almond Case
David Almond.
Despite questions from Beacon Hill lawmakers on Tuesday, agency heads had little new insights to offer about how David Almond, the 14-year-old Fall River boy with autism spectrum disorder who died last October while living with his dad and his dad’s girlfriend, came to be in the couple’s care in the first place.
“That is the unanswered question that the [Office of the Child Advocate] has struggled with,” said Maria Mossaides, director of the OCA, early in the virtual hearing.
At a later point during the Joint hearing of the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, Abington Rep. Alyson Sullivan asked Linda Spears, commissioner of Massachusetts’ Department of Children and Families, why the agency did not conduct any of the required in-person, unannounced visits to Almond’s house once the state distributed the appropriate personal protective equipment to its workers.
BOSTON In the first four hours of an oversight hearing Tuesday into a report from the Office of the Child Advocate on the death of a Fall River teenager with autism, lawmakers and Baker administration officials honed in on a lack of understanding within the Department of Children and Families of the unique needs of disabled children, communication breakdowns, and implementing reforms within the department.
David Almond, a 14-year-old, was found on Oct. 21 emaciated, bruised, and unresponsive at his father s home in Fall River. Almond, one of three triplet boys, was under the watch of child welfare agencies in New York and Massachusetts and had been removed from his father s home in October 2017 as a result of allegations of neglect and physical abuse, according to the state s Office of the Child Advocate.
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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. May the fourth be with you.
TO MANDATE OR NOT TO MANDATE A debate is brewing over whether coronavirus vaccines should be mandatory for public workers such as police and firefighters.
In the first four hours of an oversight hearing Tuesday into a report from the Office of the Child Advocate on the death of a Fall River teenager with autism, lawmakers and Baker administration officials honed in on a lack of understanding within the Department of Children and Families of the unique needs of disabled children, communication breakdowns, and implementing reforms within the department.
David Almond, a 14-year-old, was found on Oct. 21 emaciated, bruised, and unresponsive at his father s home in Fall River. Almond, one of three triplet boys, was under the watch of child welfare agencies in New York and Massachusetts and had been removed from his father s home in October 2017 as a result of allegations of neglect and physical abuse, according to the state s Office of the Child Advocate.
The Department of Children and Families is under intense scrutiny on Beacon Hill Tuesday, as lawmakers probe the circumstances surrounding the death of 14-year-old David Almond.
Almond died in October of last year, seven months after DCF returned him to his father s home. David, who was intellectually disabled, was allegedly starved and abused by his father and his father s girlfriend all while under the watch of the DCF and other agencies.