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Les NeuhausMarch 28, 2017

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Naika Venant’s mother vehemently refutes narratives by the state agency in a March 13 report, including suggestion she ‘allegedly’ commented on Facebook Live thread taunting daughter while watching and did nothing; lawyer says agencies ‘abysmally failed’ Naika. *** Naika Venant was a girl whose personality had turned from that of a bright and gifted child […]

Les NeuhausMarch 24, 2017

Part of a psychological evaluation administered to Naika Venant in June 2015 included a sentence completion test. For the beginning stem sentence “The thing I want to do most of all is …” the then-12-year-old girl responded: “Die happy.” Sentence tests can provide indications of attitudes, beliefs, motivations or other mental states. Other sentences she […]

Les NeuhausMarch 13, 2017

In a twist to a horrible tragedy in Miami in January, a foster child who committed suicide live on social media may have been watched by her mother, according to a Florida Department of Children (DCF) and Families report released to the media Monday. Naika Venant, 14, hung herself Jan. 22 with a scarf in […]

Les NeuhausMarch 6, 2017

As legislators in Tallahassee prepare themselves to convene their 60-day Session Tuesday, expect an assortment of proposed bills to be hashed out over the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Hot-button subjects with bipartisan support in the Senate and House include improvements in mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, working toward identifying and reducing […]

Les NeuhausFebruary 23, 2017

Standing before the members of the Children, Families and Seniors Subcommittee Thursday, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll admitted Naika Venant had been in out of foster care since 2009. Since April alone, she had been in 10 foster homes alone that included a hotel and a child welfare office building, according […]

Jim RosicaFebruary 7, 2017

The head of the state’s child welfare agency told a legislative panel his department has now handed over “5,000 pages of documents” to a judge looking into why a foster child hung herself while broadcasting it on social media. Mike Carroll, secretary of the Department of Children and Families (DCF), spoke to the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee this week. […]

Florence SnyderJanuary 26, 2017

Naika Venant kept a journal and hoped one day to write a memoir. Instead, her life story will be told by the Miami Herald. Eight of the paper’s most experienced reporters collaborated Tuesday to piece together the last hours of the last chapter of the 14-year-old foster child’s life. But it was old news to […]

Tag: Naika Venant

Did Florida DCF create media frenzy after foster child’s suicide to distract from agency errors?

Psychotropic cocktail may have contributed to Facebook Live suicide

Mother of Facebook Live suicide teen may have taunted her while watching

Range of DCF oversight issues, bills to be debated by Florida lawmakers this Session

Dismayed, DCF head Mike Carroll explains fragments of Facebook Live suicide case

Mike Carroll: “We aren’t always able” to save “broken” children

Florida’s children live and die at the crowded corner of Dickens & Orwell, part 2