KUVE out of Austin Texas reports Alexandria Hill, age 2, was murdered by her foster mother earlier this month.  Alexandria was removed from her biological parents for what the county termed “neglectful supervision.”  After the couple had put Alexandria to sleep, they smoked some marijuana.  A neighbor detected the odor and called the police. That was when Alexandria was removed from the home.

The father, Mr. Hill, detected bruises on his daughter while she was living in the first foster home. He was upset enough that he stated they would have to arrest him before they brought her back. The county then place Alexandria in the foster home of Sherill Small who eventually murdered Alexandria. Sherill Small has been arrested and bail set at $100,000, which I find disgustingly low.

Family and Protective Services rely on private child placing agencies to perform background checks on all foster homes.  The agency in this case is Texas Mentor who has a track record of “15 total deficiencies” over the past 24 months for JUST the Austin branch of Texas Mentor alone.

There are some things that government is and should remain responsible for. Investigating to make sure that when children are removed from their home, they not placed with pedophiles or physically abusive people is our collective responsibility as a society. It is wrong to introduce profit into such an important piece of our children’s welfare.   

And I question the profit motive for removing a child from her home because their parents were smoking marijuana.  I hope every single person involved in that decision is haunted by Alexandria’s innocent face. I hope this case brings about changes. I believe there could have been some intervention that left Alexandria with her parents, while addressing the smoking of marijuana in the home.

KUVE of Austin Texas reports: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZBhTU5xvTM