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Mike Carroll

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

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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 the bathroom of her foster home while broadcasting the heartbreaking event for three hours in the run-up to taking her life on the Facebook Live…

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Review of 250 reports by DCF investigators accused of lying shows 40 percent falsified

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Caseworkers at the Florida Department of Children and Families are being forced to shoulder nearly unbelievable workloads, leading some to falsify records, according to a new report by an Orlando TV news station. A single child protection investigator in the (DCF) had at one point 32 cases with 77 accompanying children, show DCF documents provided to ABC affiliate WFTV. The state agency tasked with overseeing child welfare in the Sunshine State gave the ABC News Channel 9 Investigates team –…

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

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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 to one report by the Miami Herald, citing the girl’s attorney. But Naika, 14, closed her chapter on this planet through suicide, hanging herself, shockingly,…

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Report: Florida toddler dead of starvation also infected from home reeking of dog feces, urine

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Disturbing details laid bare in a 245-page report released by the State Attorney’s Office this week sheds more light on the misery baby Tayla Aleman endured before eventually succumbing to her body’s frail state in April 2016, in Loxahatchee. Barely more than a year old, the limp body of the girl was cut short, victim to what prosecutors allege were parents – Alex Alejandro and Kristin Meyer-Alejandro – who were negligent in the child’s care, constituting a homicide, according to…

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

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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. Naika Venant, a 14-year-old Miami-Dade County girl who was in and out of foster care starting in 2009, killed herself last month during a Facebook Live video.…

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DCF receives $8 million grant to fund community-based projects targeting domestic violence and sexual assault

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The Florida Department of Children and Families announced Monday it will receive $8 million in federal money to fund services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in underserved communities. The 2016 Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors (STOP) grant will fund victim services providers such as law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and courts by way of a contract with the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Florida Department of Health. “Domestic violence is a horrible and inexcusable act…

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