SAN JOSE — An 8-year-old girl was on life support Thursday after being rushed to the hospital from a home that was the subject of multiple police and welfare calls for suspected child negligence and “squalor,” with sources familiar with the related investigation raising new questions about a county child welfare system already under heavy scrutiny for deaths under its watch.
San Jose police sent investigators and officers to the home in the 1200 block of Lancelot Lane after the girl suffered a medical emergency around 10 a.m. Wednesday, with 911 dispatch recordings indicating that she was unconscious and not breathing. As San Jose firefighters and ambulances were en route, dispatchers stated that the girl was suffering cardiac arrest and that CPR was being performed.
As of Wednesday night, San Jose police would only officially state that an “investigation is active and ongoing.” A statement from the county acknowledged being part of the response to the emergency Wednesday, but declined to provide specifics about the situation or any contact between child welfare staff and the home or its residents.
On Thursday, sources familiar with the situation told the Bay Area News Group that the home had prompted multiple police calls raising questions about the care of some of the seven children — with their ages between 2 months and 16 years — who lived there alongside six adults. At least one of the police calls to the home, the source said, involved concern about the 8-year-old and another child being underfed and getting most of their nutrition at school.
One source said the county Department of Family and Child Services previously visited the home and allowed children to remain there despite conditions the source described as “squalor,” including the presence of animal feces and urine.
County spokesperson Peter Gallotta said in a statement: “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are still learning more about what happened to this young girl. DFCS learned of this situation yesterday from the San Jose Police Department and child welfare workers responded along with local law enforcement. An investigation by local law enforcement is ongoing, and we are currently prohibited from disclosing whether this family had any previous interactions with DFCS.”
There has been no indication at this point that the 8-year-old at the center of Wednesday’s emergency was in foster care. A request from this news organization for the number and scope of police calls to the home did not yield an immediate response; the agency’s crime-analysis unit was still evaluating the request Thursday.
The description of the conditions of the home, taken together with the child’s severe medical emergency and previous calls to authorities, have evoked the running controversy and scrutiny surrounding DFCS, which has been under fire for years over its management and supervision of children under its care.
The scrutiny intensified after the April 9 death of 2-year-old Jaxon Juarez in San Jose, and ensuing sexual abuse and murder charges against his then-17-year-old cousin. Jaxon had been placed in the foster care of his cousin — the mother of the defendant — despite her having a prior felony conviction for DUI while transporting her child. The county agency has been accused by the family of Jaxon, who had special needs as a result of being born with fetal alcohol syndrome, of overlooking their warnings that the toddler was being physically abused.
After Jaxon’s death and the public disclosure of the circumstances surrounding it, the county placed 10 social workers on administrative leave and faced sharp criticism from the toddler’s family, advocates and public officials.
Bay Area News Group staff writer Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.