Handling of abuse case riles day care

[Green_Lantern]

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On Feb. 22, Kraig Monroe carried his girlfriend's crying 2-year-old daughter, Amanda Runyon, into the Belleville child care center for her first day of care and handed her off to a staff member, the center's owner said. As the caregiver sat her down in a chair, the boyfriend told them that the girl's brother had slept on her leg that night and it was still asleep. Give it a little time to wake up, he said, staff members recall. Then he left.

The girl stopped crying, but within minutes, the staff noticed her leg was not right. They asked Amanda to go to the changing table so they could check her diaper.

"She could not put any weight on her leg," said Marva Smith, a director of the center.

And then, as she lay on the table for the change, they saw that she was in deep pain.

"It was sore and it hurt her and she winced and she shook."

But, eerily, she did not cry, said Tree Hut owner Paula Jones.



So the day care center's staff did what it was mandated by law to do: On Feb. 23 at 2:19 p.m., they put in a hot line call to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, alleging neglect. They went even further, calling the mother several times during the week to check on the condition of Amanda. They say they were told she was recuperating.

Six days later, Amanda Runyon was airlifted from Memorial Hospital in Belleville to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery to remove a quarter of her intestines. The St. Clair Sheriff's Department alleges Monroe beat Amanda over a period of four days to stop her from crying.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/50C3935BDB2839AE862576DE0013D8F8?OpenDocument

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This keeps getting worse. The way the ball was dropped on this is horrifying.

[UpInArms]

1. if there is justice in our country, this POS will not see daylight for a long

long long time.

[Turbineguy]

2. Maybe we should spend some effort

teaching basic family skills instead of throwing stupid, ignorant people in jail.

[emilyg]

3. Maybe we can do both.

[tblue37]

4. Beating a 2-year-old for 4 days is more than just a lack of

basic family skills, mcuh more than mere ignorance. Many ignorant people would not dream of beating a small child half to death under any circumstances. The mindset that enables someone to do that isn't just ignorance or lack of experience with children. It's the sort of mindset that might cause someone to kick a puppy to death.

[Pavulon]

8. Prison. Drunks go to jail, people who commit felony child abuse go to prison

hopefully for a nice 10 year vacation. He knew what he did was wrong and if he were half a man would swallow a gun before sentencing.

[northernlights]

9. neither stupidity nor ignorance is synomous with cruel

or viscious or sadistic.

Intelligence and visciousness are not mutually exclusive qualities. Same with educated and viscious. One can be both.
All the education in the world won't stop a viscious person from being viscious. Oh, they'll be smarter about hiding it so they don't get caught. But just because they hide it well doesn't mean they aren't.

That poor, poor baby. That pathetic excuse for a human being is a bully that should have his intestines beaten to a pulp by someone 10 times his size. I'd say let my next door neighbor's bull have at him.

[Jefferson23]

5. Amanda Lynn Runyon’s mother out of jail

KSDK is reporting that beating victim Amanda Lynn Runyon’s mother has been released from the St. Clair County Jail in Belleville, but she has been ordered to stay away from Amanda while prosecutors review the case against her. Investigators with the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department are working in conjunction with the St. Clair County State's Attorney’s office to follow up on the mother's involvement in the abuse of Amanda. The mother was served with an order of protection issued through the county court to prevent any contact with Amanda.

Yesterday, a conference call was conducted between DCFS and members of the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department concerning the events that lead up to Amanda’s beating. The main point of discussion revolved around why DCFS did not remove Amanda from the home or make a report to law enforcement when a report of a broken leg was first made to them on February 23. Both DCFS and law enforcement officials reported that it was a productive discussion toward changing DCFS procedures and working more closely with law enforcement in the future.


Amanda is still recovering at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Officials there say they are not legally permitted to give any updates on her condition, however. Yesterday, Amanda’s father, Eddie Runyon, said she opens up her eyes every so often for a few seconds, and she even asked him for a kiss. Estimates were that she would be hospitalized for at least two more weeks. Runyon says he will not leave her side until Amanda is able to leave with him.


Medical expenses are expected to be enormous for Amanda’s care and treatment, and her father, who lives in Kentucky, has taken leave from his coal mining job to stay with his daughter. A woman who attended high school with Runyon has set up a trust fund account for Amanda’s medical bills as well as to help cover her father’s expenses for food and lodging while in St. Louis.

http://www.examiner.com/x-40562-St-Louis-Abusive-Relationships-Examiner~y2010m3d6-Amanda-Lynn-Runyons-mother-out-of-jail

[cutlassmama]

6. I hope this POS goes to jail for a long, long time. The child abusers

don't do very well in jail, so I'm told.

[Happy Hippy]

7. IMO

Anything less than the death penalty shouldn't be considered justice.

[AwakeAtLast]

10. A student of mine was sent back to her mother's house this week

She was excited - I cried all the way home. While in our school and in her foster home she gained weight, her hair started growing back in, her skin started to look good. But she went back. I fear for her much like these day care workers feared for this child. Surely CPS is not this inept, is it?

[Jefferson23]

11. The mother is a piece of work too:

snip* The toddler was abused so severely over the course of four days that a quarter of her intestines had to be removed, and she may be forced to eat from a feeding tube for the rest of her life. Besides stomach injuries, Amanda also sustained a broken leg and a broken arm, and large clumps of hair were missing from her head. Monroe was watching the two-year-old while her mother, Monroe’s girlfriend, was at work.


When Amanda’s mother came home from work Sunday, February 28, she found the toddler lethargic and vomiting, but she did nothing more than give the child ibuprofen. By Monday, March 1, when the mother finally took Amanda to Memorial Hospital in Belleville, she was very lethargic, vomiting, and slipping in and out of consciousness. She was then transported to Cardinal Glennon Hospital due to the extent of her injuries.


During the course of the subsequent investigation, police discovered drug paraphernalia and a large pit bull inside the trailer where the abuse took place. An investigation continues into whether other children living in the household were being abused. Monroe's 5-year-old daughter and his girlfriend's other two children, ages 4 and 6, also live in the trailer where Amanda was beaten. Thus far, there has been no indication of injuries to them.

http://www.examiner.com/x-40562-St-Louis-Abusive-Relationships-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Beaten-toddler-Amanda-Lynn-Runyon-still-in-critical-condition

Then there is the boyfriend:

Update on Amanda Lynn Runyon story


As reported in yesterday's article, two-year-old Amanda Lynn Runyon is still recovering from injuries sustained during beatings she endured over a four-day period that began last weekend. Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis reports her in critical but stable condition. Amanda’s father, Eddie Runyon, who has lived in Kentucky since 2008, came to be by her side at the hospital.


He states he has never met Kraig Monroe, the man currently incarcerated and charged with aggravated battery to a child. Monroe is alleged to have punched the child repeatedly as she sat in an Elmo baby chair because he was upset that she was crying. Eddie Runyon has also made no comments about Amanda’s mother thus far. Her name has still not been released, but reports state that she and Monroe have known one another since high school and began dating about four months ago.


Runyon says all of his attention is focused on his daughter right now, and he will not leave the hospital until Amanda can leave with him. Runyon said his job as a coal miner allows him to come back to this area every six weeks for five days and that he last saw his daughter around January 25 at his mother's home in New Athens.


Other developments in this story revolve around the trailer in which the abuse took place. It has since been condemned due to unsafe living conditions. Authorities claim that when they went inside it to investigate the case, it was a “disgusting trash bin.” Monroe had no occupancy permit to live there, and the landlord of the property has been cited for renting it out without a valid occupancy inspection.

http://www.examiner.com/x-40562-St-Louis-Abusive-Relationships-Examiner~y2010m3d5-Update-on-Amanda-Lynn-Runyon-story

[Darth_Kitten]

12. Why have children if you do this to them?

Evil, just plain evil.

Stupid mother takes up with asshole, and the kids pay.