Family Of Six-Year-Old Girl Who Hanged Herself In Foster Care Wins $1.5 Million

This story is so heartbreakingly sad…

But it also makes me really, really angry.

According to Daily Mail:

The grandmother of a six-year-old girl who killed herself in foster care has reached a $1.5million settlement with officials in Minnesota in her wrongful death lawsuit.

Mary Broadus originally sought $20million when she sued foster care providers and mental health professionals in Hennepin County, saying they ignored Kendrea Johnson’s frequent suicidal thoughts.

The girl was found hanging from a jump rope in her foster home in December 2014.

Here’s what makes me angry… That grandmother sought $20 million dollars.

She ended up with $1.5 million… a sizeable amount of money (though of course, the life of that baby girl was priceless.)

Where was she when her SIX-YEAR-OLD granddaughter was suicidal and put in to foster care?

Maybe being with FAMILY would have made all the difference.

WHERE. WAS. SHE?

Johnson’s attorneys tell the Star Tribune the settlement is a victory for the family and all children in foster care

‘Obviously, they’d rather have their loved one,’ attorney Jeff Monpetit said. ‘There is a small amount of satisfaction and vindication in the fact that what they set to accomplish is get the county to reevaluate how they handle the … needs of kids in foster care.’

Ok… but she COULD have had her loved one…

But she was in foster care. WITHOUT her family.

Where was she when that little girl needed someone?

The settlement was disclosed in a court document filed Wednesday, concerning the distribution of the award.

Broadus has been named the trustee and is taking 25 per cent of the $1.5million, 50 per cent will to Kendrea’s five-year-old half-brother for college and the remaining 25 per cent will go to Kendrea’s mother.

Kendrea’s mother lived in the Twin Cities but saw her child ‘infrequently’ while she was in foster care. The girl’s father died in a drive-by shooting in 2008.

Kendrea first entered foster care in January 2014, after she was found ‘in her mother’s trashed home with various medications all over the floor’ after several unexcused absences from school.

In March of that year, she was placed in the home of 53-year-old foster mother Tannise Nawaqavou, who, according to the lawsuit, was not trained to look after a child with serious mental illness like Kendrea.

I feel horrifically sorry for this poor baby girl…

And very uncomfortable that the family who basically abused and abandoned her are benefitting financially from her tragic death.

The mother who left her neglected in a house full of medications and “infrequently” visited her just got a cash reward.

It feels really gross to me.

During the year that Kendrea lived with her, Nawaqavou had to call the local police when she threatened to kill herself with a screwdriver. She says she also threatened to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. At school, Kendrea was caught drawing pictures of a child hanging from a noose.

Ultimately she followed through on her threats. She was found dead on December 27, 2014, hanging from a jump rope that had been attacked to a bunk bed railing a room at Nawaqavou’s house.

Initially Nawaqavou and several other defendants were named in the lawsuit, but eventually they were taken off and only the county remained.

The county issued a statement which says the settlement was in the best interest of everyone involved.

The statement reads: ‘Any loss of life is tragic, but the loss of someone so young is especially tragic. We are here to protect children — and we do that every day. We take that charge very seriously.’

The thought of a six-year-old feeling this way makes me want to vomit.

This is horrific.

But again… I don’t see her family as the victims in this situation. I think this is on them.