PHOENIX — There are more questions surrounding the Arizona Department of Child Safety and protection breakdowns with vulnerable minors after a lawsuit claims a young teen with severe non-verbal autism was improperly taken from her family and injured in a group home.
“There's no amount of money that would fix what they did to her,” said her mom, Christine Scianna.
DCS recently settled the lawsuit for $750,000 and the family says the group home also wrote a check. The family says they were awarded a total of $1.4 million from the state and group home.
Brooke Scianna, who is now 23, was taken into the state’s custody in June of 2018 and Christine said the child welfare system failed to protect her daughter.
“I don’t want it to happen to any other family,” said Christine.
According to the lawsuit, problems on Brooke’s school bus led to DCS getting involved when she was 16 years old.
The lawsuit said Christine learned “that personnel from the school district’s transportation division would be arriving early that day to try vests on Brooke.”
The vests were intended to restrain Brooke while she rode the bus.
“Like most autistic children and adults, they’re used to [a] routine,” Christine explained.
Court documents state Christine expressed concern “that if personnel attempted to place a vest on Brooke when the bus was not there, Brooke would not understand what was occurring and could get upset.”
“She had a meltdown with transportation,” said Christine.
The lawsuit describes how the meltdown quickly escalated, and Brooke bit several people including school staff and her mom. What happened that day ultimately initiated a call to DCS, according to court documents.
Fast forward a few weeks later and despite Christine’s protests, the lawsuit claims DCS called police, and Brooke was forced into a group home run by Care and Dignity Services.
“I think in this particular instance you had an employee at the department who thought she knew better than everybody else,” said Attorney Thomas A. Connelly who is representing the family.
The lawsuit alleges the DCS caseworker, “refused to investigate the allegations” and “did not have a warrant for seizing Brooke.”
Two months later, Brooke was admitted to the hospital.
“It was really bad,” said her mom. “She was head to toe injured with burns and bruises and blood and feces.”
According to court documents, Brooke arrived at the hospital “filthy, with nails down to the nailbeds, matted hair, with extensive rug burns to her face.”
Days later the lawsuit says a criminal investigation was opened into the group home. The police investigation did not result in any charges.
But court documents accuse DCS of placing Brooke in a group home, “where she was abused and neglected to the point of needing hospitalization.”
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“They took a very vulnerable autistic child away from her mother, who was her window to the world,” said Attorney DeeAn Gillespie who is another attorney representing the family.
Five months after it happened, Christine got back custody of Brooke and says she’s now thriving.
“She’s very happy. We’ve got her to do things I never thought possible,” she said.
The family said what Brooke went through still impacts her and they say this is about accountability.
“I know this is still happening to families and I know other families are going through this, and I think the only way that it can change is to make it public,” Christine said.
“I’m baffled why our tax dollars, part of the billion-dollar annual budget of DCS are being used to cause harm,” said Gillespie.
ABC15 reached out to DCS, and the agency declined our request for an on-camera interview. It said the group home involved in the lawsuit is licensed by another state agency and DCS entrusts that agency with finding a home that fits the needs of a child with disabilities.
As far as the allegations Brooke was taken without a proper warrant, DCS said it followed proper procedures at the time.
ABC15 reached out to the group home for comment but has not heard back as of Thursday afternoon.