Charges were filed last month against a Dayton woman and her boyfriend in last year’s violent death of her seven year old son, who had autism and used a wheelchair. Hearings continue this week on a bill from two Republican state lawmakers the Dayton area, who said if their legislation had been in place, Hershall Creachbaum would not have died.
Reps. Tom Young (R-Washington Twp.) and Phil Plummer (R-Dayton) said House Bill 635 would fix gaps in the system by improving communication and coordination between courts, law enforcement and children services. And the lawmakers said the bill, titled the Child Protection Reform Act, also strengthens accountability and escalates cases involving violence and abuse against children.
"It aligns child welfare procedures with criminal enforcement where appropriate, and improves coordination between courts, prosecutors and children's services," Young said. "Breakdowns in communication and unclear statutory direction delay intervention. When this happens, a child pays the price. The bill closes procedural gaps, strengthens reporting and follow through, and ensures dangerous conduct involving minors is treated to the seriousness it warrants."
“If there's a continual domestic violence situation at that house, the police departments will have to share that report with children services because as we know, there's smoke, there's fire," added Plummer, who was the Montgomery County sheriff before he was elected to the Ohio House.
Plummer said the death of Hershall Creachbaum illustrates the problems agencies have in coordinating responses. The child's case had been in Clark County and was moved to Montgomery County, but information that should have been shared wasn't.
"We all understand that we have to protect medical information, but there are situations where we can share intelligence that we don't. And it's always people hiding behind HIPAA. And most of the people say, I can't share that because they have a they don't understand HIPAA," Plummer said. "So we get this, we get this blaming each other. We just want you guys to share information, plain and simple. Do your job right."
And the lawmakers said the state and local agencies need more data on cases involving child welfare and abuse incidents to understand the scope of the problem.
"The numbers of of cases that I can count of where we would need to intercede would be at least 300,000 cases. Even bad data shows a hundred thousand cases in just one section of of abuse," Plummer said. "So we really need to get our numbers right."
HB 635 has had two hearings, with a third scheduled for Wednesday.
