We Won't Let Janaia Die In Vain

By Elizabeth Scheinberg

This is not a story for weak constitutions. It is vivid and brutal. And happened here, in Delaware.

Chapter One

The following descriptions of Janaia Barnhart's death come from a dreadfully under-reported story in the News Journal, http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/crime/2016/09/15/child-dies-under-care-delaware-facility/90415106/ and an investigation performed by ProPublica, https://www.propublica.org/article/camera-shoving-match-group-home-worker-before-teenager-heart-stopped

Back in September, something horrifying happened in Bear, Delaware. A happy, beautiful child named Janaia bounced her way down the stairs of her AdvoServ group home, following a resident advisor with a large black bag. Video footage caught the employee shoving Janaia and Janaia shoving back. The two disappeared into Janaia's bedroom, where a closet door was opened to obstruct the view of the camara. Four more workers would eventually rush into the room and a full 32 minutes later, paramedics would find the girl, naked, on the floor, with no pulse.

Janaia was rushed to AI DuPont Children's Hospital in Wilmington where doctors could not determine why a seemingly healthy child had gone into sudden cardiac arrest. And two days later, Janaia died. Her heartbroken mother who had hurried from Maryland the moment she heard her child was in medical distress sat with the girl's body for five hours. As time ticked by dark bruises began to appear on the girls body, and a nurse confirmed that bruises commonly become more distinct after death. The most disturbing injury was the one on Janaia's chest that looked like some sort of puncture wound.

As of November 11, 2016, almost a full month after the child's death, an autopsy had yet to be released to the Janaia's family. And no one has convincingly explained away those 32 minutes.

Janaia's care had been entrusted to AdvoServ and she lived in a little white house on Kirkwood St. Georges Rd. It there that she experienced the onset of an acute medical condition according to the Delaware State Police. She was transported to Christiana Hospital and then quickly sent to AI DuPont. In the wake of her death, AdvoServ released a statement offering grief counseling and support to anyone who may need it.

This is what Advoserv portends to provide:

Our mission is simple. Our results are compelling. AdvoServ serves the needs of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and severe behavioral challenges...From the northeast to the sunny south, AdvoServ’s clinically-proven treatment programs offer behaviorally challenged children and adults a new start...AdvoServ’s residential, educational, transitional and treatment strategies are customized to help individuals overcome their behavioral challenges and lead a successful, meaningful life. http://www.advoserv.com/

I didn't realize that death was a treatment strategy when this story first crossed my facebook page.

An examination of news reports by ProPublica shows that at least 145 children died at residential programs across the country in the last 35 years from avoidable causes.

Unlike the murder of a typical Howard High School student last school year which continues to dominate delawareonline at every opportunity, the NJ has published nothing more about Janaia, a special education student, who lived in a little white house. Nor have we heard of any investigations into AdvoServ and its practices. The stories of the deaths, the violence, the filth, the sanctions that came from other states, Maryland's decision to withdraw all of the students it placed in AdvoServ's Delaware homes. These stories deserve to be told and Delawarean's need to follow the money and hold our own state agencies accountable.

When I first started doing research into AdvoServ, I wondered why I had never heard the horror stories. Let me back up. I have heard horror stories, two or three, through the years we've lived in and out of the autism community. Fast forward into recent research and there is a body of evidence that supports AdvoServ's blatant disregard for the lives many of its residents served in homes that dot the East Coast. And that neglect begins right here at home in Bear, Delaware, just down the road from Janaia's little white house on the site of the unassuming Au Claire mansion.