Khalil Wimes

Khalil Wimes was a six year old boy, who was starved and abused by his parents for a long period of time. He was taken from his parents along with five other children who were permanently taken out of their care when he was born in 2006. According to the report, they were living in a home in West Philadelphia that was not fit to live in and the parents were also using drugs. In 2009, the parents regained custody of Khalil from Domestic Relations Court because the history of the parents was not fully looked upon by the judge. The judge felt that since the parents had taken a parenting class that they had improved, which was not the case. At visitations from a DHS social worker, Courtnei Nance, she failed to report the suspicions she had. On March 19th, 2012 his parents rushed him to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia because they said he was sick. Khalil Wimes ended up dying that same day from malnutrition and blunt force trauma, only weighing about 25 pounds.

Child protection agencies need to be reformed because too many of our children are dying in the hands of these agencies. It is not just social workers fault but also the judges because he is the one who decided to give Khalil back to his parents. He did not fully look into the history of the parents and see that they are not good parents and that the child would have been better off with his foster parent, who was also his cousin. Since he decided to give the parents custody again, Khalil died. Social workers also did not help the situation because the suspicions she had were left unsaid. Therefore, I think that social workers need to supervise better and speak up if they suspect abuse is still occurring. I also think that reform needs to happen because judges are making decisions that are not helping the children but are putting them in danger of facing abuse again. Child protection agency reform needs to happen because too many child death's from abuse is happening in this world.