Here at StopDHR Corruption we hear so many tragic stories of foster children who are bounced from placement to placement, never able to find the right home. The story of three-year-old Ryleigh is not one of them. Ryleigh’s great-aunt, Kathleen McGinty, is desperate to keep the child in her care. This placement would be ideal because McGinty is able to provide a stable, loving home while also keeping the girl with her biological family. This seems like a no-brainer, but instead one child protection agency has turned it into a complex nightmare.

Mellisa Mirick was a teen mom and drug addict who was stripped of her parental rights, losing daughter Ryleigh and two older daughters from other fathers in the process. Mirick was a troubled soul who was never able to regain control, and she passed away. Ryleigh’s biological father was stripped of custody while the girl’s mother was still alive, and shortly after her death the baby’s grandmother died, too. So returning to her parents’ care or grandparents is not a possibility. What is the next best thing then? To be placed with family.

Still just a toddler, Ryleigh has already lived in no fewer than five different homes. She was taken into custody shortly after her birth, so the child has had no stability in her young life. This has been proven to negatively affect a child’s ability to bond and to increase trauma, but the child’s best interests are clearly not being considered here.

Although child protective services workers are allowed to foster and adopt children, they are not permitted to take on placements that may be a conflict of interest. That is exactly what happened when Safe Children Coalition worker Jolee Grobleski concealed the fact that she had little Ryleigh in her home with the intent to adopt her while her organization managed the child’s case.

A so-called “neutral” committee continues to side against Kathleen McGinty, and today the child remains with Grobleski. We, Rob and Kathleen Raskin, demand answers.