Bronx Child Dies in Squalor

This refrain has become sickeningly familiar : A child died in the Bronx, and his family was being investigated by the Administration for Children's Services. Authorities believe that little Quachon Brown was "thrown like a rag doll" by his mother's boyfriend for knocking over a TV set. and he was found with a smashed skull in his Norwood apartment. Alicia Brown (called Aleishia Smith in the Daily News) and Jose Calderon were questioned about the boy's death - and the squalor Quachon and Brown's other children lived in, a rat and roach infested apartment with a broken window and no food. Last summer, Quachon and five other chlidren were removed from the house by ACS when neighbors realized the chlidren were alone; Brown had gone to Atlantic City. Brown claims the TV fell on her son, but with his body covered in bruises, the authorities are suspicious. The ME's office is performing an autopsy. And today would have been his fifth birthday.

This makes the overhaul of ACS seem long overdue. ACS had been investigating Brown for two years - apparently Brown also allowed a level 3 sex offender to watch her kids. The ACS commissioner John Mattingly answered questions from the City Council as his agency also released a report of what happened in Nixzmary Brown's death - it looks like both the ACS and NYPD failed in reacting. Mattingly said the agency will act if parents refuse to allow caseworkers in the home or the child misses more than 2 weeks of school; Nixzmary had missed over 40 days of school and her parents repeatedly refused the ACS to enter the home.