Her name was Serenity. Never forget it.

billzhao

Her name was Serenity.
# L2 t$ J& c) `% X. l; D2 ]
Her life and her death, though, were anything but serene.

5 g" i- r  D2 y6 o8 w# ZAlberta’s Child and Youth Advocate, Del Graff, issued a review of the case of a four-year-old First Nations girl who died while in a kinship care placement. (The report gave her a pseudonym, Marie.) Graff’s review revealed that the relatives with whom the girl had been placed had been poorly trained and that the home study of their family had been cursory.

The review also found Serenity and her two older half-siblings had been left in the guardianship of this couple, despite complaints and tips about abuse. No workers had checked on the three children in the 11 months before Serenity died.


( h) G( H3 x. N4 ?; NGraff’s report was disturbing enough, but it omitted medical details even more shocking.
$ _# Z9 N6 s7 q" W* t1 R) N) R, s
Based on medical records obtained by the Journal, Serenity arrived at a hospital in central Alberta on Sept. 18, 2014, suffering from a suspected head injury, with “blown”or dilated pupils. She was four years and three months old. She weighed just 18 pounds, the weight of a typical nine-month-old baby.

Notes from the emergency room describe “multiple bruises all over her body, some green in colour and others purple.”

- h2 C# u- z: H* a) hThe notes describe bruising to the child’s pubic area. Her hymen was gone.

When she arrived at the hospital, Serenity was also suffering from severe hypothermia, with a rectal temperature of 30.1 C. Normal for a child is 37 to 38 C.  
9 t9 v" |. Z2 V- s- J9 Y
5 P; e/ ^+ d- Z$ tSerenity had not been brought to the hospital by ambulance. She had been driven there by an older woman who identified herself as Serenity’s grandmother.
- }1 y2 K9 b# z5 K+ I+ M) z4 b
) h: N% o' O/ E) w+ S5 cShe was actually Serenity’s relative by marriage, who, along with her husband, had been awarded guardianship of Serenity and her two siblings.
! ?  R. q. r, i2 c, u' H) [$ ?
The woman said Serenity had fallen from a tire swing. But ER staff found the woman’s explanation vague, her manner peculiar.

“Family emotionless,” read the notes. “0 crying, 0 emotion.”

Serenity was airlifted to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. Doctors determined she had suffered “a severe and horrific brain injury,” with no hope of recovery.
* A( e7 A7 {4 w' }
In addition to bruising on her chest and back, she had genital bruising and “unusual bruising around her anus.”
0 ^8 f! p' S9 Z
% Z/ v4 G5 R, ]8 ]$ O' g2 HA forensic pediatrician determined her injuries were inconsistent with a fall.

Serenity remained on life-support long enough for her birth parents to say goodbye to her.

; x) N2 U1 n; Z& i4 ]* v! _0 cShe died on Sept. 27, 2014.

Court documents say Serenity’s siblings, then five and six, told Zebra Child Protection interviewers they had been abused by two adults living in the home.

More than two years later, Alberta’s medical examiner has not released Serenity’s cause of death. The Child and Youth Advocate, an independent officer of the legislature, was denied a copy of an autopsy report. The case has never been ruled a homicide. Cpl. Laurel Scott, who speaks for the RCMP in central Alberta, says an investigation is still open. Because of that, she offered no further comment.

7 u3 @: P( m6 T7 t, h% t* c2 tWhy did the child advocate’s report omit any reference to the genital and anal bruising, and the absent hymen, which might suggest sexual assault? Or to the hypothermia? Tim Chander, who speaks for the advocate’s office, says it doesn’t include such details unless they’re confirmed by the medical examiner. So in the absence of the medical examiner’s report, that vital information was excluded from Graff’s review.
, z- e3 s1 e- Q
And why, after more than two years, has the medical examiner provided no information? On Friday, Alberta Justice could provide me no answers.
( T0 c- @0 F# P/ Y* I2 b/ O8 l
7 O2 V4 i* ]# j1 v7 E3 U& NSerenity as a thriving baby. When she died in 2014, she was four years old, and weighed just 18 pounds, roughly the weight of a nine-month-old.
Serenity as a thriving baby. When she died in 2014, she was four years old and weighed 18 pounds, roughly the weight of a nine-month-old. EDMONTON
I can’t name Serenity’s mom. Alberta’s child welfare legislation forbids me to publish anything that could identify Serenity’s surviving siblings.

4 \& I  I. a/ JI can tell you that her mom is 28. She moved east of the province. She has regained custody of her children, trained as a chef, is engaged to be married. She says she has been clean and sober for five years.

& x( f: I$ b" B( p- L. q3 r8 H3 [“I did a whole 360 on my life,” she says.

“I was 20 when I met Serenity’s father. It seemed things were good at first, but then it turned for the worse. He was heavily into partying and I was starting to realize that he fought with me a lot because he liked to. He assaulted me and I called police, and then child welfare got involved.”

7 L3 Z& N6 B' g, FThe domestic violence and her substance abuse — she drank alcohol and used marijuana, but insists she took no harder drugs — resulted in the apprehension of her children.

4 s2 K, a6 _- V" v: s* ISerenity, she says, thrived in foster care.

) B2 [  q$ t; s' `/ @/ j“Her first foster home was really great. She was super healthy there and I got to spend a lot of time with her.”

But then, she says, she was told her children would be adopted out, separately and permanently, unless she agreed to have them placed with family members in a kinship-care arrangement. Feeling she had no choice, she agreed to have the children placed with a couple who were related to her father.

. V" O. u/ y4 R& E2 n" }' P3 S“I knew them pretty good,” she says. “I thought I did, anyways. It turns out I didn’t know them at all.”
1 I% _3 V) e& x. i/ W
% n3 Z8 R* W$ B) yAfter her children had been living in kinship care for a few months, she says they were losing weight. Her son appeared to have scabies. She complained. She took pictures and videos. All that happened, she says, was that child welfare workers and her relatives banned her from seeing the children. Other relatives tried to see the children and bring them gifts, but were turned away.

Serenity, as a happy toddler riding her trike.
Serenity as a happy toddler, riding her trike.  SUPPLIED / EDMONTON JOURNAL
Her photos of Serenity show a smiling, chubby-cheeked baby and a solid, playful toddler with a wide, wild grin. But a cousin, who had a brief visit with the children seven months before Serenity’s death, took photos of a very different child with skeleton-thin arms, gaunt wrists, a cut, bruised face and haunting, sad eyes that had lost their light and mischief.
' D- [) S: O! R$ v( m
A year before her death, Serenity was at the 50th percentile for size — absolutely average. Twelve months later, her weight was so low, it’s simply not on the chart for a four-year-old girl.
9 n: }# X* Z9 U, C$ b
How was this allowed to happen? How was it that children’s services simply gave guardianship of three children to this couple despite the allegations of abuse, then never checked up on them? How did a child starve in a province of plenty? Why, despite the horrifying medical evidence, has no one been charged with anything?

0 N* h/ M+ I4 ?- f3 P6 F: \Serenity’s mother is still grieving, still angry her efforts at the time to get her children out of kinship care failed.

“I’m not a horrible person nor a bad mother,” she says. “I’ve always tried my best and I still am. I did everything I was told to by child welfare, but nothing was ever good enough.

& _2 d8 P8 D% o0 N5 L) }( e“My kids and Serenity definitely deserve justice.”