So begins the usual DSS shuffle after the death of a child they had had multiple child abuse reports on.

It’s the usual … “did not fail Addison Grace Lanham…”, “attempting to locate her and she was attempting not to be found…” hocus-pocus except that Gaston County Commissioner Tom Keigher is actually asking state legislators in Raleigh who are buzzing about the Lanham case — good for them — to shut up.

Keigher wrote a letter to his fellow commissioners and state legislators:

“If you truly want to say or do something during the remainder of this investigation, I suggest to first keep your opinions to yourself unless the proper authorities involve you, let the police and DA’s office complete their investigation and I think it would be great if you could pray for the child as well as her family and friends who lost a precious gift from God so tragically.”

This is a perfect example of why local DSS authorities cannot be trusted to review child abuse cases that result in death after the fact. The Department of Social Services claims they were contacted three times with potential child abuse complaints about Shanna Lanham, mother of Addison Lanham, the 2-year-old Bessemer City girl who died from an untreated broken leg and a blood infection. The media, talking to family and friends, has come up with at least six claimed reports by family and friends. Which is it?

Unfortunately state statutes will prevent independent eyes from ever seeing the file and determining the truth — unless legislators act.

 As I explained before, a child fatality review team already automatically reviews these cases in North Carolina every time a child dies of abuse, but that’s a joke. The problem is that the way the state legislature set that up, the team always mostly consists of members from the same county DSS agencies that failed the child and the local community child protection team. They don’t even bring in folks from a different county. In other words, they are part of the same bureaucracy being investigated.

And no one is held responsible when a child ultimately dies from abuse:

Such reviews are conducted to make beneficial changes, not penalize anyone for mistakes, according to DHHS spokeswoman Lori Walston.

“It’s more of a lessons learned situation,” she said.

Um, no. Not acceptable. Not penalize anyone for mistakes? SERIOUSLY? Cupcake baking is a profession where you can have a lessons-learned situation on the job and not penalize anyone for their mistakes. Just make another batch if you burn the first one. This is not.

The other problem is that the public never gets to know what those lessons learned on the job were, how bad the mistakes were, who made them and whether folks get to keep their jobs after making the same mistakes over and over.

There must be an independent investigation of the state’s DSS system and how well it follows its own operational rules and how well those rules work. It must be conducted by uninterested parties from out of state and it must start with the Zahra Baker case and cover this case, every child fatality going back a decade plus a random selection of regular cases to see how well these cases are being handled. As I’ve noted before, a similar investigation of the state’s parole and probation system found that cases were mismanaged 80 percent of the time and people were being murdered by defendants whose cases were deliberately not followed up on by officers.

Some state legislator could make a great name for him or herself and get great publicity by pushing this issue and changing state law to allow the independent investigation, then demanding one, if need be. If the governor won’t get on board, she needs to be called out on it.

Please, someone, act.