Educators outraged after child’s death, sparking demands for accountability | #childsafety | #kids | #chldern | #parents | #schoolsafey

PHOENIX — The recent death of 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste has left educators at a Phoenix school heartbroken—and demanding answers from Arizona’s Department of Child Safety.

Rebekah, a former student at Empower College Prep, was described by school leaders as bright, kind, and full of potential. 

But after years of suspected abuse and the school claiming repeated warnings to DCS, she is dead. 

Her father, Richard Baptiste, and his girlfriend, Anicia Woods, both face charges of murder and child abuse in Apache County. They are each being held on $1 million bond.

According to school staff, Rebekah and her two brothers attended Empower Prep for three years before recently moving to Apache County with their father and Woods. During that time, school leaders said they filed at least 12 reports to DCS, raising red flags about physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and signs of malnourishment.

Natalina Mariscal, the school’s director of Student Services, said the signs were clear: unexplained bruises, black eyes, and frequent hunger. She said she contacted DCS repeatedly, often being told on at least four separate occasions the case would be escalated or followed up on—yet no meaningful action seemed to be taken.

 “I have seen reports taken for less and children removed from more, and I think that is just something any and most social workers or administrators, and staff at a school can attest to, unfortunately,” Mariscal said. “The fact that there were clear marks on these students and statements of feeling unsafe, and again, what feels like nothing was done or minimal intervention was done. It’s just a difficult pill to swallow.”

Police responded to a report of an unresponsive child at the intersection of Highway 177 and Highway 180 on July 27 in Holbrook. Rebekah was found with severe injuries and was first transported to the Little Colorado Medical Center. She was later flown to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where she died on July 30. Her cause of death has not been released.

“I feel very strongly that this was preventable,” said Empower Prep Director Becky Jones. “Rebekah nor her siblings needed to be subjected to what they experienced. They did not need to endure that, and Rebekah certainly did not need to lose her life.”

In response to questions surrounding Rebekah’s murder, a DCS spokesperson issued a statement saying: 

“It is with a heavy heart that we acknowledge the death of Rebeka Baptiste, a child who was known to the Department. Anytime a child in our community is harmed, it deeply affects us all, especially when we know the family. Our dedicated staff work tirelessly to ensure the safety of all children, but tragically, those who intend to harm children can sometimes evade even the most robust systems designed to protect them.

In response to this incident, the Department is actively collaborating with law enforcement in a joint investigation to ensure that the people responsible for this heinous act are brought to justice. We are committed to seeing the individual or individuals who murdered this child held accountable within the criminal justice system.

Additionally, the Department’s Safety Analysis Review Team will be conducting a thorough review of this case. The goal is to identify and understand any systemic barriers that may have influenced the outcome, and to implement data-driven systemic changes to prevent such tragedies in the future. Despite our expertise in child safety, we cannot predict the future and must operate within the boundaries of our legal authority.”

For the educators who tried to protect Rebekah, the department’s response falls far short.

“We are expecting when we report that it does not fall on deaf ears and that it is moved forward in some way, shape, or form,” Jones said. “It feels and looks like, at this point, that is not what happened in many of the reports that we made in this particular family’s case.”

A GoFundMe for Rebekah’s funeral costs has been set up. You can find it by clicking here.

Here is the full statement from DCS:

“It is with a heavy heart that we acknowledge the death of Rebekah Baptiste, a child who was known to the Department. Anytime a child in our community is harmed, it deeply affects us all, especially when we know the family. Our dedicated staff work tirelessly to ensure the safety of all children, but tragically, those who intend to harm children can sometimes evade even the most robust systems designed to protect them.

In response to this incident, the Department is actively collaborating with law enforcement in a joint investigation to ensure that the people responsible for this heinous act are brought to justice.

The Department would like to correct some information made public by other sources related to the death of Rebekah Baptiste. According to Department records, Empower School called the Hotline 5 times in the past year, and one time the allegations met statutory report criteria. The other four times the Department was not able to investigate the allegations because they did not meet the statutory threshold for abuse or neglect. We do not have any records that a relative called the Hotline after 2019 to allege abuse or neglect of Rebekah or her siblings.

We take every call to our hotline seriously, but we only have the authority to initiate an investigation if the call meets statutory report criteria. Rebekah deserved love, safety and a chance to thrive. There are no words that will make sense of the pain she endured or her life that was tragically cut short. Her loss is a sorrow we carry deeply, a reminder of the work we must never stop doing. We know this loss is felt most deeply by her school community that saw Rebekah most often. In honoring her memory, the department will strive to educate our schools to better understand what meets report criteria so that when they do make a call to the Hotline, we can take appropriate action.

Here are the basic criteria:

A communication meets Report criteria when the reporting source alleges the following:

1. victim is currently under the age of 18;
2. victim has been physically, emotionally, or sexually abused, neglected, abandoned, or exploited by a parent, guardian, custodian, or adult member of the victim’s household;
3. victim is a resident of or present in Arizona, and
4. the identity or current location of the child victim, the child victim’s family, or the person suspected of abuse or neglect is known or can be reasonably ascertained.