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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
June 30, 2002
Missing girl a
victim of bureaucracy |
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RILYA stands for Really I
Love You Always. I wish I could say that was my original
sentiment to you, my readers, but it's an acronym given to a little
girl by her biological mother.
Because the mother also felt RILYA about drugs, she
later lost custody of her child to the state of Florida Department
of Family and Children.
Rilya Shenise Wilson is five years old. She has
been missing for 16 months from a Miami, Florida, foster home.
She had been missing for more than a year before anyone knew she was
missing.
Rilya was last seen Jan. 18, 2001, when her caretaker
relinquished custody of her to a woman she thought was from the
Miami social service agency. The agency thought the child was
still in the custody of the foster parent until earlier this year.
Because a social worker falsified visitation records,
Rilya's disappearance went unnoticed for more than a year. In
an effort to prevent this type of misdemeanor from happening again,
Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed a law making falsification of child
care records a felony.
The well-intentioned Florida House Bill 71-E does the
following:
- "makes it a second-degree felony, punishable by up to
15 years in prison, to falsify official state records of a person in
the state's care and custody if the falsification contributes to
bodily harm or death of that person; - makes it a third-degree
felony, punishable by five years in prison if the falsification
could cause harm to the health, safety, or welfare of that person; -
makes it a third-degree felony, punishable by five years in prison,
to falsify state records with intent to conceal facts material to
child abuse investigation, protective supervision, or foster care,
or a protective investigation or supervision of a vulnerable adult."
It's a great idea, but in Rilya's case, it may be too
little too late.
She is no Chandra Levy or Elian Gonzales, but a fervent
search is now on for little Rilya. If only she had a tyrant
like Fidel Castro demanding her return or the personal friendship of
a powerful politician. Rilya Wilson had neither. To be
missing for more than a year without raising any concerns, proves
it's not who you are, but who you know. It seems this precious
child didn't know a soul.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is
collaborating with several outdoor advertising firms placing the
child's age-enhanced picture on billboards and posters on mass
transit throughout the Dade County area.
Acting on the Governor's directive to inventory the
state's childcare rolls, the state child care system reports that
1,000 kids are now missing or unaccounted for. Florida, and
the city of Miami specifically, were so adept at keeping
minute-by-minute details of the little Cuban boat boy a couple years
ago. Yet they lose 1,000 of their own American children.
It's just a hunch, but my psychic urges are suggesting
the Miami authorities might find Rilya in the same place they locate
those misplaced Democrat votes from the last presidential election. |
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