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Could DHS have done anything?
Children's fiery deaths prompt many to ask:
The agency settled a lawsuit filed by victims' grandparents.
By Nolan Clay | Modified: June 18, 2007 at 2:37 pm
|
Published: May 13, 2007
Oklahoman
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ARDMORE — Christian died crying.
He was 1.
Christian, his older brother and older sister died in a house fire after their mother left them alone for nearly an hour.
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Christian Ganis, 1, MaKayla Ganis, 2, and Isaiah Ganis, 3, pose with their grandparents, Ethel and Donald Ganis, for this photo taken in Ardmore in 2003 before their deaths.
PHOTO PROVIDED
This is one in a continuing series of reports by
The Oklahoman about the state Department of
Human Services. The
agency has more than 7,500 employees and manages a $1.6 billion budget. It is responsible
for caring for children, the elderly and underprivileged.
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Their grandparents blame the state Department of Human Services for the 2003 tragedy. Agency officials deny wrongdoing
Last year, a lawsuit over the deaths was quietly settled for $370,000, records show.
The agency paid $200,000, two private child-welfare agencies paid $135,000 and the church that owned the house paid $35,000.
About $105,000 of the agency's share of the settlement will go to a nonprofit organization to prevent child abuse. None of the money went to the children's mother or father.
The grandparents claim state welfare workers knew the mother was neglecting the children but failed to seek their removal.
"With all the red flags that were up, they should have done something sooner,” said grandfather Donald Wayne Ganis, 51, of Oregon. "The system back there failed us as a family. ... I get angry about it every day.”
The paternal grandparents collected about $85,000 from the settlement, after taking out attorney fees, legal costs and the share that is to go to a nonprofit group.
"It was an insult,” the grandfather said of the settlement. "We would have been satisfied with just a formal, written apology, but that never happened. And it never will happen. They won't admit that they made a mistake.”
The case is one of the most heartbreaking examples of a frequent criticism of the agency — that the state agency that is supposed to protect children too often leaves them in harm's way.
Christian Ganis, Isaiah Ganis, 3, and MaKayla Ganis, 2, died the night of Aug. 7, 2003, in a house fire that grew into an inferno while their mother smoked a cigarette at a neighbor's house. The mother was then 24. The father had moved out months earlier, and her new boyfriend was away.
The mother, Sarah L. Ganis, is serving a 40-year prison sentence for child neglect.
Sarah Ganis said she could hear Christian crying as she tried to rescue her children.
"I have made some mistakes. I might've made some bad choices but ... I would never put harm upon my children,” she said at her trial.
Records show a human services agency worker and private child-welfare workers checked on the children repeatedly in the weeks before their deaths because of complaints from the father and grandparents.
The state agency worker reported finding serious problems with the mother's care.
The agency worker in one visit to the mother's home found it cluttered with trash, toys and clothes, with roaches on the walls and flies swarming over Christian's dirty, wet bed. The mother tried to hide a marijuana bong.
Day care workers told the agency the children often were dirty, and the older children mimicked sex acts.
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