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Autistic boy dead; mother charged

Lorraine Rivera & Ed Tribble
KVOA Tucson
March 21, 2007

A Tucson mother sits in the Pima County Jail tonight accused of abusing
her child to death.

Diane Marsh, age 39, is facing first degree murder charges for the death of her 5-year-old son, Brandon, an autistic child.

In addition, 27-year-old Flower Tompson is facing four counts of child abuse, and her boyfriend, 47-year-old Mark Moss, is charged with three counts of failure to report.

Just after midnight Thursday, Brandon Williams was rushed by ambulance to Northwest Hospital.

According to Pima County deputies, doctors determined that Brandon's death was suspicious because Brandon's injuries were consistent with child abuse.

Bureau Chief Rick Kastigar said deputies obtained a search warrant. Inside the home, they found evidence suggesting that the boy had been physically abused.

Thursday night, all three suspects appeared in video court at the Pima cCounty Jail.

The appearance in video court ends a long day for the suspects and investigators. Just after midnight the 5-year-old boy had died. His mother later charged with his murder.

"She, by her own admission, gave the child 12 Tylenol PM pills," says Pima County Bureau Chief Rick Kastigar.

"This case is troubling because of the injuries to the child and we interviewed the mother who says at times she did discipline the child by immersing his feet in scalding water."

Kastigar says what is also troubling is that other adults didn't try to intervene.

"One not only knew what was going on, but participated in the abuse by her own admission, and another individual was complicit in this and didn't report it to anyone," Kastigar says.

Investigators say it's a disturbing case that hits close to home.

"Especially when you're a dad or a mom. It was probably very, very painful for this young boy. It saddens all of us."

[Admin]

5-year-old boy dies; mother is arrested
Official: Son got deadly dose of 12 Tylenol PMs from mom

By Dale Quinn and Alexis Huicochea
Arizona Daily Star
03.23.2007

Before he died, 5-year-old Brandon Williams was fed sleep-inducing medicine twice a day.

His mother, Diane L. Marsh, 39, would sometimes tie him up or plunge his feet into scalding water to discipline him, a sheriff's official said.

On Wednesday night, Brandon died after his mother gave him a lethal dose of 12 Tylenol PMs when he complained of having flu symptoms, the official said.

Marsh and two people who lived with her in the 5500 block of North Silver Stream Way, near West River Road and North La Cholla Boulevard, were arrested Thursday in connection with his death.

Marsh — the second Tucson parent charged in connection with the death of a child this month — told detectives she gave Brandon the sleep aids about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Bureau Chief Rick Kastigar, head of the Sheriff's Department Investigations Division.

When Marsh went into Brandon's room several hours later, he was unresponsive. She called 911.

Marsh told investigators her son was autistic. Records from the state's Child Protective Services, which had contact with Brandon's family on several occasions, confirmed that, Kastigar said.

Medics arrived about 11:40 p.m. but were unable to revive the boy, whose body temperature had plunged below 80 degrees, Kastigar said. Brandon was taken to Northwest Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

While an official cause of death has not been determined, a Pima County medical examiner told detectives that amount of medicine was enough to kill a boy of Brandon's size, Kastigar said.

The medics who tried to resuscitate Brandon noticed ligature marks — abrasions usually caused by rope burns — on his wrists and ankles. They saw blisters, some cracked and bleeding, on the bottom of his feet and the tops of his toes.

So they contacted sheriff's homicide detectives suspecting the child had been abused, Kastigar said.

Marsh told detectives she regularly gave the child four to five sleeping-aid pills twice a day, Kastigar said. She also told them she would tie him up in an effort to control him and that she submerged his feet in scalding water when he acted out.

She also said she would hit the child with a wire hanger.

Brandon's father, 41-year-old Melvin Williams, said Thursday evening that while his son did have autism, the lengths to which his mother went to control him were unnecessary.

"I could've taken him in, all she had to do was call and say she needed help and I would've done it," he said. "He was hyper, he had tantrums, but he was just 5. . . . Jesus Christ, she didn't need to do that."

Williams, a landscaper, and Marsh divorced in 2005. Brandon was their only child, but Marsh had two other sons.

Williams said Brandon was an active child — running around, talking, and was supposed to be attending kindergarten.

Brandon loved to watch anything on the Disney Channel, his father said, but his favorite cartoon was "Lilo & Stitch." He also enjoyed swimming and going to the park and playing on the swings, he said.

The last time he saw Brandon was in September when Marsh picked him up after an overnight visit. Up until that point he would care for Brandon every other weekend, but Williams said that since then he hadn't been able to get in contact with Marsh.

There were no signs at that time that Brandon was being abused, Williams said. He said he never saw his ex-wife act violently toward Brandon.

"I didn't think she would ever do this," Williams said. "Brandon didn't deserve it; no one does. He was a wonderful little boy who never had a chance to grow up."

Kastigar said investigators think the abuse had been occurring since at least December.

Flower Tompson, 27, and Mark Lee Moss, 47, told detectives they were staying with Marsh because they were homeless and that they didn't notify authorities because they were afraid it might jeopardize their living situation.

Tompson told investigators she sometimes helped Marsh tie the boy up and that she'd seen her whip the boy, Kastigar said. She was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and Moss was booked into jail for failing to report the abuse, Kastigar said.

"He was at the very least complicit to what was going on," Kastigar said. "There is a legal obligation for rational adults to report an abusive situation."

Court records show Brandon was forced to grow up in a troubled household. His father was arrested March 7, 2005, on charges of abusing his brother.

According to the interim complaint filed by the arresting officer, Williams hit his stepson — one of Brandon's two brothers — on the back, then proceeded to choke him, leaving significant marks on his neck, face and ears. Marsh had to pull her husband off the child, who was less than 15 years old at the time.

When Marsh filed for divorce, she requested sole custody of Brandon because of her husband's abusive past, according to court documents.
Williams admitted on Thursday to being involved in the incident with his stepson but said that he never laid a hand on Brandon.

Kastigar said CPS made contact with Marsh and her children on "several instances," at least once after her divorce from Williams.

In August 2006, one of Brandon's two teenage brothers grabbed him and injured his face. The two brothers were placed in foster care, but Brandon stayed with his mother.

CPS would not discuss its involvement with Marsh and her children. Spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez said she was advised by the Pima County Attorney's Office not to comment.

Peter Earhart, the president of the Autism Society of America's Pima County chapter, said he understands that raising an autistic child can at times be frustrating. His autistic daughter sometimes presented him with challenges, he said.

But never, he said, could he understand how someone could drug or bind a child.

For one thing, because autism is so complicated, such abusive measures can have the opposite effect on the child, he said. And there are resources available for parents or guardians with autistic children.

Earlier this month, Christopher Payne, 28, was indicted on charges that he killed his two children, Ariana, 4, and Tyler, 5. His daughter's body was found in a storage unit, while his son's body has yet to be recovered.

[Admin]

Recent child abuse cases raise question

KVOA Arizona
March 28, 2007

Two cases of child abuse have shocked Tucson this month.

This week, Diane Marsh was charged with murdering her 5-year-old son, Brandon Williams.

Marsh is accused of tieing his hands and feet, standing him in hot water, and, on the night he died, of giving him 12 Tylenols.

Earlier this month, Christopher Payne was charged with murdering his 4-year-old daughter, Ariana, and 5-year-old son, Tyler.

Ariana's starved body was found abandoned in a storage unit. Tyler has never been found.

The cases raise the question, "How could a parent do that to their own child?"

Gil Velez is a program manager at child and family resources, an agency that deals with abuse and neglect cases. Velez says abuse happens all the time.

Velez says nationwide, "Every 10 seconds, there's a report being made of child abuse, and three children die daily."

Velez insists that there is no excuse for what marsh and Payne are accused of doing, but he says abusers do have charactistics in common.

He says that many abusers were abused themselves.

Velez says, "it's behavior that seems acceptable to these parents. 'I got hit as a child, so this is how I'm going to discipline my child.'"

Velez says that many abusers are mentally ill.

He says, "i don't think your normal person could beat a child, torture a child. You would have to assume something is wrong with this particular parent."

In both Brandon Williams' case and the Payne children's case, Arizona Child Protective Services had been involved, but CPS refuses to discuss the cases.

News 4 asked Velez whether CPS failed these children.

He says, "You would have to ask yourself that, Who was monitoring this family to prevent this abuse?"

But Velez believes there's broader blame for the young deaths.

He says, "As a community, I think we need to take responsibility for these actions. Who saw the signs of abuse? Who saw this child with wounds, with bruises?"

Velez says everyone must report abuse.

He says, "We have to stop being polite and start taking care of our children."

[Admin]

Tucson father of boy who died of overdose seeks child welfare records

KSMB Fox 11
5/22/07

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- A Tucson man whose autistic son died two months ago of a drug overdose wants a judge to order the release of the boy's child welfare records.

Melvin Williams says he plans to sue the state for wrongful death over the March 22nd death of his 5-year-old son Brandon.

The child's mother, 39-year-old Diane Marsh, and 27-year-old Flower Tompson, who was living with the mother, each have been charged with first-degree murder in the death.

Investigators suspect Marsh and Tompson gave Brandon 12 adult doses of a pain and cold medication. Records show the boy's body at death also showed signs of abuse.

The child's father said in court papers that child welfare workers had information that Brandon Williams was being neglected while in his mother's custody.

[Admin]

Autistic boy died from blunt force trauma, autopsy shows

By Alexis Huicochea
Arizona Daily Star
May 23, 2007

A 5-year-old autistic boy who authorities said was tied down and given large doses of medicine by his mother died of blunt force trauma to the head, an autopsy report said.

According to the report that was released Wednesday, Brandon Williams suffered a number of injuries including a 3 1/2 inch linear skull fracture, contusions and abrasions to his head, chest and abdomen, and retinal hemorrhages among other things.

The report also mentioned that numerous hypopigmented macules were found all over the boy’s body. Macules are discolored skin lesions.

A toxicology test run on the boy detected the presence of acetaminophen, which can be toxic to the liver and is often found in pain, sleep, cold and fever-reducing medications; and diphenhydramine, which is an antihistamine that affects heart rate and blood pressure.

Brandon was found unresponsive in his bed at his Northwest Side home in March after officials said at the time that his mother, Diane Marsh, gave the boy a large dose of medicine.

Responding paramedics found scars on Brandon’s wrists and ankles from having been bound, and severe burns on his feet from having been dipped in scalding water.

Marsh told authorities she took those actions to keep Brandon under control when he acted out.

Brandon was pronounced dead at the hospital and his mother and her two roommates — Flower Tompson and Mark Lee Moss — were arrested in connection with his death.

Five months before Brandon’s death, Child Protective Services workers tried unsuccessfully to locate the boy and his mother after school officials reported that he had stopped showing up for class.

However, a week before Brandon’s death, a Pima County sheriff’s deputy had contact with the family because a relative filed a missing persons report on Marsh, according to Star archives.

The deputy noted at the time, Brandon’s feet and legs were heavily bandaged but Marsh explained that away by saying Brandon had fallen into gravel and was cut up by cacti.

According to the sheriff’s department, the deputy planned to file a report with CPS, but her report was not sent because it was not transcribed until the day after Brandon died.

Marsh remained in jail Wednesday evening in lieu of $1 million bond. She is being held on one count of first-degree murder and four counts of child abuse.

Tompson also remained at the jail and is being held on $500,000 bond. She is facing four counts of child abuse.

Charges against Moss of failing to report the neglect of a minor were dismissed.

[Admin]

Opinion
Computer tool is no substitute for good caseworkers
Our view: New assessment program may be good, but won't make up for lack of CPS workers

Arizona Daily Star
6/7/2007

Child Protective Services has started using a new assessment tool to keep track of child-abuse and -neglect cases, a method the department claims will help workers better serve children in dangerous home situations.

The new tool was in the works before two Tucson children were killed and another is presumed dead, all allegedly at the hands of their parents. Any change CPS makes comes under the microscope of public and legislative scrutiny, as it should.

Details of the short lives and deaths of Ariana Payne and Brandon Williams, and the presumed death of Tyler Payne, have been reported before. It's important to remember these children were real human beings who were abused — and allegedly murdered — by the people who were supposed to love and nurture them. And then these children, all of whom CPS workers knew about and one of whom had contact with a sheriff's officer days before his death, were let down by a system that was supposed to protect them.

The body of Ariana, 4, was found stuffed in a plastic tub in a storage unit in February. An autopsy showed Ariana suffered broken ribs, a broken right shoulder and a fractured vertebrae before her death. Her 5-year-old brother, Tyler, is presumed dead but his body hasn't been found. Their father, Christopher Payne, is charged with their murders and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. His girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, has been indicted by a grand jury on two counts each of first-degree murder and child abuse.

Brandon Williams, a 5-year-old boy with autism, died in March of blunt-force trauma to his head. He also showed evidence of contusions and abrasions to his head, chest and abdomen and retinal hemorrhages, according to the autopsy report. Large amounts of acetaminophen and antihistamine were found in the boy's system, drugs usually found in cold medicine — something officials said his mother, Diane Marsh, had given him to keep him quiet.

Paramedics also found evidence that Brandon had been tied up by his wrists and ankles and that his feet were severely burned from being placed in scalding water, steps Marsh told authorities she took after Brandon misbehaved.

The horror speaks for itself.

So it's right that CPS makes changes to better protect children.
The CPS tool is supposed to help caseworkers keep track of what has been done and what needs to be done.

"Sometimes staff forgets that they should see every child or every caregiver in the home," CPS state policy manager Linda Johnson told the Star.

If CPS workers are forgetting that they need to do complete investigations of reports of child abuse or neglect, the problems within the department are so enormous that no computer program can touch them.

But, according to CPS spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez, this does happen, especially with new workers. As of December, the average caseworker was handling 15 investigations, 27 cases in which intact families were receiving services, and 23 cases in which children had been placed in out-of-home care. This is an overwhelming workload by any measure.

Alvarez described the new assessment as making a good tool even better, but could not say how effective the previous assessment — the one used in the cases of Ariana, Tyler and Brandon — has been.

One of the scariest parts of CPS work is there's no real way to know if a particular assessment or intervention program is effective until cases are resolved one way or another. In other words, there's no real way to measure success until the decisions on how to handle allegations of child abuse or neglect have already been made — and a mistake means more abuse or neglect of a child.

Because success in CPS cases relies on the behavior of people, including many with drug- or alcohol-abuse problems, there are no guarantees. In 2005, for example, 20 percent of children who were reunited with their families ended up back in foster care within one year.

The new assessment may help CPS workers keep kids safe, and we hope it does. But a new computer program doesn't begin to cover all of the needs the agency faces in its mission to protect Arizona children.

The Legislature must step up and add — and adequately pay — more caseworkers to investigate the roughly 35,000 reports of child abuse and neglect that come into CPS each year. No computer assessment program, no matter how well-designed, can make up for too few caseworkers looking out for Arizona children.

[Admin]

Legislative hearing into CPS and three Tucson children's deaths set for Aug. 28

Sheryl Kornman
Tucson Citizen
6/21/07

State Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said Thursday that a legislative panel's hearing on Child Protective Services and the deaths of three Tucson children will be Aug. 28 in Phoenix.

Two more hearings will be held in September, called by the House Government Committee chair Kirk Adams, a District 19 Republican.

The first hearing was set for mid-June but the legislative session ended later than lawmakers anticipated - early Thursday morning - and legislators wanted a break.

Also, Paton said CPS did not turn over all the documents the panel requested in time for the panel to convene a mid-June hearing.

CPS had been involved with the families of each of the children who died: Brandon Williams, 5; and Ariana Payne, 4, and her brother Tyler, 5.

Williams' mother, Diane Marsh, and the Payne children's father,
Christopher Payne, have been charged with first-degree murder in their deaths.

Paton said legislative staff is reviewing the documents.

"We have to figure out what we don't have," he said Thursday.

The panel is prepared to subpoena further documents from CPS so the panel can effectively evaluate the handling of these children's cases by the state agency, Paton said in an interview Thursday.

CPS records are sealed from the public by state law although legislators may review them to provide oversight of the agency.

"We're trying to find a way to keep the hearings open," he said. "We'll confer with our attorneys and see if it is at all possible," Paton said.

If the hearings must remain closed, Paton said legislators will be prepared to talk publicly about the policies involved in the CPS cases.

Payne said legislators on the House Government Committee also will look at the child welfare agency's handling of Amy Gile, a CPS supervisor who became romantically involved with a man whose child abuse case she had previously worked on.

Gile was involved with the man during a second child abuse investigation of the man by another CPS worker.

Gile told police she never saw the man strike his children, although two of them showed evidence of being beaten with a belt or hit on the face.

Gile is on paid administrative leave from her supervisory post at a CPS office in Tucson. Paton said she recently was the subject of an internal investigation by the Department of Economic Security. He did not know the outcome of the probe. State personnel records are private.

[Admin]

Wider CPS powers sought to protect kids

By Daniel Scarpinato
Arizona Daily Star
12.20.2007

PHOENIX — Police should be allowed to temporarily detain children whose parents are under investigation by Child Protective Services if the children are considered at risk and the family is missing, CPS officials recommended Wednesday.

The suggestion came during a three-hour legislative hearing at the Capitol, with officials saying such a policy could allow CPS to better track the 400 to 700 children who go missing under the agency's watch each year.

And with legislators holding the hearings in response to the death of 5-year-old Brandon Williams — who died in Tucson last March while his mother, Diane Marsh, was being investigated by CPS — officials said CPS would have a better mechanism for finding parents who are ignoring their inquiries.

"We are limited in our ability to be proactive," said Ken Deibert, deputy director of the Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS.

Deibert and other officials said CPS has a hard time locating missing families — as was the case with Brandon — because their authority is much more limited than that of law enforcement officials.

To address that, Deibert suggested linking CPS case records with police records. If CPS were seeking a missing family, the parent would be listed in a police database as a "person of interest."

If authorities came into contact with the family for any reason — for example, a traffic stop for speeding — their name would come up in the database, alerting law enforcement that CPS is looking for the family. Police could then detain the children at the scene and alert CPS officials, who would have time to respond and check on the children.

Legislators, some of whom supported the concept, admitted such a policy will face resistance in the Legislature — where there is debate over whether CPS should make its priority keeping families together or taking children out.

"The bill, at the end of the day, has got to be constitutional," said state Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican who says he supports such a move. "It's not like they're put into a jail cell for a period of time. It's more like they stand there on the side of the road until CPS comes."

But state Sen. Karen Johnson, a Mesa Republican who is critical of some governmental regulations, called the plan "Big Brother."

"I think that just goes beyond the pale," Johnson said. "Sometimes a family is harassed by CPS and they just want to get up and leave."

Paton said it would only be in cases "in which we were seriously concerned" that the lives of the children were in imminent danger. But Johnson said if that were the case, CPS should be able to seek custody through the courts.

Wednesday's hearing was the second probe into CPS policy by the House Committee on Government.

In September, officials testified that CPS made a mistake when it closed its investigation into the mother of Ariana and Tyler Payne, two other Tucson children who are believed to have died while under the agency's watch.

In the Brandon Williams case, lawmakers are alarmed that despite reports in fall 2006 indicating CPS investigators and the Attorney General's Office had concerns about Marsh's ability to care for her son,
Brandon remained in the home because CPS officials say they didn't have enough evidence or authority to seek a removal.

The mother and son later disappeared. With CPS unable to locate the family, or even file a missing-persons report, police didn't find the family until March.

A week later, Brandon was rushed to the hospital, where he died. Marsh and her roommate, Flower Tompson, are charged with murder.

"I find it very disappointing on a personal level … that the government of Arizona failed this child," said state Rep. Kirk Adams, the committee's chairman and a Mesa Republican.

CPS officials maintained that they did everything in their power to locate the mother. And despite records stating that "removal may be necessary" and that Marsh had "erratic and evasive behavior" that threatened Brandon, CPS officials did not feel that they had enough evidence to remove him from the home before he and Marsh disappeared.

[Admin]

2nd grand jury indicts mom, pal in boy's death

A.J. Flick
Tucson Citizen
12/29/2007

A second grand jury has indicted a Tucson mother and her friend on charges of murder and child abuse in the March 22 death of the woman's 5-year-old autistic son.

Diane Lynn Marsh, 40, and Flower Nicole Tompson, 27, were arraigned Friday on one charge of first-degree murder and four charges of child abuse.

The women are accused of mistreating Marsh's son, Brandon Williams, who died at a hospital.

This case and an unrelated case involving two Tucson siblings have been the focal point of an investigation into whether Child Protective Services could have prevented injury and death to the children.

In the other case, Christopher Mathew Payne, 29, and his live-in girlfriend, Reina Irene Gonzales, 23, are charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Payne's children, Ariana, 4, and Tyler, 5. If convicted, Payne and Gonzales could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors have not sought death if Marsh and Tompson are convicted.

Tompson's attorney, Lois Yankowski, had asked that the original charges be dismissed and the case be remanded to a grand jury because there was no proof that Tompson hurt the boy or caused his death.

According to the new indictment, the child abuse charges allege that, while in the women's care, Brandon's hands and feet were tied to a bedframe, his feet were put in hot water or another substance and he was given excessive doses of adult medication and/or suffered head trauma.

Marsh is being held in the Pima County Jail on a $1 million bond; Tompson is in jail on $500,000 bond in this case and a $1,000 bond in an unrelated case.

The women will appear next in court on Feb. 14 before Pima County Superior Court Judge Hector Campoy.

Payne's trial is set to begin in January 2009 before Judge Richard S. Fields.

Gonzales' trial is set to begin May 20 before Judge Paul E. Tang, though it might be pushed into the fall.

[Admin]

It's high time that CPS, police communicate

Laurie Roberts
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 23, 2008

One of the last people to see Brandon Williams alive was a Pima County sheriff's deputy. She had been assigned to check on him and his mother last March at the request of the boy's grandfather.

While there, the deputy saw the bandages on the 5-year-old autistic boy's legs and heard the mother's explanation that he'd fallen into a cactus. She was suspicious enough that she sent a report to Child Protective Services. CPS got it - seven days after Brandon was beaten to death.

What that sheriff's deputy didn't know was that CPS had been looking for the boy the previous fall, worried that he might be in danger due to his mother's increasingly bizarre behavior. A caseworker even asked the sheriff's office for help one day when she spotted mother and son in a car. But the car got away and CPS gave up looking and word never trickled down to the officers on the street.

Brandon died the day after that sheriff's deputy saw him, beaten, police say, by his mother and a friend.

Brandon died because CPS couldn't find him and the police, who could, didn't know caseworkers were looking for him.

Now there's a bill in the Legislature to correct that absurdity, one of seven aimed at shoring up the agency that represents the last thin line of defense for children in this state. "The biggest thing is opening up records," said House Government Chairman Kirk Adams, who with Rep. Jonathan Paton is leading the push for reform. "We believe that more openness and transparency leads to more accountability. When people are being watched they do things in the right way and when there's a veil of secrecy, you see a system that doesn't operate in the right way."

Among their proposals is one that would require CPS to notify police when they can't find a child they consider to be in danger, so that maybe when an officer encounters a boy like Brandon, she'll know not to walk away.

Paton says 400 to 700 children go missing on the agency's watch every year, yet CPS has no system in place to ask police for help. "It was easier for me in Iraq for Coalition forces to communicate with Iraqi police than it is for CPS to communicate with the cops, apparently," he said.

Another bill would open disciplinary files of state employees, so that maybe supervisors will think twice before looking the other way when a caseworker helps an abusive father hang on to his kids, and then starts dating him.

Another would require CPS to obtain and abide by court orders, so that maybe caseworkers don't tell police to leave children with a father denied custody because he was violent. So that maybe kids like Ariana and Tyler Payne live long enough to make it to kindergarten.

But the most important of the bills, by far, is the one that would open CPS records in cases when a child dies of abuse or nearly so. This newspaper had to sue to find out what happened to Brandon and Tyler and Ariana. State law bars CPS from releasing the records, due to privacy.

Why a dead child needs privacy is beyond me. I can see, however, why CPS might want it. The law has for far too long allowed bureaucrats to hide their foul-ups and failures to follow through. Even now, this newspaper is headed back to court because CPS is contesting release of the full record of their involvement with 12-year-old Trenay Duchane, who was beaten, scalded and left to die in November.

Maybe this is one of those cases, unlike with Brandon and Ariana and Tyler, where CPS did all it could. Maybe no one could have saved Trenay. But there's no way to know if we can't see the records and history suggests that there's no way CPS will mend the holes that let children fall to their graves if we don't find a way to lift that well-worn rug they're standing on.

You know, to see what they've swept under the thing.