{"id":15644,"date":"2025-04-03T19:34:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T19:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15644"},"modified":"2025-04-03T19:34:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T19:34:40","slug":"lucas-county-commissioners-form-a-task-force-to-examine-children-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/03\/lucas-county-commissioners-form-a-task-force-to-examine-children-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucas County Commissioners Form a Task Force to Examine Children Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Fletcher Word<\/em>
\nThe Truth Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

The death of Kei\u2019Mani Latigue has sent shock waves throughout the Toledo community in ways that few such tragedies previously have. One result of the homicide has been the formation of a task force by the Lucas County Children Services Board and the Lucas County Board of Commissioners to examine the practices of the LCCS agency.<\/p>\n

Kei\u2019Mani\u2019s teachers had reached out to LCCS to report that they suspected the 13-year-old was being abused at home. The agency received a report on December 8, 2023 and two reports on March 21, 2024, regarding the child, who lived with her grandmother, Dorothy Latigue. The agency conducted investigations but did not find any evidence to require removing her from her home.<\/p>\n

However, while Kei\u2019Mani\u2019s murder, and the fact that LCCS did not take action in her case that might have prevented such an incident, has raised such a furor in this city, during a press conference last week announcing the formation of the task force, commissioners and members of a committee that will weigh options to form such a board made it clear that a task force will not be asked to merely look into the Kei\u2019Mani Latigue issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat case is a symptom of many issues,\u201d said LC Commissioner Pete Gerken. \u201cWe are looking at a system, not an incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the stated goals of a task force, said Gerken, \u201cis to restore public trust in the agency \u2013 our sole purpose is to restore trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The commissioners have put together a group of three to start the work \u2013 LCCS President Suzette Cowell, retired former LCCS Executive Director Robin Reeves and Breda Osborn, director Lucas County Job & Family Services \u2013 \u201ca small group with expert knowledge, people with knowledge of the system,\u201d as Gerken described the threesome.<\/p>\n

Gerken said that the commissioners are quite used to the concept of putting together task forces. In the recent past they have done so to deal with issues involving the Toledo Zoo, Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority and the Toledo Lucas County Health Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be an outside-in looking task force,\u201d added Gerken. \u201cThis is not an attack on the workers, we respect the work force but the agency obviously needs some reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to records, LCCS served 11,808 children and 4,635 families in 2024, managing a monthly average of 834 children in its custody. The organization investigated nearly 4,479 child abuse and neglect referrals, resulting in 1,564 confirmed victims and 383 opened cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cForming this task force is about building trust, it\u2019s not about a specific case,\u201d said Lisa Sobecki, president of the LC Board of Commissioners. \u201cWe will listen to the community, we know we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child in the community is important to me,\u201d said Reeves, the former director of LCCS. \u201cOur children won\u2019t be safe if we don\u2019t have a child protection agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fletcher Word The Truth Editor The death of Kei\u2019Mani Latigue has sent shock waves throughout the Toledo community in ways that few such tragedies previously have. One result of the homicide has been the formation of a task force by the Lucas County Children Services Board and the Lucas County Board of Commissioners to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[287],"class_list":["post-15644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15648,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15644\/revisions\/15648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15644"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}