GUILTY CO - Alize Vick, 2, beaten to death, Colorado Springs, 9 Oct 2007

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14328907/detail.html
2-Year-Old Girl Dies From 'Violent Blow To Head'

POSTED: 1:54 pm MDT October 12, 2007
UPDATED: 10:50 pm MDT October 12, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A woman described as a "professional foster parent" was jailed without bond Friday on suspicion of first-degree murder and felony child abuse after the death of a 2-year-old girl in her care.
Aliz Vick died Wednesday, a day after suffering what a neurosurgeon described to police as a "violent blow to the head," authorities said.
Foster mother Jules Lynn Cuneo, 34, initially told El Paso County sheriff's deputies the girl had hit her head when she fell out of a parked vehicle. She also told deputies she was bouncing Aliz on her knee when the child fell and struck her head on a coffee table.
According to an arrest affidavit, Cuneo, the mother of 8-year-old twins, later allegedly confessed "she had gotten angry" with Aliz and had thrown her, causing her head to hit a coffee table.
Cuneo appeared court Friday but did not say anything. Her next court date was set for Oct. 22. A message left for Cuneo through jail officials wasn't immediately returned.

and

:furious:
Sheriff's officials are also investigating a series of other child-abuse complaints against Cuneo dating to 2003.
On May 8, a couple of months after Aliz and her 9-month-old brother, Anthony, were placed in Cuneo's home, a neighbor complained to the county Department of Human Services of sounds she picked up over her baby monitor, Breister said.
The neighbor said she could hear the child screaming for Cuneo to get off of her and Aliz crying that she couldn't breathe, Breister said. Cuneo weighs 300 pounds, according to jail records.
Breister said there was no indication the complaint was investigated.
(much more at link)

Why doesn't anyone care about our children, especially those that are supposed to be in charge? How could they let her have more children if there was even a smidgen of doubt about abuse in that home?

It does seem that no one cares at times. I agree with you, they should not have let her have more children until all doubt was cleared.

Is this for real?! Someone was actually charged with MURDER in Colorado?! :clap: :woohoo: And of a child?! :banghead:

This poor baby. I want to know why were the grandparents not given the children first. They were good enough to have unsupervised visits then they should have been first. In Illinois we have this major problem where they don't look for family members first, they just place them with anyone who will take them. We had a protest awhile back of grandparents and other family members of children in foster care who were not able to have the children and were qualified. So they are left with strangers who most the time are doing it for money. Don't get me wrong my mom does foster care and she doesn't do it for the money but a lot of people do and it is so sad.

now her own kids are in the system....I hope they are treated better then she treated her foster children

wildTrose said:

now her own kids are in the system....I hope they are treated better then she treated her foster children

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Amen!

It is hard to believe that the very system designed to protect these children is the very one sending them to be tortured and abused. I understand that the system is overwhelmed, but how can you not investigate such a report of blatent abuse?

I am terribly vexed.

RiverRat said:

Is this for real?! Someone was actually charged with MURDER in Colorado?! :clap: :woohoo: And of a child?! :banghead:

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I shouldn't laugh, but this made me chuckle. When I actually typed "Colorado" I did have to look again to make sure it wasn't some small town in TX. (not picking on TX though!)

Is the difference in this one because she was receiving money from the gov't and some of the others have just been well-off and/or connected?

This is the upteenth million case where foster care is at issue. I happen to know that many of these foster parents are in it for the money only. Physical and sexual abuse has been rampant in foster care as long as I can remember.

I hate to see cases where well meaning people start yelling, "take the kids" like in the McCann case. This little girl is one of many probably taken from a horrific life just to die miserably at the hands of another. I really wish we could revamp this system.

i think foster parents should have to be educated, with a degree in child care, and then it would be ok to pay them after they have been thru a vigorous amount of testing and background checks etc....
so then they could do it as a profession, like teaching or day care owners.

wildTrose said:

i think foster parents should have to be educated, with a degree in child care, and then it would be ok to pay them after they have been thru a vigorous amount of testing and background checks etc....
so then they could do it as a profession, like teaching or day care owners.

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Quite truthfully I think orphanges would be better than foster care. There would be many people working, making sure noone is getting abused. They wouldn't be shuttled from one place to another.

thats true the money they shell out to these people who only want the money but not the kids they could build some very nice orphanges with trained staff and I bet the amount of murders and abuse would be cut at least in half! they would certainly all be fed, have a nice bed to sleep in, and people who actually care would be the influence in their lives!
there are so many good under paid teachers I think would be perfect for something like that!

imthemom said:

Quite truthfully I think orphanges would be better than foster care. There would be many people working, making sure noone is getting abused. They wouldn't be shuttled from one place to another.

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Listen to yourselves.

There are thousands of safe, loving foster families in this country, and very few are "in it for the money". We only read about the bad ones. The majority of foster parents do an incredibly hard (and increasingly dangerous) job and rarely get even a thank you.

Orphanages!!!! Are you kidding???? :silenced:

Yes, the kids would have food, a roof over their heads and decent clothes. But they wouldn't get the one thing foster families were designed for- a loving family to bond with and temporarily take the place of their own parents. Sometimes foster homes are the only place these children receive love and attention because their own birth families are so screwed up through drugs, crime and past abuse they can't take care of themselves, let alone the kids. If the children are "lucky", they might be adopted out, but often they're sent back to living situations that have only marginally improved, if at all.

You have no idea what it's like to be a foster mother and send a precious, innocent baby, whom you've bonded with over the past year and love like your own, back to a drug-addict birthmother who is faking her way through reunification.

And don't think there wouldn't be abuse in an orphanage!! The child welfare system in the early part of the 20th century proved how easy it is to abuse institutionalized children. Babies tied into cribs, toddlers left alone in locked rooms for hours because of understaffing. The older and stronger kids preying on the small, helpless ones. Didn't any of you see Annie? Or look at the pictures of eastern Europe's orphanages when the USSR fell? It would be a jail sentence for most of these children.

You start building orphanages and within a generation you would see such an increase of rampant sociopathic and psychopathic crime, you can't even imagine. :twocents:

I have experienced both kinds when I had a break down and my children were placed .
My son's foster's were great and I still keep in contact I just seen them today in fact.
My daughter's weren't so lucky and while they were not hit they did witness physical abuse of the parents adopted children and all the children recieved their share of verbal and mental(my daughters fosters were on the board for foster as well,and it concerned me that they only dealt with girls and the stories my daughters told me and I do believe my children and have no reason not to I know about everything they do and if I want to know I ask and they tell me honestly)

I totally agree with you, Cali. I believe that there would be more murder/death/abuse in orphanages. Sure, most people who work at the orphanage will initially love children and be looking out for their best interest, but over time, that would change, I'm sure. They would be dealing with a lot of high needs children from various backgrounds and overtime, their patience would wear thin. Some would be in it 'for the money' also. A place of employment, not just because they love children. If you don't have a passion for what you do, you won't do well. Children deserve better than to be grouped together in orphanaged. I've met a few foster parents, and they are amazing people and I hope to be able to do the same one day. It is rare that abuse/murder happen in foster homes. We just hear the bad on the news, not the good.

Thank you Cali!! As a former foster parent myself, you people obviously have no idea what you're talking about. You're spurting myths and mistruths. Unlike the perception that many people have, Foster Parents are not paid much money to take other peoples children into thier own and care for them. 1 out of 9 kids that I cared for had more than the shirt on thier back when coming into care. That means, that within 24 hours, I am at the store buying socks, underware or diapers, shirts, undershirts, pants shoes, coats.... all on my dime! Not to mention all the driving to and from visitations, especially with the price of gas these days. Young Babies often have visits 3-4 times a week. Let me tell you that after feeding, clothing and diapering them we rarely broke even at the end of the month with the money they gave us.

You only hear of the bad foster homes. For every bad foster home, there are thousands of good ones.

Before you go suggesting we have Orphanges, please do society a favor and do a little research on ATTATCHMENT DISORDER. Read about how disconnected and screwed up many of the children Adopted Internationally from Orphanages are. Yeah......NOT a good idea.

Indiana foster parents a couple of years ago made $24.00 per child a day it's not a lot of money. Some biological parent's don't provide anything some provide little so provide at request like I did.(some things I bought my girls they never got back after it was taken from them for whatever reason or loaned )


"tnajk@cox.net Before you go suggesting we have Orphanges, please do society a favor and do a little research on ATTATCHMENT DISORDER"
I know kids who were tossed back and forth between parents who have this and it's hard to watch them be self destructive.

Sounds like you were a well read and good foster parent bravo

my parents kept foster kids when I was a child....so yes I know all about bonding with someone only to come home from school one day and find they are gone never to be seen or heard from again!
I know there are lots of good foster homes with people who truly care...but there are far more that are bad...how do you think they have gotten such a bad rap?
There are different foster care agencies...the state pays very little...the private one pay a considerable amount more. Ive checked into it myself I would love to be able to help the kids out...I have a very nice paying job so its not for the money
the orphanages you speak of with babies tied to cribs etc are in foreign countrys thats a far cry from the usa
the elderly have assisted living homes...they are very nice home like housing for people who cannot be on their own...
why not have not a huge hospital type orphange but smaller group homes.
one home for the kids to live in and not get moved from home to home every couple months...do you not think moving a kid from home to home can cause attatchment disorder?
if you are a foster parent you know you have no control over how long the child is with you...you put alot of time, effort, love, and tears into a child, finally making progress with them and you get a call saying have so and so ready we are moving them at 3 this afternoon, you then have to tell that child goodbye
I think there can be a mid way point for kids in need that is between a foster parents home and a stable family group home for the child....
with more then one person on staff, cameras etc there would be less chance of a child abused...of course it could happen it happens everywhere....but there has to be something much better for these kids

wildTrose said:

my parents kept foster kids when I was a child....so yes I know all about bonding with someone only to come home from school one day and find they are gone never to be seen or heard from again!
I know there are lots of good foster homes with people who truly care...but there are far more that are bad...how do you think they have gotten such a bad rap?
There are different foster care agencies...the state pays very little...the private one pay a considerable amount more. Ive checked into it myself I would love to be able to help the kids out...I have a very nice paying job so its not for the money
the orphanages you speak of with babies tied to cribs etc are in foreign countrys thats a far cry from the usa
the elderly have assisted living homes...they are very nice home like housing for people who cannot be on their own...
why not have not a huge hospital type orphange but smaller group homes.
one home for the kids to live in and not get moved from home to home every couple months...do you not think moving a kid from home to home can cause attatchment disorder?
if you are a foster parent you know you have no control over how long the child is with you...you put alot of time, effort, love, and tears into a child, finally making progress with them and you get a call saying have so and so ready we are moving them at 3 this afternoon, you then have to tell that child goodbye
I think there can be a mid way point for kids in need that is between a foster parents home and a stable family group home for the child....
with more then one person on staff, cameras etc there would be less chance of a child abused...of course it could happen it happens everywhere....but there has to be something much better for these kids

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You are missing the entire point. Any living situation that is not family-based is going to attribute to an attachment disorder. Orphanages, no matter how private or well-intentioned, are a set-up for abusive treatment.

Yes, the tied babies may have been in foreign countries back in the 80s, but the USA used to have an orphanage system and abolished it due to abuse and bad management. It wouldn't take much to bring back the mistreatment of these little souls who would be lost in an even bigger bureacracy.

I think you have it backwards. There are far MORE good foster homes than bad, but we only hear about the bad because when a foster parent screws up, it's all over the news. I'm not defending the ones who go wrong, but it's as if they're supposed to be super-human. Like the old saying goes, "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch".

I don't know about the private agencies because I worked with our county Dept. of Human Services. I know all about dealing with clueless birth parents, sick and addicted babies, spoiled holidays, a bureacratic system that cares more about rules than lives and lousy reimbursement that barely pays the necessities. No, I didn't have a lot of say about the children in my care, and at least twice I got into a lot of trouble over sticking my neck out for them and arguing with the social workers.

Here in San Diego, we have a "children's home". It's supposed to be short-term, a pick-up spot for area children-in-need to be assessed and sent into foster homes. But unless you're a baby or toddler, most likely you will spend a great deal of time there. Face it, most foster families don't want older children because they're so damaged when they come into care and are an added risk to your own children. I know very few foster parents who are willing to take kids over the age of five, so the majority stay at the center or in a group home the entire time they're in foster care.

And it's not uncommon for them to leave worse off than when they arrived. Why? Because human beings were designed to need families- parents, siblings, etc. Not to be herded into a group environment where they have no direct bond with an adult who loves them.

As for the elderly, they are adults. They don't need parents to watch out for them any longer. How can you possibly equate the elderly with small children and babies who need constant parental care and attention?

wildTrose said:

my parents kept foster kids when I was a child....so yes I know all about bonding with someone only to come home from school one day and find they are gone never to be seen or heard from again!
I know there are lots of good foster homes with people who truly care...but there are far more that are bad...how do you think they have gotten such a bad rap?
There are different foster care agencies...the state pays very little...the private one pay a considerable amount more. Ive checked into it myself I would love to be able to help the kids out...I have a very nice paying job so its not for the money
the orphanages you speak of with babies tied to cribs etc are in foreign countrys thats a far cry from the usa
the elderly have assisted living homes...they are very nice home like housing for people who cannot be on their own...
why not have not a huge hospital type orphange but smaller group homes.
one home for the kids to live in and not get moved from home to home every couple months...do you not think moving a kid from home to home can cause attatchment disorder?
if you are a foster parent you know you have no control over how long the child is with you...you put alot of time, effort, love, and tears into a child, finally making progress with them and you get a call saying have so and so ready we are moving them at 3 this afternoon, you then have to tell that child goodbye
I think there can be a mid way point for kids in need that is between a foster parents home and a stable family group home for the child....
with more then one person on staff, cameras etc there would be less chance of a child abused...of course it could happen it happens everywhere....but there has to be something much better for these kids

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I agree, small facilities would be best. We have the technology cameras and such and this isn't the early 1900s anymore. We had all mental hospitals shut down too because of abuse but there are new ones that run much more humanly. My mother is a foster parent and her foster daughter who is 12 that she just adopted has been in the system since she was 9 months. She has been in 6 different homes and all were bad except my mom. Those are not good odds. The one she came to from us when she was four her foster parents locked them in a room all day and threw food in for them. Her little brother who was 2 got out and almost drowned in their pool. She saved him. She then came to us. She had size 2 clothes on and shoes too small even though these people are given $200 clothes vouchers, they were buying their grandchildren clothes with this money. We had her until she was 7 and the plan was to go back to mom but when that didn't work they decided her and her oldest sister would go live with a family who had them when they were babies because they had agreed to adopt them. Well that didn't work because they were fighting with their other two adopted children and they found out they were being spanked with wooden paddles and her older sister has mild autism and is a handful. Then they were moved to a a home that was suppose to adopt them. My mom got a call about a year later that Tori was in the mental hospital and wanted to kill herself. She was 8 years oldd at this time. What kind of 8 year old wants to kill thereself. My mom went right to see her and wanted to get her back but foster care insisted this was a good home. She was so skinny. She told my mom they only fed the peanut butter and jelly. She said the dad was nice but the mom was always mean to her. My mom seen the verbal abuse first hand. It finally came out that the mother was hitting them and threatening them all the time not to tell. She would smack them in the face if they didn't go to sleep. She always made Tori wear her glasses even though she said they gave her headaches. Finally after about 4 months of fighting my mom got her back and adopted her. She still has to go to counseling and has behavior issues but at least she is happy and not being abused. My point here, how many homes did she have to go through to find a good one. I think some other people are missing the point.

Almost forgot, she didn't even need glasses. My mom took her for an eye exam and they said it was ridiculous she was wearing them. It was a control thing with this foster mom.

imthemom, I am sorry for what happened to your foster sister.

Six of my seven children were former foster children before we adopted them. My oldest daughter was sent to a temporary foster home for six weeks when she was a baby. Because she is part Cherokee, she was placed in a home that took Native American children. By the time she was placed in a long-term home, she'd lost two pounds, was smelly and dirty, and had been spanked on several occasions.

This is NOT the norm in foster care, it is the exception.

I stand by my statement that most foster parents are good-hearted people who truly want to help children and are not motivated by greed.

Orphanages are not the answer. You think there's abuse in the foster care system? Try placing children in group homes. Cameras can't catch everything, and it would be considered an invasion of privacy.

Children need loving families, not institutions.