Nutter suspends 7 DHS workers

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, August, 2008 | by John Sullivan and Patrick Kerkstra Inquirer Staff Writers

Vowing that the starvation death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly would not be in vain, Mayor Nutter yesterday suspended seven more workers at the Department of Human Services and said "no child will again face the same fate." Speaking with obvious emotion, Nutter repeatedly excoriated the city workers involved in Kelly's case, and he apologized to Philadelphians for City Hall's failure to save the girl's life.

Kelly, who used a wheelchair and suffered from cerebral palsy, died in August 2006 at her mother's fetid house on the city's west side, despite 11 warnings to city child-welfare workers that the family was in trouble. "It is appalling, it is outrageous. I am heartbroken," Nutter said. He said her death, first reported by The Inquirer in 2006, was one of the most tragic...