Wexler is a bit of an extremist; thinks all children should stay home

Expert says Marcus Fiesel shouldn't have left natural mother.
Dayton Daily News, Nov. 15, 2006, Local pA8.

HAMILTON — If Marcus Fiesel was left with his natural mother and she was given the services she needed, the 3-yearold Middletown boy might still be alive, a national advocate for child welfare reform said Tuesday.

Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, visited Hamilton to present his 23 recommendations to reform Butler County Children Services.

"(Natural mother Donna Trevino) has real problems, but there is not a shred of evidence that she didn't love Marcus," Wexler said. "He did not need to be taken out of Donna Trevino's home."

Authorities in Hamilton and Clermont County said Marcus died in August, locked in a closet for nearly two days by foster parents Liz and David Carroll Jr.

The Rev. Johnny Wade Sloan, children services board chairman, said Wexler didn't see Marcus' case file. "Marcus Fiesel should have been removed, in my opinion, and he should have been placed in a foster home," Sloan said.

Wexler said better screening and stricter licensing standards won't necessarily solve the problem. "You don't have too few foster parents, you have too many foster children," he said.

Wexler's recommendations to the county and Ohio included creating a child removal review team and ending payments to private foster care agencies for each day a child is in their care as an incentive to keep children in limbo.

Visit www.nccpr.org/reports/secondchance.pdf to read Wexler's 76-page report.