Honoring the Life of Ma’Khia Bryant: An Ombudsperson for Foster Youth in Ohio
Sarah Tiano, The Imprint, 4/20/2022.
In the year since an Ohio police officer killed Ma’Khia Bryant, a teenager in foster care, the state has created a Youth Ombudsman Office which will launch May 31.
The cries for help from Ma’Khia Bryant’s Ohio foster home began weeks before the 16-year-old was killed by police gunfire one year ago today.
Ma’Khia and her younger sister had called 911, begged to be moved, and described fights getting out of control, according to press reports and those close to the girls’ family.
News of Ma’Khia’s death on April 20, 2021 spread just moments before a Minnesota jury convicted officer Derek Chauvin for for murdering George Floyd — a killing that renewed rage and grief in a nation focused on police brutality and systemic racism like no other time in recent history. Video footage of the Columbus incident followed shortly thereafter, haunting images of a young Black girl shot by a white police officer.
In child welfare circles, the shooting revealed a fundamental flaw in our nation’s governance: How a system designed to protect abused and neglected children failed Ma’Khia. One glaring policy gap that, if better addressed, could well have saved her life is the lack of a central office where foster children can easily turn to for help.
“Everything about that situation was broken in so many ways,” said Lisa Dickson, spokesperson for the youth-led Alumni of Care Together Improving Outcomes Now (ACTION Ohio). “And it’s not just Ma’Khia that the system is failing.”
In the year since, one of those shortcomings has been addressed. Legislation creating the Youth and Family Ombudsman Office passed in February. The new resource, located within the state’s Department of Job and Family Services, will be available to foster children starting May 31.
In a statement sent to The Imprint acknowledging the one-year mark, Franklin County Children’s Services called Ma’Khia’s death “a personal and heartbreaking loss to our workers and Agency.”
“We continue to share our condolences with Ma’Khia’s family, friends, and the community at large,” the statement said.
Ma’Khia was killed outside her foster home last year after Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon shot her four times, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Law enforcement had been called to the home in response to an argument involving Ma’Khia, her 15-year-old sister, and two young women who had previously been fostered in the home, the state’s investigative records show. Body cam footage shows that when law enforcement arrived, Ma’Khia appeared to be swinging a knife.
In March, a grand jury declined to indict Reardon, with special prosecutors noting that under Ohio law, “the use of deadly force by a police officer is justified when there exists an immediate or imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another.”
The Columbus Department of Public Safety has announced it will conduct an internal review to determine whether Reardon’s actions followed department policy. A statement released by Ma’Khia’s family last month pledged to be “resolute” in fighting for justice on her behalf, according to the Associated Press.
“There should have been other non-deadly options available to deal with this situation,” they stated, calling for “full-scale changes” to Ohio’s foster care system to prevent similar tragedies.
When the circumstances surrounding Ma’Khia’s death were revealed, Ohio advocates for youth pointed to her case as a prime example of why an ombudsperson was so desperately needed. Ma’Khia and her sister spent two years cycling through foster and group homes, only to find themselves feeling threatened and unsafe yet again. Their outreach for help and pleas to be moved had apparently gone unnoticed.
Testifying at a state Senate committee hearing last year, former foster youth Deanna Jones said her experience in the child welfare system was not unlike Ma’Khia’s. Jones said she remembers feeling unsafe too, but was fortunate to have an understanding caseworker.
“I saw how my life could have ended if I had not had an advocate,” Jones said, adding: “Honestly, I feel Ma’Khia was in survival mode.”
Dickson described abuse and concerns reported by foster youth as commonly disregarded by authorities and child maltreatment hotline workers. The role of a foster youth ombudsperson is to answer those concerns, and, when necessary, to advocate on their behalf.
“She could have called this office, and they could have said there’s something going on in this foster home where she feels unsafe, and we want to put her in respite pending an investigation,” Dickson said. “And she might not have lost her life.”
Foster youth and their supporters have been pushing for the state to create a Youth Ombudsman Office since 2018, a campaign launched by the Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board (OHIO YAB).
After repeated testimonials by current and former foster youth, the Legislature approved the creation of a Youth Ombudsman Office, which will focus as a direct direct resource for foster children, investigating and attempting to resolve their complaints.
Please note that the Youth Ombudsman Office will operate separately from the Family Ombudsman Office, which will focus on the concerns of adults involved with the child welfare system.
House Bill 4 grants the Office access to child welfare records and data from public and private foster care agencies. The Youth Ombudsman Office will produce annual reports which will be evaluated by the youth themselves. The OHIO YAB’s evaluation and recommendations will be shared directly with the Governor.
Seventeen other states have passed laws creating ombuds offices dedicated to serving foster children, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Fourteen of those offices are autonomous and independent of the department they oversee, including those in Colorado, Michigan and Washington state. In California, Utah and Texas, the offices are autonomous but, like Ohio, operate within the department that also manages the child welfare agency. Independent offices generally have more power, including the ability to issue subpoenas and in some cases intervene directly in court cases.
