USA: $4.4M compensation awarded to 5 Black children treated as "slaves" by their adoptive parents

USA: 5 Black children treated as slaves by their white adoptive parents receive $4.4 million in compensation

Five black children forced to work as slaves by their wealthy white adoptive parents have been awarded a $4.4 million settlement by the state of West Virginia in the United States for failing to rescue them.

Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz were collectively sentenced to 375 years in prison for keeping the children, siblings aged 6 to 16 at the time, in horrific living conditions on their property in Sissonville, where they made them work as farm laborers because of their race.

Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers last week approved a $4.4 million settlement for abused children, the maximum amount the state can award, West Virginia Watch reported.

This agreement "means that these children will have the opportunity to be children," said lawyer Dante diTrapano, who represented the children.

"They were robbed of their innocence and youth by the monsters who were their former parents."

The substantial compensation will be shared among the five children, some of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse.

The children filed a lawsuit against the West Virginia Department of Human Services earlier this year, accusing Child Protective Services (CPS) of failing to protect them.

The agency was unable to provide documentation proving that the CPS had contact with the children, although there were notes in its system about their living conditions resembling slavery, according to West Virginia Watch.

"There were a lot of calls from neighbors, and I think there was only one on-site visit. There should have been many more," said diTrapano.

During the Whitefeather and Lantz trial, it was revealed that the CPS had left a card at the family's front door. DiTrapano stated that the CPS then conducted an interview with the children, but within earshot of their adoptive parents.

At least one employee of the Department of Human Services involved has been fired, according to state officials.

DiTrapano claims that West Virginia's entire child welfare system "is broken"

“There are all sorts of things that need to change,” he told West Virginia Watch. “The quality of the staff they send to look after the well-being of these children, some of the way they conduct these interviews and document things—they need to take these calls seriously.”

The adopted children were discovered living in deplorable conditions after a neighbor reported that two teenagers were being kept in a shed.

Police found the two older children, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, locked inside the barn, which had a small portable toilet from a camper van but no light or running water. One of the teenagers told police they had been locked in the barn for 12 hours after their last meal.

The two, dressed in dirty clothes and smelling very bad, said the couple forced them to sleep on the concrete floor without any mattresses.

Lars Dalseide, spokesman for Governor Patrick Morrisey, said the governor had taken steps to strengthen the DPS since taking office.

After their adoptive parents were arrested, the children were placed in new families. Two of their new adoptive mothers appeared in court and spoke about the children's new life, which included a trip to the beach.

DiTrapano said he plans to sue the Washington State Department of Human Services because the agency approved Whitefeather and Lantz's move with the children from Washington, where there had been previous reports of child abuse, to West Virginia.