Selena Hill
--San Francisco, California
In August of 1995, San Francisco child protection officials took custody of Selena Hill a few days after her birth because of concerns that her parents, Stacey and Claudia Hill, had physically abused each other and didn't seem capable of caring for their newborn.
In September, seven-week-old Selena was rushed to Children's Hospital in Oakland with a fractured skull and other injuries that almost killed her. Her skull had been fractured in several places and she repeatedly stopped breathing.
In their efforts to protect her from her actual parents, child welfare workers placed Selena into a foster home with a history of domestic violence. In the nine months before the infant was injured, Berkeley police had visited the residence three times after receiving reports about violent disturbances in the foster home.
Police charged the foster mother's estranged husband with felony child abuse, and Catholic Charities of San Francisco - which recruited the foster mother - revoked her license.
According to their attorney, the Hill's poverty played a role in the decision to remove Selena. "This family is poor, and looks poor," he said.
Selena's beating came on the heels of a three-year effort to "improve" the City's troubled foster-care system, which state officials had long considered one of California's most troubled. In November 1992, the state was threatening to take control of the system. Inspectors found that social workers were not visiting enough with the children, foster parents or natural parents. No system existed to ensure that children had regular medical and dental care, and officials were concerned that at least one child died from abuse by a foster parent.
Ironically, Selena's beating occurred a month after Mike Lamb, chief of the Children's Services Operations Bureau of the state Department of Social Services, reviewed 150 of San Francisco's foster-care cases and found "fantastic improvement."
Further reading:
Susan Ferris, Battered baby case rocks S.F. foster care, San Francisco Examiner, November 5, 1995
Susan Ferris, Foster homes violent history, San Francisco Examiner, November 20, 1995
Last updated May 14, 2000