PHOENIX — Before 10-year-old Rebekah Baptiste died in late July, educators at her school filed multiple reports of abuse to the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS).
After being found on July 27 severely beaten and unconscious in Holbrook, Baptiste died three days later at Phoenix Children’s.
Official reports following her death identified multiple signs of abuse, including scratches, bruising, a black eye, missing toenails and burns — all of which was consistent with injuries reported by staff at Empower College Prep, according to Natalina Mariscal, the school’s director of student social services.
“When we call the hotline … it seems like it’s falling on deaf ears,” Mariscal told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos last week. “When we’re calling in these pretty extreme allegations that are evident, it is just taken as information, and a report is not generated.”
Empower College Prep leaders critique DCS after death of Rebekah Baptiste
Mariscal and the school’s executive director, Brian Holman, said school officials had filed a dozen abuse reports to DCS on behalf of Rebekah and her brothers.
“We are upset, frustrated, devastated, sorrowful at Rebecca’s death,” Holman said. “We go to DCS to keep kids safe. We report things to keep kids safe. … Every agency needs to look at what we can do differently to keep this from ever happening again.”
Rebekah’s father, Richard Baptiste, and his girlfriend, Anicia Wood, are facing first-degree murder, child abuse and kidnapping charges in connection with her death.
“In this situation, there’s no evidence that the numerous reports are synthesized so that a person can see a pattern, a trend, and make an informed decision of how risky this situation is for the child,” Holman said.
However, DCS had disputed the number of calls it received from the school, saying there were five, with only one meeting statutory report criteria.
Educators at school Rebekah Baptiste attended describe learning about her death
Both Mariscal and Holman expressed frustration over the DCS response, especially after everything school officials did to help Rebekah. For instance, months in the past, the school resource officer and vice principal of Empower College Prep went to her home to check on her.
“She’d been gone from school I think for about four days,” Holman said. “There were acute concerns for Rebekah’s safety.”
Mariscal said she heard of Rebekah’s death after leading mandated reporting training. She returned to her office, saw an email and felt overwhelming horror.
“We had staff members say, ‘I don’t know that she’ll come back this summer,’ indicating ‘I don’t know that she’ll come back alive or start the new school year,’” Mariscal said.
Holman said he learned about Rebekah’s death while in the room with the principal and her third- and fourth-grade teachers.
“I’ve never seen anguish like her fourth-grade teacher just break down,” Holman said. “We want justice.”
How will Rebekah Baptiste case change how Phoenix school reports child abuse?
Holman said school officials are going to change the way they report suspected child abuse.
“We intend to call DCS and the police department every time,” Holman said. “We intend to take photography of the injury so that if they don’t go until it looks like a month after the report and say, ‘There’s no mark here. Case closed.’ We can say, ‘Here’s the picture of the the mark.’”
He hopes changes like this will help keep children safe.
“We want her life to be honored. She was going to make a tremendous impact on people’s lives,” Holman said. “We don’t want the fact that she is dead to prevent that impact she was going to have from being made. We want many kids’ lives to be saved amidst her death.”
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