Two boys were failed by the system, by agencies, by adults, by family, writes Rosie DiManno.
Content warning: This article contains descriptions of violence that may be upsetting to some readers.
It’s been more than three years since David Roman was slain at Expanding Horizons Family Services Inc. in Barrie. His assailant pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April. Last week, he was sentenced to the maximum youth term: 10 years, comprised of six years in custody, followed by four years of conditional supervision in the community.
Fuerst noted that the youth suffers from “significant psychiatric conditions”; he’s been variously diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Obsessive Compulsion Disorder and a learning disability; has a history of substance use that includes fentanyl, heroin and alcohol; struggles with abandonment issues and low self-esteem, but has made some gains with better staff support and by taking his prescribed medications.
His record included assault and uttering threats. Just one day before his furious attack on David, he had been arrested for kicking in the bedroom door of the home’s sole adult caregiver, 24-year-old Jordan Calver, and charged with mischief, yet returned to the home by police, despite the foster father’s misgivings. What nobody realized at the time was that the youth had stolen knives that Calver kept in his room.
Calver, according to the agreed statement of facts, only opened the door again when he heard that the boy was gone. The knife blade was still in David’s neck, it’s broken handle on the floor. He was gasping for breath. Rushed to emergency, he was pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m.Why was David in that home? He had no record, no previous involvement with police. He’d been living in Richmond Hill with his mother, who’d become concerned the boy was using recreational drugs and cutting classes.
Now 18, the teen was raised in a home of verbal and physical abuse by parents who separated in 2015. He stopped attending school in Grade 3 because of behaviour problems. For a time, he remained with his mother, but went into CAS care in Hamilton when she could no longer manage him. Briefly, he lived with his father and his father’s partner until they, too, decided he was beyond their ability to cope.
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