5 black children treated like slaves by adopted white parents awarded $4.4M payout from state

Five black children who were forced to work as slaves by their wealthy, white adoptive parents have won a $4.4 million settlement from the state of West Virginia for failing to rescue them.Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz were sentenced collectively to 375 years in prison for keeping the children, who were siblings between the ages of 6 and 16 at the time, in horrific living conditions on their property in Sissonville, where they made them work as farmhands because of their race.Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers last week approved a $4.4 million settlement for the abused children — the maximum amount the state can give out, West Virginia Watch reported.The settlement “means that these kids will have an opportunity to be children,” said attorney Dante diTrapano, who represented the children.“They were robbed of their innocence and robbed of their youth by the monsters that were their former parents.” The hefty payout will be split between the five children, some of whom suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse.The children filed a lawsuit against West Virginia’s Department of Human Services earlier this year accusing CPS of failing to protect them.The agency was not able to provide documentation showing CPS made contact with the children despite having notation in its system about the slave-like conditions of the children, according to West Virginia Watch.“There were a ton of calls that came in from neighbors, and I think only one visit out there.

There should have been many more,” diTrapano said.During Whitefeather and Lantz’s trial, it was revealed that CPS left a card at the family’s front door.DiTrapano said CPS later conducted an interview with the children, but they were within earshot of their adopted parents.At least one Department of Human Services employee who was involved was fired, according to state officials.DiTrapano claims that West Virginia’s entire child welfare system “is brok...