Expert: Repeated head and neck injuries in Chesterfield boys' records should have prompted CPS follow-up

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — School employees at Evergreen Elementary in Chesterfield County repeatedly reported injuries and concerns involving two brothers to Child Protective Services over several years.

Now, Christa Moore, a former CPS worker who reviewed those records for CBS 6, says the reports show a pattern that should have prompted follow-up.

Moore, an associate professor of sociology at UVA Wise who previously worked for CPS in Kentucky, reviewed records obtained by CBS 6 documenting five reports school employees made to CPS involving the brothers.

“If everything was documented according to policy and procedure, they would have a very clear progressive record of these injuries, this pattern of injuries,” Moore said.

Her analysis adds a new layer to a case CBS 6 has been investigating for months: What should have happened as reports involving these children accumulated over several years?

A report involving choking and injuries to the head

One report from October 2019 states the older child, then 6 years old, reported being repeatedly hit in the face with a pencil for not doing his homework correctly.

School employees documented bruising on his nose and three bumps on his head.

The child also reported being pushed against a wall and grabbed around the neck until his feet were lifted off the floor and he could not breathe.

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During the later criminal case involving the boys’ abuse, Judge David Johnson asked school counselor Allison Anderson whether she knew of any follow-up to that report.

“Not that we know of,” Anderson responded. CBS 6 asked Moore what would typically happen after CPS received a referral containing allegations like those.

“In a situation like we just discussed with this referral, the response by Child Protective Services typically would be between 24 and 72 hours,” Moore said. Moore said CPS would assess the child and determine whether medical attention was needed and whether police should be involved.

‘That is a pattern of injuries’

Another school report documented a swollen left eye, a distinct red circle and bruising, along with a bruise on the same child’s right temple.

The child said he hit his eye in the bathtub.

But Moore told CBS 6 that explanation should still be considered alongside the child's history of reported injuries.

“Anything involving a subsequent head injury, when there is a pattern of head and neck injuries or choking injuries, should have a follow-up,” Moore said. She said CPS should have access to previous reports when assessing a new referral involving the same child.

“They have a record of that history, that pattern of assaults, abuse to the head, to the neck, the allegations of choking, the reports of being struck in the face or other parts of the head, that is a pattern of injuries,” Moore said. “So there should be in that case a follow-up response by Child Protective Services.”

Report says ‘police did not show up’

By November 2021, another report documented an injury to the older child’s face, including a dark bruise under his left eye.

The record stated that a police officer was expected to interview the child before 1 p.m. and that additional information would determine what happened next.

A later notation states:

“Police did not show up.” The record also indicated CPS could not investigate because the child did not identify a parent or caretaker as the person who caused the injury.

Moore said that concerned her, particularly in light of the previous reports.

“Again we have a pattern of abusive head trauma, a pattern of injury to the face, neck, other parts of the head,” Moore said. CBS 6 asked Moore whether the fact that the child did not identify a parent or caretaker should prevent further action.

“Children not blaming their parents or someone else in the family or in the home is actually really common,” Moore said. She said what can be more important are the child’s age and the location and type of injury, particularly when considered alongside previous reports.

“Those facts alone should evoke a Child Protective Services response,” Moore said.

What happened after the reports remains unclear

There is an important limitation to what the records establish.

The school records document what was reported to CPS. They do not show what, if anything, happened inside CPS after each report was received.

When CBS 6 asked Chesterfield County whether CPS followed up on the five reports, a county spokesperson said the county could not confirm it because there were no records of those reports in the state’s official child-welfare database.

Moore said that leaves important questions unanswered.

“I would like to know if there was one or more formal investigations following any of these reports, and if so, what were those findings? Were any of these allegations substantiated?”

Abuse ultimately documented inside the home

The boys’ maternal grandmother, Angela Fountain, has been asking what happened since learning school employees had repeatedly reported concerns involving the boys.

“Somebody dropped the ball on my boys and it continued for seven years, eight years. What happened?” Fountain previously told CBS 6. Police ultimately discovered video inside the boys’ home in late 2024 documenting abuse, leading to the arrest and later conviction of their father and his fiancée.

Police ultimately discovered video inside the boys’ home in late 2024 documenting abuse.

Watch: Former Henrico officer sobs in court watching videos of him and his fiancée abusing his kids

Their father and his fiancée were later convicted in connection with that abuse.

But records show staff at Evergreen Elementary School had been reporting concerns involving the boys to CPS years earlier.

State review underway

After CBS 6’s previous reporting, Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, asked Virginia’s Office of the Children’s Ombudsman to investigate how the reports involving the brothers were handled.

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“These boys were abused over several years, and the adults that were supposed to stop it didn’t,” Sturtevant previously told CBS 6. “And so many years of abuse, it looks like, fell through the cracks, and these boys suffered as a result of that.”

The Office of the Children’s Ombudsman agreed to initiate an investigation.

Moore: Problems can go beyond individual CPS workers

While questions remain about how these particular referrals were handled, Moore cautioned against simply blaming individual CPS workers.

She pointed to high turnover as a significant problem affecting child-welfare agencies.

“One of the most pressing concerns within child welfare systems right now, and especially within Child Protective Services, is the extent of increasingly high turnover, not just in Virginia but nationwide,” Moore said. Moore also pointed to secondary and vicarious trauma among employees repeatedly exposed to difficult cases.

“The child welfare system is made up of caring people who are trying their best with so many gaps in resources, and that it fractures the capacity to respond in all of the ways we feel like we should, and in all of the ways we wish that we could,” she said. For Fountain, the central question remains unanswered:

“Somebody dropped the ball on my boys,” she said. “What happened?”

This is a developing story, so check back with WTVR.com for updates. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have info, photos or videos to share.