Opinion ID: 706008
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Duty to Protect Anthony from Violence Outside of the Home

Text: 39 Whether Gregory's duty extended to dangers outside of the household to which he had returned Anthony is a more novel and difficult question. Gregory argues that this aspect of Camp's claim makes the case even more compelling for him than DeShaney. In one sense he is no doubt correct. Government officials can and routinely do make assessments of the adults with whom children under the state's guardianship are placed. Thus, as we recognized in K.H., if a DCFS caseworker places a child in a foster home where he knows the child will likely suffer abuse, he can be held liable. But to place on the caseworker a duty to evaluate and protect a child from dangers outside of the household is a great step beyond that. Given the widespread escalation of violence we have witnessed over the years, many a child may be in danger of injury at the hands of strangers when he is outside of his home, and public officials cannot be deemed constitutionally obligated to shield a child from all such dangers beyond the reasonable control of his parent or foster parent any more than the parents themselves can be. 40 Even so, a parent does not relinquish all responsibility once a child leaves the house. No one would think it reasonable, for example, for a parent to knowingly permit a toddler to wander the streets at will, confronting a gamut of risks from inattentive motorists to Mr. or Ms. Stranger Danger. We expect, instead, that the parent will have the child in hand, protecting him from danger that the child is otherwise unequipped to avoid. As the child matures, the degree to which his parent is expected to supervise his activities lessens, but it does not cease altogether. We still expect parents to see to it that their children attend school, obey statutory curfews, and stay out of trouble. Parents are not the insurers of their children's conduct, but when they fail to exercise a reasonable degree of supervision, they can be held liable for their omissions. See, e.g., Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 316 (1965); 720 ILCS 640/1. 41 Commensurate with the parental obligation to supervise a child's activities outside the home is a duty on the part of the state not to place one of its charges with an adult that it knows will not or cannot exercise that responsibility. The DCFS regulations governing placement with relative caretakers recognize that responsibility, specifying as a pre-condition to approval that the DCFS staff must find that supervision of the related child(ren) can be assured at all times including times when the related caregiver is employed or otherwise engaged in activity outside of the home. Ill.Admin.Code tit. 89 Sec. 335.202(c)(7) (1995). Thus, we believe that when a DCFS caseworker places a child in a home knowing that his caretaker cannot provide reasonable supervision, and the failure to provide that degree of supervision and care results in injury to the child outside of the home, it might be appropriate, depending upon the facts culminating in the injury, for the caseworker to be held liable for a deprivation of liberty. 42 Liability must, nonetheless, be confined to what we believe will be a very narrow range of cases. Without attempting to identify all of the factors that might limit this category, we mention a few that come readily to mind. First, before a DCFS worker or other state official can be held liable for a placement decision, he must, as we indicated in K.H., have failed to exercise bona fide professional judgment. 914 F.2d at 854. Second, a caretaker can be expected only to provide a reasonable degree of supervision to a minor in her care. Extraordinary efforts to protect a child from dangers outside of the home might save the child from injury when reasonable measures would not, but only when the caretaker's efforts fall short of the reasonable could the official responsible for placing the child with that caretaker be held liable for the resulting injury. Moreover, the injury suffered must, we believe, be one reasonably foreseeable to the official. A caseworker who is aware that the caretaker he selects will not supervise the child appropriately may not be able to foresee the particular injury that will result from the lack of supervision. If that is the case, then it would be inappropriate to impose liability on the caseworker. But here, Camp alleges that she had placed Gregory on notice of the particular problems resulting from her inability to supervise and guide Anthony to the degree necessary. Finally, we stress that there must be a sufficient causal link between the failure to provide reasonable supervision and the injury. If Anthony were killed at random in a drive-by shooting while he was out for a walk after curfew, for example, there would be no basis to impose liability on Gregory even if he knew Camp was unable to supervise him reasonably. Likewise, if Anthony was so bent on engaging in dangerous activity that even reasonable efforts to restrain him from doing so would not have prevailed, it would be untenable to hold Gregory liable for his decision to leave him with Camp. 43 Because the complaint does not detail the particular circumstances of Anthony's death, we cannot say one way or another whether this case would fit the criteria we have articulated. In light of our conclusion below that Gregory is entitled to qualified immunity, it does not matter; no factual development of the case is required. It may be, as Gregory has argued so vigorously, that Anthony was killed as the result of his own knowing decision to involve himself in gang activity. The complaint's reference to Anthony's tendency to place himself in dangerous situations certainly is consistent with that scenario; and if that is what occurred, then Gregory's alleged misdeeds likely would not support a finding of liability. On the other hand, if Anthony's death was the proximate result of Camp's inability to supervise him to a reasonable degree, if (as alleged) Gregory knew Camp could not supervise Anthony adequately, and if the circumstances of Anthony's death were reasonably foreseeable to Gregory, then barring a finding of qualified immunity we believe that Gregory might be held liable for his decision to place Anthony with Camp. 44 For all of these reasons, we believe that the allegations of Camp's complaint did state a viable due process claim against Gregory. We wish to emphasize, however, the limited nature of our holding. The details provided by the amended complaint are few; and further factual development in this case might readily place this case outside the quite narrow category of circumstances in which a state official might be liable for a deprivation of due process. If accurate, the suggestion that Anthony was shot by a private citizen, perhaps in yet another tragic instance of gang violence, might well doom the action if qualified immunity did not. But this assertion, on which the state relies so heavily in defending Gregory, is not supported by the record. Our review is restricted to the allegations before us (see Reed v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1122, 1124 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 389, 126 L.Ed.2d 337 (1993)) and these do not reveal just how Anthony died. What is alleged is that the state had, by court order, assumed guardianship over Anthony, that Gregory left Anthony with Camp, and that despite Camp's letter informing him that Anthony was in danger and required a different placement, Gregory falsely represented to the Illinois court that all was fine. Because we can hypothesize facts consistent with these allegations which, if proven, would make out a valid due process claim against Gregory (see Graehling v. Village of Lombard, supra, 58 F.3d at 297), we cannot say that the amended complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.