Khyra Isheq Essay

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Khyra Isheq A girl of seven who was allowed to die by a failed Social Services Khyra Isheq was beaten with a cane and was allowed to starve and eventually die a slow and painful death by her mother Angela Gordon and her step father Junaid Abuhamza. This happened to Khyra even though she was being monitored and visited by at least nine Social Workers, Teachers, Education Officers and even the Police. Many of the people who visited Khyra were simply fobbed off by her mother. Her step father who was found to be a Schizophrenic believed that Khyra was possessed by an evil spirit called a “Jinn” and that Khyra could only be saved by having the spirit starved and beaten out of her. Once Khyra had started to lose weight she was removed from mainstream school and was instead taught from home by her mother. After her death in May 2008, court papers said that her death could have been prevented if there had been an adequate initial assessment of her family home by the educational welfare services. In December 2007, six months before Khyra died, her Deputy Headmistress had telephoned Social Services three times in 24 hours with concerns of Khyra’s absence after she was seen stealing food from other pupils’ bags. Anne Gondo a senior Social Worker from Birmingham Social Services had received a referral about Khyra from the Council’s Education Welfare Department. She had arranged a home visit with another Social Worker. The home visit consisted of a 10 minute chat on the front door step. At no point was an inspection of the interior of the house done and only some small talk such as “how are you” was asked to Khyra and her siblings. A further home visit was arranged for the next day by Miss Gondo but this was cancelled by Khyra’s mother. Miss Gondo agreed not to visit and recommended that the case was closed once the educational assessment was complete. Mrs
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