Five black siblings abused by white adoptive parents win $4.4m settlement from West Virginia

Five Black children who were kept in horrific conditions and forced to work as farmhands by their white adoptive parents have won a $4.4 million settlement from the state of West Virginia for failing to rescue them, the New York Post reports.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers approved the settlement last week. It is the maximum the state can pay, West Virginia Watch reported. The sum will be split among the siblings, some of whom suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz were sentenced collectively to 375 years in prison for keeping the children, aged between 6 and 16 at the time, in deplorable conditions in Sissonville.

The children sued the state’s Department of Human Services, accusing Child Protective Services of failing to protect them. The agency could not show documentation of contact with the children despite a notation in its system.

Their attorney, Dante diTrapano, said the settlement “means that these kids will have an opportunity to be children.”

“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,” he said.

At least one agency employee involved was fired.