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Foster parents question girls death

June 15, 2006
By: Heather Brown

    Video   

 

 

(WCCO) Two Wisconsin foster parents are struggling with why their 7-year-old child died at a counseling clinic.

Three weeks ago Angellika Arndt was restrained by counselors at the Rice Lake Day Treatment Center. A few minutes after she was released, she stopped breathing. A day later, she died.

Last week the Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled Arndt's death a homicide and now, her foster parents, Daniel and Donna Pavlick, are left devastated and wondering how it happened.

"It's going to live with you forever," said Donna Pavlick.


Arndt came to the Pavlicks' Ladysmith, Wis. home when she was 5 years old. She had bounced around the foster system and the Pavlicks wanted to provide her with some stability.

From the first day she walked into their lives, the Pavlicks were Mom and Dad.

"Sometimes when I'd tuck her in at night. I'd give her a kiss on the forehead and sometimes that was good enough," Donna Pavlick said. "But sometimes she said, 'No, Mom, I need a kiss on the lips tonight.'"

The Pavlicks knew Arndt had a rough childhood. She was known for throwing temper tantrums and was taking several medications.

To the Pavlicks, it didn't matter.

"She had her birthday parties at McDonalds like a normal kid," Donna Pavlick said. "She camped, she played, she listened to her music. She was just as normal, if that's what you want to call it, as any other 7 year old."

Arndt started kindergarten last year, but after a few months, their social worker suggested counseling before she started first grade.

"She could throw pretty good fits, but never to the point where I thought she'd hurt herself or any one else," Donna Pavlick said.

The Rice Lake Counseling Clinic said that's exactly how counselors decide if they must restrain a child -- will she hurt anyone?

Dennison Tucker, the clinic's president, said the day Arndt stopped breathing, counselors believed she was going to harm herself.

Two weeks ago, he showed WCCO-TV's Heather Brown what he said the counselors did.

Tucker said there would be one person on either side of the child holding the top of her arm and shoulder.

"They'd be talking to you," Tucker said. "It's not like an aggressive thing. They'd be talking to you saying, you know, you need to calm down."

"I don't think if the hold was done right somebody would be dead because of it," Donna Pavlick said.

Donna Pavlick said the clinic had called often to say Arndt had been restrained. One week the clinic her called three times.

The Pavlicks had a meeting scheduled to talk about it, which was set up for two weeks after Arndt died.

"That was something we want to question because it seemed like she was getting put in an awful lot of holds for behavior we had never seen at home," Donna Pavlick said.

Arndt's stay at the clinic was supposed to last only until she started first grade in another couple of months. She had been there 30 days.

"It's not fair. You think, 'Why did this have to happen?'" Daniel Pavlick asked. "She had everything going in the right direction. She'd been through enough in her childhood. Why this now?"

The state of Wisconsin is still investigating this case. Two of the biggest questions are if the counselors did the hold appropriately and should it have been done in the first place.

Rice Lake Police said it could be another three weeks before investigators and prosecutors decide if there will be any charges.

 
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