Mother says son’s drowning at Kansas foster home was neglect

The mother of a 22-month-old boy who drowned in a fish pond at his foster parents’ home in Fort Scott said she believes the death resulted from neglect, despite a decision from the state and local law enforcement that the drowning was an accident.

Conner Hawes and three other foster children were playing out- side while his foster father was watching television inside, when at some point the boy got into a two-foot-deep fish pond in the backyard. The other children told foster father Peter Brackett they couldn’t find Conner and they searched for about an hour before calling 911, according to a Bourbon County Sheriff’s report.

State foster care regulations consider such ponds hazards and say young children should not have unsupervised access to them.

Kansas law says records should be released if abuse or neglect causes a child’s death or near death.

Because the Kansas Department for Children and Families believes Conner’s death on Aug. 18 was an accident, it will not release records concerning how the case was handled, The Wichita Eagle reported . The records would permit the public to know If inspectors ever noticed the pond in the backyard or if the foster parents told the agency about the pond or tried to restrict Conner’s access.

The Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office also found Conner’s death was an accidental drowning, based in part on autopsy findings and the “totality of the circumstances,” Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin said.