How a Child’s Injury Revealed the Double Standards of Alabama’s Child Protection System

It happened on October 1, 2024.

Sharazzi Huguley walked into the Dothan Christian Development Center on October 1, 2024, to pick up her three-year-old daughter, Xylah Turrell. Nonverbal and entirely dependent on the adults around her, Xylah normally ran straight into her mother’s arms. But this time was different. She was stiff. Quiet. Guarded. “Something was off,” Sharazzi noticed quickly. Concerned, she immediately questioned the daycare staff. They assured her nothing had happened. “She just took a late nap,” they told her.

But by the time they got home, the child’s behavior had not changed. She became even more guarded. Still alert with an internal alarm many mothers recognize, Sharazzi made a few phone calls, then rushed to the emergency room.

What was discovered there would tell a very different story.

Her daughter’s arm was broken. In two places. And according to the doctor, it was not an accident. The breaks were consistent with the arm being stepped on or slammed in a door.

On or about the same night, a report was filed. DHR got involved.

But what followed was not justice. It was bureaucracy. Silence. And a letter that should never have been sent.

“Abuse occurred. We just don’t know who did it.”

—Houston County DHR, signed by Mandy Gomez and Leslie Sasnett

That’s what the mother received: a formal letter from Houston County’s Department of Human Resources confirming that abuse had occurred, yet naming no one. No accountability. No legal action. No arrest. No court date. Just a statement and a signature.

This is where the system reveals itself.

When allegations or anonymous tips target parents, they’re treated like concrete truth. DHR shows up and tramples over due process with no warrants and no real investigation. They coerce safety plans and just like that, children are gone.

They question children without parental consent. They twist stories to fit a narrative. Families have lost their children over poverty, past addiction, or lawful corrective discipline mischaracterized as abuse, even when done out of love and protection.

The same office that pressures parents into signing safety plans labeled as voluntary but often presented under threat of removal. These plans are used to bypass court involvement, allowing children to be taken without a judge ever reviewing the facts.

What feels like cooperation becomes a trap, launching families into a legal battle they never saw coming. The same office that terminates fathers’ rights before they can even show up. The same office that rejects the meaning of reunification and refuses to believe in redemption.

But when a child is hurt inside a facility, especially one operated by individuals perceived as reputable, there’s hesitation, excuses, and a sudden inability to assign responsibility.

The letter sent to this mother was signed by Mandy Gomez, a Protective Services Worker, and Leslie Sasnett, the Protective Services Supervisor.

Families across Houston County have repeatedly raised complaints about Sasnett, alongside other names like Brandy Givens, Courtney Singleton, and Leslie Kelly, the current Director of Houston County DHR along with many more we have reports on.

These individuals may not sign every removal order, but their names appear again and again in stories of families who say their rights were violated, their children taken without cause, and their concerns ignored.

This daycare is not an outlier. Community members quickly flooded social media with their own experiences:

When families are questioned, even with clear evidence of overreach, they are criminalized. Their love is put on trial. Their intentions are twisted. Meanwhile, when institutions cause harm, the system hesitates, deflects, and protects.

And even after confirming the abuse occurred, no GAL (guardian ad litem) was appointed. No juvenile court hearing was held to determine the child’s best interest. No facility staff were formally named. No public record of disciplinary action has surfaced. Despite Alabama’s own minimum standards and mandated procedures, the case was closed without a trace of accountability. The facility continues to operate as if nothing ever happened.

A child’s arm was broken. Twice. In one day.

And this is the letter her mother received. Not justice. Not truth. Just a shrug.

In one America, families navigating hardship face surveillance, removal, and the permanent loss of their children. In another, institutions, especially those cloaked in status and protection, are shielded by power, proximity, and the benefit of the doubt.

This mother is still waiting for answers.

In a heartfelt video posted to social media, she said plainly, “I don’t know what else to do.”

That kind of truth, raw, exhausted, real, echoes through so many families in this community and across the country. Parents left in shambles, struggling to keep their minds and homes together, while a system that promises protection delivers failure after failure.

They snatch children when no danger exists. They prosecute parents who are doing their best. And when bones are broken inside facilities, they close cases with a shrug.

The screams of this child in the hospital that night were nothing short of haunting. But just like that, Houston County, Alabama, like much of America, returned to business as usual.

Xylah’s mother is still being told that no one can be held accountable. But she refuses to stay silent. She is speaking out. She is demanding justice. And she is not alone. Her voice now echoes alongside countless others.

Cases like this are exactly why Alabama lawmakers are beginning to push for change. In February 2025, State Representative Kenneth Paschal filed a bill aimed at protecting families’ due process rights during DHR investigations. The proposed law would require a higher standard of evidence before actions like safety plans or child removals can be enforced. It is a step toward the kind of accountability this mother, and so many others, have been pleading for.

In the words of the late Georgia State Senator Nancy Schaefer:

“The system cannot be trusted. It does not serve the people. It obliterates families and children simply because it has the power to do so.”

Accountability is not a threat. It is a promise.

The days of turning a blind eye to harm, ripping families apart, and subjecting children to lives they did not choose are ending.

If you use your position to hurt children, silence parents, or shield the guilty, truth will name you. Justice will find you. And history will remember you.

— The Parents

Families vs. Houston County DHR

***If you’ve experienced something similar, contact us.***

Updated: July 25,2025