This is our second report concerning a beautiful little girl whose arm was broken while at a daycare in Dothan, Alabama.

Three-year-old Xylah, a nonverbal autistic child whose well-being was entrusted to the staff at Dothan Christian Development, run by Keith and April Alford, walked in whole and left with a broken arm. Not once, but twice in a single day. Medical professionals immediately ruled the injury non accidental. This was not a playground mishap. It was abuse.

On July 29, we contacted the Houston County DHR office directly regarding the confirmed abuse, the status of the facility, and the lack of action taken. As of this writing, no response has been received. That silence comes from the very top. Director Leslie Kelly has ignored direct outreach, allowing a culture to persist under her roof where confirmed abuse is met with inaction and the protection of facilities over children.

Even Houston County DHR agreed. A letter dated November 2024, signed by caseworker Mandy Gomez and approved by supervisor Leslie Sasnett, states plainly, “Abuse or neglect occurred.” In the very next line, they claimed, “We were unable to identify the person responsible.” We reject outright the idea that this is an acceptable conclusion.

That is not accountability. It is abandonment. A three-year-old child was injured twice in a single day, medically confirmed as abuse, and yet the agency charged with her protection sends a letter that openly denies justice. If Houston County DHR cannot determine who harmed a child in their jurisdiction, then they have failed at the most basic function of their job. If they can determine it but will not act, then they are willfully turning a blind eye to the innocence of a little girl, a child now fearful of being away from home, in order to shield the daycare owners or someone else inside that facility.

If this is the standard they submit, then every case they have ever touched should be called into question.

No arrest. No charges. No shutdown. The daycare remains open. The same people remain in place. The child, now four, has no justice.

Yet just miles away, right in Mobile, Alabama, a two-year-old at Nazaree Christian School was yanked by the arm, taken to the hospital, and the injury reported. The worker responsible, Satori Dale, was arrested, indicted, and charged with child abuse and harassment. Her name was made public. The district attorney acted without hesitation. Same state. Same system. Abuse occurred. Only one child was treated like a victim.

Mobile daycare worker indicted on child abuse charge | WKRG.com: DHR Confirmed Abuse. A Child’s Arm Was Broken. These DHR Workers Let the Daycare Walk Free.

When Sharazzi Huguley, Xylah’s mother, pressed for answers, she was told to contact the district attorney herself. No support. No coordination. Just a handoff. DHR does not require this kind of pursuit when it manufactures false narratives to tear apart safe homes. It will drive across town, twist words, and take children from families where there is no danger, certainly not a child with a broken arm, let alone one with two fractures in a single day. When abuse happens inside a facility they blatantly shield it, they pass the buck, and they walk away.

When a parent is accused, DHR moves like a military unit. “Voluntary” safety plans are forced under threat of arrest. Children are taken. Families are torn apart. Everything moves fast, often before the facts are known, and many times ignoring the real facts to target whoever fits their profile.

But when harm happens inside a state licensed facility, the cameras suddenly stop working. The case is quietly closed. The names disappear.

This is not protection for children. It is protection for institutions and the people who run them.

With no justice from the state, Sharazzi has taken her fight public. Flyers with her daughter’s story hang in storefronts, gas stations, and community boards across Houston County and beyond. Online, her videos have reached over half a million views. Each post is a protest. Each comment is a witness. Each view is proof that the public cares, even when the system does not. She is asking the question DHR will not answer, Why was no one held accountable for what happened to my daughter? While state workers signed off on silence, this mother spread the truth with her own hands and her own voice. When the system abandoned her child, she did not back down. She built a microphone and handed it to the world.

This is more than a broken arm. This is a broken system. If this had happened in a mother’s home, the child would have been removed instantly, charges filed, and the case paraded in headlines. Instead, a facility was protected. A child was dismissed. And the cover up was signed in black ink by Mandy Gomez and Leslie Sasnett. This negligence causes injury and also kills children, in Alabama and across the nation. When DHR chooses who it will hold accountable, families who do not fit the bill are destroyed.

We’ve listened to the voices of and read the heart breaking emails and messages from parents who have lost their children for far less. For an upset neighbor’s false claim. For a past addiction they have overcome. For being survivors of domestic violence. For disciplining their children when it was warranted. And sometimes simply because a caseworker did not like what they said.

Meanwhile, a state approved facility inflicts harm, shattering a child’s arm so badly she will face lifelong therapy while carrying the mental scars that will never fade. And still, no one is held accountable.

So we ask our Governor, lawmakers, and every official over this weaponized system, Is the only way for a parent to be safe from DHR to work for it? Should every mother and father have to join a state agency or operate as a licensed facility to receive the same immunity now being handed out to those who truly harm children? If protection only applies to those on payroll, this is not child welfare. It is a shield for predators wearing badges, titles, and business licenses.

We must check our moral compasses. This could have been anyone’s child. No family is safe when accountability is optional and justice is selective. If you have children, your first duty is to protect them. Imagine the anguish of being stonewalled by the very system that claims to stand for safety and protection.

The failure this system has inflicted on this mother, this baby, and this family is immeasurable. The refusal to act only deepens the trauma.

In the mother’s own words, “I have been deeply affected and it is taking a toll on my family and our mental health.”

We are not confused. We are not misinformed. We want to know who is being shielded behind those daycare walls. Is it the owners April and Keith Alford, or is it another worker. We question what ties this facility and those who run it have to DHR workers who we know make conscious decisions about who they choose to target and who they choose to let walk free.

The truth remains in plain sight. Someone inside Dothan Christian Development inflicted harm on this little girl, and Houston County DHR workers refuse to say who did it. The workers who signed off on this are women, perhaps even mothers, yet there is no urgency or moral will to deliver justice to an innocent child and uphold their duties to “protect” children.

If you or your loved ones have experienced harm, neglect, or violations of due process from the Houston County, Alabama, DHR office, we want to hear from you. Submit Your Story | Families vs. DHR