Content warning: This article discusses child suicide, self-harm, foster-care trauma, and child death. If a child or adult may be in immediate danger, call 911. In the United States, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Kendrea Johnson was six years old when she died in a Brooklyn Park foster home not far from my home in December 2014.
Her death should never be reduced to one horrific headline, one lawsuit, one placement, or one family’s tragedy. Kendrea’s story is a warning about what can happen when a child’s trauma, suicidal statements, mental-health needs, and safety risks are known by multiple adults but the adults and systems responsible for protecting her do not effectively share information or act together.
A federal civil-rights and wrongful-death lawsuit alleged that Hennepin County, foster-care providers, and treatment providers knew Kendrea was suicidal and failed to protect her. Her family initially sought $20 million in damages; Hennepin County later reached a $1.5 million settlement with her next of kin. Star Tribune investigation and lawsuit report – Settlement report
No settlement can answer the central question: What would have kept Kendrea alive?
Self-hate and Suicidal Thoughts Are More Common Among Foster Children
After Kendrea’s death, some officials reportedly questioned whether a six-year-old could understand or intend suicide. That belief is dangerously outdated. For every successful young child suicide there are hundreds of self-harming acts and attempts.
Children can experience suicidal thoughts, self-harm, intense self-loathing, fear, hopelessness, and overwhelming emotional pain. Young children may not describe those feelings in adult language. They may act them out through threats, drawings, aggression, withdrawal, self-injury, repeated statements about death, or alarming play (like Kendrea did).
Recent evidence confirms that suicide risk is not limited to teenagers. A 2025 study of more than 627,000 emergency-department records involving children ages 8 to 12 found that suicide-related emergency visits and repeat visits occur in preadolescent children. About one in ten children who came to the emergency department for suicide-related concerns returned for another suicide-related visit. Childhood Suicide Risk in the Emergency Department
That does not mean every troubling statement predicts an attempt. It does mean that adults must respond seriously, calmly, and immediately. A child who talks about wanting to die, hurting themselves, jumping from a window, or harming others needs a safety assessment and connected care not dismissal.
What Was Reported in Kendrea’s Case
According to reporting and court records cited in the lawsuit, Kendrea had repeated suicidal thoughts and behaviors before her death. The lawsuit alleged that multiple child-protection, foster-care, school, and treatment providers had information that should have triggered stronger safety planning and communication.
The Star Tribune reported that records showed Kendrea had threatened her foster mother with a screwdriver, said she wanted to jump from a window and kill herself, and created drawings at school involving a child hanging from a rope. The lawsuit also alleged that a treatment provider found she had suicidal thoughts five to seven days per week, but that this information was not adequately shared with her foster-care placement agency or foster parent. Star Tribune
The medical examiner ruled the death undetermined, while the civil case advanced allegations that systems responsible for Kendrea’s care knew of serious risk and failed to protect her adequately. The lawsuit was settled; a settlement is not the same as a judicial finding of liability. Minnesota Lawyer case summary
What is beyond dispute is that Kendrea was a deeply traumatized child with serious documented mental-health and safety needs.
Trauma Must Be Treated as a Safety Issue
Children who have experienced abuse, neglect, violence, chronic instability, disrupted attachment, repeated placement changes, or severe family stress may not show their pain in ways adults expect.
Trauma can appear as:
- Panic, anxiety, depression, or emotional shutdown.
- Aggression, threats, running away, or oppositional behavior.
- Self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or talk of death.
- Sleep problems, nightmares, school failure, or social withdrawal.
- Shame, self-hatred, distrust, and difficulty accepting care.
A child’s behavior is often communication. The question adults should ask is not simply, “What is wrong with this child?” It is:
What has happened to this child, what is happening now, and what must change to help this child become safe and well?
As a CASA Guardian ad Litem, I saw young children carrying levels of fear, self-hatred, anxiety, and despair that no child should have to manage. I have seen children in psychiatric settings at very young ages and too many children relying on psychotropic medication without the stable relationships, trauma treatment, safety, and coordinated support they also needed.
Medication can be appropriate for some children under careful clinical supervision. But medication alone cannot replace safety. It cannot replace a stable home, trauma-focused therapy, a trusted adult, coordinated care, or accountability when systems fail to act on clear warning signs.
For context on psychotropic medication concerns involving very young children, see KARA’s article: Babies, 2-Year-Olds, and Antipsychotic Medicines.
The Youth Mental-Health Crisis Continues
Kendrea’s death occurred years before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the broader crisis has continued.
Children’s hospitals report that suicide and self-injury remain a major emergency-care burden. Between 2016 and 2021, suicide/self-injury cases among patients ages 5 through 18 seen in children’s hospital emergency departments increased 168.6%. In 2024, suicide/self-injury represented more than one-third of emergency-department visits at children’s hospitals. Children’s Hospital Association: Addressing Pediatric Suicide 1551
Recent research and national data also show how widespread youth distress remains:
- A 2025 review of youth-suicide research reported that nearly one in four high-school students had suicidal thoughts in the prior year and about one in ten reported a suicide attempt in 2021 data; Black girls faced especially high rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts in several datasets. American Psychiatric Association review
- CDC school-health data report that 40% of high-school students experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness, 20% seriously considered attempting suicide, and nearly 9% attempted suicide. CDC: Youth Mental Health 1546
- A 2023 JAMA study found that pediatric hospitalizations involving suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, or self-injury increased 163% from 2009 to 2019. Pediatric Mental Health Hospitalizations at Acute Care Hospitals in the United States
These numbers do not mean that every child in distress will die by suicide. They do mean that America must treat child and youth mental health as a safety, prevention, and accountability priority.
Child Protection Cannot Operate in Silos
Kendrea’s case raises a basic question for every child-protection system:
When one professional knows a child is at risk, do the other adults responsible for that child’s safety know too?
A foster parent cannot respond to information they have not received. A teacher cannot implement a safety plan that does not exist. A therapist cannot coordinate with child protection if the system does not support meaningful communication. A caseworker cannot protect a child if critical records, concerns, and changes in risk are fragmented across agencies.
Child protection, foster care, schools, courts, medical providers, mental-health professionals, police, and community organizations must be able to share essential safety information lawfully, promptly, and clearly.
The goal is not to create more paperwork. The goal is to make sure that the adults around a high-risk child understand:
- What warning signs the child has shown.
- What immediate safety plan is in place.
- Who is responsible for each part of that plan.
- What services the child is receiving.
- What conditions make risk worse.
- Who must be contacted when the child’s behavior changes.
- Whether the child is becoming safer, calmer, more connected, and more hopeful.
We Must Measure What Matters
Child-protection systems often count reports, investigations, removals, placements, reunifications, and case closures.
Those numbers describe activity. They do not tell us whether children are safe, healing, stable, attending school, connected to supportive adults, receiving effective mental-health care, or at risk of self-harm and suicide.
KARA believes child protection should measure and publicly report meaningful outcomes, including:
- Repeat maltreatment and repeated CPS involvement.
- Placement stability and family connection.
- School attendance, engagement, and graduation.
- Access to trauma-informed mental-health care.
- Psychiatric emergency visits, hospitalizations, self-harm, and suicide attempts.
- Youth homelessness, justice-system involvement, and transition-to-adulthood outcomes.
- Whether children and families report feeling safe, heard, and supported.
Minnesota’s review of child fatalities from maltreatment documented repeated concerns about known risks, chronic maltreatment, inadequate safety planning, domestic violence, substance use, and failures to act on warning signs. Many of the children who died had prior contact with child protection. Minnesota Child Fatalities from Maltreatment, 2014–2022
We cannot prevent every tragedy. But we can stop pretending that a closed case equals a safe child.
Kendrea’s Legacy Must Be Action
Kendrea Johnson should be remembered as more than a case file, a lawsuit, or a heartbreaking news story. Her death should demand better from all of us.
KARA advocates for the people, policies, and programs that improve the lives of abused and neglected children. That includes:
- Early identification and immediate response to suicidal thoughts and self-harm.
- Trauma-informed treatment that addresses the causes of a child’s distress.
- Stronger foster-care placement, supervision, and safety planning.
- Clear communication among everyone responsible for a child’s safety.
- Public reporting of child-protection outcomes that matter to children.
- Better tools, data, research, and resources for families, professionals, advocates, policymakers, and communities.
Call to Action
Help make sure no child’s warning signs disappear between systems.
Share this article with a foster parent, teacher, social worker, therapist, Guardian ad Litem, judge, county commissioner, legislator, school leader, journalist, or community member.
Ask them:
How does our community ensure that every adult responsible for a high-risk child has the information, support, and accountability needed to keep that child safe?
Support KARA’s work to expand child-protection information, trauma resources, research, public education, and accountability tools. Watch and share the KARA Signature Video.
All adults are the protectors of all children.
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN
This article submitted by CASA Guardian ad Litem Mike Tikkanen
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