.

             At a time it would behoove the child protection agency in New York to claim staffing shortages caused the problem they insist there is no problem and that things are remaining as they should. ACS supervisors have admitted "the budget has "dropped." However, they maintains that funding to ACS's child protective unit, responsible for overseeing cases like Nixzmary's, has "remained untouched(Mfuni, 2006)." .

             According to the records at ACS each case worker handles 9-14 cases a month, which is significantly lower than the 17 average cases workers are required to handle nationwide(Goldman, 2006). .

             According to her stepfather Nixzmary was an out of control little girl. She stole money from her parents, broke the toys of her siblings and generally didn't do anything that she was told to do. When he discovered she had taken a cup of yogurt from the refrigerator that she had not asked for he went into a rage and the final hours of her life were set in motion. .

             "Police say Cesar Rodriguez beat the little girl to death, then tossed her on the floor of what was known in the family's apartment as the "dirty room," a rodent-infested room where she had been tied up and left with only a litter box as a toilet(Goldman, 2006). ".

             Investigators discovered later that the child had been forced to use a makeshift littler box as a toilet for months preceding her murder. She was starved and only weighed what an average three-year-old should weigh and her siblings and mother did nothing to stop the abuse the man put on this child. .

             "During a jail interview with newspaper reporters, Rodriguez did not admit fatally beating his stepdaughter but said: "I have a lot of guilt. I'm sorry about all that happened. I have a problem with my emotions. It builds up and I hold it all in. I emotionally just burst," he said(Goldman, 2006).".

             Since her death, the nation has sent messages of sympathy for the child and anger at the fact that it was allowed to happen when the family had been reported several times to child abuse authorities before Nixzmary's death.