Remember Ricky Holland?
Story Created: June 25, 2006
When Ricky Holland was first reported as a runaway from Williamston, Michigan on July 2, 2005 there was much media coverage in the area. As time passed, media coverage dwindled to a cursory mention in the news about once or twice a month in the local paper that he was still missing.
When police began to look closer at the adoptive parents Tim and Lisa Holland for clues of what happened to Ricky and the search warrants began to be served on them there was renewed interest in his case. Of course, when Lisa Holland was arrested for two counts of domestic battery in January of this year, all eyes were once again focused on the case.
Three days after the arrest of Lisa Holland for the domestic battery Tim Holland led investigators to Ricky’s badly decomposed remains. The outrage and sorrow in the city of Williamston and the surrounding area became further topics for news stories.
Information that has been released in the media from trial transcripts and other court documents obtained by various news organizations paints the picture of horrific abuse and emotional torture Ricky suffered at the hands of mostly Lisa Holland.
Yes, people are outraged and wonder how this type of abuse could have happened and why DHS did not step in and rescue Ricky and his siblings; why they were allowed to remain in such an abusive home. Many who comment on this blog and via private email indicate to me that they would love to see either Tim or Lisa Holland or both of them “fry” for Ricky’s torture and murder. They want them to suffer in prison the way they made Ricky suffer. Some even believe in this instance bringing back the death penalty to Michigan is in order for the Holland’s.
I agree that Tim and Lisa Holland, if convicted of the crime they are accused of committing should remain in prison for the remainder of their natural lives.
Some will be satisfied once the conviction is in and Tim and Lisa Holland are sitting in prison.
The conviction of Tim and Lisa Holland does not answer the outrage of the “why” and the “how” Ricky Holland’s abuse and murder happened and continued under the watchful eye of DHS.
There will be another Ricky Holland if the deficiencies are not addressed that allowed Ricky Holland to be adopted by parents so ill-equipped to parent a child.
I have set up Rallies for Ricky Holland to address this issue, to make some sort of changes to the current policies and laws in place that allowed Ricky Holland to be adopted by the Holland’s and allows other “Ricky Holland’s” to continue to be adopted by parents ill-equipped to parent a child. There has been very little response. Note: Rallies for Ricky forum is no longer active.
The forum is there free for the using to organize and create whatever is needed to affect change. There were many visitors to this blog during Ricky’s disappearance and since he was found. People leave comments and email me indicating their outrage. Outrage is fine but action is better.
I can’t believe that there are only 3 people, yes 3 who have shown an interest in working towards making changes. These three have been busily writing letters to the Governor and other legislatures, calling and writing the press, trying to keep Ricky’s picture in focus. Many have visited the forum, few have registered and even fewer have been willing to participate.
I am at a loss of what to do. I can leave the forum up and hope more people will get involved or I can close the forum and consider I did the best I could and continue to write the blog, covering the trial.
If I lived in Michigan I would never give up the fight for Ricky Holland. I would never let his picture fade into obscurity.
Please remember Ricky.
5 Responses to 'Remember Ricky Holland?'
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Please! A child is dead. Stop turning this personal tragedy into a political circus.
If you really want to get political, perhaps we shold require parenting tests before allowing people to have children. Shoot, you can’t drive a car, become a barber, or even use the deep end of a public pool without first passing a test, yet we’re upset because unqualified people have children, and then the kids get hurt?
It isn’t ‘the guvernments’ fault. It is our own for expecting one government bureaucrat to insure the safety of a 75-150 children without providing any money or resources to do the job because “we have too many taxes driving business and jobs out of our state”. Either pay the cost, or stop whining. Alternately, acknowledge that either it is OK for kids with bad parents to die horrible deaths or that you LIKE government loooking over your shoulder telling you how to raise your kids. Not such an easy ‘black and white’ issue when you look at it that way, is it?
The REAL tragedy here is that a community support system exists in small towns (I’ve spent a lot of time in Williamston and just the response in looking for RIcky last year speaks loudly!) in Michigan. The larger tragedy here is that these folks (Ricky’s natural AND adoptive parents) didn’t take advantage of that support and a child suffered because of it.
That suffering is a personal tragedy, and may anyone who tries to turn that into a political rallying point suffer a plague of boils for their arrogance.
Go back to California or wherever your organization is based and leave us to take care of each other as neighbors do in the ‘real’ world.
annonie
29 Jun 06 at 4:39 am
You sound angry. You are right a child is dead but where is the personal tragedy? Is it a personal tragedy for Tim and Lisa Holland? Is it a personal tragedy for Ricky’s biological mother and father? There does not seem to be any people stepping up and claiming personal trajedy for Ricky’s death.
I agree that the real tragedy here is there is a lot of community support in small towns that no one seemed to take advantage of in Ricky’s situation. Even the Holland’s did not see the “need” to ask for help for their struggles. All Lisa seemed to care about is to get Ricky labled with another disability most likely to collect more money.
I am in California. I provide the forum free of charge for people to be able to congregate to work for changes in the broken system that is supposed to protect children. If you can think of a better way then go ahead and set up something and go for it because no matter what it takes I don’t care who funds, supports or runs it as long as in the end the children are safe.
If it takes government looking over the shoulder of parents who abuse and murder their children then that is what it takes. Better a snoopy government than another dead child.
Trisha
29 Jun 06 at 4:53 am
Ben Franklin said it best: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither….” Government can’t police abusive parents. The ‘better’ system is obvious: it’s the one we’ve had forever: churches / neighbors / extended families. Yet society seems bent on abandoning those support systems in favor of new bureaucracies that don’t and CAN’T work.
Angry? You bet I’m angry. I’m angry that well-meaning people like you are pointing us in exactly the wrong direction. Don’t be mad at government because it is inefficient! I ENJOY the fact that government is slow and inefficient. The last round of really ‘efficient’ governments we had were in central Europe and Japan in the 1930s and 40s…. Now there’s a model we want to follow, right?
In short, I disagree with your premise: more intrusive government won’t stop child abuse. It takes decent parents to prevent abuse, and government doesn’t make decent parents: PARENTS, churches, family (and neighbors) teach parenting skills.
Trying to make a system address a problem it is not designed to fix is a classic ‘limited toolbox’ issue. If the only tool you have in a hammer, all fasteners start to look like nails. If you have screwdrivers, staplers and glue, as well as a hammer, the job gets done better. Don’t assume the ‘hammer’ of government is the right tool to use to fasten the ’screw’ of preventing child abuse. It isn’t — and you do all of us a disservice by insisting on this course of action.
We need to let the private tragedy be, and work on preventing tragedies in our own families and neighborhoods — where we can actually do some good.
annonie
29 Jun 06 at 7:14 am
Trisha, I understand that you are upset by the tragedy of Ricky’s death. Anyone who watches the news would be.
However, there is much more going on here than just a failure on the part of DHS to protect Ricky and his siblings. There were several people who knew that something was up and did nothing. Absolutely nothing.
In addition, while the Michigan economy is in a major slump (for several reasons) ours is not the only state where the Children’s Protective Services Department is unable to handle massive caseloads. Besides, this case has already made the state Human Services Department take a good look at itself in the mirror and the legislature has vowed to hold it responsible for not allowing this type of thing to happen again.
Finally, I do think that if you really want to “take action”, you should consider making a visit to Michigan yourself and using your talents to draw a crowd here.
Daisy
29 Jun 06 at 9:33 pm
WOW, I missed this thread. I wish I could have been involved with this. I was thrown out of a forum for stating such truths as these. People are always so quick to blame the Government when they should be checking their own back doors. Had society helped raise this child this tragedy could have been averted. Had someone stepped up to the plate and helped Casey years ago Ricky might still be here. Had someone stopped making excuses as to why they could not help and made reason to help, Ricky might still be here. If someone would have called the police when they found a starving boy eating out of their refrigerator, Ricky might still be here. The government did not kill Ricky, society did. Until we can all except that and make the necessary changes, children will continue to die.
anninn
1 Oct 06 at 11:55 pm