Community outrage is growing over the death of 17-year-old Jordan Brooks, as well as over the way his case was handled by the Oswego County Department of Social Services.

Investigators said the teen died due to neglect and malnutrition. His mother and stepfather now face charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, according to the sheriff's department.

For one community advocate, the case seems all too familiar. Now, she is working to make sure the system she believes failed him is fixed.

While the gates of the Palermo Town Park are firmly padlocked for the season, Colleen Scott showed a picture of the memorial bench her Facebook group helped fund for 11-year-old Erin Maxwell, who was killed by her stepbrother in 2008 after suffering from severe neglect.

“I will always stick up for children who are being mistreated,” she said. “I just wanted to create a place for the community to come together and share information.”

As much as she said she doesn’t want to, Scott is at it again, organizing a Facebook group, this time for Brooks.

Brooks was 17 and living with cerebral palsy when he died.

Court documents detail allegations of extensive neglect, and include statements from staff at Brooks’ school, claiming they tried to sound the alarm with calls to the Oswego County Department of Social Services after they say they discovered large sores on the teenager and found his wheelchair pad soaked with urine on multiple occasions, among other incidents.

“It was bad enough that Erin lived in that filthy home and someone strangled her, but this was torture,” Scott said.

According to court documents, Brooks’ mother, Lisa Waldron, and stepfather, Anthony Waldron, allegedly failed to seek medical attention for various ailments, including bedsores that progressed to the point of exposing bone, eventually leading to the teenager’s death.

Community outrage in the group has been directed not only toward the parents, but also alleged failures by the Oswego County Department of Social Services.

It comes as Spectrum News 1 learned the Oswego County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the death of a toddler who died in the town of Palermo on Nov. 9, 2020.

Scott said someone must be held accountable.

“They’re not doing what they should. When a child is that mistreated and that injured, it should have been taken care of right away,” she said.

Until that day comes, Scott says she’ll work to make sure Brooks' name stays in the news, just like she did for Maxwell. She said she hopes community leaders are listening.

“We need to get the point across that we aren’t going to put up with this anymore, and I think that we need to hold people accountable,” she said, expressing frustration that Brooks’ case wasn’t looked into further.

Oswego County officials said that if a state Office of Children and Family Services child fatality report contains any recommended actions, Oswego County DSS will implement the actions immediately.

Additionally, the department shared a 2021 quality review by the state Office of Family Services that lists actions the county says it has, or is in the process of, implementing to improve services. They include:

• Documenting CPS history checks within the regulatory time frame in the CPS case record 
• Documenting all safety factors in the determination safety assessment in the CPS case record 
• Conducting initial and ongoing risk and safety assessments during preventative services cases 
• Initial and ongoing assessment of the needs of children and fathers and provision of their services in preventative services cases 
• Involving children and fathers in case planning of preventative services cases 
• Appropriately addressing safety concerns when they arise in foster care cases 
• Permanency goals established and achieved timely in foster care cases 
• Initial and ongoing assessments and service delivery to meet the needs of fathers foster care cases.

The public is welcome to attend a community organized memorial for Brooks at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in front of Mexico High School.