12:03 PM EST on Wednesday, December 1, 2004

By STUART WATSON / 6NEWS

Shirley Arciszewski

The state has handed down a $10,000 fine against a Charlotte group home where a 12-year-old girl died after being restrained by a worker.

The home is closed and its license was revoked, but the girl’s mother says the worker should be prosecuted.

“I'd come home from work and there would be drawings taped on my door, ‘I love you mommy,’” said mother Ruth McGraw.

To be blunt, McGraw has had her problems. She is bipolar and had what she calls "a nervous breakdown." But she loved her daughter Shirley Arciszewski.

“Shirley was a joy,” McGraw said. “She was just bright and sunny. She swam and she climbed trees.”

Two years ago the Department of Social Services took Arciszewski away from McGraw. Her older son had overdosed and died.

“When I lost my first child I had a nervous breakdown,” McGraw said. “I just fell apart.”

“DSS told me they were going to help me.”

McGraw’s sister Loretta D'Souza offered to take Arciszewski. Instead DSS sent the child to a Covenant group home in south Charlotte. McGraw says the state cut off all contact.

On September 12 D’Souza got a call that there had been a tragedy.

“I just fell on the floor,” McGraw said. “Parents aren't supposed to bury their children…she was supposed to be in a safe place…she wanted to be a veterinarian. They took that chance away from her.”

Saturday, September 11 at 8:35 p.m. the operator of the home got a call that Arciszewski was “combative” and “tearing up the home”.

A 10-year-old witness said a worker, "Ms. G got Shirley by the hair and pulled her down to the floor.

Arciszewski said, “’I can’t breathe. I can't breathe.’” Ms. G stated, “‘you'll be all right.’”

Arciszewski wasn't all right.

Ms. G is Gaye Callahan. 6NEWS went to ask her about Arciszewski 's death. She referred all questions to her attorney.

Three months before Arciszewski died, Callahan was fired from another job at a residential facility for children, Phoenix House. According to court records, after she was fired she was charged with communicating threats against the woman who fired her. That charge was later dismissed.

As Arciszewski lay dying, according to the home's operator, “Gaye said she could not get a dial tone on the telephone. I looked and noticed the cord didn't appear to be connected to the phone.”

Where was the cord? According to the ten year old, “’S’ was wrapped in a telephone cord from her knees to her feet.

“If someone did tie up a child with a telephone cord they should be in jail,” McGraw said. “What happens to the next kid?”

Callahan is not in jail. The district attorney is reviewing the case.

McGraw's adult daughter died in a traffic accident less than 12 hours after Arciszewski died. Her last remaining child is in DSS custody.