D.O.

FACTS

On January 17, 2024, the Ventura County Human Services Agency (HSA) filed a juvenile dependency petition (§ 300, subds. (b)(1) & (c)), alleging that S.O., the parents’ nine-year-old child, was “suffering” “serious emotional damage” as a result of the parents’ conduct. HSA determined that Mother had failed to provide the child with “adequate food.” It alleged that Father has “a history of substance abuse issues” that interferes with “his ability to provide adequate care and supervision to the child.” On January 3, 2024, HSA received a “referral” indicating that police were called because S.O. was walking alone in the dark. The child said he was “running away from home because his mother does not feed him.” He was walking without shoes. He said Mother leaves him and his siblings “alone for hours at a time.” The child told a social worker that he “has tried to make himself bleed so much that he loses enough blood to die.” He “does not want to live because his mother is usually mad at him and makes him feel like he can’t do anything right.” The child was seen “eating food out of the trash at school.” He has run away from home several times. He has told police that Mother

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