Bump and Update: The 14 employees suspended last week have now been fired.

The Department of Juvenile Justice moved Wednesday to dismiss 14 workers for failing to assist Omar Paisley as he died a slow, torturous death from a burst appendix in the Miami-Dade juvenile lockup. The deputy secretary of DJJ, Francisco ''Frank'' Alarcon, also stepped down from the agency on an extended leave -- two weeks after his boss, Secretary W.G. ''Bill'' Bankhead, went on medical leave, expressing regret over the teenager's death. Alarcon is not expected to return.

The moves culminated a remarkable overhaul of the department since Paisley, 17, died last June while pleading for help from a detention center staff that either ignored his agony or told him to ``suck it up.''

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Original Post: 3/8/04 6:20 pm

In January, we wrote about two nurses charged with murder in the case of a 17 year old Florida boy who died of a burst appendix at a Florida detention facility. The prosecutor was insistent that the nurses left this poor boy in agony for three days and did nothing. He finally died sitting in a chair.

Today, Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice suspended 14 employees at the prison where the boy died.

A department report said several Miami-Dade Regional Detention Center officers failed to provide emergency care to Omar Paisley in June after he was found balled up in his cell vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. "I am outraged by the across-the-board inaction by so many at the Miami-Dade Regional facility," said interim Secretary C. George Denman. "That no one reached out to save a person in our care is profoundly disturbing."

Paisley had complained he was ill just one day after being jailed for cutting a neighbor with a soda can. The report cites 11 officers, three supervisors and a nurse for rule violations. It also said officers failed to provide CPR even though they were trained to do so, and one officer used other juveniles to clean Paisley's cell because he didn't want to expose guards to what he believed was a dangerous virus.

Jeb Bush's reaction at the time? He "retains confidence in Department of Juvenile Justice secretary Bill Bankhead" but will take the report into account.

Sickening.