The 14-year-old girl whose stepfather, mother and twin siblings were killed Monday in a suspected murder-suicide kept an inch-thick, handwritten journal describing the abuse she had endured at the hands of her stepfather for over a year, her teachers told The Bee today.

The girl, who The Bee is not naming because of the abuse allegations, was a high-achieving 10th-grader at a Sacramento charter school and had helped present the annual Children's Report Card to the county Board of Supervisors the same day she was placed into protective custody.

Teachers at her school, the Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy, called authorities the afternoon of Nov. 21 after discovering the journal and its contents.

The girl did not object to going into protective custody, school Principal Micheal O'Leary said, and while she waited for authorities to arrive she wrote a thank-you note to the teachers and staff telling them how proud she was to be a student there.

"As I grow older, I will cherish all the time that I have spent here," she wrote.

"You've got a great student who's here all the time, studying, laughing," O'Leary said. "You just don't know what's going on at home."

Child Protective Services placed the 14-year-old into the Children's Receiving Home the night of Nov. 21, but her siblings were allowed to remain in the family's south Sacramento home despite the nature of the allegations.

At CPS' request, sheriff's deputies went to the home on Nov. 22, a Saturday, and investigated conditions at the home. They found no imminent threat of harm or abuse to the children in the home, Sacramento Sheriff's Chief Deputy Mark Iwasa said Tuesday.

Without such evidence, the other children could not be removed without a warrant, he said.

Over the course of the next week, the 14-year-old spent the Thanksgiving holiday at a teacher's home.

It is unclear what triggered the carnage at the family's home on Rooster Way Monday, when authorities believe the girl's stepfather, Ying Moua, 33, shot and killed his wife, Bouavanh Moua, 32, and their twin 2-year-olds, Alexis and Matthew Moua.

A third child, a 3-year-old, was wounded and is at UC Davis Medical Center. Another child, an 8-year-old boy, was living in another home at the time and was not harmed.

O'Leary learned of the shootings late Monday, and he and teachers from the school assembled at the Children's Receiving Home for what he described as an emotional gathering to tell the girl and her 8-year-old brother that their family had been killed.

"She started being emotional," O'Leary said. "She's not a very verbal person.

"She just kind of balled up and we just sat there."

Her brother sat nearby coloring with Crayons, apparently unable to absorb what authorities and a law enforcement chaplain were explaining, O'Leary said.

O'Leary added that he read portions of the journal before calling authorities -- which state law requires of educators who suspect abuse -- and that the passages he read contained graphic profanities toward the stepfather, language that he and the girl's teachers said they had never heard her utter.

They said the girl was one of the most popular students at the school and that she spent eight hours a day there five days a week, despite independent study rules that required her to be present only one hour a week.

Now, they say, it is apparent the girl was trying to stay away from her stepfather.

Teachers say the stepfather did not work and that the family income came from the girl's mother, who was trying to set up a photography business, according to a Hmong community leader who knew her.

The girl is hoping to return to school as soon as tomorrow, her teachers said, and one teacher and his wife have taken steps to gain temporary custody of her while a permanent home setting is arranged.

CPS officials have not commented on the case, but teachers say they do not understand why the girl's siblings were not removed from the home, given the nature of the entries in the journal.

All five of the family's children had been placed into protective custody in 2006 when the teenage girl, then 12, accused her stepfather of abuse, according to one source who asked not to be identified.

Confidentiality laws still prohibit public officials from divulging information about child welfare cases, although a new law forces some disclosure when children are killed.

The deaths renew questions about how the county's child protection system is functioning, despite an infusion of resources over the past decade. In a yearlong investigation of Child Protective Services, The Bee identified a series of problems, including inadequate supervision and training of social workers, poor quality investigations and a lack of accountability for mistakes.

CPS managers and workers say their caseloads remain unmanageably high, even though the agency's budget has nearly quadrupled in the last decade and its staffing has doubled.

A series of child deaths in the last 15 months, in which the agency had prior involvement with the children's families, has prompted a grand jury investigation and an independent review.

Laura McCasland, spokeswoman for the county's Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CPS, said Monday that the investigation was "so early it would be improper of us" to release any information. McCasland said the agency was reviewing its records and files.

McCasland said she could not confirm whether CPS had any prior involvement with the family. "We're watching this case as these details unfold," she said.

Call The Bee's Marjie Lundstrom, (916) 321-1055. Bee staff writer Stan Oklobdzija and researcher Sheila A. Kern contributed to this story.