The Tragic Life of Gabriel Fernandez

 

This guest post is from Regent Family Law Student Abigail Ottinger:

 

The story of Gabriel Fernandez brings to light the extent to which the system fails children nationwide. More specifically, how child abuse can go unreported and undetected for years.

 

On May 24, 2013, the Lord welcomed Gabriel Fernandez home. At the time of his death, he was in the custody of his own mother and her boyfriend, where he was abused for months and was tortured until he eventually stopped breathing. See the Los Angeles Homicide Report.

 

Gabriel’s mother and boyfriend kept Gabriel in a cabinet for the majority of the day, satiated his hunger with cat litter, beat him with a wooden club, and put cigarettes out on his bare skin. According to the Los Angeles Homicide Report, on May 22, 2013, paramedics were called to the Fernandez home, only to find Gabriel “naked and not breathing, with a cracked skull, three broken ribs, and BB [gun] pellets embedded in his lung and groin.”

 

After two days of fighting for his life, Gabriel died.

 

Of course, Gabriel’s family let him down, but shockingly, so did the local government.

 

After six investigations into abuse allegations by Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (“DCFS”), Gabriel remained in the home of his mother. DCFS claims they never found enough evidence to remove him from the home.

 

After Gabriel’s death, four social workers that handled his case were charged with falsifying records, and child abuse that ultimately led to his death. An appellate panel, however, ruled that the social workers should not face charges and they were dismissed.

 

During investigations into DCFS, the child welfare agency claimed that there was a case overload and that there were children seemingly in worse danger than Gabriel. Gabriel slipped through the cracks because his life of constant abuse wasn’t “dangerous” enough, according to the authorities.

 

It took the death of an eight-year-old boy for light to be shed on the failure of the system. In response to the public criticism, anger, and general outrage DCFS has implemented more training, new policies, and has hired more staff to help with their caseload. Additionally, the death of Gabriel and the media surrounding his case has led people around the country to want to get involved and make a change, and they have done so by working toward children welfare reform in social work.

 

The steps DCFS has taken are steps in the right direction. By ensuring that caseworkers are doing their jobs, that they are properly trained, and that there are enough of them to adequately account for each child, there is a stronger likelihood that each child will be taken from these abusive homes and will end up in loving ones.

 

Although it took the death of an eight-year-old boy to uncover the hidden and horrific truths of child welfare programs, it is because of Gabriel’s story that more children will end up in better, more loving homes, toward family restoration.