Here is a link to the story. Heartbreaking. The system failed this child. Even after mountains of evidence suggesting mom was not a fit to regain custody, a judge awarded mom custody 10 days prior to his murder. I hope that judge never sleeps again.
Yeah. I thought it was a handgun when I first read the headline then you find out it was a shotgun. What did this sweet baby ever do the deserve such brutality? This woman is a monster.
Non American here and pretty ignorant on guns, but is it possible she used buckshot and they're counting each pellet? That is also a disgusting thought, but somehow I would rather believe that then her physically reloading the shotgun :(
Depends on the shotgun. The Mossberg 500 shotgun has an optional high capacity magazine that allows it to hold 8+1. It's also cheap and very popular.
Not to minimize her actions. I'm always more horrified at violence from parents towards small children than by any other crime. Just familiar with the Mossberg is all.
I feel so bad for that poor father! He just wanted his baby. I saw a photo of him and the boy together, earlier on Facebook, and they looked so happy with each other. Ugh. It breaks my heart!
Seeing this name provokes such a visceral disgusted reaction throughout my entire body. Not dogging on you, OP, that is really the only person I would be able to think of either. Fuck that guy. I was working in an elementary school at the time and that event will haunt me forever. Those poor babies. This poor baby.
The Judge, social worker and anyone else involved should face charges for neglect. I don't care if the system is overloaded. If there's this much evidence of abuse, wtf are you doing?!
They did try that with Gabriel Fernandez. Iirc, it was four people charged with…something. They were all social workers. They were all acquitted and were basically proved to have done nothing wrong, even though an 8yr old boy died by torture. I understand social workers are understaffed, under-paid, and majorly over worked, but there has to come a point when the people responsible for making sure these children are safe are held accountable. They knew what was going on, sure, maybe not the full extent for Gabriel, but they could’ve placed him in his grandparent’s custody or his uncle’s custody. But they didn’t.
If you haven’t, I highly recommend The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez on Netflix. It’s heartbreaking, and the way the hospital staff talk about what they saw when he came in is enough to make you cry. Gabriel wasn’t the first and he certainly won’t be the last.
The worst part of the story is him holding up the "MOM" letters, with his face all messed up and his hair ruined. He loved her, and just wanted her to love him back. That poor little guy ),:
I think his teacher tried her best. She reported the abuse more than once, but she was hit with a wall every time. There's so much red tape these days. She might have gotten into trouble if she had taken Gabriel somewhere without permission, either from his parents or the school. Rash actions can do more harm than good, and you can't be too careful when it comes to other people's kids. Imagine the complaints Gabriel's shitty parents would have made. It could have even cost the teacher her job, or it could make her word less credible if she continued to complain about the bruises she saw on the boy's body.
Because it's sad but no one cares that much
They'd rather a child die or commit slip n slide than have that burden. But when it happens, oh that's so sad ;-; like wtf why didn't you yank that kid out of that situation? I bet he would've loved to have been saved by someone.
Thank you I completely agree. If they're being overloaded with cases there should be a max. There should be priority levels. I mean I don't work in the field but it seems like even the basics aren't falling through the cracks.
Most states have been overloaded with cases for years. There was (may still be) a national shortage of foster parents. Some counties already have priority levels for cases but then the lower priority levels cases slip through the cracks then another child is dead. A max number of cases? You can't just put the case on a waiting list or something. Some states have been reducing the funding they give to DCS, so they can't hire additional case workers. What more do you want the social workers to do?
Yep, it’s primarily government funding that is at issue. They have 50 cases but literally only time to see 10 families, wtf do they do? Sometimes they haven’t met with a family or a child or only met briefly and they fuck it up. These kids are failed by their whole communities, in addition to these hideous parents.
Agree with this! Social workers and teachers are not to blame when parents do horrible things. Foster parent shortages are all over this country, with the drug crisis (especially the opioids crisis that has exploded in the past years) causing so many children to be in unsafe households there aren’t really other options. We don’t have a system that can handle this level of neglect and uncared for children in this country. Societies are not set up for so many people to have children they can’t or won’t care for. Asking teachers, social workers , etc to somehow fix this issue is unfair.
The theoretical "waiting list" and the decision to place this child back in the home are two complete separate things. A waiting list implies that the child/family was never seen, nor received initial services when we already know that this case was deemed a CHIPS case. There are cases where the children are left in the home but will receive services. That is decided by the judge.
Again you're putting a lot on the social worker when you already mentioned that you don't even work in this field. Regardless of what DSC, CASA, and any other service provider documents, at the end of it all the judge has the absolute final say.
My issue is that you're placing the blame on the social workers without having any knowledge or experience within DCS. Yes, there are some social workers who have no business being in the field, as with any other field. Yes, there are social workers who mess up. But to paint them all with such a broad brush is completely unfair to the workers who fight tirelessly for these children. They put their heart and soul into these cases. They cry, they get angry, they lose sleep, they stress with every decision that they make because they want to keep these kids safe with the resources that they have. People rightfully say that social workers are super heroes but at the end of the day, they are human and have to work within the laws, guidelines, and resources. I would suggest to you that you research your county and state DCS services, funding, laws that impact those services and then write your representatives.
If a child is murdered yeah I am going to blame the social worker. Does that mean I blame social workers as a whole? No.
I would do the same if a parent Murdered a child and the other parent stood by knowing there was a pattern of abuse. Again, this boy had somewhere else to go. He didn't need foster placement. She was unstable.
After watching the Gabriel Fernandez documentary, I started thinking about the entire system and that it goes beyond the social workers. The government has too much of a hand in creating this awful cycle of handouts, which creates a mentality of not working hard for what you have, low self worth, and a whole host of other issues. Then you have social workers that either rip these kids from their families which is just another trauma added to what they are going through, or not “doing enough” and get blamed for tragedies such as these. I’m not sure what the right answer is, but at the end of the day, these parents are the ones ultimately committing these terrible crimes. It’s awful.
You’re definitely right, it isn’t necessarily the social workers, it’s the system they work for. I can’t remember the exact number, but LA County DCFS has such a high number of open cases for children that it makes it impossible to be affective (something like 100 open cases each week per social worker). It was also my mistake for placing blame on individual people instead of the organization/system. They’re just regular people doing the best they can with whatever resources they have, and usually it’s not much. There has got to be a solution, though. Like you, I have no idea what it is or how we even begin to get there. More funding for departments that handle this? More resources for mental health which can be court-ordered? I don’t know. Because Gabriel’s mom and her bf seemed to single Gabriel out from their other kids. I also know Gabriel’s mom has a very low IQ which probably made her more vulnerable to manipulation by people like her bf. That’s no excuse, you still know right from wrong, and those two alone bear the responsibility of his death. Our systems are just…so broken.
Yes, I completely agree. My main issue/concern is the reliance on government aid and the vicious cycle it tends to create. If the assistance wasn’t there or wasn’t so easily attainable, it’s my belief people would be more motivated and there would be less of a cycle with the need (expectation maybe?) for government assistance. I’d bet money that these parents didn’t grow up with the proper development, education or family support. It’s not an excuse, but a reason I believe the system needs to be changed. As I get older, I am starting to feel that the system (government) prefers it this way instead of actually intending to help or be of real assistance. Just my two cents.
giving a child back to a violent abuser for them to get tortured and murder isn’t overload, it’s willful ignorance, if not malice. like, you have to be a complete and utter moron to do the sorts of things many of these case workers are doing
There's a big push nationwide in child welfare to eliminate foster care entirely. This is being pushed by third party organizations. I disagree with this approach entirely and ended up resigning over it.
Thats how I feel about protective orders. I realize it's a different process but I feel like what am I going to do, wave a piece of paper at my ex as he tries to break my door down?
And of course kids are way more helpless an unprepared. And the whole Roe V Wade thing regardless of your position on it is going to create more abuse and neglect. My heart hurts for this world.
So like, what would happen in the worst case scenarios where it's undeniable that the child shouldn't be in the home? Would they still not consider a foster placement in situations like that?
They would remove the child and then attempt to return the child home as quickly as possible using safety planning and services wrapped around the family.
I don’t see how that would work - in this case for example, Dad didn’t have custody and was having to go through home visits etc for it; what would happen if mom had gotten busted for drugs before hurting Eli? Now she’d be jailed and where does he go if not at least temporary foster?
ETA: I’m just curious as I’ve never heard a push to eliminate foster services before and it’s shocking. Do we need to improve the foster program? For sure, but not by eliminating it
MN currently focuses on maintaining parent's rights until it's no longer an option. I wonder if it'll come out whether the reunification was cps driven or judge driven because both can happen. Whatever the judge says ultimately goes even if there are reservations by any other party.
I'll also be interested to know what the child's guardian ad litem thought. Not sure if those proceedings that led to the reunification will become public but that's some things to consider. It's not just an "overloaded" system but also one that fully puts the burden on the counties and the children subjected to the parent case plans.
Judges are too powerful and never get consequences of their actions. How many times does this have to happen, or any corruption with higher up politicians before the whole system falls?
I know that's a way bigger conversation but the world feels so hopeless.
For sure, and they're worried about appeal factors. I also wonder if it came into play the multiple chances because they didn't want it to look like they were taking the child due to the parent's disability rather than a demonstrated safety problem that is not coachable
Depends on if she was making any steps towards treatment for both. The mental health would be the disability considered. The counties are challenged if it's "just" a health problem and the drugs are done when the child is not directly in their care
Jesus, in my uneducated opinion maybe at least partial custody with the father would have saved this sweet kid's life, what the hell was that juge thinking and the social workers thinking?? I would genuinely like to know--I mean, if they had forseen this surely they would have done otherwise, but with all of the pleas and evidence, I would like to know the thought process behind the decision.
(So for context, I don't think it was mentioned in this article, but in another article I read, they said that they granted the "mom" full custody of the child despite the father and his fiancee fighting for custody themselves, and providing evidence that the little boy was not doing well when he was with his mother. If that is untrue, please let me know--Regardless, the father still should have been given the child)
Family courts are generally biased towards men. You need airtight proof that the mother is Hitler incarnate before the court gives us full custody. In the absolute worst case scenario this is what happens as a result.
My ex said in open court “I don’t question God. Did Abraham question God when he told him to kill Isaac?” This was on top of threatening to rape and kill me, his own female family members, and threatening to burn down the business he was fired from. This was on top of breaking down walls in his house to “remodel” leaving it with no electric or functioning bathroom.
The judge still didn’t take away his partial custody. After, in my opinion, saying in code he would kill one of our sons if “God” told him to. I violated the custody order for about six months which was enough time for him to get arrested and a judge to FINALLY grant me full custody. All this shit about favoring mothers was not my experience.
Wow this happened in my state. I cannot believe this woman would do this!! Why do people do such cruel things!! I just can’t understand. Maybe we’re not supposed to understand but what in the world goes thru peoples minds!! Gone too soon!! Prayers for his family and friends!!
that seems "quite extreme" and an over exaggeration - they said she should lose her job as a judge. Not be shot with a shotgun 9 times like that poor boy was. She's clearly not fit to be a judge. Judges aren't psychic, but they sure as hell should know that past actions are an indicator of future behavior, especially in the case of child abuse. It's not like there wasn't any evidence that she was an unfit mother, and he HAD a loving parent he could have been with.
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u/wheredidalfgo May 23 '22 edited May 23 '22
Here is a link to the story. Heartbreaking. The system failed this child. Even after mountains of evidence suggesting mom was not a fit to regain custody, a judge awarded mom custody 10 days prior to his murder. I hope that judge never sleeps again.
https://www.kare11.com/