I continue to marvel at how bizarrely we treat child abuse.

On one hand, any person can report child abuse against someone else and cause the services to step in and remove the child, often without any evidence of abuse or neglect. The services will put both parent and child through a series of exams, court hearings, therapy sessions before allowing the child back with his parents. Throughout the process, evidence that there is little reason for child protective services to be involved will be ignored.

Such cases would imply that child protective services and police are overzealous due to concern over child abuse. On the other hand, something like this happens to remind people that is not always the case:

Gabriel Fernandez was an 8-year-old boy who was tortured to death by his parents. His abuse was reported multiple times by his teacher and others who witnessed his horrifying injuries. However, the system that is ostensibly in place to prevent such abuse ultimately failed. Not one, but nine police officers tasked with investigating Gabriel’s abuse, refused to write so much as a single report that could’ve saved his life.

Not one officer, but nine. How many times does one need to see an abused child before one thinks someone should stop the abuse? Continue reading →