The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez-Should the social workers have been held criminally negligent?

Question

Bonus question- who thinks the teacher should also be held responsible? She did her job but she could have done more 🤷🏻‍♀️

Accepted Answer

What more could the teacher have done? She did exactly what she was supposed to do, she reported to child services. Was she supposed to show up at his house and intervene? As a teacher, that is crossing the professional line. If she called the police, I'm sure they would have asked her to contact child services. Teachers are held up to strict protocol. She did the best she could do in that situation.

Answer

The police should have also been held accountable. They never saw the child, just believed the mother and her bf. The social workers definitely should have removed him from the home. I think the teacher did what she could. Her principle was not supportive in her reporting and getting involved and the social worker didn’t follow up on her concerns. The system definitely let that boy down

Answer

As a teacher, we are required to report to CPS within 24 hours. Then it is out of our hands. We are not trained to do anything else. We are not supposed to do anything else. It is outside our scope of practice.  
Disclaimer: haven’t watched this yet because it disturbs me. So if the teacher failed to call CPS, they can catch a charge.

Answer

I haven’t watched the documentary, but all a teacher can do is report it. They can’t physically do any more than that. From what I’ve read, the mother didn’t even have custody of him, and that should be looked into and someone should be held accountable for not taking him out the home with that knowledge.

Answer

The social workers absolutely should have been held liable, especially for falsifying documents to cover up their negligence. 
The teacher reported everything to DCF. She should not be held liable

Answer

I believe if they lied on their contact notes in the case file, yes. There is no excuse to not so a home visit. Having stated that, cps cant enter your house if you tell them no. As a former cps investigator, some parents are very cunning and skilled at lying. The way I was though, if you were avoiding me speaking to your child at all costs, I will find a way to lay eyes on the child. I've been on a stake out just to check on a child that had physical abuse. Only if its imminent danger and I coukd articulate to a judge why I did what I did.. if I caught a contempt charge, so be it. 
There is no excuse to lie about seeing a child. None.

Answer

Personally I felt the teacher was just as much to blame as the social workers. She physically saw the state Gabriel was in and still alowed him to get on the bus crying as he said he didn't want to go home.Also,when he came to school with a full blown swollen face from getting shot with a bb gun she waited until recess to pull him aside and ask what happened 😑 When a childs life is so obviously in danger screw protocol and job security.

Answer

Yes the social workers should be punished. So should teacher, if you think a child is wing that badly abused, you don’t let that child go home. You take that child to the hospital. That little boy had no one. All the people that should have protected him, failed.

Answer

There shouldn't have to be child deaths for protective services to realise they need to reform.
A very sad, but famous example was the death of Victoria Climbie in the UK. This triggered a major reform in all protective services, which shouldn't have even been necessary. If they did their jobs from the get go, she and other kids would still be alive today.
Everyone involved who failed this boy should be charged with negligence and never be allowed to work in the field again. Too many kids have died preventable deaths.

Answer

What more could the teach have done? Kidnap him? As for CPS you bet your ass they should be brought up on charges! If they did their damn job that little boy would be alive today.  They worry so much about good parents just trying to parent that these kids who really need help fall through the cracks. Why? Idk but it's bull shit when my friends kid is taken away because their dog got into some weed.

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez-Should the social workers have been held criminally negligent?

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