I had no idea who Ariel Robinson was until I read about her this morning. Apparently she won Season 20 of Worst Cooks in America, but her notoriety will no doubt focus on the murder of her three year old adopted daughter, Victoria. Why Victoria and her two brothers were first put into foster care and ultimately put up for adoption is unclear based on what I have been able to find, but Victoria was found unresponsive in the home on January 14th and it has been determined that she died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. Both Ariel and her husband have been arrested and charged with homicide. DSHS in South Carolina, where this occurred, is currently evaluating the safety of Victoria's two brothers, who were also adopted by the Robinsons. There are reports that all three children were often seen with bruises on their head, neck, and shoulders.

I do not want to make this about race, but I also don't want to omit the clear fact that the Robinsons are black and Victoria and her brothers are white. I don't know if race is material to the case, though some of the articles I found suggest that it was a point highlighted by Robinson in Twitter posts she made around the time of the adoption - adopting white children completed her multicultural family, etc. We can discuss that and I am very aware that black children and other children from minority populations suffer abuse and neglect in foster and adoptive homes than white children do, but I think we can all agree that the murder of a child is always wrong and steps must be taken to stop it. What I would really like to focus on are two factors.

1) Adoption screening. As a result of this case, there is a change.org petition going around right now for Victoria's Law, which advocates for reforming the adoption screening process in South Carolina to try and prevent tragedies like this from occurring. What changes do you think would make a difference? How should screening be done differently? Is there a way to determine 100% that a child will be safe in a home?

2) Do you think that Victoria was more vulnerable because she was a girl? She was the only girl in the family. The Robinson's have two biological sons and two adopted sons, Victoria's biological brothers. The adopted sons were seen with bruises also, but only Victoria suffered trauma to the point of death. I do not ask this to minimize the suffering of her brothers and I do not know if the Robinson's abused their biological sons as well, but Victoria is the one who appears to have come in for the worst of it. Do you think being a girl put her in a more dangerous position?

Bonus question: Why was Ariel Robinson not more thoroughly vetted before being selected to appear on a tv show? Is it possible that this situation might have been prevented if the network had been more vigilant in their screening process as well?