The Duty of Social Workers to Intervene

Child Abuse Case

Gabriel Fernandez was only eight years old when in 2013 he suffered from repetitive, violent, torturous abuse from his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. The abuse was so horrific that when news of it hit the wire it received national attention. Gabriel was beaten with a belt buckle, shot with a BB gun, forced to eat cat litter, and locked in a small cabinet for hours at a time, basically treated like an animal and abused inhumanely, starved, burned with cigarettes, and pepper-sprayed. The tragic end result of all this abuse was that Gabriel was one day found unresponsive with a fractured skull. His ribs had been broken and he had serious burns on his body. Within two days, he was dead. This level of abuse may seem rare or extraordinary, but it is not, and it also does not happen in a bubble. There are ways to spot it and prevent it.

Gabriel’s situation can be explained by the presence of multiple risk factors that made him very vulnerable to this level of abuse. One of the most serious factors was the family situation, characterized by extreme domestic violence. Gabriel’s mother had a history of criminal behavior and drug abuse, and her relationship with Aguirre was volatile and abusive. These should have been red flags for social workers. Research has shown that children living in households with domestic violence are at a much higher risk of being abused themselves (Carnevale et al., 2020). In such situations, violence becomes a norm, and the likelihood of a child being subjected to abuse increases dramatically.

Another risk factor in Gabriel’s case was parental substance abuse. Pearl Fernandez’s history of drug use showed poor self-control, poor decision making, poor accountability, and major instability. She was neither concerned about her own safety or the safety of her child. She was not operating in a very rational state. Parents with substance abuse issues tend to struggle to provide protection for their children, as their judgment and reason are seriously impaired by drug or alcohol addiction. They themselves tend to be volatile and capable of abusive behavior (Carnevale et al., 2020).

The failure of the child welfare system to protect Gabriel was another big factor that contributed to his abuse. Despite multiple reports to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services about the ongoing abuse, there was no effective intervention that was made. There was plenty of evidence of abuse, and the boy even stated he wanted to kill himself multiple times because his life was so bad. The case workers were actually brought to court for not doing their jobs correctly—gross misconduct (Child Welfare Monitor, 2018). Clearly, the child welfare system has to have workers who can take action when warning signs of abuse are obvious. But children who are repeatedly overlooked by child protection agencies are at a much higher risk of suffering severe abuse.