How Gabriel Fernandez’s Case Affected the Foster Care System

Every child deserves a parent, but not every parent deserves a child.

This phrase especially rings true for Gabriel Fernandez, an eight-year-old boy who suffered severe abuse and neglect at the hands of his biological mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. The violence and torture extended over an eight-month period, ending on May 22, 2013, when the brutality of Aguirre’s physical beating resulted in Gabriel’s death. 

Known as one of the most horrific child abuse cases in the U.S., the Gabriel Fernandez case exposed the astonishing misconduct of the DCFS (Department of Child and Family Services). It was the very first child abuse case where prosecutors seek to charge the abusers with the death penalty. (Isauro Aguirre ended up being placed on death row, while Pearl Fernandez ended up serving life without parole after taking a plea deal.) Additionally, it was also the very first case where prosecutors attempted to convict the four social workers assigned to Gabriel’s case prior to his death (though the trial never went through).

Gabriel’s numerous injuries were undeniable. Throughout the eight months when Gabriel was in his mother’s custody, Gabriel’s teachers, neighbors, and relatives reported their suspicions to the DCFS over eight times, but social workers never took official action to remove Gabriel from his household. At one point, when the police department was involved, police officers took Gabriel aside and threatened him to “stop lying.”

When asked about the social workers’ negligence in the Netflix docu-series, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez, Gabriel’s teacher, Jennifer Garcia, expressed, “To me, the social workers—I’m upset. Why didn’t she see what I saw? Why didn’t she believe him and know that that was not okay?”

While the charges against the social workers were dropped, all four were terminated. 

As the news continued to report more details of this case, public outrage demanded accountability and reform within the DCFS. People staged protests directly outside the department, and the nation was relentless in its criticism. So . . . have things changed?

On June 21, 2018, a ten-year-old boy named Anthony Avalos died from continuous abuse at the hands of his mother, Heather Barron, and her boyfriend, Kareem Leiva. Over thirteen calls were made to the DCFS to no avail. Prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty. 

On July 6, 2019, a four-year-old boy named Noah Cuatro died from consistent torture his biological parents, Jose Maria Cuatro Jr. and Ursula Elaine Juarez, inflicted upon him. Two months prior to his death, a court order was issued to remove Noah from his household, but the DCFS never carried out that order.

And these were just the child deaths that made the news. The DCFS keeps their records of child fatalities sealed, so exactly how many children suffered because of the DCFS’s misconduct and incompetence? 

A few changes have been made since Gabriel Fernandez’s case, with the most cited being the reduction in cases per social worker from an average of 18 cases to an average of 11. However, as shown above, it is clearly not enough.

Arguably, one of the best ways to ensure that cases like Gabriel’s, Noah’s, and Anthony’s never happens again is by implementing Gabriel’s Law (a bill that proposes changes to the way CPS operates). The bill demands reforms such as a nationwide reporting system accessible to all child care agencies, a child abuse curriculum to be established in schools, juvenile halls, etc., stricter criteria for social workers, imprisonment for adults (within the child’s household) who fail to report the child abuse, and more.

There are multiple petitions online that have called for Gabriel’s Law to be carried out, with one even receiving over 440,000 signatures. 

“There is a systematic failure in communication with regards to the safety and welfare of at-risk children who depend on adults to protect them . . . We are in an era of technology where we have need to improve, exponentially, our ability and duties to safeguard children. Records for child abuse fatalities should be unsealed and social workers who have repeat fatalities need to be investigated and retrained.”

The original bill was written and introduced by California State Assembly member Tom Lackey and California State Senator Scott Wilk in 2018, but failed to pass the Assembly Public Safety Committee. The two reintroduced a similar version in 2019, and it passed the Assembly on January 14, 2020. 

Lackey stated,

“ . . . it has taken us three years to accomplish that task, but we’ve been very patient because this is a very critical bill and a very big part of the solution that’s desperately needed.”

While the bill still needs to be signed by the state governor in order to be enacted, Lackey has full confidence that the bill will pass.