# Boy Beaten To Death Had Penned Suicidal Note, System 'missed' Red Flags



## NOEChic (May 31, 2013)

Not for the faint of heart.







The news of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez's tragic beating and torture death has people dumbfounded and asking, "Why?" Why would someone do this to a child? Why did Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services not remove him from his abusive environment? Why did this poor boy die? These questions are currently under investigation by the county, and more details on the abuse and failure within the system have come to light.

When paramedics arrived at the Palmdale home of Fernandez last Wednesday, they found the boy *barely breathing and broken. His "skull was cracked, three ribs were broken and his skin was bruised and burned," reports the L.A. Times. "He had BB pellets embedded in his lung and groin. Two teeth were knocked out of his mouth.*" He died at the hospital Friday. His mother, 29-year-old Pearl Fernandez, told paramedics his injuries were the result of self-mutilation.

Isauro Aguirre, Pearl's 32-year-old boyfriend, admitted to repeatedly beating the boy for lying and "being dirty," per documents obtained by the Times. Pearl admitted to being present during the brutal assault and doing nothing to stop it. The couple was arrested and later charged with capital murder.

Relatives, teachers and other mothers at Fernandez's school told officials the signs of child abuse were obvious, yet the boy remained in the unsafe environment since October, when Pearl won custody of him from her parents. 

So the question still remains: Why was he not rescued from him home? In a story published Thursday by the Times entitled, "Signs of boy's abuse missed by L.A. County social workers," evidence of the continued abuse was present, yet red flags failed to convince social workers the boy was in danger. The list is long.

*Fernandez had previously written a note contemplating suicide, his teacher told authorities he appeared bruised and battered at school, bruises from BB pellets were evident on his face, his therapist submitted a complaint in late March that the boy had been forced to perform oral sex on a relative and a referral to conduct an investigation into child abuse at the home lingered two months past deadline*. Says the Times, *"The social worker assigned to that case did not make first contact with the family until 20 days after the complaint was received, and then 'made minimal attempts to investigate,' according to an internal county report." Every investigation except for one was determined "unfounded."*

*Pearl's history with the department goes back at least 10 years, when her oldest son, wearing no seat belt, suffered a head injury in a car accident. A report surfaced a year later that Pearl was beating the son and no longer wished to care for him, but the complaint was "unfounded." Pearl also told social workers of her history of gang involvement, drug use and mental problems. Another complaint surfaced in 2007 that she was starving one of her daughters and threatened to break the girl's jaw for crying. She also spent time in jail in Texas for using a weapon in a reckless manner*.

Yet somehow she regained custody of Fernandez and his two siblings in October. Up until then, Fernandez had little interaction with his mother. 

Speculation points to welfare money as the motive behind the custody request.

The calls and complaints continued for months.

*Four social workers have been placed on desk duty and await possible disciplinary action, and the department has fallen under heavy criticism. *"Department of Children and Family Services Director Philip Browning acknowledged in an interview that the system failed Gabriel," according to the Times, and friends and relatives of Fernandez have helped stage several protests, organized fundraisers and set up a Facebook page, "Gabriel's Justice." It has garnered over 26,000 likes so far.

Aguirre and Pearl's arraignment has been scheduled for June 11


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## UmSumayyah (May 31, 2013)

Why did I read this.

RIP sweet boy.


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## nathansgirl1908 (May 31, 2013)

They need to start prosecuting these social workers. 

And whoever gave her custody should be fired and charged.  Some idiot judge or mediator. 
This stuff is just beyond crazy.


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## mzteaze (May 31, 2013)

Just wow.  So much time spent shuffling papers and blame on others while the pleas of this boy languished in a pile.


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## EagleEyes85 (May 31, 2013)

This is horrible beyond words. 

All I can say is may this sweet boy rest in peace, and may his mom and her evil bf burn in hell.


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## tiffers (May 31, 2013)

My soul is crying. I don't have any other way of explaining it. My soul hurts.


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## Truth (Jun 1, 2013)

I will never in my life understand how someone can hurt a child, let alone their own child. That sweet boy. It probably could have been prevented had the social workers did their damn job. ugh This sh!t pisses me off.


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## ShiShiPooPoo (Jun 1, 2013)

Almost the same scenario with a girl from my son's daycare class.

They were both two at the time.

The girl's mother had a history of abusing her daughters both sexual and physical.  She also had mental problems.  After spending time in prison, she returned and TOLD THE SOCIAL WORKERS THAT SHE DID NOT THINK SHE COULD CARE FOR THE LITTLE GIRL.

I was 6 months pregnant with my dd and on bedrest when my dh took our son to daycare that morning.  He came back in a daze and just said, "Jessie (not real name) is dead."  I couldn't believe it.  The mother beat the baby to death.  That was very, very hard to go to his class and not see her anymore walking up to me and waving with her big 'ol juicy cheeks.  Several social workers lost their jobs after that one.  They should be brought up on charges if you ask me.

It's hard being a teacher and seeing these things, reporting them, and nothing happening.

Once, a student of mine came in with a huge gash going down the back of his neck.  He looked sore and depressed and sullen...like he wanted to die really.  It was hard looking at him.  When I asked him what happened, he said his father choked him because of the bad grade he got on a test the day before.  He said he beat him and grabbed him and scratched his neck.  When I tell ya'll his neck was scratched to the white meat, I saw white meat.  SO, being a new teacher, I try to follow the chain.  I report it to the counselor, fill out the social work referral.  I read up on the policy.  HE WAS NOT TO RETURN HOME ON THE BUS.  HE WAS TO BE KEPT AT THE SCHOOL UNTIL A DFACS WORKER CAME.  Do you know, they let him get on the bus and go home?  They said they didn't see any grounds for taking it further.  They had called the mom and talked to her.  Now, how logical is THAT???  Ya'll, I was sooooo upset that I VOWED to not let that happen again.  I swore that I would lose my job before I allowed that to happen again, even if I have to physically block a student from going home.  

The system is BEYOND MESSED UP.  Ya'll have no idea. Or you probably do.

ETA: I will **** somebody up over a kid now.  Seriously, I don't play when it comes to my kids or anyone else's.


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## CurlyNiquee (Jun 1, 2013)

My heart.  I cannot take hearing about this kind of stuff...

I hope they get the book thrown at them.


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## Solila (Jun 1, 2013)

This reminds me so much of that little girl whose mother handed her off to a pedofile in exchange for drugs. 

How can you do such things to children? I just don't understand.


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## NOEChic (Jun 1, 2013)

This reminds me of  Elisa Izquierdo 6 year old girl who died in 1995 in New York.  Her mom used her hair as a mop.  I was 14 when I read this story and it has stuck with me ALL these years, I am 31.  I read up on the story today and the LACK of help this child got from the system when there were many people in her life that wanted/tried to help her is appalling.  Everybody did what they were supposed to do, report, call the police, and report again, short of kidnapping the child and still nothing happened.  This whole return the kids to their parents thing regardless of the incompetency of the parent pisses me completely off.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1995/12/10/the-death-of-little-elisa.html


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## Everything Zen (Jun 1, 2013)

But FOLKS will still fight tooth and nail to prevent the possibility of forced sterilization on some of these animals. SMMFH


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## caligirl (Jun 1, 2013)

I have to stop coming on LHCF because of stories like these.  It's bad enough I don't watch t.v. anymore and have to be careful what pops up on yahoo news feed.


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## SoopremeBeing (Jun 1, 2013)

They dont even need to bother wasting the tax payers money by prosecuting these animals. Fry em. Send out the firing squad. And make an example of the SWs and the judges that failed this child and his siblings.


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## nissi (Jun 1, 2013)

The "mother": 





The two of them:


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## Okay (Jun 1, 2013)

Why did I read this...........


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## Proudpiscean (Jun 1, 2013)

I hope both of them suffer the worst beatings in prison while the guards turn a blind eye.


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## DeepBluSea (Jun 1, 2013)

The thing I don't get is her parents had custody.  I don't know if they were good or bad.  But she didn't have to deal with the kid.  WHY did she want him back just to torture the poor soul.  He is truly in a better place bc his short life sounds like hell on earth.


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## prettynatural (Jun 1, 2013)

This is sad. This mother looks of pure evil!!! Unfortunately, there are not a lot of protection when it comes to abuse allegations.. I don't know anything about California law but where I live, we have CPIT meeting in every county, every week that compose of a District Attorney, DCS workers, police detective, mental health professional and a CPIT coordinator that discuss and staff each case that has not been screened out. The team says, yay or nay and discuss about evidence etc if they can prosecute a case. 

This case has been an epic failure on all sides from court officials on downward. I know some of the issues are finding placement but there is no excuse to leave a child in this situation. I hope they will revamp their processes to make sure nothing like this ever happens again. We had a law suit in my state about AA males and placement and it took a tragedy to streamline processes and instill new measures. We are doing much better in our state.  

I hope they are both prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.


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## likeacharm (Jun 1, 2013)

DeepBluSea said:


> The thing I don't get is her parents had custody.  I don't know if they were good or bad.  But she didn't have to deal with the kid.  WHY did she want him back just to torture the poor soul.  He is truly in a better place bc his short life sounds like hell on earth.



Somewhere in the article it mentions that she probably took custody of him in order to get additional welfare money.


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## Sosa (Feb 29, 2020)

Watching the Netflix documentary on this now.
My heart breaks for this boy.

So many people failed him. He is definitely in a better place now.


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## LdyKamz (Feb 29, 2020)

Sosa said:


> Watching the Netflix documentary on this now.
> My heart breaks for this boy.
> 
> So many people failed him. He is definitely in a better place now.


What is it called?


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## qchelle (Feb 29, 2020)

LdyKamz said:


> What is it called?



The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez


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## natural in ATL (Feb 29, 2020)

I’m watching it as well and it’s keeping me up at night thinking about Gabriel. I missed this story when it first came out. The evil nature of this crime is so unsettling. The part where they found cat litter in his stomach during the autopsy almost made me stop watching. I just can’t understand this level of evil.


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Feb 29, 2020)

I can’t watch this show. It sickens me what some children in this world have to live through.


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## january noir (Feb 29, 2020)

I watched this morning.  It messed up my day.  I broke down and sobbed for minutes several times while watching.  I can’t wrap my head around everything that happened to him and how no one rescued him.


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## Ganjababy (Mar 4, 2020)

I cannot watch it.


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## CurlyNiquee (Mar 6, 2020)

Someone interviewed a woman who was locked up with Pearl. Apparently they dog walked Pearl once they found out what she did, she provides the details. 


NSFW due to language.


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## CurlyNiquee (Mar 6, 2020)

I watched this documentary 5 days ago, there hasn’t been one day that has passed that I haven’t thought about Gabriel and what they did to him.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Mar 9, 2020)

ShiShiPooPoo said:


> Almost the same scenario with a girl from my son's daycare class.
> 
> They were both two at the time.
> 
> ...


We are mandatory reporters as well.
What I do is I make my calls and document it, via email to a higher up because teacher emails and ours are subject to public record. When you email people, write stuff down, and follow up, they should be perking up. I also do the: "so we are not following policy today?" question...then wait. If you have to call the police...do so. Sound the alarm. Make noise. DCF in our area is incompetent as well. Sometimes they do too much. Sometimes they miss the mark. We don't have to report to chain of command. We call DCF ourselves and tell the higher ups later.... The parents be mad. But I be like: Stay Mad. We lost a baby a few years ago. 2 years old. Pistol Whipped by his mama boyfriend of 2 months. 2 Months!!!. I had to leave the funeral. Saddest thing you will ever have to see. Because the abuse wounds were STILL THERE on that baby in his casket.... I swore...never...ever on my watch. I had the police come to my office one day. And that BIH in jail. He raped an 11 year old and got her pregnant. Her own mama boyfriend. The grandma got child services involved. I say---great...who called the police!? Oh no one? Well today is all ya'll lucky day.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Mar 9, 2020)

CurlyNiquee said:


> Someone interviewed a woman who was locked up with Pearl. Apparently they dog walked Pearl once they found out what she did, she provides the details.
> 
> 
> NSFW due to language.


GOOD. Hope they dragged her physically. Then again after the movie came out. And I'm pretty sure she was in a gang.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Mar 9, 2020)

Everything Zen said:


> But FOLKS will still fight tooth and nail to prevent the possibility of forced sterilization on some of these animals. SMMFH


You opening up a can of worms.
People will fight any program that allows VOLUNTARY sterilization. They have before.


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