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The Trial of Gabriel Fernandez

Amber Haffly

Department of Counseling, University of Texas at San Antonio

COU 6973: Child Abuse and Domestic Violence

Professor Ashley Jackson

April 19, 2023

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The Trial of Gabriel Fernandez

Watching this was extremely hard. I had so many reactions and emotions while watching

this movie. Simply reading up on what the series was about was hard to read. As a mother, it

infuriated me. Parents are supposed to protect and love their children, plain and simple end of

story. Gabriel was not protected in any way by his mom, stepfather, or the social workers

involved. As human, it further infuriated me, but it also made me sad. How does a human being

treat a child this way? I cannot comprehend the evil that these two individuals were capable of

and carried out. I also cannot comprehend the torture and pain that Gabriel had to endure at their

hands. Emotionally I was all over the place, as well watching it made me physically sick. Several

times throughout this movie I would end up sick to my stomach after hearing some of things that

happened. I had to take several breaks throughout the series due to it affecting my mood and

mental health.

In this class, we defined child abuse as “parent or caregiver, whether through action or

failing to act causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child”. In the case

of Gabriel, this boy suffered abuse in such a horrible manner that ultimately ended in his death.

Gabriel suffered horrible acts of abuse, some of those were being beaten with open fists, beaten

with a baseball bat, being shot with a BB gun, being forced to sleep in a cupboard (sometimes

with a sock in his mouth) and forced to eat cat litter among other horrible atrocities. To me, this

is a clear situation of child abuse. Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre were the parents and

caretaker and through their actions caused injury, emotional harm and ultimately his tragic death.

Gabriel’s teacher did the right thing in reporting it to the child welfare line and the security guard

did the right thing in reporting to the sheriff’s department.

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The system failed Gabriel in every single way. Since Pearl gave him away to his

grandparents when he was a baby, there is no reason she should have had the chance to get him

back. Gabriel seemed to be happy while living with his uncle and his uncle’s husband, but

moreover he was safe there. He was also safe with his grandparents until Pearl showed back up

and wanted him solely for the fact that she wanted to get the welfare money that came with

getting her son back. The system failed when they decided that his mother should get him back

for starters. Secondly, the system failed when the social worker (s) involved did not do their job,

which was to protect Gabriel. According to a report, when an incident of child abuse is reported,

case workers must bring the child to a special child abuse doctor partnered with the Los Angeles

Department of Child and Family services (DCFS) to be evaluated (Hinkamp, 2021). This did not

happen in Gabriel’s case; he never saw this doctor or any other doctor. I have to wonder, had the

social worker done her job when she got the first call, would Gabriel be alive today. The only

one who appeared to care was Gabriel’s teacher Jennifer Garcia. She became concerned when he

would ask her questions and when he would come to school with noticeable marks on him.

When it comes to what legal considerations in order to protect others like Gabriel, I do

not know where to begin. In my opinion, Pearl should never have gotten Gabriel back. She did

not want him after she had him, therefore she should not have been able to get custody of him

later on when it suited her and what she wanted. Parents, caregivers like Pearl and Isauro have no

right to be taking care of children. Gabriel did not stand a chance with those two. I know this is

something that will never happen, but I honestly feel like some people need have a license to be

a parent. Prove to the courts or to special panel that you are fit to be parents and take care of

another human being. There are entirely to many cases such as these that we hear and read about

on a daily basis, and something has to change. For Gabriel and all the others that are, were facing
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a similar situation, what is being done to protect them? In Gabriel’s case, nothing was done. The

system, the social workers failed him miserably. I understand that the system is overwhelmed,

but that should not mean that children fall through the cracks and end up dead. I am not sure how

to compensate for the social workers who have too many cases as it is, but there has to be

something, someone that can lend a hand. There needs to be accountability and there needs to be

way to protect the children from these monsters.

As a future professional, as we know we have a duty to report any and all suspicions of

child abuse to the proper authorities. Making sure we do that even if the investigation turns out to

show nothing is happening, it is better to be safe than sorry. We also need to somehow let the

children know that we take them seriously. They need to know that someone is going to be there

for them if they need to talk to someone or report something that is happening at home. Everyone

that is contact with the child on a daily basis like teachers, school counselors and school

administrators need to know what they should be watching out for. Getting more training for

teachers and school staff should be considered. But then you also have the social workers who

are supposed to be the ones who make these decisions about welfare of the children. Like I said

previously, the system is flawed and overwhelmed but how do we fix that? How do we make

sure that these children are protected, heard, and believed? Something needs to be done at that

level to ensure that they are doing their job so no child falls through the cracks if they are being

abused and to ensure that the abuser is punished.

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References

Hinkamp, C. (2021). Children's Legal Rights Journal - Loyola University Chicago. Retrieved

April 13, 2023, from [Link]

article=1233&context=clrj

The Trial of Gabriel Fernandez. (Netflix, 2020).