Clarissa Quigley

Period 2

Dr. Haslam

Engl. 2010

Ms. Garcia

In the year 2019, an estimated 1,840 children died of child abuse or neglect. My project is

on Utah CPS and their faults on protecting children and abusing their powers. The story of

Gabriel Fernandez is a story many people have heard of, but nothing has really been done to

prevent similar mistakes from happening. This is the story of Ms. Jennifer Garcia.

Ms. Jennifer Garcia was a regular elementary school teacher at Summerwind Elementary

School in Palmdale, California. In the school year 2012-2013, she was the teacher to a little eight

year old boy named Gabriel Fernandez. Gabriel was abused and eventually killed by his mother,

Pearl, and her boyfriend, Isauro. They would hit Gabriel with baseball bats, their fists, and even

put their cigarettes out on his skin. Ms. Garcia noticed and reported what she saw and what

Gabriel told her to Child Protective Services on multiple occasions. But to no avail, he died

because of his severe injuries.

In the Netflix series “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez”, Ms. Garcia makes appearances in

which she explains what she saw and what Gabriel had told her. In the documentary series, she

stated, “The first incident that I became aware that something wasn’t normal, he started asking a

couple of questions. “Is it normal for your mom to hit you with a belt?'... And then he said, 'But

you know, is it normal to bleed?' “I think right there, I knew I was going to call the hotline that

day after school, and that’s what I did.” This was the first of many occasions where Ms. Garcia

had a heart-wrenching conversation with Gabriel about his abuse. Another time, Ms. Garcia saw
welts on his face and when she asked him where they came from, Gabriel explained that he had

fallen, but he later confessed that he had lied. In reality, his mother, Pearl, had shotton him with a

BB gun. When Ms. Garcia asked why he lied, he responded with, “Because when I tell you, and

that lady comes, I get hurt worse.” (referring to a social worker). Again, she made a call. “After

the incident with the BB gun, there was a long absence and I just remember when he came in, I

was like, his forehead had skin that looked it had been coming off.” Ms. Garcia said.

Despite Ms. Garcia’s efforts, the case was never taken as seriously as it should have been.

The social workers assigned to this case weren’t able to prevent the obvious abuse going on in

this family. Which is a fault of the social workers and DCFS, not Ms. Garcia. She did everything

right. In the article “The Role of Teachers in Recognizing & Reporting Child Abuse”, it says,

“Teachers are mandated reporters of suspected child abuse, which means they have a legal

obligation to report any suspicion of maltreatment.” Therefore, Ms. Garcia did right by Gabriel

Fernandez. One of the files for the case of Gabriel Fernandez was against the social workers

assigned to Gabriel’s case.

Not much has been heard from Ms. Garcia since the docu series on Netflix, but in the end

of it, she mentioned that she never assigns the number 28 to another student because that was

Gabriel’s number. “For the last five years, Gabriel has been number 28 in my classroom. I don’t

assign number 28 to another student because I feel it’s only his number now. And it’s a way for

me to honor him in my classroom. It almost makes it like he’s still here. I find comfort in

believing he is now at peace, he cannot be harmed anymore. And I know that, unlike him, his

abusers will never have peace. They will have a lifetime of suffering to endure. I know I’m not

alone in hoping that they experience the same abuse in their lifetime and worse.” This was a

statement that Ms. Garcia had made at the verdict reading of Gabriel’s abusers. Luckily,
Gabriel’s mother, Pearl, was given life in prison with no chance of parole, and her boyfriend,

Isauro, was given the death penalty. While justice has been served, Ms. Garcia continues to live

with the guilt that she could have done something more, when there was nothing else she could

do. This is just one example of the faults in the Child Protective System and what it can do to not

only innocent children’s lives, but also adult’s lives.