Children deserve more

The gruesome details that have trickled out about a 4-year-old Michigan girl’s death are hard to stomach.

Gabrielle Barrett, 4, of Washtenaw County was found dead in her mobile home with burns and bruises over her entire body.

As a society, we must do more to protect our children from real-life monsters.

Gabrielle’s mother, Candice Diaz, and her boyfriend, Brad Fields, were charged with murder, child abuse, and torture in the girl’s death. The couple have a long string of diagnosed mental illnesses but admitted they had not been taking their medicine.

When police went to the child’s mobile home in 2016 on a domestic assault call, officers described the home as filthy, with decaying food, flies, and dog feces in the child’s bedroom.

Is this, along with the extensive mental illness history of the adults in the home, not enough for people to ask questions? To take children from the home until the parents prove they are fit? To at least cause family members or child services workers to stop by?

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has now filed a court document seeking to have Gabrielle’s 1-year-old half-sister removed from the home because of “improper supervision and physical abuse resulting in a child death.”

It is ridiculous that a court order even needs to be filed. But no judge will be able to save Gabrielle. Hers is another life snuffed out much too soon. Her death should result in serious questions about how we can do better in protecting our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. It is obvious that not enough is being done now.

Read the full editorial from the Toledo Blade at bit. ly/2ENHW59