I am a very sensitive person at times. Sometimes I can write articles with dry eyes but sometimes writing about an innocent child that has been abused, molested or killed by someone that should be the one person in their life to protect them, I really get emotional.

A mother should have a special bond with a child she has given birth to. No one knows the pain and agony a woman goes through to give birth. Almost all the women I know including myself have said at one time or another during the final months of a pregnancy that they will never do this again. During childbirth if they are awake and in a lot of pain, they scream out to the father that they have changed their minds, they don’t want to give birth, but we all know it is at this time a bit late to decide you don’t want a baby. But once it is all over and we have that precious child in our arms we forget all about all the agony and the pain and we look at the newborn baby, counting its fingers and toes and we see what a miracle God had given us. None of that pain seems relevant any longer and we know that it was all worth it and we naturally have unconditional love for this child.

Well OK that is how most women are, but sadly enough I am learning that not all mothers feel proud to be a mother. Only too often we hear about mothers killing their babies or allowing them to be abused by a boyfriend or even by themselves or even selling the child to the highest bidder. I don’t understand it but it happens.

Our Government has put together an organization that some states call Child Protection Services. The employees of the CPA are paid by our government to protect the children that fall in the categories of having parents that mistreat them one way or another. My question here is why aren’t these people protecting the children that need it so much?

One child that comes to my mind is the 10 year old Australian girl, Zahra Baker. The system failed that precious little girl miserably. Neighbors filed complaints yet no action was taken. Someone would always notify the family when they were scheduled to go to the home ahead of time so of course the family was prepared and made sure everything appeared to be fine. Little Zahra lost her life because the system failed her. They failed to protect her life.

Vyctorya Sandoval

Today I received a news article about yet another child that was failed by our system. 2 year old Vyctorya Sandoval was taken from her biological parents and placed into foster care. The Los Angeles County Children’s Court gave little Tori’s back to her parents. Linda Kontis, a co-founder of a foster family agency that contracted with the county to provide care for the little girl, sent a two page letter to the court complaining that the court system had not properly considered the risks of returning the child to her long-troubled biological parents.

Sadly though, apparently the letter did nothing to help the situation. Little Tori was dead months after that letter from Kontis was written. Court documents showed her body was covered with bruises that were healing and she did have a rib broken. The doctors worked on little Tori for six hours to try and save her life after she was rushed to the emergency room. Blood tests results suggests that Tori died thirsty and hungry.

As of right now no one has been charged with Tori’s death but the police and county social workers say that the biological parents are suspects, which happened on April 24, 2011.

Reports show that a friend of Tori’s former foster parents, Jennifer Nichols, claims that the foster parents phoned reports in to the children services department claiming that some of the child’s relatives told them that Tori’s condition was getting worse.

A friend of some of the relatives, Elise Esparza said when she saw Tori she barely recognized her a month before she died. “She was very pale looking and gaunt in the face. I said, ‘Something is wrong,” said Esparza. After the baby died Esparza said she was there with the mother when the mother described Tori pulling out her own hair and pinching herself.

Despite the complaints the court and the county still allowed the child to live with the parents. They ordered social workers to visit the home but what surprises me is that according to their interviews and records while Tori lived with her parents, Tori’s weight dropped from the 50th percentile to below the fifth percentile for children her age.

Although confidentiality rules bar the children services director, Jackie Contreras can’t discuss the case but she did say that one of the workers has been placed on desk duty because of possible lapses in monitoring the child.

According to Kontis’s letter hasty reunification and a poorly conducted court hearing in September literally put Tori at risk. She wrote in the letter, “I know that reunification is primary and always work towards that goal. However, there are cases where common sense must prevail and history is relevant.”

Tori’s mother, 35 year old Jennifer Dalhover has eight other children who are in foster care according to Kontis. The family allegedly has had 11 referrals to child protective services for alleged domestic violence, child abuse and other issues. Dalhover couldn’t be reached for a comment and the father, 20 year old Joseph Sandoval, was arrested on a probation charge after Tori’s death according to his attorney and has not responded to the request for comment.

Internal affairs investigators at the child service agency are investigating to find out if the family received frequent visits from the county social workers as ordered by the court and if they were what did the social workers see. Someone needs to be held responsible for the death of this child. Not only the parents but the social workers as well and the courts too for sending this child back to that home.

Now here is a shocker, according to county officials and friends of the family, it has been reported that Jennifer Dalhover recently became pregnant with her 11th child. I think this is ridiculous. This woman can’t raise her own kids, they seem to most all go into foster care so why does she keep having them? I hope someone will put an end to this. This woman is only 35 years of age. It amazes me.

I feel so bad for this little girl except for the fact that she is in a place now that she will never be thirsty and she will never be hungry again. Jesus will watch out for this baby now and we all know he will do the job right without a doubt. I also hope that the ones responsible for her death will be punished to the full extinct of the law for what they have done to her and that includes our judicial system that apparently has failed her.

Jan Barrett