Care for Disabled Children

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to expose the shortcomings of a system which was designed to protect the helpless. The story of Jesus Castro is a classic case in point. First we learn that his parents both committed suicide. What pressures and problems drove them to this we are not told, but I can’t help wonder if society somehow failed them. Then we learn that he was placed in the custody of a step-grandmother, evidently with little investigation of her qualifications and no follow-up. Whatever the cause, a child suffered the tortures of hell, became a vegetable and died.

Still, nothing is so bad a little good can’t come out of it. A Pat Davis agrees to start an intermediary care facility at her home, using money from Jesus’ trust fund (why no public funds?). And a true hero emerges in the person of attorney Robert Berke, who apparently fought the powers that be to a standstill in defense of a helpless, abandoned child for whom such a defense was already too late.

Now, we all need to demand protection for the many Jesus Castros yet to come. Better control from the Department of Children’s Services, more facilities for appropriate child care and a little less concern for what’s “good for business.”

EARL B. RUBELL

Marina Del Rey