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Walking 8 miles for GED classes l Hidden America: Children of the Mountains PART 2/6

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A judge Wednesday sentenced Lacey Spears to 20 years to life in prison for poisoning her 5-year-old son to death.

On March 2, a jury had found Spears, 27, a Scottsville, Ky., resident who was living in the New York City area, guilty of second-degree murder after a 14-day trial.

"Her actions that day, they were inhuman. They despicable. They were evil," Doreen Lloyd, Westchester County's assistant district attorney, said in court. She described Spears' administration of salt into Garnett's feeding tube as the boy lay sick in the hospital, his inability to vomit it up because of previous scarring and his explosive bouts of diarrhea that went on for hours as his body tried to expel the poison.

Spears' condition, Münchausen by proxy syndrome, caused her to crave the attention that being a mother with a sick child gave her, said acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary. While he believes that Spears was suffering from a mental illness, he did not think it affected her competency to stand trial or the necessity for her to receive more than the minimum, 15-year sentence.

"This was not a spontaneous or ill-conceived solitary act," Neary said. "It was a serious and orchestrated series of actions that really shock the conscience," actions that she denied as she tried to shift blame for the death of her son to doctors and the reason for her prosecution as a conspiracy of law enforcement officials.

But he also said he hoped she would come to terms with her condition as she served her time and that public awareness and public reporting of such cases increase because of her case.

After Spears' conviction last month, William Aronwald, a criminal defense lawyer in White Plains, N.Y., said it would be difficult for her lawyers to win any mercy at her sentencing.

Garnett Spears (Photo: Facebook photo provided courtesy of his family)

"There's not a sympathy factor here," Aronwald said. "The judge heard all the evidence. What reason would there be (to show mercy) given that the jury found she killed her child?"

Second-degree murder carries a maximum penalty of 25 years to life in prison.

Spears had moved to Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., about 35 miles northwest of New York City, 14 months before Garnett's death on Jan. 23, 2014, living on the secluded Fellowship Community's grounds where volunteers live with and care for senior citizens in need.

Defense lawyer David Sachs said at the sentencing that Spears continues to maintain her innocence.

All of Garnett's good qualities that prosecutors praised were the result of Spears' successful parenting, Sachs said, noting that she had moved to New York from Florida seeking a better life for her son.

Sachs had provided numerous letters in support of Spears "by the people who knew Garnett and Lacey best," including Garnett's maternal grandparents, aunt, and other relatives. Another letter came from the Westchester County Jail chaplain.

Each asked the judge for leniency at sentencing, and Sachs said Spears' mother died in December.

While the probe into Garnett's death focused on Münchausen by proxy, prosecutors ultimately did not introduce that theory at trial, suggesting they were convinced that the evidence they had was strong enough for a conviction.

Prosecutors contended Spears had shown a pattern of sickening her son to get attention for herself, calling what happened "nothing short of torture." She had chronicled Garnett's many illnesses - including his final one - on Facebook and a personal blog.

Lacey Spears during opening statements Feb. 3 at her trial in the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains. On the right is one of her attorneys, David. R. Sachs. (Photo: Joe Larese/The Journal News)

* November 2012: Lacey and Garnett Spears move to The Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.

* Jan. 17, 2014: Garnett admitted to Nyack Hospital in Valhalla, N.Y.

* Jan. 19, 2014: Garnett airlifted to Westchester and admitted to Maria Fareri Children's Hospital's intensive care unit.

* Jan. 22, 2014: Garnett declared brain dead. Spears asks a friend to remove a salt-laden feeding bag from her home.

* Jan. 23, 2014: Garnett dies.

* April 4, 2014: Westchester County's medical examiner rules the boy's death a homicide.

* June 17, 2014: A county grand jury indicts Spears on second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

* Feb. 3, 2015: Jury selection begins in Spears' murder trial.

* March 2, 2015: Jurors reach a verdict of second-degree murder.

* April 8, 2015: Judge sentences Spears to 20 years to life in prison.

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Mom gets 20 years to life for poisoning son with salt

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CLOSE WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A judge Wednesday sentenced Lacey Spears to 20 years to life in prison for poisoning her 5-year-old son to death. On March 2, a jury had found Spears, 27, a Scottsville, Ky., resident who was living in the New York City area, guilty of second-degree murder after a 14-day trial.

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Toxic Stress

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Federal officials at the U.S.-Mexico border separated nearly 2,000 children from their families between April 19 and May 31. While it's not clear how the political fight about the practice will play out, researchers do know how a traumatic event like being separated from a parent affects a child.

"Taking children away from their mothers is harmful to them," said Jack Shonkoff, who directs the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University and for decades has researched how stress affects the brain. "There's nothing complicated about that, and there's incredibly strong science and a big hunk of common sense that both lead us to the same conclusions."

"Taking children away from their mothers is harmful to them. There's nothing complicated about that."

Children being separated from their parents at the border experience toxic stress - intense, repetitive or prolonged adversity without an adult's intervention - a situation that's usually seen when a child is placed in an orphanage, survives a natural disaster or lives in poverty, a war zone or a refugee camp.

This kind of stress can have lifelong impact. Here's what we know about how toxic stress affects children and what's happening to those being detained at the border.

What does toxic stress do to the body?

When humans and animals feel threatened, their bodies produce stress hormones. This biological response triggers a chain of events that evolved to help us recognize and survive dangerous situations.

First, your amygdala - where fear registers in the brain - fires off signals. Your brain's hypothalamus sounds the alarm for the rest of your body. Your body's adrenal glands and tissue, located near your kidneys, release adrenaline -the "fight-or-flight" hormone - along with norepinephrine and cortisol, another stress hormone. With these hormones surging through your body, your heart races, your muscles contract, your breath quickens and your blood pressure rises. Your brain is preparing the body for how to handle trauma, said Nim Tottenham, a psychologist and researcher with the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab at Columbia University.

This happens when a child cries because they are hungry or throws a tantrum over a toy. In a stable environment, a familiar adult calms them, which tells their body's alert system to stand down. In response, the child's heartbeat slows to its normal pace. They can take a deep breath and relax.

How is this playing out along the border?

For nearly 2,000 immigrant children removed from their families and held in custody along the U.S. border with Mexico, the person who can flip that off-switch is gone. When Colleen Kraft, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, visited a Texas shelter this spring, she said staff were not allowed to touch children. Kraft, a pediatrician with 30 years of experience, said she saw one young girl weeping for her mother. The staff offered toys and books to console the girl, but they told Kraft they were not allowed to hold her.

"We, in this action, are inflicting toxic stress on these children," she said.

When both children and adults are in a state of toxic stress, the brain and body are fixated on ensuring immediate survival, Tottenham said. But children are especially vulnerable because they are undergoing major brain development, which means survival takes priority over things like academic development and physical growth.

"We, in this action, are inflicting toxic stress on these children."

Trauma that children who are separated from their parents and placed in migrant detention centers "has biological consequences on brain development in ways that are enduring for a lifetime," Tottenham said. There is not one bellwether study that tells us separating children from their families is bad for their brains and development, Shonkoff said - there are "hundreds of studies" produced over several decades that have established the negative longterm consequences of toxic stress on children.

Some of the effects include:
Brain development
In a situation where children are separated from their parents for a long period of time, they remain on high alert, and their bodies endure prolonged and severe toxic stress as a result. That interrupts the brain's architecture at a critical time of development, when neural circuits - the pathways necessary to carry information to and from the brain - are forming rapidly, at a rate of more than 1 million neural connections each second in infants and toddlers. Stress hormones block those neurons. This can lead to delayed development in reason, learning and emotional development. This stress can overwhelm the hippocampus, the brain's built-in shutdown valve for the stress hormone cortisol. If continuously exposed to toxic stress over time, damage done to the child's brain cannot be changed, studies have shown.
Emotional toll
When a child is primed to experience fear and anxiety, those emotions can superimpose themselves onto how the child interacts with another person, even if that person wants to nurture and love the child. This condition is called reactive attachment disorder, and it can start as early as infancy if a child's basic needs aren't met by a parent or caregiver, preventing a healthy bond from forming between them. If you try to hug a child diagnosed with this disorder, they may react by biting or hitting you, Kraft said: "Any activity with these children, even if it's a loving activity, they're going to react."

In other words, children with this disorder don't recognize nurturing behavior and therefore don't know how to respond- so instead, they perceive these gestures as a possible threat.

Long-term effects

People often think that an infant or toddler who experiences trauma won't remember the fear and anxiety that filled their early years once they're placed into a stable environment, like a foster home. But "that is absolutely wrong," Shonkoff said.

Toxic stress is more subtle than a broken bone or distended stomach, but it can leave permanent mark on a child's brain and can "create a weak foundation for later learning, behavior, and health," according to a 2012 study published in the journal Pediatrics that explored how adversity and toxic stress in early childhood can manifest itself throughout a child's life.

"The bigger danger to children are the long-term consequences, and the longer they're separated from their mothers, the greater the risks become."

After a long period of sustained toxic stress, a child who had seemed inconsolable may become quiet, dull or withdrawn. That doesn't mean they have adjusted to what's going on, said Shonkoff, who led the committee that produced the 2012 study. Those symptoms emerge because their cortisol levels are depressed and their stress levels are blunted.

Long-term consequences of toxic stress are as much about physical health as they are about mental health, Shonkoff said. These children are more likely to experience behavioral problems, drop out of school, struggle with substance abuse or be diagnosed with chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or heart disease.

"The bigger danger to children are the long-term consequences, and the longer they're separated from their mothers, the greater the risks become," he said.

What treatments are available?

Pediatricians, including Kraft and Shonkoff, say prevention is the best cure for toxic stress in children - simply put, don't expose them to trauma in the first place.

Therapy has been designed to combat the effects of toxic stress, but they are often expensive, need to be delivered over time and are not widely available, Kraft said. And as with any medication or therapy, individual children respond to this treatment differently. For some children, play therapy may relieve some symptoms of trauma, but for others, the strategy may not produce any real change no matter how much time is spent trying to find the right treatment.

Time is critical for delivering these services if the goal is to relieve the child from the fear and anxiety gripping them. As soon as they are identified as needing help from trauma, they need to be connected with services, said Kelly Whitener, associate professor of practice of Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

The Department of Health and Human Services did not indicate when asked by the PBS NewsHour whether the federal government's shelters provide any kind of treatment or therapy to children at-risk for or experiencing toxic stress.

To develop those kind of services would take enormous effort and cost, Shonkoff said. And even if children receive such support, Kraft said, it's unlikely they would be fully restored mentally, emotionally and physically to who they were before they reached the United States.

What's next?

Children in detention facilities eventually are placed in a shelter or with a sponsor while they navigate immigration court proceedings. At the same time, they are grappling with multiple levels of separation, Tottenham said. The initial trauma of watching a parent or guardian being taken away is compounded by further trauma of life going on without that person. On top of that, the child is wondering whether they will ever see that parent again.

"They're going to be living in the United States and know that the U.S. government is the source of this trauma early in life."

The Trump administration on Monday continued to defend the separation of children and parents at the border. The House is considering several immigration proposals, some of which address family separation, but it's unclear at this point whether any of them have enough support.

If the policy ended today, Tottenham said entire families will need therapy and interventions to account for the trauma they have already endured. If that doesn't happen, a population of children will grow up at great risk of developing behavior and mental health challenges, she said: "They're going to be living in the United States and know that the U.S. government is the source of this trauma early in life."

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How the toxic stress of family separation can harm a child

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Federal officials at the U.S.-Mexico border separated nearly 2,000 children from their families between April 19 and May 31. While it's not clear how the political fight about the practice will play out, researchers do know how a traumatic event like being separated from a parent affects a child.

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15 year old boy found eating dirt and twigs

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15 year old boy found eating dirt and twigs

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MEEKER, Okla. - Four people face charges after a severely malnourished Oklahoma teenager was found living in a barn with farm animals, subsisting on sticks, leaves and grass, according to officials.

Lincoln County First Assistant District Attorney Adam Panter told the Shawnee News-Star that the boy's father, stepmother and two older brothers have been arrested on complaints of child neglect.

The 15-year-old boy was found at a home near Meeker July 12 after a concerned passerby noticed something wasn't right.

Investigators say the teen was close to death - he weighed just 80 pounds and was not being fed. Instead, he was forced to eat twigs and grass, even though the family's home was fully stocked with food.

The boy was living inside a barn alongside farm animals including goats, rabbits and chickens, according to The Oklahoman.

An affidavit says that he would have likely been dead within a week.

"We're incredibly thankful that someone called...they literally saved this child's life," Panter told the newspaper. "He could have died and been buried on that property and no one would have ever known."

In addition to being malnourished, the teen also had several broken bones and shotgun pellets still in his legs.

The boy had a wound to the top of his head that investigators said contained maggots. Prosecutors believe the boy's father, 34-year-old Jimmy Jones Sr., dug out some of the maggots and tried to close the cut using glue, the affidavit says.

Panter told the paper that the boy's father has a full-time job as a prison guard. Jones Sr. has been jailed on an additional charge of child abuse by injury.

Police also arrested the boy's stepmother, 46-year-old Amy Jones and two brothers, 20-year-old Johnathan Plank and 24-year-old Tyler Adkins.

The brothers are being held at the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center, while the parents are in Lincoln County Jail.

The boy was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

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Four arrested after 15-year-old found living with barn animals, eating twigs and grass

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MEEKER, Okla. - Four people face charges after a severely malnourished Oklahoma teenager was found living in a barn with farm animals, subsisting on sticks, leaves and grass, according to officials. Lincoln County First Assistant District Attorney Adam Panter told the Shawnee News-Star that the boy's father, stepmother and two older brothers have been arrested on complaints of child neglect.

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Educating Migrant Children at the border

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Educating Migrant Children at the border

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After weeks of insisting Democrats were ultimately responsible for the migrant-child crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump did an about-face Wednesday, reversing a policy that has separated thousands of migrant children from their families-most of whom are coming from Central American countries. But meanwhile, thousands of children will remain in federal custody and are entitled to certain education services while they remain there.

The Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" enforcement policy on border-crossing offenses led to almost 2,000 children being separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump's executive order could reunite children with their parents, but families could be locked up indefinitely. Unaccompanied minors who arrived at the border without their families will remain detained.

Before Trump signed the executive order to stop the family separations, his administration faced increasing pressure from education organizations, human rights groups, immigration advocates, and federal lawmakers from both parties to halt the practice of separating families. Groups including the AASA, the School Superintendents Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the National Education Association have spoken out against the policy.

Since at least April, children who arrived at the border were taken from their parents or guardians and placed in the care of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement with no immediate plans to reunite them with family. Reports and images of distraught children sleeping and living inside metal cages have gripped the nation.

While the children are in federal detention centers, officials must provide shelter, food, and schooling, but leaders in some of the nation's largest states and school districts question whether the education needs of the children are being met.

Here's a look at the official education requirements for these children, the qualifications for those being hired to provide these children with classroom instruction, and more.

1. What education services are children who've been separated from their parents and are being held at shelters entitled to?

The Department of Health and Human Services is ultimately responsible for providing education services to these children, and the agency works with private contractors to provide these services. Within 72 hours of migrant children entering a facility, care providers must conduct an educational assessment of each child, according to HHS requirements posted online. They must then provide education services "based on the individual academic development, literacy level, and linguistic ability of each unaccompanied alien child."

HHS policy mandates that children receive a minimum of six hours of "structured education," in science, social studies, math, reading, writing, and physical education, Monday through Friday throughout the entire year, with no academic breaks longer than two weeks. That means school-age children who are in the federal facilities should already be receiving instruction. The centers must also provide access to pre-GED classes and college-preparation tutorials for eligible older children.

Agencies that contract with HHS to provide these services must create individual plans for students who "have special needs, disabilities or medical or mental health issues."

Children in these facilities are also entitled to daily outdoor activity, at least one hour of "structured leisure time activities" per week, and both individual and group counseling sessions.

Based on conversations with children who've been in the shelters, young people are receiving some form of education, said Jennifer de Haro, the managing attorney at Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).

But de Haro stressed that those conversations haven't yielded a full picture of what kind of schooling is happening in the facilities. "Anything traumatic interferes with learning," De Haro said. "Whenever there are a lot of kids who need to be processed, or some sudden change is made, that can create some confusion and chaos. It usually creates an environment where things can slip through the cracks."

2. What are the requirements for education staff working in these facilities?

According to a job posting for a "seasonal teacher" at a Brownsville, Texas, shelter run by Southwest Key, a contractor for HHS, those interested in the job must be able to provide the following "essential functions" among others:

"Create a safe and inclusive classroom environment of respect and rapport to ensure a positive learning experience for youth with diverse backgrounds."

"Organize and prepare materials for daily instruction while ensuring the inventory of classroom materials, [which] may include: textbooks, furniture, and other equipment needed to assist in the provision of instruction."

"Individualize lesson plans to meet each [student's] academic level."

"Assist with the coordination of Physical Education instruction with Shift Supervisor, Shift Leader or Program Director to ensure compliance with state and federal requirements."

Qualified applicants, according to Southwest Key, are bilingual in English and Spanish, have a bachelor's degree in education or a related field, and have one to two years of paid or unpaid experience working with youth, preferably in a bilingual setting, among other requirements.

A separate job posting for an "early childhood coordinator" at the Brownsville Southwest Key location says that person must "supervise all classroom activities," integrate education activities with health care and other services provided, and perform the work with a "strong understanding" of the standards for early-childhood education provided by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Spanish speakers are preferred.

3. Are child migrants guaranteed a free public education under the U.S. Supreme Court's Plyler v. Doe ruling?

The Plyler ruling in 1982 held that public schools must provide equal access to education for all students in their jurisdiction, regardless of immigration status.

However, because the education services in shelters are ultimately the responsibility of the federal government and not public schools, Plyler has only applied in practice to recently arrived unaccompanied minors if they are placed with a parent, guardian, or sponsor in local communities with plans to attend school.

"These children, arguably, fall [under Plyler]," said Maura McInerney, the legal director at the Education Law Center in Philadelphia, referring to the children who've been separated from their parents in these locations. "But we're treating the children differently."

The children who are released by the Department of Homeland Security to relatives and guardians would be covered by Plyler, however. And those children could put an additional strain on local schools, because they would be "tasked with mitigating the trauma these kids have experienced," said Sasha Pudelski, the advocacy director for AASA, in a post on Twitter.

Despite Plyler, migrant children who've been released from shelters to parents and other legal guardians are still having difficulty enrolling in local schools because they're missing proper paperwork, among other issues, de Haro of RAICES said.

And for those who do enroll, "they're having trouble focusing in schools," de Haro said.

4. Is the federal government seeking support from schools and states to provide education for the children?

Citing reports that 1,000 children are being held at a recently reopened temporary shelter for unaccompanied children in Miami-Dade County, schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he has not received any communications from Health and Human Services or the Office of Refugee Resettlement about the presence of the children or provisions being made to provide them schooling. In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Tuesday, Carvalho asked for clarity on which agency the district should work with to provide the children with "some connection with caring adults and access to educational services."

The Texas State Teachers Association wrote a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and state education commissioner Mike Morath on Tuesday urging the state to develop and fund a plan to educate the thousands of children being held in detention centers near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Texas Education Agency did not immediately respond to Education Week 's interview request.

4. What role, if any, does the U.S. Department of Education play in the education of these children?

Elizabeth Hill, a department spokeswoman, did not respond to requests for comment about any support or other help the Education Department might be providing. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has made no public statements about the situation. DeVos did make waves recently when she told the House education committee that local schools could choose to report undocumented students to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In subsequent Senate testimony, she backed off that stance.

6. Will the immigrant children have access to bilingual or Spanish-speaking instructors?

Federal law requires that these children receive an education that is appropriate for their needs, including English-as-a-second-language services. Southwest Key, the private company which operates 17 immigrant children's centers in Texas, and similar facilities in Arizona and California, is actively seeking bilingual candidates with experience for teaching jobs.

Published in Print: July 18, 2018, as Educating Migrant Students in Shelters

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Educating Migrant Children in Shelters: 6 Things to Know

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After weeks of insisting Democrats were ultimately responsible for the migrant-child crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump did an about-face Wednesday, reversing a policy that has separated thousands of migrant children from their families-most of whom are coming from Central American countries.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As the opioid epidemic continues to claim an unprecedented amount of lives across the country, a recent study highlights the disturbing numbers regarding newborns born with opioid addiction in Missouri.

According to the Missouri Hospital Association's recent report, Missouri has seen a 538 percent increase in babies born addicted to opioids in the last 10 years - a problem growing faster than almost all neighboring states.

The news comes after a large cluster of opioid overdose deaths in Milwaukee (eight) and Cleveland (14) over the weekend.

According to the CDC's most recent numbers, total fatal opioid overdoses increased from approximately 28,600 in 2014 to more than 33,000 in 2015 (a 15 percent increase).

"We're seeing families addicted to opioids who were not previously addicted at all," said Martha Gershun, executive director, Jackson County CASA.

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a non-profit which helps abused and neglected children find safe, permanent homes.

Gershun said she's seen more babies born addicted to opioids, but also mothers who are not pregnant but their drug abuse has made them unable to parent safely.

"We know it's an epidemic because we're seeing the number of families referred to drug court going up and we're seeing the impact of opioids on those cases," said Gershun. "That increase is going to put a huge burden on the foster care system. You're going to see this play out for years."

According to University of Kansas Health System doctors, three babies are born suffering from withdrawal each hour throughout the country, many because of opioids.

Dr. Carl Weiner said every hospital in Kansas City is dealing with it.

"These are really scary numbers," said Weiner, who works with high-risk pregnancy at the University of Kansas Health System.

"One in seven women who have commercial insurance will get a prescription for an opioid during pregnancy," he said.

Weiner believes most pregnant women are taking opioids for pain in an innocuous manner because they were prescribed to take them by their doctors. Not only does he think opioids should be prescribed much less, but better treatment options should be readily available.

"There aren't enough facilities that exist to treat these women. It's a real problem," he said.

Weiner admitted that many doctors and nurses aren't trained properly to handle such an opioid addiction. He said expectant mothers going 'cold turkey' would be the worst option.

"We don't like withdrawal during the pregnancy, so that's the one time we don't want people going cold turkey," he said. "We will try to work with the mothers to step wise, lower their doses and needs and hopefully minimize the impact on the newborn."

Unfortunately, minimizing that impact is very hard, especially if the opioids are layered on top of another addiction, which can often be the case.

"Were seeing opioid use replace other substances. We're seeing it later on top of meth. And we're seeing families addicted to opioids who were not previously addicted at all," said Gerhsun.

Jackson County CASA is expecting to advocate to an extra 100-200 children this year because of opioids. They are currently recruiting an hope to train an extra 100 volunteers this year who will get special training on substance abuse.

You can learn more at CASAkc.org

------
Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
Follow @Jhelmuth

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New study: MO Babies born with opioid addiction increased 538%

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As the opioid epidemic continues to claim an unprecedented amount of lives across the country, a recent study highlights the disturbing numbers regarding newborns born with opioid addiction in Missouri.

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WATCH: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, caused when a mother drinks during her pregnancy, may be far more common than previously thought, according to research released earlier this year. Amna Nawaz...

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LOS ANGELES -- A judge sentenced a California mother to life in prison Thursday and gave her boyfriend the death penalty in the "beyond animalistic" killing of the woman's 8-year-old son, who prosecutors say was punished because the couple believed he was gay. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli told the couple that he hopes they wake up in the middle of the night and think of the injuries they inflicted on 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale.

"I can only wish ... that it tortures you," the judge said.

Gabriel was repeatedly beaten, starved, tied up, locked in a cabinet, shot with a BB gun and once had his teeth knocked out with a bat, the judge said. Court records also detailed that Gabriel had been doused with pepper spray, forced to eat his own vomit and locked in a cabinet with a sock stuffed in his mouth to muffle his screams, according to CBS Los Angeles.

"It is unimaginable the pain that this boy probably endured," Lomeli said.

The boy also had a fractured skull, broken ribs and burns across his body.

"It goes without saying that the conduct was horrendous and inhumane and nothing short of evil," Lomeli said. "It's beyond animalistic because animals know how to take care of their young."

Gabriel's mother, 34-year-old Pearl Fernandez, pleaded guilty to murder in February in the death of her son in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, reports CBS Los Angeles. A jury found her boyfriend, 37-year-old Isauro Aguirre, guilty of murder last year and found that he intentionally tortured the boy.

Fernandez called 911 on May 22, 2013, to report that her son wasn't breathing. She told responding deputies that he had fallen and hit his head on a dresser.

When paramedics arrived, they found Gabriel naked in a bedroom, not breathing, with a cracked skull, three broken ribs and BB pellets embedded in his lung and groin.

He died two days later of blunt-force trauma and neglect, the coroner's office found.

Gabriel's siblings testified that Fernandez and Aguirre would call the boy gay, punish him if he played with dolls and forced him to wear girls' clothes to school.

Gabriel's first-grade teacher, Jennifer Garcia, tearfully addressed the court ahead of Thursday's sentencing, saying she thinks of him every day and how he just wanted to be loved.

"I find comfort in believing he is now at peace," Garcia said. "And I know that unlike him, his abusers will never have peace. They will have a lifetime of suffering to endure, and I know I'm not alone in hoping they experience the same abuse in their lifetime and worse. They are evil people for what they did."

Gabriel's biological father, who is serving time for robbery, was also present at the sentencing hearing, but declined to speak. He watched the sentencing from his cell, reports CBS Los Angeles.

An expressionless Fernandez spoke briefly during the court hearing, saying she was sorry and wished Gabriel was alive. She also criticized family members who have spoken of their grief over Gabriel, saying they just want fame.

A jail chaplain who has met with Fernandez told the court that she loved her son and is a different woman today than when she walked into jail.

Several agencies investigated abuse allegations leading up to Gabriel's death. Garcia, the teacher, had called authorities to report that the boy had asked her if it was normal for a mother to hit her children with a belt, reports CBS Los Angeles.

On several occasions, investigators concluded there was no evidence of abuse.

Prosecutors have since filed charges of child abuse and falsifying records against four county social workers in Gabriel's death.

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Mother, her boyfriend sentenced in boy's "beyond animalistic" child abuse death

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LOS ANGELES -- A judge sentenced a California mother to life in prison Thursday and gave her boyfriend the death penalty in the "beyond animalistic" killing of the woman's 8-year-old son, who prosecutors say was punished because the couple believed he was gay.

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DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A Pennsylvania mother is accused of killing her young son by feeding him breast milk containing a deadly mix of drugs.

WPVI reported that Samantha Jones, 30, of New Britain Township, was charged Friday with criminal homicide in the death of her 11-week-old son.

The suspect reportedly told investigators she was taking prescription methadone because of an addiction to painkillers when her child died April 2.

Jones told police that she was too tired to prepare formula for the baby on the day the child died, according to a probably cause affidavit obtained by The Morning Call. After Jones woke up around 3 a.m. to the infant's cries, she decided to breastfeed him instead of going downstairs to mix a bottle.

Jones told investigators that she put him down around 6:30 a.m. and went back to sleep. An hour later, according to the affidavit, she awoke to find the baby's skin pale and a bloody mucous streaming from his nose.

The district attorney said the child died from a combination of methadone, amphetamine and methamphetamine transmitted through her breast milk.

The baby was pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital.

Jones, who was unable to post $3 million bail, is being held at the Bucks County Jail.

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Pennsylvania mom accused of killing infant with drug-tainted breast milk

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DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A Pennsylvania mother is accused of killing her young son by feeding him breast milk containing a deadly mix of drugs. WPVI reported that Samantha Jones, 30, of New Britain Township, was charged Friday with criminal homicide in the death of her 11-week-old son.

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At the very foundation of babies' development, intense trauma almost inevitably creates physiological damage to their brains and emotional damage that they will carry into the future - particularly if their needs are not met appropriately and immediately. Out of deep concern for young children, families, and the future of our country, ZERO TO THREE stands in strong, informed opposition to any practice that causes trauma and long-term harm to children.

READ: ZERO TO THREE's Three Priorities for Babies at the Border

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At the very foundation of babies' development, intense trauma almost inevitably creates physiological damage to their brains and emotional damage that they will carry into the future - particularly if their needs are not met appropriately and immediately.

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The story of the Turpin family at center of abuse allegations  | ABC News

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MIDDLETOWN (WRGT) - A 5-year-old boy police say was brutally beaten by his mother and her two friends, has died. Middletown Police say Alexander Stephens passed away shortly after 8:00 a.m. today at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Doctors say his death is the result of the assault he suffered.

Stephens' mother, Theresa Hawkins-Stephens, and Rachel Bostain were charged with murder today, April 29, and bond set at $1 million each. Hawkins-Stephens and Rachel Bostian also face two counts of felonious assault and two counts of felony child endangering. The third suspect, Ramona Bostian, was not charged with murder, but still faces two counts of felonious assault and two counts of felony child endangering. Her bond was set at $500,000.

According to a criminal complaint, the women are accused of tying Stephens and his 6-year-old brother in blankets and beat the boys over the course of more than 20 hours. A search warrant says the women used belts, wooden sticks and their hands to punch and slap the children. There has been no update yet about the condition of the Stephens' brother, a 6-year-old boy who was also severely beaten.

All three suspects are expected to appear in court again on a preliminary hearing in Middletown Municipal Court on May 6th at 1:30 p.m.

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Earlier Coverage:

MIDDLETOWN (WRGT) -- After police say two little boys were wrapped in blankets and brutally beaten, police say their own mother is one of three arrests made in the case.

Theresa Hawkins-Stephens, Rachel Bostian and Ramona Bostian have all been arrested and charged with child endangering and felonious assault.

"We have officers on scene, 20-year officers, and it's the worst beating they've seen in their career," said Major Mark Hoffman with Middletown police.

Hoffman said the abuse of the 5- and 6-year-olds happened over about 20 hours, and started on Tuesday morning, April 26. He said the boys, their mother, and the two other women were camping in the woods while trying to find work.

"We were camping in the woods and he escaped the tent when we were sleeping," said 911 caller Rachel Bostian just before 9 Wednesday night, "he was gone for a couple of days and some kids got a hold of him and messed him up real bad."

Police said they did not buy that story, almost right away.

"If you have a 5-year-old that's missing you certainly would not wait several days," said Major Hoffman.

Police said the five and 6-year-old's, who were malnourished, trying to take food at their campsite so they were wrapped and tied in blankets and beaten as punishment. Police said the beating started Tuesday morning and lasted about 20 hours. Wednesday morning, Police said they were moved to the Parkway Inn motel in Middletown, where Bostian called 911 when the five-year-old became unresponsive.

"Is he alive?" Asked a dispatcher.

"Yes, we're -- we're, he he stopped breathing but we are doing chest compressions and CPR and he's responding to it," said the caller hesitantly.

"I saw a bunch of flashing lights over there, went over there was like 12 cops and ambulances and fire trucks," said Parkway resident Chris Thompson who witnessed the crime scene.

Thompson said he couldn't get the image out of his head, the kids being put in the back of the ambulance.

"Oh I'll remember it, just because it's got to do with kids, I've got kids of my own," Thompson said, "whatever they get they deserve it."

FOX 45 spoke with Middletown police on Thursday evening, they did not provide an updated condition of the five-year-old boy. At last check he was in critical condition, and the six-year-old had still been hospitalized in serious condition.

The three women arrested for all charged with two counts of felonious assault and two counts of child endangering. They are expected in court in middle town Friday morning.

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UPDATE:

MIDDLETOWN -- "We were camping in the woods and he escaped the tent when we were sleeping and he was gone for a couple of days and some kids got a hold of him and messed him up real bad," said the 911 caller to a dispatcher.

A five year old boy is fighting for his life tonight, APRIL 28, 2016 after police said he was brutally beaten by three women, including his own mother.

Investigators said the boy's six-year-old brother was also severely injured.

"To do something as horrific and as terrible as this, it just seems senseless, utterly senseless.," said Middletown Police Department Major Mark Hoffman.

Three women are in jail charged with felonious assault and child endangering.

Police said Theresa Hawking-Stephens., the mother of the five and six year old, her friend Rachel Bostian and Rachel's mother, Ramona Bostian. all beat the boys.

The women and children were camping out here in the woods for about a week. Then Tuesday morning the children were harmed.

"One of the children had taken some food and the three women decided to discipline the children," said Hoffman

"They wrapped them in blankets and they tied the blankets around them and beat the children for several hours," said Hoffman.

Yesterday morning the women and children checked in the Parkway Inn motel

Last night they called 911

"Please hurry," said the caller.

"Is he alive?" asked the dispatcher.

"Yes. He stopped breathing but we're resuming chest compression and CPR," said the caller.

Major Hoffman said the children were severely beaten.

"Once they were tied them inside the sheets, they weren't let out and of course defecated in the sheets and were beaten while in these blankets," said Hoffman.

"The detective on the scene said this is nothing short of torture, these kids. I mean it went on over 20 hours," said Hoffman.

"I don't know what they'll do to them, but it won't be enough", said Robert Moon.

Robert Moon lives at the motel, above the room where the women and kids were staying.

"I think they should be put in jail and everyday taken out and beaten and put back in," said Moon.

Hoffman said it's pretty unusual for a birth parent to harm their children like this.

"And you just wonder what kind of monster can do that to their children," said Hoffman.

The six-year- old is in the hospital.

His condition isn't as serious as the five year old's.

The three women are expected in court tomorrow.

MIDDLETOWN (WRGT) -- Police arrested three people living inside a hotel after receiving a call that a child there was dead.

Police were dispatched to the Parkway Inn at 2425 North Verity Parkway around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday on a report of a child dead inside room 130.

Upon arrival, authorities discovered a five-year-old who suffered from life-threatening injuries, officers immediately administered first aid to the child. Middletown paramedics arrived a short time later and began treating the child.

The five-year-old was taken to Atrium Medical Center, then transferred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital due to the seriousness of the injuries.

As officers were investigating the situation, they located six-year-old brother to the five-year-old concealed under a blanket in the room. The six-year-old also suffered from serious injuries and was immediately transported to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital in Liberty Township by paramedics.

All three suspects staying at the hotel were detained. 26-year-old Theresa Hawkins-Stephens, her friend Rachel Bostian, age 29 and Bostian's mother, Ramona Bostian, age 56, were all apprehended and charged with two counts of felony child endangering and two counts of felonious assault.

All three remain in the Middletown City Jail and are expected to appear in court Thursday morning.

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Police: Middletown suspects used belts, sticks and hands to beat boys

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UPDATE:MIDDLETOWN (WRGT) - A 5-year-old boy police say was brutally beaten by his mother and her two friends, has died. Middletown Police say Alexander Stephens passed away shortly after 8:00 a.m. today at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Doctors say his d

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Each year between 2008 and 2012, on average, more than one-quarter of reproductive age women with private insurance - and more than one-third of those enrolled in Medicaid - filled a prescription for opioid painkillers.

In 2014, 4. 8 million women reported nonmedical or illicit use of prescription opioids.

And the number of pregnant women receiving treatment for opioid abuse more than doubled between 2000 and 2012.

April, who lives in Tennessee, is one of those women. She didn't want us to use her last name or show her face to protect her family's privacy.

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The opioid epidemic's toll on pregnant women and their babies

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The risk for overdose from opioid painkillers and heroin among women, including pregnant women, has skyrocketed, which means a growing number of babies are born dependent on opioids. NewsHour Weekend Special correspondent Alison Stewart reports on the challenges for pregnant women struggling with addiction.

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A bruise should not be the requirement for evidence of parental abuse. There are many other ways a child can be harmed. While this list may not be all inclusive, it is meant to expand on the traditional definition of child abuse. Most states recognize some aspects of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or neglect but fail to fully address them while completely disregarding mental, verbal, emotional, financial, and spiritual. This list provides an opportunity to explore, evaluate, and discuss other types of child abuse.

Physical Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Intimidation - Bullying by standing over, looking down, or getting "in your face" and refusing to back off.

Isolation - Limiting ability to escape from or abandoning in dangerous situations.

Restraint - Confines by blocking a doorway, locking doors with no key, or tying up.

Aggression - Hitting, kicking, punching, arm twisting, pushing, beating, shoving, biting, slapping, striking with an object, shaking, pinching, choking, hair pulling, dragging, burning, cutting, stabbing, strangling, and force feeding (including overdose or misuse of drugs).

Endangerment - Verbal threats of killing mixed with physical violence and use of weapons.

Mental Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Rage - An intense, furious anger that comes out of nowhere, usually over nothing, startling and shocking the child into compliance or silence.

Gaslighting - Lying about the past to intentionally making a child doubt their memory, perception, and sanity.

The Stare - An intense stare with no feeling behind it.

Silent Treatment - Punishment by ignoring for long periods of time.

Projection - Parents dump their issues onto the child as the child did it.

Twisting - When confronted, parents twist the truth to blame the child for their actions.

Manipulation - Making a child fear the worst such as abandonment or rejection.

Victim Card - When all else fails, parents play the victim card to control behavior.

Verbal Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Extremes in Volume and Tone Voice - One way is to increase the volume by yelling, screaming, and raging. The second is complete silence, ignoring, and refusing to respond.

Intimidating Words - Swearing and threatening language come easily when a child refuses to do what the parent wants.

Intense Manner of Speech - It is argumentative and demanding with frequently interruptions, talking over, withholding key information, and interrogating.

Personal Attacks - Common examples include criticizing, name calling, mocking responses, defaming character, berating feelings, and judging opinions.

No Apology - Parents refuse to take responsibility, become hostile, invalidate or dismiss feelings of the child, lie, and conveniently forget promises or commitments.

Blame Game - Anything that goes wrong is the child's fault. Accuses child of being too sensitive and is overly critical of reactions.

Browbeating - Typical sayings include: "If only you would..., then I won't have to be this way," "You don't know how to take a joke," "The problem with you is...," and "That (verbal abuse) didn't really happen."

Emotional Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Nitpicking - Whatever is important to the child is minimized in comparison to the parent's agenda. The parent belittles accomplishments, aspirations, or personality in front of others. Teasing or sarcasm is commonly used to degrade and mock.

Embarrassment/Shame - The parent shares private information without consent or exposes some shameful event. Constantly being reminding of shortcomings, often in a passive-aggressive way.

Increased Anxiety - It is easy for a child to become anxious when questioned about every move, motive or aptitude.

Excessive Guilt - Parents claim that they should be the most important person in the child's life.

Insecurity - From being held to an unrealistic, unattainable or unsustainable standard. Then when the child fails, they are treated as inferior.

Confusion - Being treated as an extension of the parent, not as a separate person.

Alienation - Belittling friends and other family members to convince child those people are unimportant.

Anger/Fear - Parents generate anger in a child using of intimidation, threats, frightening behavior, or destruction of treasured possessions.

Hostility/Rejection - Parents refuse to acknowledge worth by withholding love to create a threat of rejection.

Financial Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Forbidden Access - To the child's money or possessions that were given as gifts.

Stealing - Parent steals, defrauds or exploits the child financially.

Assets - Demands that all financial gifts or inheritances be placed in the parent's name. Opens bank accounts in the child's name without knowledge.

Bills/Credit - Puts bills or credit cards in the child's name without knowledge.

Budget - Puts child on a strict allowance with impossible expectations thereby setting them up for failure.

Spending - Punishes a child for spend their own money.

Career - Forbids child from earning money or receiving an education.

Sexual Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Grooming - Doing an unwanted or embarrassing sexual act designed to catch a child off-guard and create a feeling of trepidation.

Molestation - Unwanted touching of private areas either the child touching or the parent touching.

Sexual Exposure - Forcing a child to look at the parent's private areas while the parent engages in a sexual act.

Threatens Abuse - Dangles the possibility of abusing another person in order to bully the child into doing uncomfortable sexual acts.

Inciting Fear - Child submits to unwanted sexual acts out of fear that the parent will hit, leave, humiliate, or punish.

Destroying Principles - Escalation of sexual grooming to now include watching pornography with the child.

Rape - The FBI defines rape as "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." Most states have laws that expand on this definition saying that sex with anyone under the age of 16 or 18 is considered to be rape.

Sadistic Sex - This includes: immobilizing a child through drugs or alcohol, administering pain during sex, typing a child up, physical beatings, choking, psychological torture, burning, cutting, stabbing, and murder before, during or after sex.

Spiritual Abuse. Has the child experienced:

Dichotomous Thinking - Dividing people into two parts: those who agree with the parent and those who don't. The parent makes fun of, belittles, and shows prejudice towards other's beliefs.

Elitism - The parent refuses to associate with people or groups they consider impure or unholy.

Submission - Requires that the child completely adopts the parent's point of view. There is no room for differing opinions or questioning their authority. Name calling, chastising, and the silent treatment are common maneuvers into compliance.

Labeling - The child is taught at people who don't comply with the parent's beliefs are seen as disobedient, rebellious, lacking faith, demons, or enemies of the faith.

Public Performance - Demands perfection and happiness from the child at all times. Religious activities such as attending church have extreme demands, excessive expectations, and rigidity.

Legalistic - Strict adherence to the parent's rules and regulations are commanded with absolute statements about insignificant issues such as hair color or clothing.

Segregation - Estrangement from extended family members and friends outside of the religion. This includes shunning, alienation, or persecution.

Blind Obedience - Is expected from the child to the point the child is expected to worship the parent.

Abuse of Authority - Parents use their spiritual authority as justification for why the child should completely submit.

Fraud - Parent engages in criminal misconduct or covers up the transgressions of others in the name of their religion. This includes covering up sexual abuse, physical abuse, financial felonies, and misdemeanors.

0-5 items in any section may indicate that a person is being groomed for abuse at a later time. Be mindful of any further escalation.

5 items or more in any section indicates abuse. Getting counseling for the abusive behavior is highly recommended.

Reminder: This list is a starting point to bring about discussion. There are many more ways a parent can be abusive to a child.

7 Types of Parental Abuse

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7 Types of Parental Abuse | The Exhausted Woman

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A bruise should not be the requirement for evidence of parental abuse. There are many other ways a child can be harmed. While this list may not be all inclusive, it is meant to expand on the traditional definition of child abuse.