Child's prostitution only latest in string of failures

Think of the literary character Fagin in “Oliver Twist” — an adult who forces children to live in squalor, commit crimes for him and take beatings.

Now consider the case of a 7-year-old Albuquerque girl who the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office says was being prostituted by relatives, forced to fondle people’s genitals, in exchange for drugs.

But this little girl’s nightmare is no Dickensian tale — it is all too graphically real, and right next door.

At one point, the AG’s Office says, the child was dropped off at her elementary school — possibly by a stranger — wearing high heels, a dress, press-on nails and makeup. On occasion, she would talk about being forced to “hustle” and being taken to strip clubs and left alone while the female relative she was with got drunk. The girl and her brother also told authorities they were encouraged to steal and pickpocket and to panhandle on street corners by themselves.

She remained in that environment despite 25 calls over several years to the Children, Youth and Families Department alleging emotional, physical and medical abuse and neglect of the girl and her two older brothers.

In the end, it was a school nurse who had received training from the AG’s Office on recognizing signs of trafficking who reached out to report the girl might be a victim. The girl and a brother hadn’t been in school for about a month before the nurse made the call.

The horrific case ranks right up there with Omaree Varela, the 9-year-old boy beaten to death by his own mother in 2013 — after both CYFD and Albuquerque police looked into multiple complaints about the family.

Or 10-year-old Victoria Martens who was raped and murdered in 2016; her mother is one of three being charged. CYFD earlier had interviewed that family.

How many more kids have to die or be forced to endure unspeakable abuse before CYFD gets its act together? How many more kids have to live a life of horror before school districts learn to react to such troubling signs?

Clearly, the system is broken. There have been attempts to fix it in response to each horrific tragedy, but the fixes, obviously, have fallen short. And that’s unacceptable.

After Omaree’s death, Gov. Susana Martinez issued an executive order mandating that if a family is referred to CYFD three times, regardless of whether those referrals are substantiated, a higher-level staffer has to get involved in the investigation. CYFD is looking into whether that protocol was followed in this new case.

To her credit, CYFD Secretary Monique Jacobson is owning up to her agency’s failures.

“My concerns are that I don’t believe that we did enough to protect this little girl,” she said last week, adding the department is conducting an internal review about the prior calls. Four CYFD employees were placed on administrative leave this week as the inquiry continues.

There’s no doubt CYFD workers have full loads and are constantly having to make tough decisions. But 25 referrals? It seems obvious someone dropped the ball.

Jacobson and Gov. Martinez owe it to the public to get to the bottom of what happened here and to be forthcoming with the public on what they find. Transparency is key to making sure steps are taken to prevent yet another horrific case like this.

And all school and law enforcement authorities who came in contact with this family and failed to act should face the same scrutiny and transparency.

We can and must do better. Too many innocent lives depend on it.

— Albuquerque Journal