April is National Child Abuse Prevention month.  As we’re nearing the end of the month, it seems as though there are more stories about society’s most vulnerable who are suffering, or worse, dying at the hands of those they trust most. 

Shylae Thomas

This nine-year old quadriplegic girl was found stuffed into a plastic bin nearly 100 miles from the only home she’s ever known.  Her adoptive mother, who’s also her aunt, has been charged with not only her murder, but a myriad of child abuse charges as well.  Seven other children were removed from her care just prior to her arrest. 

The medical examiner in Flint, MI determined Shylae weighed only 33 pounds when she died and will testify this child was starved to death.  Her murder caps the end of a tragic and short life.  Her own mother lost custody of her when she was a baby for many of the same accusations her adoptive mother’s now been charged with, including medical neglect.  The murder trial is slated to start next month.

Enrique Gonzalez

A California gang member, Enrique Gonzalez, is on the run for tattooing his seven year old son with a gang tattoo.  The boy didn’t want the tattoo and was adamant enough that his father (and I use that term loosely) had to call in back-up to hold this child down while he was tattooed.  Gonzalez has been charged with child abuse, false imprisonment, committing a crime for the benefit of a gang and other charges.  He’s yet to be captured and the boy is in protective custody.

Keyuna Thomas

The prime witness against a man who’s been charged with murdering his girlfriend is the couple’s now 13-year old daughter.  She’s expected to testify she was forced to help dismember her mother and watch as her head fell to the floor.  There are few things more horrifying.  Her father, James Hawkins, who was on parole at the time of the murder in 2008, has denied through his lawyer of committing the murder.  At one time, he admitted to dumping her body in north Mississippi, but has since emphatically denied having made any such statement.  He was recently found competent and as a result, will stand trial and be forced to watch his own daughter relive what will be the most devastating event she will ever know in her life.

With these and so many other stories in the news about the endless ways children are being abused, it gives every parent in this country reason to keep their own children close, whether they’re 5, 25 or 105.