Written by Pat Cinquini
Shock waves spread across the nation when the body of five-year-old AJ Freund of Crystal Lake, IL was found in a shallow grave April 24th five days after his father reported him missing. AJ’s parents were charged with his murder for torturing the boy in a cold shower and repeatedly beating him until he was dead.
JoAnn Cunningham and her husband Andrew Freund had been visited many times by local police and investigators from the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for domestic violence, drugs, neglect and abuse. When the news broke, the public wanted answers. Who was responsible for letting this happen?
The comfortable answer is to blame DCFS. In truth, the responsibility of protecting children belongs to us all, and we weren’t paying enough attention to AJ or the three to four children that die every day in the U.S. from child abuse.
Living up to our responsibility begins with being informed. Child abuse is a national epidemic in every state and every community. By the age of 18, one in five children will be abused. What are we doing about it?
We ask why AJ wasn’t removed from his home when there were so many clues. Yet how many of us know our laws preventing DCFS from removing a child from their home? Judges we elect have the authority to make such decisions. Yet how many of us know the judges’ stand on family reunification before we go to the polls?
The federal Families First Prevention Services Act was signed into law as part of the Budget Act in February 2018, and takes effect this coming October. The purpose of the act is to keep families together and keep children out of the child welfare system; a noble idea. However, the new law will support AJ’s situation of being taken from his foster home where he was safe, and putting him back in the hands of his abusive parents.
Once we’ve taken the time to be informed about the child abuse epidemic, we must ask ourselves what we’re prepared to do about it. It only takes a moment to be a child advocate and share a post so others can be informed. We can use our votes to elect those who make child welfare a priority. We can lend our support to programs that prevent child abuse before it begins, and the list goes on.
The legacy of AJ Freund hasn’t been decided yet because it’s up to us all. Will he have been just another sad story in the headlines, or the catalyst for us to accept our responsibility and work together to end child abuse?