After the recent death of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos, state officials will conduct an audit of L.A. County’s Department of Children and Family Services to determine whether the agency is doing enough to protect children.
The California legislative audit committee approved a request for the review Wednesday from state Sens. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) and Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale).
In their request, the legislators noted that Anthony had been the subject of 13 calls to the department and that he may have come out as gay before his death, citing reporting in The Times.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident,” their letter to the audit committee said, referring to the 2013 death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez, who was tortured and abused for months by his mother and her boyfriend, allegedly because he suspected Gabriel was gay.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
