This week, our spotlight turns back to a truth too many have been forced to live with: DHR knows when it has done wrong and still refuses to make it right. It is not a mistake. It is a choice. And that choice has cost years of unjust trauma along with lives.

In Houston County, the case of little Xylah still hangs heavy in the air. A toddler with her arm broken not once but twice in a daycare. Medical professionals confirmed abuse. DHR issued a letter acknowledging harm. Yet no charges were brought. The daycare remains open. The very workers who signed that letter, Mandy Gomez and Leslie Sasnett, continue to work in positions of power. Parents who who have recovered from addiction, those who have left abusive relationships, those who discipline their children out of love, and those who have simply struggled for a few moments are shown no grace, while those who profit from licensed facilities are given the protection of the state. The silence is not ignorance. It is endorsement.

In Lee County, a father named Lance Wright fought for his daughter Zy’nnya, filing motion after motion to bring her home from an unsafe placement. He warned the court. He begged the system to act. They did not. And then came the news no parent should ever receive: Zy’nnya was gone. The people who failed her still hold their jobs. The court that refused to hear her father now pretends no responsibility rests on its bench. This is not a flaw in the system. It is the system working exactly as it was built, to protect itself, not the children it claims to serve.

Then there is the Brent, Alabama bunker. Ten children, some as young as three, held captive over years, collars locked around their genitals, tied to a sex trafficking ring. These children lived in full view of neighbors, of law enforcement, of a network that claims to monitor child welfare. DHR and police missed them. The same educators and officials who will chase down a fabricated story about a loving parent missed the monsters living in plain sight. Ask yourself why. Ask yourself how.

And now, the death of three-year-old Ketorrious “KJ” Starks. Left in a hot car for hours while in DHR custody. The contracted worker responsible, Kela Stanford, did not even show up for her first court appearance. She has been given a pass to do it again. If a parent missed a single court date, the state would take it as proof of guilt. For Kela Stanford, it is treated as nothing more than a scheduling inconvenience.

This is just a few of the many, many stories that families are suffering from under the hands of this state-sanctioned oppressive system. It is not serving the citizens. It is actively searching to devour, to target, and to tear down.

This is not a scattered collection of tragedies. It is a pattern. It is the culture of an agency that will close ranks around its own and stand in defense of those who wear its shield. Every wrong here was followed by an opportunity to make it right. Every opportunity was refused.

This week, we are putting pieces in place to demand accountability from specific individuals who have failed these babies. Not just the policies. Not just the agencies. The people. Names and faces. The ones who signed off, looked away, or closed the file.

If you are a parent still in the thick of it, know this: you are not imagining the pattern. You are living in it. If you are a worker inside the system, understand this: history will remember where you stood when you had the chance to make it right.

We are done waiting. We are done accepting silence as the final word. The wrongs will be named. And this time, the record will not be written by the people who caused the harm.