Ketorrious “KJ” Starks Jr. was just three years old. He died alone in the back seat of a hot car in July 2025. That car belonged to Kela Stanford, a transport worker contracted through Covenant Services, Inc. a company hired by Jefferson County DHR.

And now? The Alabama Department of Human Resources has filed a motion to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit brought by KJ’s family.

Let that sink in.

They didn’t walk into court with answers. They didn’t bring reform. They didn’t say, “We failed.” They showed up with a motion to erase the case from the record a legal attempt to duck responsibility and pretend this child’s death isn’t theirs to answer for.

The DHR workers named in the suit are claiming state-agent immunity. The contractor, Covenant Services, is claiming immunity too. And that word immunity is exactly what this system hides behind.

They are immunizing immoral people. People whose actions have destroyed the lives of Alabama citizens. People whose lies, omissions, and twisted narratives have led to suffering, family separation, trauma, and death.

And when those actions are finally exposed, when the harm becomes undeniable, the system does not deliver justice. It delivers cover. It hands them a shield. It pulls the card of qualified immunity and says they cannot be held responsible.

While children are dying. While families are being torn apart. While parents are left to explain the unthinkable.

This is not protection. This is policy-backed betrayal. And this is not rare. It is predictable.

Because when the government is sued when a state agency is accused of wrongdoing their first response is not to investigate or apologize. Their first response is to protect themselves.

The legal strategy is almost always the same: file a motion to dismiss. Claim qualified immunity. Claim state-agent immunity. Claim sovereign immunity. Anything to avoid standing in front of a jury. Anything to avoid being questioned under oath.

It is not a defense based on truth. It is a maneuver based on power.

The goal is not to prove innocence. It is to prevent accountability from ever reaching the courtroom. And in their maneuver to do this, they hope a judge will latch onto the legal technicalities and give them an exit a way to escape the truth without ever having to face it.

And while they argue immunity in court filings, families like KJ’s are left broken. Parents are left with silence. Children are left without justice. The very people harmed by the system are asked to suffer again while the system shields itself with law books and legal shields. And the transport worker, Kela Stanford the woman who left KJ to die in the heat while using her personal vehicle pled not guilty.

And for the family left empty and mourning the life of this baby lost under their care, there is no peace. No closure. Just silence. Legal filings. Denials.

This is not just about one death. This is about a system that is designed to destroy and then retreat. A system that calls itself protective while empowering the very people who create harm. A system that will prosecute a parent for poverty or discipline, but run from the courtroom when the blood is on its own hands.

KJ was a three-year-old child shut up in a car equipped with backseat passenger detection technology. A child left in the custody of a woman DHR chose to contract, to assign, to trust. A child whose family now lives in torment while the agency responsible hides behind legal shields and motions to dismiss

Everything about their actions says they are not responsible for this senseless death. Every move they make is an attempt to escape accountability.

DHR has built a culture that does not course-correct. It conceals. It does not hold its own accountable. It blames. It creates space for power-hungry, self-serving individuals to show up behind office doors and run families into the ground with lies and unchecked authority.

And to the lawmakers watching from marble offices. To the governor behind the curtain. To the ones who say they care but refuse to act understand this: you are not just failing to stop it. You are allowing it to continue.

You are just as responsible for the blood on the floor and the trauma endured as those who dealt the injustice.

KJ mattered. His family matters. And the people of this state will not let this be swept into the shadows.