Editorial: 'Bella's Law' right call to keep kids safe

Bubbles filled the air for a little girl who will never have a fourth birthday party.

She won’t go to kindergarten. No s’mores around a campfire or sleepovers with friends. No broken hearts and no prom.

Because Bella Seachrist was just 3 when she died.

In pages of court documents, police laid out a homicide, assault and conspiracy case against her father, Jose Salazar-Ortiz Sr., 29, stepmother Laura Ramriez, 27, and Ramriez’s sister, Alexis Herrera, 20, that speak of a short life that ended June 9 amid physical and sexual abuse, malnourishment and imprisonment in her Oakmont home.

On Sunday, the “Bubbles for Bella” event in Verona didn’t just celebrate her life. It demanded justice, but that’s for the court and a jury to work on. The event — and an online petition — also pushed for a change in how children taken from one home are supervised when placed in another.

“It’s crazy because our granddaughter was taken and she was never checked on,” said Stacey Seachrist, father of Bella’s mother, Nicole.

Bella was removed from her mother’s custody at 10 months old and placed with her father in August 2017. In 2018, she was sent to family in North Carolina for a year before coming back to Salazar-Ortiz in September 2019 in apparent good health. Ten months later, she was dead.

Organizers in Oakmont are pushing for “Bella’s Law,” a reform to how children in the state’s child welfare system are supervised after placement.

Once the state or one of its county agencies has taken a child away, there is an absolute obligation to ensure that child’s continued health and stability.

The state monitors nursing homes and personal care facilities to make sure the elderly are not being abused by those who have been given responsibility for them. The state should do no less for children.

A child who is too young to speak can’t call for help. An agency cannot leave a baby with a business card and say, “Get back to me if you need anything.” The only way to make sure kids who are handed over remain well-cared for is to follow up on the child’s condition.

Pennsylvania can make this change. The state made sweeping changes in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, demanding huge numbers of people be trained in identifying and reporting suspected abuse. Those changes affected everyone who had contact with any child in the state — more than 2.6 million kids.

“Bella’s Law” would deal with kids in the system. That’s a much smaller number. Too large, of course, because no child should be abused, neglected or have nowhere to turn, but still more manageable.

Kids should be checked on because people and their circumstances change. A placement that was perfectly fine could become more stressful with a divorce or a lost job. A child who was a good fit with a loving relative as a toddler may be a lot for that grandma to handle as a tween.

Checking on kids and their families or other placements should be a way to not just maintain a child’s safety but also to support the families so everyone can succeed.

“Every child deserves a loving, nurturing permanent home where they feel cared for, safe and supported,” the state’s Department of Human Services says under the Child Welfare Services banner, referring to adoption and foster care.

That should apply to all kids and all families, but especially to those where the state has taken an active role in shaping the family.