A horrendous news story out of Albany, NY yesterday: A 13-year-old severely autistic boy died while being transported from his state-run developmental center. The same boy was the subject of an abuse investigation at another state-run school facility in 2004. Jonathan Carey died after being improperly restrained by two workers in a van Thursday night.

Here’s the tragic part:

The two men drove around for 1 1/2 hours after the boy stopped breathing said Colonie Police Chief Steven Heider in an afternoon press conference. They went to a Hess Mart for drinks and then drove to a toy store in Mohawk Commons, a short distance from O.D. Heck [the developmental center], to buy a video game and drop it off at Tirado's [one of the abuser’s] Schenectady home.

So nearly 2 hours after they left the center, they returned telling employees there they had a medical emergency. Of course, Jonathan was dead.

Improper restraining of children in serious business. It’s what prompted a late night phone call from another mom to me last September in conjunction with the school where they want to send LuLu. Reading this article today, I heard her voice echoing in my ear. “When will someone stop what’s happening at this school?” she asked, “when a child dies?”

A sad irony is that Jonathan’s parents, Mike and Lisa Carey, had been battling to open the records of their son to find out who had abused him at the other school back in 2004.

The Times Union profiled the Careys earlier this year and their quest to not only learn who had physically abused the severely autistic and mentally retarded boy at the Dutchess County facility but also get his records unsealed. Jonathan was nonverbal and couldn't tell them himself. That law, he said, would give families the right to access their own children's records to be sure the state is held accountable for their care.

Here’s the admiration part:

These poor parents have been taking on a “broken and failing system” for well over 3 years now (possibly longer). Not only do they have their own personal tragedy to deal with, but the knowledge of how much is wrong with the system and the likelihood it will happen again if someone doesn’t stop it.

That also means breaking through what has been a wall of silence for the Careys. Their efforts to find out what Jonathan endured at the Anderson School in Dutchess County have been stymied by a state law requiring such records to be sealed. It's in the ostensible interests of privacy that such laws are on the books. But no child's privacy, especially not an abused child, needs to be protected from his parents. And no one else's privacy should be protected to the point where it blocks parents from knowing how their children are treated in state-supervised facilities.

And once again, laws that purportedly protect children are used to hide abuse. There are similar laws and rules surrounding our local school situation. For example, I can’t take LuLu’s private doctors or therapists into the school in which the district wants her placed. “Confidentiality of the other students” is the reason cited, as if our doctors are going to identify and broadcast who is there.

In the midst of his own overwhelming personal tragedy, Mike Carey said:

"We really felt compelled, like a God-given responsibility, to help other children, to get changes and reform to help prevent something like this from happening."

I concur completely with the reporter’s conclusion:

The system that failed Jonathan Carey is indebted to Michael Carey and Lisa Carey and all those parents like them.