The College Perspective by Lindsey

A New York man, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu, is in jail after allegations of sexually abusing five of the boys he was a foster parent to and endangering the well-being of two others. He had taken in around a hundred other children by the time he was accused of abuse, but there had been issues with other boys telling social workers of the problems they faced while under his care, specifically 30-40 different complaints against Gonzales-Mugaburu. While these charges were being investigated, other social workers were still giving him money for the children who were no longer under his care and allowed him to adopt others. These charges were eventually dropped against him, mostly because the boys in question had mental handicaps, but when several other boys who weren’t mentally handicapped came forward with the same allegations, authorities decided to take Gonzales-Mugaburu in. During questioning, he seemed agitated, calling one boy a pathological liar and told officials he was deeply upset by these accusations. His home has now been closed to all foster children. With all of this information found against Gonzales, officials are looking into reform with out-of-state foster care, as many institutions fail to become familiar with the whole case or follow up at all, leaving children in homes that may not be a good fit for that child.

This article is newsworthy because often children in foster homes are more prone to abuse than other categories of children. These kids eventually grow up and many have psychological problems because of their experiences, and with this article, more awareness can be brought to the conditions of foster homes and how to improve the system. I believe the audience here is families, particularly couples who are considering adoption or those who have given their children up to the foster system. While this article is newsworthy, the lead is confusing. It says nothing about the man who is being charged until the third paragraph and a majority of the article is about him. The lead should have held information about his arrest instead of describing the adoption website that is only mentioned for a few paragraphs of the entire article. Even with a weak lead however, this article did a good job of including all the facts and putting quotes in from both sides of the story, making it more objective.