A B.C. social worker has proposed a new regulation to help authorities step in to protect at-risk children in the wake of the death of a Calgary youth in 2013.
The Alex Alert, named after 15-year-old Alex Radita who died of starvation and complications related to diabetes, would protect at-risk children when their families unexpectedly move away or otherwise lose contact with authorities.
10 years before Alex died, his family lived in B.C. and the boy was placed in foster care by social workers for nearly a year.
Authorities returned him to his family who then moved to Alberta, but no information on the contact with authorities was passed on to Calgary officials.
Patricia MacDonald, a youth and family social worker who proposed the idea, says the Alex Alerts would notify other provinces when at-risk children move so that they can keep tabs on them and prevent similar tragedies.
“We just don’t have a good enough system to be able to track children when they leave one province to another and what happened to Alex was just a horrendous case; just so horrible. I really feel strongly that we need to leave a legacy for him and the legacy would be an Alex Alert.”
Danielle Larivee, Alberta’s Minister of Children’s Services, said she would be willing to discuss the issue.
