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A.J.'s Story - Letters To The Editor

The following links take you to various letters to the editor in AJ's story as it appeared in the
South Florida media.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE BEFORE ASKING.

Thank you!

In Loving Memory Of Andrew James "A.J." Schwarz April 24,1983 - May 2,1993 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."
This page contains all of the letters to the editor from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel throughout the years.

If you are interested in reading the FULL DETAILS of this case aside from what is posted here, please purchase "No One Can Hurt Him Anymore" by Carol J.Rothgeb and Scott H. Cupp. Mr. Cupp thinks it's the book that nobody will read...please show your support and show him that you care about AJ, too by ordering his book by clicking on the cover image below.

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1993

Just Who Is Protecting Our Children? (10/19/93)
Preventing Child Abuse is Everyone's Job (10/30/93)
HRS Isn't Protecting The Children (11/13/93)
HRS Excuse Sounds Like Child's Plea (12/4/93)
HRS Should Focus More On Education (12/15/93)
After AJ, Beware of Bureaucrats (12/29/93)

1994

Chuck HRS In Wake of AJ (1/1/94)
Did Stepmother Think of AJ's Hair? (2/3/94)
How Can AJ's 'Protectors' Sleep? (9/2/94)
Verdicts Won't Bring Back Little Boy (9/5/94)
Death To Killers of Innocent Children (11/8/94)

1995

HRS Pay is Secondary To Kids' Needs (1/22/95)
Give This Judge Doublespeak Award (3/30/95)
Why Was AJ's Torture Permitted? (4/4/95)
Discuss Cruelty To Children After They're Born (4/14/95)
'Victims' Who Abuse System (4/19/95)
Lawyer's Remark on Verdict An Outrage (4/22/95)
Double Standard In Murder Charges? (4/22/95)
Should Murdered Children Have Been in Orphanages? (4/28/95)
Abortion As A Cure For Abuse? That's Sad (4/30/95)
Abused Kids Would've Taken Adoption (4/30/95)

1998

Story Helped Anti-Child Abuse Campaign (5/28/98)

JUST WHO IS PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN?
The Palm Beach Post
October 19, 1993

No punishment would be too great for Jessica Schwarz, the woman accused of killing her 10-year-old stepson. I was sickened by the accounts of torture and abuse reported by neighbors. This woman has no business being a mother, and A.J.'s father certainly failed his parental responsibilities.
I was also horrified to learn that Mrs. Schwarz was a former day-care worker and that Florida Health and Rehabilitative Services was notified repeatedly regarding the abuse but left the child to die. Just who is protecting our children?
Far too many people are neglecting their parental obligations, creating a society of suffering children. Our children deserve nurturing and love.
Meg Wally
Royal Palm Beach

PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE EVERYONE'S JOB
The Palm Beach Post
October 30, 1993

Preventing child abuse everyone's job
The horrifying tale of the abuse and alleged murder of 10-year-old A.J. Schwarz sends a wake-up call to all of us.
Let's do something to improve the quality of children's lives. Good neighbors tried to help A.J. They reported the continuous abuse and built a record of phone calls to state workers at the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Resources. Be relentless. Call the police and the numbers below. Make the system we pay for work for the children.
To report child abuse: National Child Abuse Hotline, Hotline, (800) 422-4453; Child Abuse Registry, Tallahassee, (800) 962-2873. Locally: Center for Children in Crisis, 863-1611, or Palm Beach County Victim's Services, 355-2383. The local numbers are rarely answered on weekends, but don't wait. Call your police department and the state and national numbers above.
Linda Huebner
Jupiter

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HRS ISN'T PROTECTING THE CHILDREN
The Palm Beach Post
November 13, 1993

What I can't understand is how someone can make a spurious complaint about child abuse and then the parents are slapped into jail, the kids removed from the home and pediatricians called in to examine the children. But in the case of A.J. Schwarz, his nose was broken, and there were numerous complaints, bruises and behaviorchanges in school, yet no one from the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services did anything! How pathetic. Is HRS truly protecting these children or is it another governmental waste of time?
Gail Dinnerstein
Boca Raton

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HRS EXCUSE SOUNDS LIKE CHILD'S PLEA
The Palm Beach Post
December 4, 1993

Of course Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services would claim that ``it isn't fair to put all the blame on the agency'' in the child-abuse death of A.J. Schwarz, 10, of Lantana. Agency people are better trained than anyone in any agency in the state. It isn't a 10-week crash course. All you have to do is read everything written by superiors and subordinates, and you'll acquire all the guile necessary to evade blame.
When I was 4, I threw a tennis ball in the living room. If I had aimed it, I could not have made a better blow to an antique china pitcher that had been in my mother's family for seven or eight generations. Mom came into the room like a linebacker with blood in her eyes. I said, ``It broke.'' At 4 years old, I discovered the passive voice.
Arthur Tisch
Loxahatchee

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HRS SHOULD FOCUS MORE ON EDUCATION
The Palm Beach Post
December 15, 1993

The Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services has been getting a lot of bad publicity lately over its handling of the A.J. Schwarz case. Unfortunately, those sentiments do nothing to change the patterns of child abuse that are handed down from generation to generation. Pointing fingers in anger only vents today's frustrations.
Taking the responsibility to instill good parenting skills in families, schools and communities is the hope we give to our children's children.
Rick Williams
Lake Worth

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AFTER A.J., BEWARE OF BUREAUCRATS
The Palm Beach Post
December 29, 1993

What happened to Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz, 10, of Lantana at the hands of government bureaucracy is a mortal disgrace. It is indicative of the gross lack of dedication to excellence so common to what is laughingly referred to as public service.
Barbara Black, A.J.'s caseworker, was derelict in her duty to the late A.J. But her indictment only seems to cover her threatening a neighbor who had complained about A.J.'s abuse. For the actual tragedy to the boy, there was no jury indictment.
Eugene L. Notkin
Boynton Beach

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CHUCK HRS `POLICY' IN WAKE OF A.J.
The Palm Beach Post
January 1, 1994

It's been years since I've written a letter to the editor, but the case of A.J. Schwarz, the Lantana 10-year-old found dead in his backyard pool, struck a nerve. I am a guardian ad litem and am active in a case in which I felt a child would be in danger in the home where the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services intended to place the child. I was told the information I had compiled on that home was ``conjecture,'' and it was HRS ``policy'' to place a child in a home with a relative. So I started researching my options. The Guardian Ad Litem Program has an attorney on staff, and after consulting with that attorney, one was appointed to represent me in a petition to find the placement inappropriate. The fight was long, hard and very unpleasant, but I did prevail. I am not popular at the HRS office, but this wasn't a popularity contest. Guardians need to know all their options to protect a child.
I feel that HRS workers use the word policy to cover themselves when they haven't done their job. As far as I know, it is not ``policy'' to remove a child from the frying pan only to throw him into the fire.
Shirley B. McCray
Indiantown

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DID STEPMOTHER THINK OF A.J.'S HAIR?
The Palm Beach Post
February 3, 1994

When a judge, Circuit Judge Walter Colbath, allows a poor excuse for a human being - Jessica Schwarz, accused of murder in the death of her stepson, A.J. - to have the luxury of going to a hairdresser, it makes you wonder about the people to whom we entrust our judicial system. Did she ever worry about her poor little victim's hair? Please, this is sickening!
Evelyn Cohn
Boca Raton

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HOW CAN A.J.'S `PROTECTORS' SLEEP?
The Palm Beach Post
September 2, 1994

As a mother of three small boys, I see every day their excitement, joy and wonder in every new idea they may come up with, whether it's starting a club with neighborhood kids, riding their bikes around the block or maybe digging in the sand after I told them not to at least a hundred times. And to think that just a few blocks away a child was stripped of all his excitement, joy and wonder. And no one could or would do anything to stop it!
Little A.J. Schwarz never had a chance to be a happy little boy. He was beaten down and stripped of his youthful spirit and allegedly killed by the hand that should have loved and nurtured him. I'm still wondering how the people who could have prevented this tragedy sleep at night? When will they start protecting children?
Cynthia L. Wolford
Lake Worth

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VERDICTS WON'T BRING BACK LITTLE BOY
The Palm Beach Post
September 5, 1994

All the finger-pointing will not bring back A.J. Schwarz, a child who did not enjoy his childhood and never will see adulthood. Jessica Schwarz, A.J.'s "stepmother," has been charged in his death.
Granted, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services should have and could have seen early warning signs of abuse... but they did not. Neighbors testified in court of horrendous actions and conditions inflicted on the little boy.... It was too late. And A.J. himself could have sought refuge in another adult, maybe a teacher... He did not. Well, all the should-haves and could-haves really will not change the situation ... A.J. is dead.
Defense attorney Rendell Brown painted a picture of extreme use of "tough love." The toughest of love could not conceivably match the cruelty and insanity one little boy endured. Whether or not a jury finds Jessica Schwarz responsible for A.J.'s death, her actions should not be forgotten, nor should the memory of a helpless child like the thousands of others who suffered the same fate.
Susan A. Jackson
North Palm Beach
Editors note: Jessica Schwarz was convicted Thursday on six of seven counts of child abuse. She will be tried later on second-degree murder charges in her stepson's death.

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DEATH TO KILLERS OF INNOCENT CHILDREN
The Palm Beach Post
November 8, 1994

Amanda Dougherty, Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz, Christina Holt - where is the justice? Their right to live was taken away from them! I am outraged!! My God, somebody has to change the law to protect the innocent little victims, who have nobody to turn to for help. Whoever becomes governor this year should make this his first priority - the death penalty should be enforced for such horrific crimes!
Hulda Ward
West Palm Beach

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HRS PAY IS SECONDARY TO KIDS' NEEDS
The Palm Beach Post
January 22, 1995

After reading the article ``Task force taking closer look at HRS,'' I would like to say that the issue of salaries should not be as important as making sure that our children are being well provided for. Although pay is a big issue in finding good help, those who take on the responsibility of being health-care providers should focus mainly on the children, so as to make sure there are fewer tragedies, such as the A.J. Schwarz or Pauline Cone cases.
Beverly D. Lunford
Pahokee

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GIVE THIS JUDGE DOUBLESPEAK AWARD
The Palm Beach Post
March 30, 1995

After reading the report ``Some abuse evidence allowed in Schwartz murder trial,'' I think Circuit Judge Karen Martin qualifies for the ``Euphemism of the Year Award'' of the ``Society for Politically Correct Speech.''
Judge Martin refused to allow into evidence certain prior convictions of abuse to the child whom Jessica Schwarz is now accused of murdering. Judge Martin is quoted as labeling that behavior ``inappropriate parenting skills.'' Another judge, who sentenced this defendant to 30 years, called the same behavior ``barbaric and grotesque.''
With such Alice in Wonderland abuse of language, what's next - a hit-and-run driver described as having ``inappropriate driving skills''?
Unfortunately, these linguistic acrobatics reflect the social trend that New York Democratic Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan has noted as ``defining down deviancy.'' We would hope the judiciary could resist this trend.
Joseph R. Cowen
West Palm Beach

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WHY WAS A.J.'S TORTURE PERMITTED?
The Palm Beach Post
April 4, 1995

The short, tortured life of A.J. Schwarz just sickens me, as does the haunting photograph of a young boy trying so hard to smile but not quite succeeding. His horrible life, in which he was cruelly abused by his step-monster (I could not use the word mother here) ended as his life was spent - in pain, but thank God he suffers no more.
Why was Jessica Schwarz allowed to continue to make his life a living hell? Why isn't his father on trial for not protecting his son, even for not loving his son enough to stand up to her? Why didn't those testifying friends of A.J., and their parents, do something - report this woman, have someone, anyone - intervene, talk to her, threaten her if she continued? Were there no relatives who could help? No one wants to get involved nowadays, so we have, as a result, years of child abuse ending tragically.
Please, people, watch for signs of child abuse - then tell, tell, tell, until help is given.
Joyce Donahoe
Boynton Beach

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DISCUSS CRUELTY TO CHILDREN AFTER THEY ARE BORN
The Palm Beach Post
April 14, 1995

Regarding the recent letter ``New abortion method needs reporting'': I'm certain that had Christina Holt or A.J. Schwarz had the choice of being born or suffering the years of life they lived, they would have chosen abortion, no matter what form.
Newspapers, magazines and TV should go into graphic detail, as the letter-writer did about abortion methods, of the torture, maiming, bone breaking, fractured skulls, drownings, scaldings, cigarette burns, sexual abuse in every perverted form done to thousands of unwanted children daily.
Newborn babies are discarded in Dumpsters, garbage cans, toilets, fireplaces - all abandoned because they weren't wanted and can't be cared for.
Dee Adkins
West Palm Beach

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‘VICTIMS' WHO ABUSE SYSTEM
The Palm Beach Post
April 19, 1995

Erik and Lyle Menendez claim to have much in common with Christina Holt and A.J. Schwarz.
They suffered parental abuse, the brothers say. So it was OK for them to kill their parents in 1989.
Christina was 7 when she was killed. A.J. was 10. Erik Menendez was 19 and Lyle Menendez was 22 when they killed their parents. Child victims?
In separate trials, two California juries were unable to convict the Menendez brothers, who will inherit $14 million if acquitted. The judge in a new trial has tentatively ruled that the ``abuse excuse'' can't be raised as a defense. The ruling, though based on a technicality of California law, is a welcome return to common sense that has become rare in big-money trials.
For example, the O.J. Simpson trial. There, jokes about fortune cookies (told by former Lyle Menendez lawyer Robert Shapiro) have displaced common-sense concern for facts.
The Menendez brothers say they're victims of abuse. O.J. Simpson says he's the victim of a racist system.
As for Christina and A.J., they can't say anything.

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LAWYER'S REMARK ON VERDICT AN OUTRAGE
The Palm Beach Post
April 22, 1995

It is horrifying to see mothers killing their children. There are no words that can describe the anger I feel. The life and comfort of one's child should come above all else.
But what I find most contemptible is the comment of Pauline Zile's attorney, Ellis Rubin, that the verdict of first-degree murder was too harsh. How dare he? Pauline Zile watched her child, Christina Holt, being killed and let it happen. We don't even want to hear about extenuating circumstances. No punishment is strong enough for this woman - or Jessica Schwarz, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her stepson, A.J.
Genia Zwirn
Delray Beach

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DOUBLE STANDARD IN MURDER CHARGES?
The Palm Beach Post
April 22, 1995

Pauline Zile has been convicted of first-degree murder of her daughter, Christina Holt, even though her husband (who is not Christina's father) is charged with the actual killing.
Why is it that the father of A.J. Schwarz (the 10-year-old boy who was killed by his stepmother), who must have known about A.J.'s abuse by his wife, Jessica, since all the neighbors testified about it, has not been charged with anything?
Why was David ``Bear'' Schwarz not there to protect his child A.J.? This was the same standard to which Pauline Zile was held.
Maureen Quinlan
North Palm Beach
Editor's note: Mr. Schwarz is a truck driver and was rarely home. According to reporter Jenny Staletovich, neighbors said they'd never seen him hit A.J.

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SHOULD MURDERED CHILDREN HAVE BEEN IN ORPHANAGES?
Sun-Sentinel
April 28, 1995

Recent newspapers prominently featured stories about Pauline Zile and Jessica Schwarz, two women convicted of killing their children.
A simple question: Would those children have been better off in orphanages?
BRIAN GORE
Fort Lauderdale

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ABORTION AS CURE FOR ABUSE? THAT'S SAD
The Palm Beach Post
April 30, 1995

In response to the letter ``Discuss cruelty to children after they are born'': Abortion is not the answer to this society's ills.
Yes, Christina Holt and A.J. Schwarz lived and died tragically after being abused; however, to suggest abortion as the better alternative is even more tragic. The cure for immorality is not mortality.
It's sad to think that we live in a society where abortion is offered as a solution to child abuse. I submit that we need to deal with those deep-seated problems that lead to people emotionally and physically abusing others. Abortion is not the cure.
Gayle W. Harper
West Palm Beach

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