Jacqueline Franchetti and supporters gathered outside the Nassau County Courthouse on Thursday morning, calling to reform child abuse protection legislation.
On July 27, 2016, at just 28 months of age, Kyra Franchetti was shot to death in her sleep by her father during an unsupervised, court-sanctioned visit. He then set the house on fire, ultimately killing himself.
Six years after the loss of her daughter, Jacqueline Franchetti, Kyra’s mother, who resides in Manhasset, is fighting for change and has gained endless support. At “Kyra’s Rally for Change,” Franchetti and other speakers urged Governor Kathy Hochul to sign Kyra’s Law into action.
“Our family court system is set up to protect the abuser and not the child and that must end,” Franchetti told News 12 last Thursday.
Kyra’s story is not only heartbreaking, it’s not uncommon.
Jacqueline Franchetti was in an emotionally and verbally abusive relationship with Kyra’s father. Franchetti decided to leave him after finding out she was pregnant.
Not long after Kyra was born did her father return to seek custody. Throughout years of custody hearings, several reports against him stated he was dangerous, abusive, and threatening, but the court did not prevent him from seeing his daughter.
Franchetti’s plea for her safety and that of her daughter was blatantly ignored by the court. Kyra’s attorney was not assertive and did not take actions that would have protected Krya and ultimately saved her life. Just days before Kyra’s heinous murder, the family court judge stated Kyra and Franchetti’s case was “not a life-or-death situation.”
Kyra is 1 of 18 children murdered at the hand of one of their parents who were in the process of a divorce or child custody case in New York since 2016.
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has a specific office that focuses solely on U.S children, The Administration for Children and Families. This past January, the ACF released the Child Maltreatment Report for 2020. An estimated 1,750 children died from abuse and neglect– those were the reported cases.
The CDC stated that 1 in 7 children have experienced child abuse in the past year and that “many cases are unreported,” so many child abuse statistics are merely estimates.
How can New York protect its children from deadly abuse?
Shortly after Kyra’s tragic murder, Franchetti founded Kyra’s Champions and the Kyra Franchetti Foundation. Both foundations protect children in custody cases from being in the same household as their abusive parents.
Franchetti has gained a tremendous amount of support over the years. In a statement, Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-Great Neck) said that Kyra’s Law will protect children: “Kyra’s Law will ensure that children involved in custody cases are protected, and that their safety is centered and prioritized, and that’s why I’m proud to be its sponsor, and will continue to work diligently towards its successful enactment.”
Kyra’s Law will undoubtedly help focus on maintaining the child’s safety. According to kyraschampions.org/kyras-law, Kyra’s Law does the following:
- Makes the health and safety of the child the top priority when determining child custody in divorces or separations;
- Allows for an early evidentiary hearing that is limited to abuse when the child is abused or there are reports of domestic violence;
- Ensures the safe (non-abusive parent) gets sole custody of the child;
- Demands our courts use the gold standard of peer-reviewed research, such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences from the Centers for Disease Control, when evaluating cases involving abuse;
- Mandates that New York State judges and court officials take part in training to oversee domestic violence and child abuse cases;
- Forces the court to give their attention to the evidence before them and prevents the court from giving undue weight to claims that one parent is falsely accusing the other merely as a legal tactic; and
- Requires the abuser to pay the attorney and court fees.
We know the stories of Kyra Franchetti, Gabriel Fernandez, Mariah Lucio, and many other children who died from child abuse and neglect by the system. Kyra’s Law is the first real step in saving the lives of children who do not deserve to die at the hands of their abusive parents.
For more information about Kyra’s Champions and how you can get involved, visit kyraschampions.org.
