5 Year Old Boy Found Dead In North Austin

When I began browsing through local news for this assignment I was shocked to see that crime was dominating Austin’s news reports. My first reaction was to steer clear of these depressing acts of violence, however, after reading about Julian Salazar Solis my heart dropped. I have a two-year-old of my own and after reading this story I couldn’t help but be puzzled as to how a 5 year old little boy could turn up dead in the very neighborhood I was raised in. Julian was found in the yard of a homeowner in Wells Branch last Saturday. Although there were no signs of external injuries, police are investigating this tragic death as a homicide.

Initially upon reading the headline my first reaction was to commiserate with his mourning parents but after I read further I couldn’t help but assume that this death was a result of inactive parenting. The article from the Austin American Statesman states that CPS has documentation of an investigation lead when Julian was only three months old. Disputes among his parents over a custody battle lead to a struggle which resulted in the injury of the baby. Julian’s father Ivan also has a less than impressive history with the law including an assault charge in 2006 and a burglary charge just last year. Ivan claims he left Julian with his girlfriend “about a week ago” and Julian’s mother had not seen him in over a month. I will not claim to know or understand the dynamics of this broken family, however, it is obvious that Julian’s mother and father were passive in their approach to parenting.

We as parents are not perfect. We all have regrets and make mistakes. It is part of life. However, it is our responsibility as parents to protect our children from harm, love them, give them care, and teach them so that one day they will treat their own children with the same compassion. In my opinion these young parents are irresponsible children themselves and have failed to provide the bare minimum care that every child DESERVES. It is not a right to have children, it is a privilege. I believe the State of Texas is also at fault by not providing stricter regulations for children that have parents like these. What were the warning signs? How could we have prevented this? How can we prevent this from happening again? Hopefully after this heart wrenching incident Julian’s mom and dad will be better parents to the other 4 children they have. Or even better, CPS take all 4 children, put them in better homes and give them all a second chance at life.