Dr. Jeffrey Kaczorowski began last week's annual meeting for the Children's Agenda with a story about a 13-year-old girl, one he remembered treating a year earlier.

The girl complained of having chest pains, Kaczorowski said, and when she lifted her blouse, Kaczorowski saw 11 stab wounds.

That same day, a young mother in Fort Lauderdale sobbed on one of the morning news shows because her 14-year-old son was in a Florida hospital fighting for his life. A tussle over a bike caused five of his playmates to douse him with a flammable liquid and light him on fire.

Here, Tyquan Rivera sat in court next to his defense attorney, waiting for to be sentenced for shooting and nearly killing Rochester Police Officer Anthony DiPonzio.

With his braided hair and emotionless face, Rivera looked as if he was waiting to be served lunch instead of a prison sentence.  

The image of all three children, Rivera's in particular, is haunting. How did they end up in such tragic situations?

No disrespect to Officer DiPonzio, but the safety nets that are supposed to catch the Riveras of our society have massive holes. Rivera is not the poster child for the boy who fell through the proverbial cracks.

This kid was pushed.

He will likely serve the full 10 years of his sentence, much of it in a prison like Attica.

Kaczorowski pointed to research showing that most of a child's brain development happens between the ages of 3 to 5. Where and how children spend those early years often dictates where and how they will spend their adult years.

Seventy percent of America's children now spend those formative years in day-care centers. There is nothing wrong with day care, Kaczorowski said, but day care and pre-K education must be more stimulating and nurturing, or we risk warehousing children at a critical time in their development.

The Kennedy clan's Maria Shriver has just released a report on the state of women, showing that the stay-at-home mom is history. Most women must work, since even two-income households are not always enough.

Government, the report shows, has failed to recognize the changing needs of our society. Shriver says we should be investing more into after-school programs, school counselors, social workers, and psychologists.

Allocating resources based on the number of students - a declining student population in the case of city schools - instead of the needs of those students and their families doesn't thread the needle.

And it won't prevent another Rivera.