Too late to save Rebecca Jeanne Riley, state human services officials are trying to fill the holes in a system that allowed a four-year-old girl to be prescribed powerful behavior drugs when she was just 28 months old - drugs that wound up killing her.
Many troubling questions are raised by the toddlers overdose death on Dec. 13 in her parents Hull home - questions that must be answered not just to find out what happened in Rebeccas case, but to prevent future tragedies.
While parents Michael and Carolyn Riley sit in jail on charges of deliberately overmedicating their daughter to death, the public is left to wonder, for starters, how a psychiatric doctor could have diagnosed a 28-month-old with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder.
OUR VIEW: A child failed by adults
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This is why Republicans lost elections across the country. Consider three cases in point: overspending, corruption and the Terri Schiavo controversy.
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To a lesser extent, the Schiavo dispute was perceived by the public as another betrayal of conservative principles. Technically, this was a case about court jurisdiction, which is relevant for Congress to consider.
Nonetheless, it was perceived as the ultimate big-government intrusion into a family affair.
Extending liberty and opportunity remain key to its beliefs
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Going to school at four?? Ye gods.