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(NEW YORK) — Yale University has announced a new “test-flexible” standardized testing policy set to go into effect for the 2024-25 admissions cycle, following fellow Ivy League school Dartmouth College in adjusting its COVID-era policies.

The university will require standardized test scores for all applicants but is expanding the list of tests that fulfill the requirement to include Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams as well as the ACT and SAT tests.

“Our new policy is designed to help applicants put their best foot forward, and to help admission officers respond to well-prepared students from all contexts,” read the announcement from Yale’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid Jeremiah Quinlan.

Quinlan cites research from Harvard University-based research group Opportunity Insights, which found that standardized test scores predict future grades better than any other available datapoint. However, Quinlan stated, standardized tests are “imperfect and incomplete.”

“No single exam can demonstrate every student’s college readiness or perfectly predict future performance,” said Quinlan.

He added, “A test can, however, highlight an applicant’s areas of academic strength, reinforce high school grades, fill in gaps in a transcript stemming from extenuating circumstances, and—most importantly—identify students whose performance stands out in their school context.”

Yale is one of hundreds of colleges and universities that stopped requiring SAT or ACT scores amid the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2020.

As nationwide school shutdowns and social distancing forced students and faculty out of congregate settings, standardized tests were rescheduled and later canceled. The logistic difficulties in getting students to take the tests forced schools to change their admissions testing policies.

This became one of several adjustments to admissions policies that schools chose to implement, including extensions on application deadlines. These changes in admissions policies led to a surge in applications for some schools.

However, test-optional policies for higher education admissions applications are nothing new. Hundreds of schools have made standardized testing optional for applicants since the early 2000s, according to education advocacy group FairTest.

Standardized testing scores are optional for applicants at roughly 1,900 schools, according to FairTest.

Supporters of standardized testing say these scores can indicate student’s more likely to get better grades and can indicate potential for post-college success. They argue these scores can identify students from underrepresented backgrounds who might be missed by a test-optional application.

“For example, a 1400 SAT score from an applicant whose high school has an SAT mean of 1000 gives us valuable information about that applicant’s ability to excel in their environment,” said Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock. Dartmouth recently reinstated SAT/ACT test requirements.

Critics of standardized testing say that students may not apply to some colleges because of test scores, despite potentially being otherwise good applicants for the school. While test scores predict future grades, some argue that does not predict other aspect’s of a student’s success.

“One of the trends that we’ve noticed in the four years that we’ve been test-optional is there hasn’t been a significant shift in terms of students academic achievement without having submitted standardized test scores to get admitted,” said Steve Robinson, senior associate vice president for enrollment management at the University of Utah, according to local news outlet KSL.

Research has found that standardized tests also put less wealthy students at a disadvantage, inherently favoring richer, white and Asian students. However, College Board, which administers the SAT and AP exams, told the New York Times that the test simply mirrors the inequities in education impacting these groups and is not at fault for the disparity.

Research from Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research states the college admissions process also play a major role in favoring richer populations.

It found that students from families in the top 1% are twice as likely to be admitted to and attend an Ivy-Plus college than students from a middle-class family with comparable standardized test scores. The study cites legacy admissions, athlete recruitment, and non-academic ratings as benefitting high-income applicants.

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(NEW YORK) — Schools nationwide have been at the center of the country’s culture wars. Restrictions on education and programs relating to race, gender, and sexual orientation have been implemented in several states, while schools and libraries are facing increasing waves of book-banning attempts.

In a new survey, the Pew Research Center asked public K-12 teachers, teens, and the American public about the ongoing scrutiny placed on classroom curricula, mainly regarding race and LGBTQ identities.

Here’s what teachers, teens and the American public said, according to the Pew survey:

What teachers say

Pew found that 41% of teachers say these debates have had a negative impact on their ability to do their job. Only 4% say the debates have had a positive impact.

Most public K-12 teachers — 60% — say parents should not be able to opt their children out of learning about racism or racial inequality in school, even if the topics are taught in a way that conflicts with a parent’s beliefs. A quarter of teachers surveyed say the opposite, Pew found.

Of the Americans surveyed by Pew, 34% of them said they believe parents should be able to opt their children out of learning about racism and racial inequality.

Most surveyed teachers, 64%, say students should learn that the legacy of slavery still affects the position of Black people in American society today.

Regarding slavery’s legacy, 23% of teachers surveyed believe that students should learn that slavery is part of American history but no longer affects the position of Black people in American society. Only 8% say students shouldn’t learn about this topic in school at all.

When it comes to sexual orientation or gender identity, about 33% of teachers say parents should not be able to opt their children out of learning about these topics. 48% say the opposite, Pew found. Of the Americans surveyed by Pew, 54% of them said they believe parents should be able to opt their children out of learning about sexual orientation and gender identity, while 34% said they should not be able to opt out.

Half of public school teachers say students shouldn’t learn about whether a person’s gender can be different from or is determined by their sex assigned at birth, according to the Pew survey. Among teachers, one-third believe students should learn that someone can be a boy or a girl even if that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth, Pew found. About 14% of teachers said they should learn that their gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth.

Pew found that a majority of teachers, 71%, say they don’t have enough influence over what’s taught in public schools in their area. A smaller majority of teachers, 58%, say their state government has too much influence, while 35% say it has about the right amount of influence, with the remainder saying state government doesn’t have enough influence.

What teens say

Students across the country have been vocal about the impact that restrictions on teaching and programs relating to race, gender, and sexual orientation restrictions have had on their education. Pew surveyed teens between the ages 13 to 17 who are not homeschooled to gauge their opinions.

Those teens who say topics concerning race and LGBTQ identities have come up in their classes, also say they are more comfortable than uncomfortable learning about racism and racial inequality.

Regarding racism or racial inequality, the Pew survey found Black teens are nearly twice as likely than white teens, 33% to 19%, to feel uncomfortable when the subjects come up in class, and about twice as likely than their Hispanic classmates, 33% to 17%.

When teens were asked how they would prefer to learn in school about the legacy of slavery, Pew found that 48% overall say they’d rather learn that it still affects the position of Black people in American society today. Another 40% said they would rather learn that slavery is part of American history but no longer affects the position of Black people in American society today. Just 11% said slavery’s legacy shouldn’t be a subject in school at all.

Teens were also asked about being taught about gender identity in school. Pew found that 48% of teens surveyed say they should not learn about gender identity in school. Of those who feel otherwise, a quarter of teens say they would prefer to learn that someone can have a gender that does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. A similar share, 26%, say they would prefer to learn that gender is determined by the that’s sex assigned at birth.

On the subjects of sexual orientation or gender identity, Pew found that 29% of teens surveyed said they feel very or somewhat comfortable when the subjects come up in class, while 33% said they feel very or somewhat uncomfortable when the subjects arise. The majority, 37%, said they feel neither comfortable nor uncomfortable.

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(NEW YORK) — The defendants in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case have asked the judge to delay the enforcement of penalties in the case, including Trump’s $354 million fine and temporary ban on running a business in New York.

A lawyer for the defendants in the case asked Judge Arthur Engoron to delay the enforcement of penalties by 30 days, to allow for an “orderly post-judgment process.”

The request stemmed from a dispute about the case’s judgment order, a court document that, at the end of a trial, starts the clock for the penalties in a case. Once Judge Engoron signs the judgment order, Trump gets 30 days to pay the judgment or post a bond, which would then allow him to appeal the case.

Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James submitted a draft judgment on Tuesday, prompting criticism from Trump’s defense lawyer Clifford Robert.

“To deprive Defendants of the opportunity to submit a proposed counter-judgment would be contrary to fundamental fairness and due process,” Robert wrote in a letter to the court Wednesday morning.

Later in the morning, Engoron requested that Robert submit a written response articulating what would make the defense’s judgment different from the proposed order. Robert replied Wednesday afternoon by arguing that the attorney general’s judgment broke with standard practice and included at least two errors.

“The Attorney General has not filed any motion on notice, nor moved to settle the proposed Judgment,” Robert said in the filing. “Her unseemly rush to memorialize a ‘judgment’ violates all accepted practice in New York state court.”

Citing the “magnitude” of the penalties in the case, Robert requested a stay of penalties by 30 days if Engoron opts to sign the attorney general’s proposed judgment.

“Given that the court-appointed monitor continues to be in place, there is no prejudice to the Attorney General in briefly staying enforcement to allow for an orderly post-judgment process, particularly given the magnitude of Judgment,” Robert wrote.

Trump was fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest last week after Engoron determined that he inflated his net worth to get more favorable loan terms.

The former president has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.

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(NEW YORK) — The parents of Gabby Petitio, the 22-year-old travel blogger who was killed by her fiancé Brian Laundrie, settled Wednesday with Laundrie’s parents and their attorney in an emotional distress lawsuit and will avoid a civil trial, according to a statement.

Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, Gabby Petito’s parents, filed a lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, and their attorney, Steven Bertolino, for intentional infliction of emotional distress in March 2022. They claimed the Laundries were aware of Gabby Petito’s murder soon after her death in August 2021 and chose to do nothing other than issue a statement through Bertolino expressing hope she would be found.

On Wednesday, the two sides came to an agreement to avoid a civil trial that would have begun in May.

“After a long day of mediation, a confidential resolution has been reached between the parents of Gabby Petito, the parents of Brian Laundrie and Attorney Steven Bertolino to which all parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict. Our hope is to close this chapter of our lives to allow us to move on and continue to honor the legacy of our beautiful daughter, Gabby,” a statement from Joseph and Tara Petito and Nichole and James Schmidt read.

Bertolino said in a statement that he and the Landries participated in mediation and that the terms of the resolution were confidential.

“We look forward to putting this matter behind us,” Bertolino’s statement read in part.

Petito’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11, 2021, while she was on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. Her body was found about a week later in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, with a coroner ruling that she had died of “blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.”

Brian Laundrie, who was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, wrote in a notebook that he killed Petito, according to the FBI.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro has been ordered by a federal judge to return presidential records he has in his possession.

Navarro, who was then-President Donald Trump’s White House trade adviser, “continues to possess Presidential records that have not been produced to their rightful owner, the United States,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote on Tuesday.

The case is separate from Navarro’s criminal contempt of Congress conviction, where he was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $9,500 fine for defying a congressional subpoena to cooperate with the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a six-page opinion regarding the presidential records, Kollar-Kotelly asked Navarro to “show cause why he should not be held in contempt of the Court’s judgment” after he defied her order to return the records.

“Defendant is ordered to SHOW CAUSE why he should not be held in contempt of the Court’s judgment, on or before March 21, 2024,” wrote Kollar-Kotelly.

Navarro also has until March 20 to “reprocess” the remaining records in his possession, which the filing says amounts to approximately 600 records.

In testimony during Navarro’s contempt of Congress trial, former Jan. 6 committee staff director David Buckley said the panel was seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, In Trump Time.

Earlier this month, a judge denied Navarro’s request to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction. The Bureau of Prisons has not yet set a date for Navarro to report to prison.

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(PHOENIX) — Investigators believe they have solved a decades-old cold case, identifying the woman who allegedly killed her newborn baby and left her in an Arizona airport bathroom in 2005.

The baby’s mother, 51-year-old Annie Anderson, is in custody in Washington state on a warrant related to the investigation. She is now awaiting extradition before she is formally charged in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Genetic genealogy databases were used to identify family matches to the profile of the baby’s mother based on DNA evidence they had found at the scene. After identifying a possible relative through genetic genealogy, police approached the person, who then consented to providing a DNA sample.

The investigation began on Oct. 10, 2005, when police responded to a report of a dead baby in a Terminal 4 bathroom at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix police Lt. James Hester said at a press conference.

On the scene, police found a dead female newborn wrapped in newspapers and a white towel stuffed in a plastic bag with red Marriott lettering, Hester said. Police said it was likely the birth did not happen at the airport, according to evidence on the scene.

At the time, police were unsuccessful in identifying a suspect, Hester said. The medical examiner’s office determined the baby, dubbed Baby Skylar, died as a result of suffocation, ruling the death a homicide, Hester said.

DNA from the scene — that police identified as being from the mother — was run against DNA evidence in police databases, but authorities were unable to identify the suspect at the time, he said.

In 2020, the case was identified as one in which genetic genealogy could be used to identify new leads, according to Dan Horan, a supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Phoenix office.

After investigators were able to piece together a family tree for the suspect, she was confronted by investigators. Anderson identified herself has the mother of the baby and told police her account of what had occurred, ultimately admitting to killing the baby.

Anderson told police she was in Arizona on business at the time of the murder. The father of the baby has been identified, but police said they have no reason to believe he has criminal culpability in the murder.

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(NEW YORK) — Poverty in New York City is rising at a startling rate and it’s affecting the city’s most vulnerable residents — children, according to a newly released report.

More than half of New York City residents, including a quarter of all children, live in poverty or are low-income, according to the Poverty Tracker Annual Report from Columbia University and the philanthropic organization Robin Hood.

Researchers surveyed a sample of 3,000 New York households for three months to track data on employment, assets, debts and health.

Overall, the city’s poverty rate increased from 18% to 23% and the number of New Yorkers living in poverty grew from 1.5 million to 2 million between 2021 and 2022, marking the largest single-year jump in poverty rates in a decade, according to the report.

The child poverty rate increased 66% from the previous year, according to the report.

Factors that influenced the poverty rate were the end of pandemic-era policies such as the Child Tax Credit and federal stimulus payments, the report noted.

“A clear path out of poverty requires a stronger safety net— and a policy of real investment in families with universal childcare,” Roberto Cordero, executive director of Grand Street Settlement, a nonprofit organization in New York, said in a press release. “One hundred percent of the 18,000 New Yorkers we serve at Grand Street are low income due to low wage jobs, inflation, and the cost of quality childcare and housing.”

The report also highlighted the disproportional rate at which minorities are experiencing poverty in relation to white New Yorkers.

Latino residents are twice as likely to live in poverty compared to white residents — 26% compared to 13%, according to the report.

Researchers said poverty rates for Asian and Black residents increased as well, by 24 and 23%, respectively.

The report found that women were more likely than men to be unable to afford their basic needs. It’s based on a metric called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, or poverty line, which is $43,890 per year. This figure represents what is needed for a NYC household with two adults and two children to afford a minimal basic standard of need.

The poverty threshold for a single adult renter was $20,340 in annual income, according to the report.

Poverty in New York City is nearly twice as high as the national poverty rate, which is 12%.

This is the sixth comprehensive Poverty Tracker Annual Report since 2012. Researchers monitored the impacts that COVID-19 and the related economic decline have had on New York City residents since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Our city is in the midst of an affordability crisis,” Richard R. Buery Jr., CEO of Robin Hood, said in a statement. “This would be deeply troubling at any point, but it is particularly disturbing given the steady progress New York City has made to reduce poverty in years prior.”

Buery noted that “temporary, stabilizing government policies” during the COVID-19 pandemic were able to help 500,000 children avoid poverty.

“But we have lacked the will to keep these policies in force,” he added. “We know that fully refundable tax credits, housing vouchers, and childcare subsidies can move millions out of poverty and hardship. We are calling on lawmakers to make investments that will help our neighbors live lives of opportunity.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Justice Department unsealed new charges against a leader of the notorious Japanese Yakuza gang who they accuse of attempting to traffic weapons-grade nuclear materials from Burma to other countries, according to a newly announced superseding indictment.

Prosecutors in Manhattan say that beginning in early 2020, Takeshi Ebisawa conspired to transport material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium believing it could be used by countries like Iran in the development of their nuclear-weapons program.

“It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded,” Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen said in a statement announcing the charges.

The 60-year-old Japanese national and another co-defendant had already been charged in April 2022 with narcotics trafficking offenses. Ebisawa and his co-defendant were arrested in Manhattan on those charges with a U.S. judge in New York ordering both men detained. Both men pleaded not guilty.

According to their superseding indictment, Ebisawa told two undercover agents in early 2020 he had access to a “large quantity” of nuclear materials he wished to sell, and sent a series of photos of rocky substances next to Geiger counters that measured radiation levels.

One of the undercover agents told Ebisawa they had an interested buyer who they claimed was an Iranian general.

“They don’t need it for energy, Iranian government need it for nuclear weapons,” the undercover agent told Ebisawa, according to the indictment.

“I think so and I hope so,” Ebisawa allegedly responded.

Ebisawa further engaged with the undercover agent as he expressed an interest in buying other military-grade weapons such as surface-to-air missiles that he said could be used by an insurgent group inside Burma.

The arrangement resulted in a swap of sorts, with unnamed co-conspirators allegedly supporting Ebisawa telling the undercover they “had available more than 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium” – which the co-conspirators said “could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma.”

In a meeting arranged by Ebisawa with the undercover agents in Southeast Asia, one of Ebisawa’s co-conspirators brought the undercover into a hotel room and allegedly showed him two plastic containers with samples of the nuclear materials. Thai authorities then assisted in the seizure of the materials which were handed over to U.S. law enforcement, which subsequently tested the samples and confirmed they contained uranium, thorium and plutonium.

“As alleged, the defendants in this case trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material – going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons,” Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration said. “This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life.”

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(EL PASO, Texas) — The Texas Attorney General’s office is suing to shut down a well-known Catholic nonprofit that helps to shelter migrants in El Paso, Texas.

Officials from the AG’s office visited Annunciation House on Feb. 7, demanding it provide extensive documentation that included the identities of all migrants the organization has helped within 24 hours, according to court records.

An attorney representing Annunciation House filed a lawsuit on Feb. 8 to delay the release of the records and examine the legality of the AG’s request.

“The AG has now made explicit that its real goal is not records but to shut down the organization. It has stated that it considers it a crime for a Catholic organization to provide shelter to refugees,” Annunciation House said in a statement Wednesday.

“The Attorney General’s illegal, immoral and anti-faith position to shut down Annunciation House is unfounded. Annunciation House has provided hospitality to hundreds of thousands of refugees for over forty-six years. It is a work recognized by the Catholic Church and is listed in the National Catholic Directory,” the Annunciation House statement continued.

But the AG’s office filed a counterclaim accusing Annunciation House of engaging in human smuggling. It alleged the organization provides information to migrants in its shelters about the legal system and how to file an asylum claim. In a statement, Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the organization of “worsening illegal immigration.”

“The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where NGOs, funded with taxpayer money from the Biden Administration, facilitate astonishing horrors including human smuggling,” Paxton said in a statement. “While the federal government perpetuates the lawlessness destroying this country, my office works day in and day out to hold these organizations responsible for worsening illegal immigration.”

Annunciation House runs a network of shelters and is one of the most well-known and regarded organizations in the region.

The AG’s move signals yet another example of how the state continues to try to assert control over all immigration issues. The controversial law known as SB4 is expected to go into effect on March 5. Currently being challenged as unconstitutional by the Justice Department, the new law would allow law enforcement officials to arrest people they suspect of being migrants who crossed into the country illegally. It would also allow judges to order their removal and enlist law enforcement to transport migrants to the border so they can return to Mexico, whether or not that is their country of origin.

Annunciation House will hold a press conference on Friday to discuss the lawsuit.

“Annunciation House’s response to the stranger is no different from that of the schools who enroll children of refugees, the clinics and hospitals who care for the needs of refugees, and the churches, synagogues, and mosques who welcome families to join in worship…. If the work that Annunciation House conducts is illegal – so too is the work of our local hospitals, schools, and food banks,” the organization said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — Duvan Perez died last summer during his shift working on a Mississippi farm. His 16-year-old body “became entangled” in a poultry processing machine he was cleaning, according to Mar-Jac Poultry, the company that hired him — a gruesome death that federal regulators later called “a preventable, dangerous situation” that no worker should have been in, “let alone a child.”

At the time of Perez’s death the company denied knowing his true age and said it would never knowingly put a minor, or any employee, “in harm’s way.”

According to the Department of Labor, last year 5,800 children were employed in violation of child labor laws, representing an 88% increase since 2019. And of the 955 child labor cases that were investigated and closed by federal regulators in 2023, more than half involved minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation laws.

Advocates say deaths like Duvan Perez’s are an indication that laws protecting children from hazardous work conditions should be strengthened.

“Finding just one child in harm’s way is one too many,” said Jessica Looman, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division Administrator. “The exploitation of child labor is unacceptable, and it’s why the vigorous enforcement of child labor laws continues to be a top priority for the Department.”

But instead of strengthening the child labor laws, several states are working to relax them.

According to the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute, at least 30 states have introduced or passed bills to weaken child labor protections since 2021 — and in nine of those states, legislation has been introduced to expand youth employment in hazardous occupations or workplaces.

In this year alone, 11 states have introduced or taken new action on bills to roll back child labor protections in 2024, according to EPI.

“It is immoral and inappropriate and utterly the wrong decision to roll back child labor law,” said Terri Gerstein, the director of a labor initiative at New York University. “All that weakening and rolling back child labor laws is going to do is create more kids whose fingers and hands, legs are amputated who are killed on the job.”

Regulators have been fighting back, fining companies that violate child labor laws to the tune of millions of dollars. But advocates says those penalties have done little to staunch these preventable fatalities, and many families like Perez’s are turning to lawsuits to hold companies accountable.

‘They did nothing’

Late last month, Perez’s mother, Edilma Perez, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Mar-Jac Poultry, two Mar-Jac employees, and Onin Staffing, the agency that hired Perez.

The lawsuit alleges that Perez was killed due to Mar-Jac ignoring safety regulations, and claims that Onin Staffing was negligent in illegally assigning the 16-year-old to work at the plant. The defendants, the lawsuit claims, “acted intentionally, willfully, wantonly, knowingly, with malice and/or were grossly negligent and in reckless disregard to the rights and the safety of the decedent and others similarly situated.”

The complaint points to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety report released last month that found the poultry processing plant “disregarded safety standards.” The lawsuit alleges that safety records by OSHA reveal the company received citations for incidents that led to two other fatalities, three amputations, and a hospitalized injury due to a fall, over the last three years.

OSHA cited Mar-Jac Poultry with 14 serious and three “other than serious” violations and proposed $212,646 in penalties for Perez’s death. The agency previously cited the company for an incident in 2021 in which an employee who was not a minor suffered fatal injuries while working.

Court records reviewed by ABC News found that the Hattiesburg plant was also sued twice in recent years by people who alleged they had sustained injuries at the plant. One of the lawsuits, filed in December 2022, will go to a jury trial this August. In the other lawsuit filed by a veterinarian for the Department of Agriculture who fell during an inspection, a jury found in favor of the defendant, Mar-Jac Poultry.

“This case was a tragedy that should have never happened,” Jim Reeves, the attorney for Edilma Perez, said of Duvan Perez’s death. “Not only had there been [two] other workers killed at this plant in the last three years, one was in a very similar way.”

“And they had explicit direct warnings from OSHA to correct the problems and per OSHA’s report,” said Reeves.

Mar-Jac Poultry, Onin Staffing and the two employees accused in the lawsuit did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

In a statement released shortly after Perez died, the poultry processing company blamed Onin Staffing for hiring Perez, saying they had no idea he was a minor.

“Mar-Jac MS would never knowingly put any employee, and certainly not a minor, in harm’s way but it appears, at this point in the investigation, that this individual’s age and identity were misrepresented on the paperwork,” the company said.

‘Plausible deniability’

According to the lawsuit, Onin Staffing failed to properly screen workers, including Perez, to ensure they were of the appropriate age, and failed to “take adequate precautions to ensure that Perez was assigned a safe place to work.”

Perez used the identity of a 32-year-old man to obtain the job at the poultry plant.

“This man was obviously 16 working under an ID that said he was almost twice that age,” Reeves told ABC News. “Anyone who was interested in determining his age could see he was not 32 years old.”

“I saw [his] picture,” said Gerstein. “You don’t have to be some kind of forensic analysis person to understand that that was a child.”

Gerstein told ABC News she believes companies can “deflect responsibility” when incidents occur involving businesses they subcontract.

“It gives them plausible deniability, saying, ‘We had no idea this was going on and we’re going to cut our contract with that contractor,’ and to point the finger and deflect responsibility,” said Gerstein.

“But they can really monitor much more extensively the operations of their contractors and staffing agencies and everyone in their supply chain,” Gerstein said. “They can do more due diligence before they contract.”

Holding businesses accountable

In late January, Washington state’s Department of Labor fined a construction company the maximum penalty after a 16-year-old had both legs amputated from injuries sustained while working. In December, a sawmill in Wisconsin was fined $1.4 million after a 16-year-old died last summer while trying to unjam a stick stacker machine. And just last week, a roofing company in Alabama paid penalties after a 15-year-old fell and died at a work site.

With the increase in child labor violations, the Department of Labor issued a bulletin to offices across the country in November, announcing the agency should no longer determine child labor civil penalty assessments on a per-child basis, but instead on a per-violation basis.

Reid Maki, the Child Labor Advocacy Director for the National Consumers League and Child Labor Coalition, said that lawsuits also help hold businesses accountable.

“It’s really hard for families to be compensated for these tragedies without going to court,” Maki told ABC News. “Sometimes it’s really the only option to get good compensation and to create a disincentive for companies to hire illegally.”

The prospect of lawsuits like the one filed by Perez’s mother, Gerstein said, should “be something that should make businesses add additional protections to make sure they don’t commit violations.”

Reeves told ABC News that while cases like this typically settle, Perez’s case “might be the exception.”

“We’re going to demand enough to make this company think twice before they do it again,” Reeves said. “This case may be the exception because the conduct is really so egregious.”

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