Counselor who didn't report abuse of Gabriel Fernandez, Anthony Avalos put on 4-year probation
LOS ANGELES â A state licensing board has imposed a four-year probation on a contracted L.A. County counselor for failing to report the suspected abuse of Gabriel Fernandez and Anthony Avalos, two young boys whose deaths spotlighted egregious lapses in the region's child welfare system.
In a decision that took effect March 31, the state Board of Behavioral Sciences placed Barbara Dixon, a licensed marriage and family therapist, on probation and required her to participate in psychotherapy, law and ethics training, and coursework in child abuse assessment.
The state board had formally accused Dixon
