How many alarm bells are needed to save a child?

In some trials, the verdict belongs only to the accused. In others, however specific the charges, society doesn’t get to sit back and watch as a bystander. The trial over 14-year-old Stylianos’s suicide belongs unmistakably to the second kind.

Day after day in that courtroom, we hear testimony about a child who, according to the allegations, was ringing alarm bells from a very young age. Teachers, social workers, other professionals describe an abusive environment that stops you cold. Claims...