Metro Detroit family battles to keep adopted son with violent history in psychiatric hospital

[demmiblue]

A Metro Detroit family's adopted son, who has threatened to kill them, is currently in a psychiatric treatment hospital.

Now, the family says the state of Michigan is threatening to charge them with neglect if they don't take their 16-year-old adopted son, Alex, home. The family is terrified and they have filed a lawsuit.

Greg and Tonya Burnett, from Brownstown Township, say when they got married, they knew they wanted biological children, but also wanted to adopt.

"We saw him and we fell in love with his mannerisms, the way he was talking about baseball. He was just adorable," Tonya said. "We didn't expect any child going on 10-years-old to come into our home without issues. Adoption itself is trauma."

"The first year is what they call the honeymoon period - it was perfect. It wasn't until he started feeling secure that he started to test us."

Tonya said Alex would ask questions, like, "If I push you down the stairs, are you gonna get rid of me or are you still gonna love me?"

According to the lawsuit filed against the state of Michigan by the Burnett family, before Alex was adopted, he "suffered horrible abuse and abandonment" that manifests itself in "multiple psychological disorders," including "reactive attachment disorder."

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/defenders/metro-detroit-family-battles-to-keep-adopted-son-with-violent-history-in-psychiatric-hospital

[get the red out]

1. Extremely sad

If medical professionals can't do anything to help this poor child and his family, there needs to be a place where he can be institutionalized and psychiatrists can continue to try. I don't see putting the rest of his family, his teachers, (anyone in his path) in danger as a solution.