Boy Testifies About Foster Home With Cages

[proud2BlibKansan]

NORWALK, Ohio - A boy whose parents are accused of making their special-needs adopted children sleep in cages testified Thursday that the couple forced him to live in the bathroom as punishment for urinating in his enclosed bed.

On another occasion, Sharen and Michael Gravelle forced him to stay in his "box" for up to two weeks, the school-age boy said at the Juvenile Court custody hearing.

"I couldn't come out of my room until I wrote the whole book of Deuteronomy," he said. "I was up there for like a month."

The boy said he has grown tired of his box, but was ambivalent when asked whether he preferred being with the Gravelles or in a foster home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051208/ap_on_re_us/caged_children

[queenbdem87]

1. absolutely horrible

[Bunny]

2. That's horrible. Why did the foster parents take on that many

kids that they were obviously unable to cope with?

[Reciprocity]

6. $$$$$$$$

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. what reciprocity said

They get something like $500 a month per kid here.

[bammertheblue]

3. I read about this

a while back...the people said that they had to keep the kids in cages because they were "disturbed" and would destroy the furniture if they let them out.
Um, yeah they're disturbed...you put them in a CAGE!

[CountAllVotes]

4. I will say this much

and nothing more.

As a child of a parent that was a "foster child", I really hate hearing stories like this for one reason: THEY ARE TOO DAMN FAMILIAR TO ME!

:grr:

:kick:

[GrpCaptMandrake]

5. Um, er, um

Deuteronomy? Did I miss the "Thou shalt not wee-wee in the bed" part?

"Caging children for Jesus."

But the best part? These sick religious maniacs haven't been charged with any "crime." And if they are, the first thing we'll hear is "We're bein' persticuted fer are faaaaaaiiiiiiith."

Gag me!

[FreedomAngel82]

17. Why not?

It's purely emotional and physical abuse!!

[Wind Dancer]

7. Disgusting!

I can't imagine how much trauma this poor little boy suffered at the hands of such cruel parents.

[newswolf56]

8. The real story is here:

"I couldn't come out of my room until I wrote the whole book of Deuteronomy," he said.

In other words, a telling example of Christian Fundamentalist child-rearing practices, which come complete with three basic rules:

(1)-"Spare the rod and spoil the child";

(2)-"Children should be seen and not heard" (even when they need to relieve themselves);

(3)-"Suffering brings you closer to Jesus."

Much of the South is already a defacto theocracy. Spending two-thirds of my boyhood there, working there also in some of the early years of my journalism career, I heard of many atrocities like this -- and many far worse (including a mother who destroyed her teenage son's genitals with boiling water after she caught him masturbating) -- all of it excused in the name of religion, and much of it never prosecuted. Remember that the theocratic colloquialism for the Ku Klux Klan is "the Saturday night men's Bible-study class." Remember too that this -- a nation where "foster parents" take in orphans and make slaves of them, a nation where a battered, terrified boy is kept in a cage and forced to write Bible verses -- is exactly the kind of America the corporate oligarchy, the Republican Party, the Bush Administration and its JesuNazi stormtroopers in the Christian Reconstructionist Movement want to inflict on every one of us: the Fourth Reich.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. There was a case here

where they had adopted 5 or 6 kids and one of them died when they duct taped him as punishment.

edit: forgot to add - they were religious fanatics, ran their own church and homeschooled all the kids. They swore the church leaders to secrecy so no one outside the family and a small circle of friends/church members knew they were abusing the kids. The cops had an unbelievably hard time getting them to tell all, even after the parents were in jail. The kids refused to talk. Some of those church members are now in prison along with the parents.

[KamaAina]

14. This horror show took place in Ohio

it isn't just the South.

Last I checked, Kansas ("We don't need no stinkin' evolution!") wasn't in the South, either.

It's almost everywhere you look these days. :scared:

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Like it matters where it happened

I am not arguing with you. Just pointing out that people everywhere can be cruel to kids.

[newswolf56]

21. Didn't say it was only in the South -- just pointing out that theocracy...

has prevailed there the longest (which means it's the place to best study its tyrannies and death-squad viciousness).

The fact this religiously motivated child-abuse episode took place in Ohio merely further confirms what we already know -- that the theocratic impulse has spread far beyond the South: not just into Ohio but into Kansas as well, and lots of other places too, even into Washington state; the "intelligent design" advocates are headquartered in Seattle.

My point is twofold: that Christian fundamentalism promotes child abuse, and that -- specifically because of the spread of Christian fundamentalism -- a whole spectrum of horrors that were once pretty much unique to the Southern Bible Belt are now ever more likely to be found anywhere in the United States: complete with the growing danger theocratic oppression will ultimately be inflicted "on every one of us." I assumed this was sufficiently clear -- at least on DU -- it went without saying. If my assumption was wrong I apologize.

To use a distinctly Southern simile, Christian fundamentalism is like kudzu: a single plant grows 120 feet a year, and a kudzu colony that isn't controlled will take a house -- even a whole neighborhood -- in one summer. And then -- who knows what might live underneath the leaves and vines?


Edit: clarification of sentence in third paragraph.

[KamaAina]

22. Southern-bashing has been a big problem at DU

from other posters, of course. Anything that might maybe even possibly be construed to contain the merest hint of anti-Southern bias has been known to touch off a full-scale flame war. I just wanted to nip any possibility of that in the bud, was all.

Excellent points. The theocrats are scary. :scared:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. Whatsoever you do unto the least of them, you do unto me also....

[Nicole]

10. How horrible is this?

The boy said he has grown tired of his box, but was ambivalent when asked whether he preferred being with the Gravelles or in a foster home.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "There's no sense getting comfortable at any place.":cry:

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. That part broke my heart too

:cry:

[AnnieBW]

11. I'll Adopt Him!

And I won't keep him in a cage or write Bible verses, either!

[FreedomAngel82]

15. The poor boy

:( I hope he can find a good home with someone who spoils and loves him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. He deserves that

[KamaAina]

16. Coming up on Fox: "When Fundies Attack"

"They'll take your body... then your SOUL!" :evilgrin:

[mongo]

23. Child and Family Services KNEW about this for two years.

Officials heard rumors of caged kids two years before removal
By JOE MILICIA
Associated Press Writer

NORWALK, Ohio - Officials heard rumors that a couple kept some of their 11 adopted special-needs children in cages two years before they were removed from the home, according to testimony in a custody hearing Tuesday.

Michael and Sharen Gravelle would not cooperate when officials tried to follow up on the rumors in 2003, and a full investigation was never conducted, said Jo Ellen Johnson, an investigator with the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services.

Following up on a complaint, Johnson decided the children should be taken from the Gravelles when she visited the home in September and found the cages had scratch marks and that the children repeatedly tried to pry the chicken wire away in order to escape. Michael Gravelle reinforced the cages.

"They were piled one on top of another. It looked like a kennel," Johnson said.

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051207/NEWS01/512070320&SearchID=73228883881727

[NMMNG]

24. Infuriating

A boy whose parents are accused of making their special-needs adopted children sleep in cages testified Thursday that the couple forced him to live in the bathroom as punishment for urinating in his enclosed bed.


How could he not wet his bed? He was locked in it! :mad:

I hope these SOBs get all of the kids taken away and get jailed for the maximum amount of time allowed by law. There is no excuse for what they did to these children.

[Binka]

25. Infuriating Indeed! What Asshats!

I'd adopt him. He would be happy and loved in my home.

[NMMNG]

26. Awww, she's adorable!

And I'm sure that boy would be very loved in your home. I only hope that wherever he ends up he gets even half of the love he'd get with you. :hug:

[Binka]

27. She's The Love Of My Life