Two foster [kaff] parents deny that they abused or neglected their 11 charges. After all, all they did was lock them cages every night. You know. Crated like dogs. Because children are so much like dogs, right?
WAKEMAN, Ohio (AP) – Sheriff’s deputies removed 11 children from a home where they were locked in cages less than 3 1/2 feet high, authorities said.
The children’s adoptive and foster parents, Mike and Sharen Gravelle, denied that they’d abused or neglected the children during a custody hearing Monday in Huron County. No charges had been filed as of Monday night.
“The impression that we got was that they felt it was OK,” said Lt. Randy Sommers of the Huron County Sheriff’s Office.
The Gravelles said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children – ages 1 to 14, with conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome – sleep in the cages at night. The cages were stacked in bedrooms on the second floor of their house, said prosecutor Russell Leffler, who was reviewing the case.
The children were found by a children’s services investigator on Friday when he stopped by the Gravelles’ home outside Wakeman, about 50 miles west of Cleveland. Deputies returned to the house that evening.
Some of the cages were rigged with alarms, Sommers said; others had heavy furniture blocking their doors. The children didn’t have blankets or pillows.
One of the boys said he’d slept in the cage for three years, Sommers said.
The children were placed with four foster families Monday.
A woman who identified herself as Sharen Gravelle’s mother but refused to give her name said the children were happy and loved. “This year they have played and had fun and laughed like no other children have, which they have never been able to do,” she said.
Oh, so that’s all right then. Never mind.
Un-be-LIEV-able.
By the way, do the math. Eleven foster/adopted children times government benefits for caring for them each month equals not having to work for a living, and gee, you can lock the kids up at night and do whatever!
Perhaps Family Services should have noticed this a while back. A house with eleven foster children should be extremely well supervised. This is on the child welfare agency.
I know that when we adopted, we had follow-up visits; I assume that for foster this would be ongoing indefinitely. Shame on someone but don’t let these parents off the hook by blaming Family Services; putting these two in cages seems like justice to me!
Oh, I agree. Throw them in jail. But bust Family Services, too.
There is no reason to allow 11 children with special needs to one foster family. Children like that need extra attention, you can’t have an adult/child ratio of 1/6. Raising even 11 normal kids would be challenging. Definitely bust Family Services!