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Well I managed to butcher the word
drowning and starveing both, hopefully you guys know what I ment
ROFL
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 11:56
PM
Subject: Re: [Sndbox] Starving Kids
Me too, I'm constantly amazed that
people can do what they do to kids. Mothers drowing their own kids, folks
keeping them in cages like animals, staving them.......I just can't fathom
it.....
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 7:43
PM
Subject: RE: [Sndbox] Starving
Kids
It
disgusts me that someone could do that to their kids
(AP) A couple whose adopted teenage sons
weighed less than 50 pounds have been arrested on charges of starving four
boys they adopted through the state Division of Youth and Family Services,
New Jersey's troubled child welfare agency.
Vanessa Jackson, 48,
and Raymond Jackson, 50, were arrested Friday and charged with four counts
each of aggravated assault and 14 counts of child endangerment, Camden
County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said.
Each was jailed
Saturday on $100,000 bail.
An investigation into the family began
Oct. 10 after neighbors in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood called
police to report someone rummaging through their trash. Officers then
found the oldest adopted child, now 19.
The young man, who was
adopted in 1995, measured 4 feet and weighed 45 pounds when he was
discovered. He is now in the hospital receiving specialized care for
apparent heart irregularities.
The three other boys, ages 14, 10,
and 9, also were removed from the home and hospitalized. They were treated
and released into other foster placements, authorities said.
The
14-year-old weighed 40 pounds and stood 4 feet tall. The other boys also
were dramatically underweight, according to the prosecutor's office.
Two adopted girls, ages 5 and 12, also were living in the
Jacksons' home. They were placed in foster care, along with a 10-year-old
girl who was in the Jacksons' home pending adoption.
The girls'
physical condition “appeared to be within normal range,” the prosecutor
said.
The state Department of Human Services suspended five
employees, including caseworkers, a manager, and supervisors, pending the
outcome of the investigation, said Micah Rasmussen, a spokesman for Gov.
James E. McGreevey.
Rasmussen said McGreevey was “angered and
shocked” by another discovery of neglected children under DYFS oversight.
The governor called on Kevin Ryan, his newly appointed state child
advocate, to assess the case.
“There appears to be no explanation
other than negligence, indifference, incompetence, or a combination of all
three,” Colleen Maguire, deputy commissioner for the Human Services
Department and the person charged with spearheading reform at DYFS, said
in a statement Saturday.
Maguire said a caseworker assigned to the
girl living with the Jacksons while awaiting adoption by the couple
apparently failed to note the boys' condition, despite conducting a safety
assessment of the home.
The Jacksons adopted the boys through DYFS
and were receiving a stipend from the state, which peaked at about $28,000
a year before the oldest child turned 18 last year, according to Camden
County Prosecutor's Office.
Sarubbi said locks apparently were
used to keep the boys from the kitchen and that the children were fed
uncooked pancake batter, cereals and peanut butter and jelly.
The
parents apparently explained the boys' condition by saying they had an
eating disorder, said Bill Shralow, a spokesman for the prosecutor.
The discovery of the children follows several high-profile abuse
cases that revealed lapses in state oversight, including a 7-year-old who
died after his case was closed by the child welfare agency.
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