Tell me about it.....
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 6:14
AM
Subject: RE: [Sndbox] Starving Kids
Those are the people that don't need to have kids. But then again I
guess you can't stop them b/c you don't know what they are like till it's too
late.
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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