NEWS: 11 Children Found Caged in Home

The adoptive/foster parents of all 11, Sharon and Mike Gravelle, denied abusing or neglecting the children. The children slept in 9 cages, without blankets or pillows, that were bolted to the wall of the house. Two mattresses in a bedroom also showed signs of recent use.




There is an element out there in society that is doing this to our precious, innocent children, and they must be stopped! I tell you, they make my blood boil!

God will surely expend his wrath on them 11 times over for what they have done.

The couple responsible for the children is claiming not to be responsible for their abuse. I can't wait to see how this one unfolds. I hope, if convicted, they get the maximum sentence with enhancements.

Can't remain unbiased on this one, sorry folks.

[edit on 13-9-2005 by Icarus Rising]

[edit on 13-9-2005 by Icarus Rising]

[edit on 13-9-2005 by Icarus Rising]

Apart from sleeping in the cages, these kids seem to have been treated ok.

Cages are a hell of a lot cheaper then special care beds with rails and straps and do just as good a job.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions on this article. Theres more to see then "kids in cage". Just wait how this plays out. It could be these people were monsters locking up these kids and doing them harm. But for all you know and can conclude from that article is that the kids slept in the cages for their own safety and had a healthy(as healthy as fostercare can be ...) upbringing.

Yes, that's what I can't understand. The article says the couple told authorities that a psychiatrist recommended that the children be kept in cages. Is this some kind of accepted method of care for kids with challenges such as autism? I can't see how being kept in a cage is good or healthy for a child. The children were removed from the home, but the couple haven't been charged with any crimes.

I don't get it. I have never heard of something like this being acceptable treatment for a child.

[edit on 13-9-2005 by Icarus Rising]

Just saw this on the news this morning and it is a bit suprising. I'm not going to jump to any conclusions here, but it doesn't look all too innocent at the moment. After all, one child in a cage might have an excuse. Two suggests a problem. However, just having eleven children is a bit suspicious, more so when they're all in cages.

They had no blankets or pillows, and the cages were rigged with alarms that sounded if opened, Lt. Randy Sommers said.

No blankets or pillows sure sounds like abuse to me. No doubt the shrink they were using has a few scews loose if you ask me.

Hopefully this children will be taken away from the foster parents and some good Christian families will give them home.

Or. . . they will be onces again lost to the system until they are found in more horrible situation.

Whats christian have anything to do with "good family"?

I'm of no religion and I took care of a friend of mines baby for almost a year and it was probably the best and most loving period the baby will have in his life.

Maybe they should donate them to a federally funded jail where they will be fed, clothed, and have a pillow and a blanket. It would also benefit the county by filling the vacancy in their 'hotel' and the taxpayer would see $100 per child go to the county coffers each day.

Or we could admit that is something inherently wrong with keeping children in cages putting the parents in one for a long time.

I gave it a "yes" vote. The author followed the correct structure I also like thier opinion

People like this should be seriously punished...IMO, they should all be shot dead...beaten or not, innocent children are not animals and should not be treated as such.

Maybe people should have a license to be parents AND be forced to renew it!
v

Irregardless of how well the children were treated while outside of the cages, being placed in a cage to sleep is not a healthy at all mentally speaking. I have plenty of friends who have done actual jail time and come out a bit flaky because of the bars, so I wonder what would happen to small children exposed to such a powerful image as a barred cage?

Originally posted by Perfect stranger
Maybe people should have a license to be parents AND be forced to renew it!
v

Giving more ideas to screw American's ehh??

Is this some kind of accepted method of care for kids with challenges such as autism?

I have worked with children with Autism and I have never heard of a treatment where you stick a child in a cage,

Yes some Autistic children can be hard to handle as some have no concept of danger of fear, But these people should have never taken on such children if they did not have the time and life style to cope, and taking on 11 children?

All children need loving and caring homes, with a warm bed,

I suspect that these people where in it for the money and not the children,
What I do not understand is... if this family where fostering children where was the Authority’s to keep a check on the home? The regular visits?

I would love to hear what the psychiatrist has to say about this,

I am one of 4 adopted children and there were 2 foster children before us. We had our own bedroom with a bed, blanket, 2 pillows and toys.

For all of you who are saying that's not bad..... (filtered).....

11 children is too much for one couple. Caging them seems like a method where they don't need to deal (take care of and care for) them but most likely get the goverment pay for taking care of foster kids.

Rediculous, ludicrous, outrageous, evil, monstrous... yes my mind is made up and you should too....

Children in Cages

doesn't look good in print, looks worse in sight and awful in sound

Oops is bang on...it's all about government money, imo.

These people must have watched 'Oliver' a few dozen times to get the right angle on how to keep kids for cheap yard labour and profit.

It seems, from what the link provided, that this home was no better than a 'puppy mill'. I came from a large family and cannot fathom what kind of life those kids had to be imprisoned like animals at night.

I have a close friend who was in and out of many foster homes during her childhood. She wasn't kept in a cage at any point but a few homes had many children that they confined to rooms and paid little to no attention to. The government cut the foster parents a check and the foster parents cut expenses as much as possible to increase their "profit margin." It is an unfortunate problem. I have to wonder if these foster parents opted for disabled children for the controlability factor. I'll admit there could be an explaination for having them in cages, but it would have to be a pretty good one for me to be on board with it. Perhaps it's time to re-examine the foster care system.

The problem here is that foster parents, especially in the area I live, are often paid several hundred dollars a month per child by the government. Some sickos out there see fostering children as a money-making opportunity. Get eleven of them, throw them in cages and hardly feed them or spend money on clothes and you can pull in several thousand dollars a month for doing virtually no work. The problem is made even worse due to the fact that our child services programs and those who place these children in foster care are understaffed and over-worked. Their case loads are often far too much for any one person to ever handle realistically and with the care and attention they deserve. It appears, at least initially, that these children were not followed up on by those who placed them in foster care.

I think something needs to be done, at least as far as checking up on foster children is concerned. I think the government could very easily put together a large group of unpaid volunteers whose only job is to check up on foster children at their homes and report back to the government about their care and living conditions. These volunteers could be trained very quickly and very easily. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see if a child or children are being properly cared for and living in a safe and happy environment. If the volunteers report any "red flags" they can be followed up on by the regular, government-paid case workers who actually have experience and knowledge in this particular area.

With all of the publicity in the past few years regarding foster children being abused, caged, and even completely disappearing- I think it would be no trouble to find people who want to do something good for these children. It would certainly lighten the case load for our government employees who should be spending more time with individual cases of abused or even handicapped children. They should also be spending more time finding homes for these children and doing thorough background searches on prospective foster parents. That's just my two cents... anyone agree/disagree?

The thing that really turned my stomach was the thought of what those two mattresses might have been in use for. I don't even want to go into the ramifications of that.

I know there are some very bad people out there anxiously dreading and awaiting the final reckoning for their horrendous and nefarious deeds, and I will leave it at that.

[edit on 13-9-2005 by Icarus Rising]

What's more wrong is they won't give single mothers 20% of what they give foster families to keep these children.

It's one of those Republican things, "well if a single mother won't pull herself up by her own bootstraps we'll be damned if we give her $200 a month to support her children, however we are willing to pay $1000 a month per child to every foster family who needs a child to abuse."

Yeah, that will serve those poor kids right!

Well, that just doesn't make sense, now does it? When things don't make sense, I start to get suspicious. I start to ask logical questions about who benefits. I start to look for hidden motives.

I've dedicated my mental life to trying to figure out what goes on behind the scenes, maybe several frames back, say at the level of intelligence. I strive to understand what is at stake and how it is intertwined with and affected by the underlying currents of social (or anti-social) interaction and behavior.

The goal is to bring this understanding to bear on the moment, bring it back to the level of, say, operations, and employ it to greatest effect for all of us as best as I can ascertain in that moment. I'm not very good at it, it is a tremendous challenge, but my efforts are improving.

I thank ATS for the worldwide audience. There is no way I could reach out to this many people (to those that have me on the ignore button, I'm sorry, please forgive) in this fashion, to this end, otherwise.