Posted on 10/24/2005 12:00:58 PM PDT by kpp_kpp
Dad Claims He Was Trying To Help
CLEVELAND -- The father suspected of keeping some of 11 special-needs adopted children in cages says he and his wife were trying to help children that nobody else wanted.
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"We took kids that nobody else wanted," said Gravelle. He and his wife, Sharen, have not been charged, but their children were removed from their home six weeks ago and were placed in foster homes.
The Gravelles, who are white, adopted black youngsters with ailments such as autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV and pica, an eating disorder in which children compulsively eat nonfood items such as dirt and rocks.
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The Gravelles pointed out holes the children had kicked in the walls and gouges in the drywall from their fingernails. Urine stains were visible on the baseboards, and the walls still show marks where the children had smeared their feces.
"We live with this smell," Sharen Gravelle said. "We love these children."
Michael Gravelle said he could no longer remain quiet while people label his wife as the "world's most evil mother." Huron County Prosecutor Russ Leffler said Friday that the couple was adopting children for a financial windfall.
"You could not pay me enough to do the things we had to do," Michael Gravelle said. "There is nothing easy about raising these children. We did not abuse them. That's the truth."
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The "enclosures" measure 6 feet in length. The doors could be opened easily and had no locks on them, but a battery-powered alarm would be activated when the doors were opened.
Michael said the children's private social worker, Elaine Thompson of Elyria, counseled the kids in a room next to the bedrooms.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nbc4i.com ...
Not only did they get the foster kids taken away, they lost their own biological kids too -- I don't know that I'd be willing to take that risk.
sorry, if you can't control the kids without keeping them in cages, then you shouldn't be taking care of 11 of them.
Those aren't really cages --- no locks.
As stated before, look like poor-man's crib tents, to me.
I don't have much first-hand experience dealing with autistic kids, but some pretty restrictive measures are in order for some of the serious cases, simply to prevent them from harming themselves.
sorry, if you can't control the kids without keeping them in cages, then you shouldn't be taking care of 11 of them.
You sound just like that know it all judge I had. If I can't keep them in cages, then YOU tell me how to keep them off the sofa.
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
it was probably sarcasm)
I don't know much about this case either but if these kids were so hard to handle perhaps they should have adopted 2 or 3 of them instead of 8 or 9. Sounds like these parents were in way over their heads and had to resort to tactics that may be criminal.
The road to hell is paved with sincerity.
shock collars?
still- 11 kids?
I'm sorry, either they're incredibly naive or greedy. At what point do you stop and say "gee, we can't control the 3 adopted kids we already have - let's get 8 more!"????
It's just plain idiocy. There's no real excuse for it.
I wouldn't call it idiocy. I don't think I could do it, but these children apparently are extremely difficult. I agree with others here who suggest maybe taking on fewer children and dealing with them differently. But I also guess that these children probably had better lives than they would have in an institution and these parents knew it and felt that burden to help. Until I know more and am willing to walk in their shoes, I think I would hesitate to speak of them so harshly.
That's the bottom line. Special-needs children require a lot of time and attention. I don't believe any couple, no matter how well-intended (which I'm not sure these two are), can give so many special-needs children adequate care.
I agree with you. The measures they took to control the kids' behavior do not appear to be related to the number of kids for whom they were caring.
They are not cages, and the word 'cages' are inflamitory???
OK... Why would you keep 11 kids in Morgue Drawers?
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