Posted on 09/11/2011 5:00:12 PM PDT by BUGSWOL
My girlfriend has a friend in Washington State, who is a bit odd, Christian, home school type. While they are not not the normal standard people the government would like us to me, she assures me that they are in fact good people who love their children. The also adopted a couple of children from Ethiopia. One of those children died under strange circumstances, so naturally it was investigated. That is perfectly understandable.
It turns out that the child had some sort of tropical malady that led to rapid weight loss loss, erratic behavior and an untimely death. Now this is where it gets bad. Despite the death being ruled to have been the result of natural causes, their other children have been removed form the home and kept form the parents by child protective services. These children who have been home schooled their entire lives and fed on a diet of healthy natural foods are now in foster homes being fed junk and sent to public schools. The children were tested before enrollment and all of them tested at least 3 grade levels above their chronological age. Sounds like some awful parents doesn't it.
Now they have been told by their court appointed lawyers not to say a word or make waves of any kind even though they are regularly being slandered in the press there.
I am chomping at the bit to post some of the articles here and encourage freepers to let the CPS working in Washington State know what we think, but my girlfriend says no, because they haven't asked. I am of the opinion that if we sit on our hands their kids will just quietly be taken away permanently and they will move on to taking kids away from parents who do other odd things like vote Republican and believe in God.
Correct!!!!!!
Something smells very fishy with your story! You report hearsay from a “friend of a friend”, refuse to respond to reasonable requests except for more hearsay and supposition, attack the messenger, have no corroboration of your allegations and then get all huffy about it!! Sure sounds like you’re either a troll or missing a few marbles, eh??
JC
You are blowing smoke, they are not in jail because they have not been charged and tried, YET. But it seems to me they better have a lot of receipts where they had taken the girl to the doctor. If not they have a long vacation ahead in a small room.
Kids who are in the adoption or foster care system have been severly traumatized for whatever reason they are there. As such they will have serious behavioral and health issues many times that take years to work out. The parents have to be capable of dealing with those long term issues. Many simply aren't. If it happened their own kids will likely tell. Kids have a way of telling you things you need to know but will do so in their own time in their own way when their mind can deal with talking about it.
Goodness, there has been a lot of finger-pointing on this one! Ahem. I have no idea what truly has been going on in the case (any more than anyone else on this thread) ... But the previously given advice to (a) call HSLDA and get their advice and possibly help on this one, and (b) lawyer up with a “Killer” lawyer who is not in the judge’s back pocket is exactly what *I* would do in this situation, and what you should probably advise the persons in the case to do.
Other than that, I don’t think I would loan or give them money to help accomplish these goals. Especially if you have kids of your own and could be tainted by this case yourself if things get really ugly. If the people in this case really are the good people you believe them to be, I hope all goes well for them.
and I’m wondering how they passed a home study to adopt the kids....I have two adopted kids from overseas, and they visited me before and afterward several times.
I have a connection to this family, and I just wanted to say that there are very significant testimony about abuse in this household, coming from the other children in court. There was a hearing that took place a few weeks ago, and everything I've heard (from several unrelated people) that Hana was abused, seriously malnourished and left outside as punishment. That's why she died in the yard, and that's why the other children were taken away. Carri and Larry had seven biological children and adopted two children from Ethiopia a few years back. The children were schooled at home and I was also given the impression that they no longer attended a community church but practiced their religion at home as well. So these kids didn't really get "seen" by society like the rest of normal children do. They existed in a very small and isolated environment, so that may explain why CPS had not previously been involved...
I think CPS might be right this time. As I said, they are not ALWAYS wrong.
There is a cultish family behavior where the parents punish the children by withholding food. If the child sneaks food, the parents either lock them out or lock them in a room.
a /s sign shows that you turning / sarcasm. FYI. We're good, now that I understand your context and I apologize for the troll comment.
INBN
This kind of smells like that.
Geez... yeah, CPS isn’t always an agent of evil. And friends can often get suckered (and sucked in) by a carefully-edited version of the truth.
Moreover, I notice our buddy, BUGS, hasn’t posted at FR since his last angry “okay, you got me” comment. I do believe he was a troll after all.
BUGSY was either terribly misinformed or a troll, or both.
Join HSLDA.
Yes, they usually just handle homeschool issues, but they have some overlap into other areas as well.
Hire an HSLDA lawyer, ANYWAY, even if they hadn’t signed up previously.
That way you could avoid what everyone else is saying - cronyism amongst local lawyers/judges/CPS.
Hey, when you are in the world but not OF the world,
you WILL be perceived as “a bit odd”.
The Home School Legal Defense Association doesn't get involved in the defense of murder cases, eh? This is not a "home school rights" or "family freedom" matter at this point.
Stay tuned on this case, the Skagit County Prosecutor will be laying out the charges and evidence today and these parents will have their day in court, or will plead out.
Seattle Times article: Murder charges for parents who left girl outside
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