Posted on 06/28/2002 6:36:05 AM PDT by SJackson
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. The boy -- 9 years old, neatly dressed, a very polite child -- walked up and extended his hand.
The gesture caught me by surprise. I was in a Wal-Mart store here -- and this was not an encounter I had come to the store expecting.
"Thank you," the boy said softly.
He smiled.
The adults with him -- they are his foster parents -- then introduced me to the boy, and to his two younger sisters.
"He's been wanting to say thanks," the foster father said.
I had to turn my head away, because I didn't want the boy to see what was happening in my eyes.
He is the boy who, police say, was tortured with an electrified cattle prod -- the child whose story was reported here last summer. I had never met him; after sheriff's deputies had rescued him from the home where they said Jamie G. Henry, his stepfather, had tortured him, he and the two girls had been placed in foster care. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services said it could not reveal where the children had been sent.
But on this day, while I was back in Grand Island, the foster parents were taking the children shopping at the Wal-Mart, hoping to buy them each a bike to ride this summer. (The children didn't get the bikes -- more on that later in today's column.)
The children were wearing your clothes -- the clothes you sent to Nebraska after reading the reports here. They looked wonderful.
The boy is now 9; the older of the girls is 6; the younger girl is 3.
They're eating well now, the foster parents told me; they love being clean every day; they even laugh.
When they were rescued from the home where they lived with Jamie G. Henry and his wife, Billie D. Henry, social workers feared they might never fully recover.
According to investigators, the boy and the older girl had been tortured with a 24-inch long battery-operated cattle prod meant to shock 2,000-pound bulls into obedience. Sheriff's Lt. Jim Castleberry said that the children were shocked with the prod for "not obeying" and "not completing their chores."
Investigators also alleged that the children were regularly beaten with hands, a belt, plastic hangers and shoes; that the boy's wrists and ankles were tightly tied together, and that he was left bound as punishment; that the boy was locked outside the house in the dark on winter nights; and that on at least one freezing night the boy was left outside tied to a tree while barefoot.
Billie D. Henry allegedly did nothing to protect the children. Sgt. Rich McKinny told us that when he went to the house and asked Mrs. Henry about the cattle prod, she said that she had gotten rid of it: "She said she had taken it out of there, so the children could not be hurt anymore."
She was lying to protect her husband, McKinny told us: "The little boy said, `No, Mom, it's over here, in the corner.' And he went over there, and lifted up a pile of clothes. The cattle prod had been hidden underneath the clothes, so that we couldn't find it. . . . He was such a nice, friendly boy. It was like he was trying to be helpful."
Nice and friendly he is -- and small. As appalling as the details of the alleged crimes are, what is even more heartbreaking is to look at the boy and think someone would actually treat a child as sweet as this one in the way he was treated.
His foster parents told me that he is on a baseball team.
"I never got to play baseball before," he said with eagerness in his voice. "I'm learning to hold my glove like this. . . ."
He showed me how he was being taught to block the path of a ground ball.
"If you don't get your glove in front of the ball," he said, "it can bounce up and hurt you."
He must have wondered why the man he was talking to had to turn his eyes away again.
Readers around the country sent more than 1,350 boxes of clothes, and thousands of dollars in contributions, to Hall County for these children, and others in the area about whom we reported.
On this day at the Wal-Mart, the foster parents, who are far from wealthy, put down a payment so the three bikes could be held on layaway. But later we learned that a staff member of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services told the foster parents that the money you sent is not readily available for such purchases. So as of this writing, as summer goes on, the children are without bikes.
We will look into this; evidently some managers in the department must believe that you sent the contributions so the bureaucracy, not the children, can have it.
What's even worse than that, though, is what may lie ahead for the children unless swift action is taken in Hall County court. We will report on that Monday.
What the H&#% makes these idiots think they have a right to withhold private contributions from the kids and their foster parents?!?! How the H*!@ did this sorry excuse for a government agency get hold of the funds in the first place?!?!
GIVE THEM THEIR MONEY, YOU FU**ING MORONS.
Calling Bill O'Reily.
Please PLEASE! don't tell me the parents may regain custody.
I contacted the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Here. Kelly seemed very nice.
This story has been on FR for over an hour now. I am about to call Wal-Mart to see if the bikes are paid for yet. Make me proud Freepers... Make me proud.
I didn't see an E Mail for Greene, but there's a Comment by clicking here link at the bottom of the page. I'm sure supportive E Mails would be appreciated, and will be forwarded to Bob Greene.
I cried real tears when I read this article about those poor children, but even more at the generosity of the FReepers on this thread. God Bless you all.
sw
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