She’s Laughing

This post may be upsetting to many… read with caution!

Today I read the follow up article about the 4 year old boy that was found severely abused, neglected, malnourished & kept in a closet. It’s nauseating.

The boy’s aunt is who he was living with. His mom & her half brother (who was masquerading as her husband) were also living in the trailer that had no electricity, no running water, a garbage bag for a toilet, and a huge hole in the roof. There was hardly any food for people in the trailer, but lots of dog food, dog shampoo, dog supplies. The article said that the dogs were healthier than the boy was.

Weighing 26 pounds at 4 years of age, this poor child was forced to hold hand weights above his head as punishment for “bathroom” accidents. When he grew too tired to hold them above his head, he would drop the weights on his head and feet. The mom got tired of him dropping the weights, so she taped them to his hands & put a football helmet on his head.

I’m appalled by this.. that people would bring a child into the world and then treat them so badly.

The mom & her half brother are now in jail being held with a high bail amount. The aunt was in jail and she is now released.

This took place in Oklahoma… a couple of hours from here.

The little boy has been in foster care for about a month now & has gained 9 pounds. He told police officers that he had never celebrated his birthday & didn’t know what Christmas is. There was one toy in the trailer when they found him.. a torn up teddy bear. The mom’s half brother had almost $2000.00 cash with him when he was arrested.

Sounds like drug dealing to me.. but, of course, I don’t have any idea if that’s what those people were doing.

While my children think of Harry Potter living in a closet (in the first novel) as a sort of adventure, I’m sure that Ms. Rowling meant for it to be a horrific thing when she wrote the novel.. much like this poor child’s life was horrifying before he was rescued from that trailer.

I tried to say “rescued from HIS HOME,” but I guess it wasn’t really a HOME, was it?