Starving girl preferred dying to going home

[n2doc]

Girl gains weight in foster care

By JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTER

Contemplating the possibility of being returned to the stepmother accused of starving her, a 14-year-old girl offered a chilling alternative.

The malnourished girl, who weighed just 48 pounds, said "she would prefer to have a lethal injection rather than going back home," according to social workers who interviewed the girl Aug. 15, two days after authorities began an investigation that led to felony charges against a Carnation couple in October.

Documents released this week by the state Department of Social and Health Services also showed that Child Protective Services closed a 2005 investigation against the couple because of "low risk," even after determining that her stepmother neglected her.

The stepmother had regularly locked the girl in her room for hours, limited her food intake and withheld her from school, and the father had ignored repeated requests to contact DSHS, documents say.

Among the factors for closing the case was the absence of prior allegations against the couple, the stepmother's agreement that locking her daughter in her room was inappropriate, and the girl's statement that conditions had improved, DSHS spokesman Tom Shapley said Friday.

But 3 1/2 years later, the abuse allegedly persisted.

more:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/385961_abuse01.html

[rateyes]

1. Sick bastards.

[babylonsister]

2. They sent her back? Aww, that poor baby. nt

[crikkett]

3. Thank god she spoke up.

[tismyself]

4. People like them

bring out the darkest, blackest, nastiest hatred and anger from somewhere in the middle of my bone marrow. To hell with them.

[bunkerbuster1]

6. It's everything I can do to keep from thinking of abusive adults as less than human

but they are, of course, human. I can't imagine what horrible mis-wiring allows a person to do that.

[tismyself]

9. your post has caused me to think

I feel the same way, as though they are "less than human" - and that is what is sticking in my throat right now. I mean, throughout history, look at what has been done to those considered "less than human".

Man, I tell you what, when you (you as in all of us, me too) lump a group together, and hate them, as badly as I hate abusive people, it's a slippery slope isn't it?

I need to change this about myself, but I'm not sure I'm big enough to get to a state of grace where given the opportunity I wouldn't bash those particular parents in the head with a large heavy object. Ugh, there are a lot of things about myself I really do not like.

[bunkerbuster1]

13. Self-awareness is probably 90% of the way there.

Being aware of what a moron you (you as in all of us, me too) really are sometimes is what keeps a lot of stupid behavior in check.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

5. Absolutely horrifying

At least the girl's out of that household now.

[BlooInBloo]

7. Sick fucks.

[stillcool]

8. there are a lot of people

out there who have no business having children. Going into foster care is no picnic either. Abuse is rampant in foster care. This girl will undoubtedly be in therapy for a good part of her life. She may even be one of those people who commits heinous acts, and others will be clamoring for her death by lethal injection. We are all teachers and students, and what we learn is what we teach.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

10. This is one of

the saddest things I've ever read about.

Why would the state consider ever placing anything, a hermit crab, a crazy mandrel baboon, anything back with these horrible people. The stepmother and her father should be in JAIL, period.

What a sick world we live in.

[shadowknows69]

11. There are some triumphant stories, but mostly child protective services are useless

And corrupt. At least in my neck of the woods. I've witnessed many simply inexcusable acts of stupidity or complicity toward the welfare of children around here.

[Eurobabe]

12. My daughter works for a foster care agency

and you would not believe the things I have heard from her regarding babies and children: sexual abuse, burnings, beatings, starvation, neglect, you name it. I will never understand how people can do these things to a baby or a child. Never.

I truly think our society is sick.

[bunkerbuster1]

14. A friend served on a grand jury awhile back; heard all kinds of cases.

He said what made the experience singularly unpleasant was the overwhelming number of criminal child abuse cases, and having to hear all the explicit details.

I don't know how police, empowered with the ability to use deadly force, manage to arrest some of these people without doing what I'm afraid I'd want to do, right there, on the spot. I really don't. (I'm glad they don't, of course.)

[Selatius]

15. The parents need to be placed in a mental institution for the criminally insane.

And the daughter needs to be put in a good home.

[undeterred]

16. I hear that pediatricians, including plastic surgeons,

who repair a lot of burns and scars, also see many unspeakable things that parents do to infants and children.