[ashes@work]

I knew about this on MOnday.... however Nancy Grace brought it up last night... these parents are still free?????

Because they believe it was ok to lock them up so they didnt hurt each other???

another fact nancy brought up I didnt know about... all the children were "multi-cultural descent" and the family was white, and they didnt take them out of the house.... like they helpd church in the back yard in a barn.....

ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...adlines-nation


Nine of an Ohio couple's 11 kids were forced to sleep inside wooden structures, officials say. The parents' lawyer defends the practice.

By Josh Getlin, Times Staff Writer


WAKEMAN, Ohio — They looked like perfectly normal kids, riding bicycles in the streets and playing on a plastic jungle gym in their backyard. But neighbors had one nagging question about Michael and Sharen Gravelle's 11 children:

How could all of them, 1 to 14 years in age, possibly live in such a small home?



People are friendly but private in this rural community west of Cleveland, and nobody dared to intrude. But when police raided the five-room house recently based on an anonymous tip, they got an answer: Nine of the kids were forced to sleep in wooden cages — and the Gravelles didn't think anything was wrong, officials said.

"I've never seen anything like this," Huron County Sheriff's Lt. Randy Sommers said at a news conference this week. "I've seen cases of children in closets, in basements, in outbuildings, in cars. This is the first I've seen of children in cages."

The 11 kids, all adopted, were whisked out of the house on St. John Road and placed temporarily in four foster homes. They are special-needs children, with problems including fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV, autism and Down syndrome.

Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said Wednesday that his office was still investigating the case, which has focused national attention on a sleepy rural area. Though no decision has been made, Leffler said potential criminal charges against the couple could include abduction, unlawful restraint and child endangering.

"We're still trying to figure out where all the kids came from," he said after a long meeting with sheriff's deputies. "This has become a very complicated case."

The couple denied any wrongdoing when they appeared this week at a preliminary juvenile court hearing. They have declined to comment further, and their whereabouts are not known. The couple's lawyer, David Sherman, did not return phone calls.

But he issued a news statement Wednesday evening, saying that the Gravelles, with the approval of a social worker, had constructed "enclosures" around their beds, because the children demonstrated "extreme behavioral problems" and that "traditional methods of behavior control were unsuccessful."

As she stood on her small front porch Wednesday, down the street from the Gravelle home, Mildred Timperman, Sharen Gravelle's mother, angrily defended her daughter.

"All I want is for her to come back home, and we want the children back too," Timperman said, leaning on a walker and shooing two dogs away. "I don't believe a word of this — that they were mistreating children. I think the whole thing is in God's hands."

The revelations came as a shock to neighbors. Still, most of them said they knew little about the reclusive couple, who had lived in their home for 10 years.

Michael, 56, is a laborer, and Sharen, 57, stayed home to raise the children, according to court records.

"I'm stunned, if these charges are true," said Sherri Hall, who lives next door to the Gravelles. "Who's responsible? It's incredible such a thing could go on."

Although details are sketchy, police documented a chilling scene when they entered the home last week. Jo Johnson, a children's services investigator, said there were "11 cages divided into three areas for the children to sleep in and/or for their punishments to be administered," according to the complaints in juvenile court.

She said the cages were approximately 30 inches wide, 40 inches high and 4 feet long; they were stacked in pairs and used for sleeping. Wire fencing covered the openings, and there were alarms on the doors to alert the Gravelles whenever a child attempted to leave. Two of the cages were blocked by a large dresser, Johnson said.

She said the couple told her that the cages had been in use for two years. They said a psychologist, who was not identified, had told them this was an efficient way to discipline and control children who might otherwise be considered unruly. The parents added that the cages were also meant to protect the children from each other.

"I have a 17-year-old daughter with special needs who learns at the second-grade level — and everybody has discipline problems with kids," said Hall, sitting in her living room. "But no matter how bad it gets, I never would think of putting her in a cage."

In his home across the street, Jim Powers voiced disbelief that a home so outwardly quiet might be the scene of so much chaos inside. The Gravelle children would often go barefoot in the street, but so did other neighborhood kids, he said.

"Until you're inside, you can't know what goes on in another home," Power said.

[WarC]

I think this is more about a poor family financially incapable of effectively housing/caring for eleven troubled kids. (imagine taking care of eleven kids with physical/mental disabilities and behavioral problems)

Other than the fact that they had to sleep in these cages, I don't think there is much abuse taking place. They have to shelter the kids somehow, and lockin' em up for punishment is nothing that most parent's wouldn't do in the form of a time out or "go to your room!"

People oughta come together and give this family some financial support, instead of splitting them all up and tossing the parents in jail!

Just my opinion considering the article. Maybe theres more to the story. To me it seems like no one was interested in taking care of these kids in the first place, which is probably why they all ended up at that house anyways. Two people living in a small rural house aren't going to be able to afford the world for these kids...

[ashes@work]

It wasnt punishment.. they slept nightly in these cages. When the social worker got there one kid was in the cage with a dresser infront of it.

In no way is $51,000 enough..but thats what the family got from Soc sec in 2001.. but that was 4 years ago and some of the kids were nto even 4 years old yet so i know they are getting more now.. but i do understand it cant be cheap to feed 11 kids and yourself.

I just dont find chickenwire and an alarm system the correct process for even punishing them, let alone making them sleep in them...

[moonmist]

Originally Posted by ashes@work

another fact nancy brought up I didnt know about... all the children were colored and the family was white, and they didnt take them out of the house.... like they helpd church in the back yard in a barn.....

ROAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what color were they?? .........

[ashes@work]

I dont get it

[WarC]

Originally Posted by ashes@work

I dont get it

I like your sleeves. They're real big.

[moonmist]

Originally Posted by ashes@work

I dont get it

you said they were "colored"........ i believe that is not a PC comment. I believe the comment should have been either "black" or "African American" allot of African American people take offense to that term, it has a very southern, 60's, racist conotation to it........although i know you are not a racist by any stretch of the imagination and im definitely not saying that.

[ashes@work]

Ok ive had a long week.. this is all going over my head.. ROAR!!!!!!

[MSM Hobbes]

Read about this the other day... No way in hades would I ever do such to one of my boys - but, our boys do not have the same conditions as these kids. I had a buddy in junior high school that his dad would lock him in a closet at times... . That was bad enough. However, I am sure that there will be another side to this story as more comes out - I am very interested in what the docs and head-shrinkers have to say in supporting such actions for such children.

In a positive light, I do admire these people's desire to help and take these kids into their homes - as long as their intentions were and are to the best they truly could for the kids, and not just to use 'em as fodder to gather supplemental income. So, on one hand its easy to knee-jerk react and condone these adults for their actions. However, since a psychiatrist evidently gave them the permission/idea to do such, maybe there really is validity in such treatment for children with these conditions...

Articles such as this may help learn more about the kids:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6948119/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6974956/

http://www.come-over.to/FAS/ "FAS/FAE is a major health issue in western civilization today. More American babies are born with FAS than with Down Syndrome, MD, and HIV combined."
http://www.taconic.net/seminars/fas-b.html

Meeting the caretakers needs is important also. Parents are often overwhelmed with the enormous job of caring for these children. Parent education and support, as well as respite services for families, is essential to maintaining positive parent/child relationships and stability in the home setting. These services must be available to foster and adoptive parents as well as the natural parent.

http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/o/632/...169efa9f5.html

11 Kids Made to Sleep in Cages in Ohio

(AP) - WAKEMAN, Ohio-Sheriff's deputies removed 11 disabled children from a home where they were made to sleep in cages less than 3 1/2 feet high, authorities said.

The children's adoptive and foster parents, Mike and Sharen Gravelle, denied that they'd abused or neglected the children during a custody hearing Monday in Huron County. No charges had been filed as of Monday night.

"The impression that we got was that they felt it was OK," said Lt. Randy Sommers of the Huron County Sheriff's Office.

The Gravelles said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children sleep in the cages at night, County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said. The cages were stacked in bedrooms on the second floor of their house, he said.

The children, ages 1 to 14, were described as having conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.

The children were found by a children's services investigator on Friday when he stopped by the Gravelles' home outside Wakeman, about 50 miles west of Cleveland. Deputies returned to the house that evening.

Some of the cages were rigged with alarms, Sommers said; others had heavy furniture blocking their doors. The children didn't have blankets or pillows.

One of the boys said he'd slept in the cage for three years, Sommers said. And a neighbor recently reported seeing the children working long hours in the family's yard, he said.

The children were placed with four foster families Monday.

A woman who identified herself as Sharen Gravelle's mother but refused to give her name said the children were happy and loved. "This year they have played and had fun and laughed like no other children have, which they have never been able to do," she said.

The Gravelles do not have a listed telephone number.

Sommers said there were no apparent signs the children had been malnourished or beaten, but they were sent to a hospital for examination. Their conditions were not available Monday.

In March, a couple who had recently moved from Ohio to Florida was charged with neglect when their adopted teenager was discovered malnourished in a crib-like cage. The then-17-year-old weighed 49 pounds, investigators said.

The twin-bed-sized crib had been prescribed when the boy was much younger and lived in Ohio. It had been fitted with a lid, chains and a padlock, investigators said.

ashes, this is 2nd OH area story related to this kind of action... hmmmm...

[ashes@work]

Well she didnt say they were all african american so I wasnt going to say there were... i figured they were of many different nations so colored just works for me.. whether that hurts or not im from the country that the term i grew up using.. im not racist by any means it just the term i know....

[ashes@work]

HOBBIE... I WOULD NEVER!... Im obviously from the wrong part of ohio Im 25 years old, Im still a kid myself. And im a lover not a fighter.. I have issues just yelling at my dog....

[deh]

hmmmmmmm cages for children eh?
Mine do wake up mighty early and one is a pistol to get in bed at night.

[moonmist]

Originally Posted by ashes@work

Well she didnt say they were all african american so I wasnt going to say there were... i figured they were of many different nations so colored just works for me.. whether that hurts or not im from the country that the term i grew up using.. im not racist by any means it just the term i know....

Of course your not........absolutely not.

How about we use "multi-cultural descent"

[ashes@work]

JERSEY!!! i want pictures daddio

[ashes@work]

and sure moonie works for me..
done