Re: Children caged

[Guest guest]

Someone actiually posted this in the Family Forum yesterday. Lots of

shock from the parents over there.

Interestingly, what I first thought of were the Japanese hotels

where you sleep in stacked cages overnight.

Tom

Adoption Questions Arise Over Ohio Caged Kids

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

WAKEMAN, Ohio †" The children †" polite and well-dressed †"

seemed ordinary enough to neighbors, who hired some of them to help

bale hay and saw them playing in a yard filled with toys. But the 11

children †" all with conditions ranging from autism to fetal

alcohol syndrome †" were far from having a normal life, authorities

said. Their adoptive parents allegedly forced several of them to

sleep in homemade cages about 3 1/2 feet high.

Gravelle (search), 56, and Sharen Gravelle, 57, have denied

abusing or neglecting the children, who are ages 1 to 14. No charges

had been filed, and messages left with the couple's lawyer were not

immediately returned Wednesday.

Officials, who said they discovered the situation Friday, are

investigating how the adoptive parents managed to take in the

children and why no one kept closer tabs on the youngsters. The

children have since been placed with foster families.

" I don't believe there were any case workers checking in with this

family, " said h Dumbeck, director of the Huron County Department

of Job and Family Services (search).

The couple adopted the children through an assortment of private and

public agencies in different counties and states, Dumbeck said.

Neighbors said they often saw or heard the children playing, and the

family yard was littered with toys †" plastic cars, tricycles,

slides and an overturned skateboard near a wooden ramp.