Severely emaciated boy found dead. Homeschooled???

[jjmennonite]

I first read about this earlier in the week. I was suspicious, as soon as I heard he was 15, and severely emaciated. Now it comes out ' sources said it is believed family of the teen initially turned to religious support to deal with possible medical problems, ultimately ending in tragedy.' One of the articles said he was diabetic. So were they trying to pray the diabetes away? Or maybe they were withholding food, to 'break his spirit'. It is all speculation on my part, so far, but I will be watching this story closely.

Our mandatory reporters are pretty good here, so that makes me suspect fundy nutcase home schoolers, so he would fly below the radar, as he starved. (Apologies to all the good home schoolers here - not pointint at you.)

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/05/10/de ... me-elusive

[crazyforkate]

Holy shit. That poor boy. How on earth can this get by these days? Parents like those need to be sent to the judicial prayer closet, forever.

[AuntCloud]

Ugh, how horrible.

I thought in AB, you had to be registered as a homeschooler and receive regular visits from homeschool coordinators?

[Sydney Fox]

Ugh, how horrible.

I thought in AB, you had to be registered as a homeschooler and receive regular visits from homeschool coordinators?

You do have to register, but there are only 3 required coordinator visits per school year. Plus, some homeschoolers don't register their kids.

[jjmennonite]

Here is another article I found. So, crazy fundies. This is so very sad.

Global News has learned that the teen suffered from a condition that is usually treatable, but the family’s religious beliefs may have prevented him from getting help

http://globalnews.ca/news/549970/police ... ting-help/

This is scary - we were Pentacostel for a while when I was a kid, and my parents prayed for us a lot, instead of taking us to the doctor. However, they were not quite this extreme.

[Mama Mia]

I know someone who was taken out of school at age 8 and when authorities came to see where the kid went the parents said they sent her back to Mexico to live with her grandparents.

It seems like it would be pretty easy to just say your child went to live with their Grandparents/the other parent/ an aunt etc... and no one would ever question it.

[Carla Bruni]

I know that there are great homeschoolers on this board, and I typically try to advocate smaller government and wider liberties, but cases like this make me think that Germany has the right mindset: no homeschooling, none, ever, and if you don't like it, tough nookies.

I feel perfectly comfortable doing 85+ mph on our local highways, for instance, and I have a perfect driving record; however, I understand that many other people can barely drive straight at 35 mph, so that's why we need speed limits - for the public good. Same reason I think vaccinations should be mandatory, really.

[houseworksucks]

If he was a diabetic, then the emaciation could have been from that.

Type one diabetics (the autoimmune variety often diagnosed before adulthood) make no natural insulin due to an autoimmune attack on the beta cells in their pancreases. Insulin is what allows us to use sugar (glucose, which is what all consumed carbohydrates break down into) for energy, so without it, the body starves no matter what a person eats.

He could have been well fed and still died of starvation if he was not being given insulin (which runs up to 200$ per bottle without insurance, and test strips run 1$ each).

This in no way is meant to excuse what happened. There is no excuse. However, it could be that the parents either were deeply ignorant or incapable of comprehending what was happening rather than trying to punish him in some way.

[Arete]

Insurance coverage should not have been a problem here, the kid was in Canada. The parents were not ignorant, it sounds like they were probably irresponsible religious fuckwits.

[cjsmom]

If he was a diabetic, then the emaciation could have been from that.

Type one diabetics (the autoimmune variety often diagnosed before adulthood) make no natural insulin due to an autoimmune attack on the beta cells in their pancreases. Insulin is what allows us to use sugar (glucose, which is what all consumed carbohydrates break down into) for energy, so without it, the body starves no matter what a person eats.

He could have been well fed and still died of starvation if he was not being given insulin (which runs up to 200$ per bottle without insurance, and test strips run 1$ each).

This in no way is meant to excuse what happened. There is no excuse. However, it could be that the parents either were deeply ignorant or incapable of comprehending what was happening rather than trying to punish him in some way.

In Canada, most children with chronic health concerns qualify for at-home nursing programs. One of my students is in the program, and his parents have never paid for toileting supplies, orthotic devices, his wheelchair etc.

There is no excuse for denying a child medical care, particularly when one lives in a country with universal health care.

[AnnieC 305]

I.

He could have been well fed and still died of starvation if he was not being given insulin (which runs up to 200$ per bottle without insurance, and test strips run 1$ each).

As an off-topic aside for my fellow Type II diabetics (not the Type I she was describing) Consumer Reports judged the Wal-Mart Ultima meter the second best in the country and perfectly good for Type II Monitoring and the strips are only $0.36/each. The ones they give away in the hospitals are ideal for Type I diabetes but use the incredibly expensive strips. Now I dislike Walmart and hate shilling for them, but if you have Type II and need to test for it then you might as well save some money.

/

[houseworksucks]

I didn't mean to make it sound as if I was sympathetic to the parents; I'm not at all. I'm a type one, and in our community there are frequent stories of people whose children die because of religion (pray it away) and / or ignorance. Neither is acceptable. My intention was only to offer a second possible explanation for the emaciation.