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WaPo article: Quiverful family living in D.C


YPestis

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That article about poor Frances broke my heart. I note it's from 2002. Hopefully that sack of shit father spent some time in prison.

As for the family profiled in the current article, they dont' seem that crazy, just very observant Catholics.

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Guest Anonymous

Catholic schools do not count as public schools here. I feel like at one point DC (or some parts of it) participated in a voucher program where parents could get tax refunds to help cover private/parochial school tuition instead of sending their kids to public schools. I'm not sure if that still exists, or if it would have covered all the tuition in any case.

They probably do have an agreement with the school that lessens the cost for that many kids to attend. Agreed that if the church is going to encourage the family to have more kids than they can afford to educate, they should give them a break on those costs.

In the 60's RC schools had money from parish members. In our parish tuition was sliding scale for the first three, any after that were free. In another parish that had huge Polish and Italian families all tuition was free and covered via the collection basket and donations from the wealthy. In those days none of the teachers had degrees and most were dropouts from college.

I'm guess with the number of kids and a single income, even with owning their home, these folks may qualify for SNAP. Of course they have HUGE deductions come tax time because of all the mouths to feed and their attendant expenses.

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Catholic schools do not count as public schools here. I feel like at one point DC (or some parts of it) participated in a voucher program where parents could get tax refunds to help cover private/parochial school tuition instead of sending their kids to public schools. I'm not sure if that still exists, or if it would have covered all the tuition in any case.

They probably do have an agreement with the school that lessens the cost for that many kids to attend. Agreed that if the church is going to encourage the family to have more kids than they can afford to educate, they should give them a break on those costs.

I doubt they get vouchers. They live in Maryland not DC. My SIL's tuition at a Catholic high school not to far from them was $10,000 a year. I think they give sibling discounts but the schools have all been pressed for money recently because they're getting fewer and fewer students. They've actually been closing schools in Baltimore. However if the Dad taught at the school or the Mother used to teach there they would get either a big discount or be free.

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That article about poor Frances broke my heart. I note it's from 2002. Hopefully that sack of shit father spent some time in prison.

As for the family profiled in the current article, they dont' seem that crazy, just very observant Catholics.

Sorry to dash your hopes, but that is exactly NOT what happened. The judge ended up entering a sentence that was much less than even the slap on the wrist the jury recommended for the guy. I looked it up and apparently little Frances was only worth 7 days in jail spaced out over as many years. And, the loser dad actually had the nerve to keep appealing his case because even that paltry sentence was just too much responsibility for him to accept for his actions.

For your reading pleasure:

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/feb/2 ... tenced_in/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Sep16.html

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That article about poor Frances broke my heart. I note it's from 2002. Hopefully that sack of shit father spent some time in prison.

He was sentenced "to spend one day a year in jail for seven years, sponsor a blood drive in his daughter's name and perform community service."

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Oh and the members of his congregation (that i was a part of) were asked to donate money for his appeal. Yes. We. Were. And let us not forget that it was a neighbor, not the father or another family member that found that poor baby dead in the van. And let us not also forget that months earlier the fam went to a video store and forgot a child. it was not until the cops brought the child home HOURS LATER that the family realized he was missing. And a year after her death the family had enough money to continue their membership at an exclusive swim club.

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Oh and the members of his congregation (that i was a part of) were asked to donate money for his appeal. Yes. We. Were. And let us not forget that it was a neighbor, not the father or another family member that found that poor baby dead in the van. And let us not also forget that months earlier the fam went to a video store and forgot a child. it was not until the cops brought the child home HOURS LATER that the family realized he was missing. And a year after her death the family had enough money to continue their membership at an exclusive swim club.

I can understand if you don't feel comfortable discussing, but I always wondered what ended up happening to the other kids in this family. After reading the various newspaper stories, I especially worried about the older ones because of all the blameshifting that seemed to go on.

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I don't feel uncomfortable, it's just that the whole situation was really bad. The church seemed to side with the dad and this caused a rift among the congregation. The appeal just rubbed salt in the wound too. I stopped going to the church soon after, but many of the kids were older at the time so they should be graduated from HS by now. I'll ask my BF tomorrow if she's heard anything lately about the kids since she's pretty much still into all the church going ons. Everyone really felt for the son getting the blame.

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That "sentence" is disgusting as well as the fact that the church took the father's side. Were there any consequences to the father in the neighborhood?

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I would guess the sentence was based on the family needing the dad to work.

I worked with a woman who killed someone in a really egregious drunk driving incident - she was so blacked-out drunk she drove up the exit ramp on the interstate and down the wrong way on the highway until she head-on collided with another car. She had to pay the family a ton of restitution money, and had her own family to support, so she got 1 week in the workhouse every year for many years (10?) on the anniversary of the death.

I actually think it's a really good example of restorative justice - in prison, she wouldn't have been able to pay the restitution, and the annual reminder both kept her under supervision (for her own safety and everyone else's - an addict is most vulnerable to relapse at those kinds of milestones) and let everyone around her know what happened. THa'ts quite a bit of punishment without most of the community & family costs of prison.

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They seem like they are a family that falls between a mainstream Catholic family and a fundie lite Catholic family. I also wonder if the kids will have a choice about going to a public high school. The kids from the Catholic family on Kids By The Dozen did. Two of their high school age kids at the time were in a public high school while the younger ones were in a private Catholic school.

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Okay, here's some info on the K family that I have found out: The son who got the blame, graduated from HS the followingyear and went to the University of Steubenville. No one has seen him back here since, which is no to say he hasn't been back, but he's not been seen in church since. At the time of the incident, the younger kids were being homeschooled and the older ones were in catholic school. After Frances' death, all of the children went to catholic school for the next several years. No homeschooling. Not sure if that was the choice of the parents or not. The youngest child is in 6th grade now and is currently being homeschooled, the others are in catholic school. The family still attends mass reguarly at church. Not sure if they still live in the same neighborhood. I do know that before Frances' death there were already issues with their neighbors, so who knows if they stayed. Will ask BF.

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Okay, here's some info on the K family that I have found out: The son who got the blame, graduated from HS the followingyear and went to the University of Steubenville. No one has seen him back here since, which is no to say he hasn't been back, but he's not been seen in church since. At the time of the incident, the younger kids were being homeschooled and the older ones were in catholic school. After Frances' death, all of the children went to catholic school for the next several years. No homeschooling. Not sure if that was the choice of the parents or not. The youngest child is in 6th grade now and is currently being homeschooled, the others are in catholic school. The family still attends mass reguarly at church. Not sure if they still live in the same neighborhood. I do know that before Frances' death there were already issues with their neighbors, so who knows if they stayed. Will ask BF.

Thanks for the update. I feel so horrible for those poor children - especially the oldest two (the girl who had the breakdown in the first place and the boy who got blamed over his sister).

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