Not again -- abused homeschooled/foster child

[church_of_dog]

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/11/16/dead-chicken-porch-social-worker-arrested-child-abuse?hpt=hp_t3

lead-in: "A social services worker and a hospital nurse are behind bars after a North Carolina deputy spotted their 11-year-old foster child shivering and handcuffed to the front porch -- with a dead chicken around his neck, authorities said Saturday."

:pull-hair: :angry-banghead:

[Emme]

Thankfully they found this child alive. Ugh. Heartbreaking.

[Conuly]

A chicken? Why the fuck would there be a chicken? I mean, I can sorta see the porch, at least, if I were an abusive jackass, but what the hell?

[salex]

A chicken? Why the fuck would there be a chicken? I mean, I can sorta see the porch, at least, if I were an abusive jackass, but what the hell?

decades if not a hundred years ago, a touted way to train dogs not to kill chickens (when many/most people likely had both dogs and chickens) was to tie the dead chicken around the dog's neck....that made me wonder if the kid had killed an animal, or if he had eaten more than his "share" of chicken.

[Mudball]

The article mentioned exotic animals running loose. Not knowing what sort of animals my first fear was the chicken was there to entice something to attack. I may have misread, I skimmed because it was so damned sad.

[Peas n carrots]

decades if not a hundred years ago, a touted way to train dogs not to kill chickens (when many/most people likely had both dogs and chickens) was to tie the dead chicken around the dog's neck....that made me wonder if the kid had killed an animal, or if he had eaten more than his "share" of chicken.

The article stated when the deputy came to investigate, one of the other children opened the door and a bunch of dogs ran out and chased away the deputy. One of the commenters thought perhaps the abused child had maybe accidently let the dogs out and they killed a chicken, thus why they tied the chicken around the kid's neck.

Otherwise, so much WTF and so sad. It sounds like the other children were not abused, or at least not to the extent of the foster child?

Also the article says the kids are homeschooled, but how could they be getting and education with both of the parents working? It seems like they were unschooled and self taught???

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Also the article says the kids are homeschooled, but how could they be getting and education with both of the parents working? It seems like they were unschooled and self taught???

Quite likely "unschooled" (note the quotes), yeah.

The one bad instance of homeschooling I personally know was like this. It was the daughter of a single mother who just plain didn't have any time or interest or mental wherewithal to keep on top of things so the kid was just kinda left to wander around town and hang out at the library. So, the kid would maybe read Chapter 1 of a bunch of esoteric books (and be told by her mother constantly that she was brilliant) while falling behind, behind, behind, and not really learning anything or having any ability to stay on task.

Happily in that situation the kid fell in with another homeschooling family that was on the ball, and caught up with a combination of homeschooling with that family's kids and (along with those kids) taking some formal classes too.

But yeah, a lot of the bad homeschooling situations you can find people complaining about on line (often the victims themselves) involve someone thinking that "unschooling" means just "don't do anything but let your kid do whatever in the library all day." Whereas real quality unschooling or child-led methods actually require someone being very involved behind the scenes.

[Slt]

This story is somewhat local to me, and it has been reported that not only is the mom a REGISTERED NURSE, she is also a DSS employee! WTF.

ETA: http://www.wcnc.com/news/crime/Police-B ... 49571.html

(NOT BREAKING LINK BECAUSE IT IS A NEWS SOURCE)

The DAD is an ER nurse, mom is a DSS supervisor. Just ew.

[thoughtful]

Unbelievable.

I do know that several sources from which I've read about the dead animal around the neck for dogs say that it is to "shame" the dog.

So, whatever their bizarre excuse for doing it, they may have thought it would somehow "shame" the child into behaving.

Fuckers.

[Mudball]

Not to derail or make light but dead animals shame dogs? I think my (sweet gentle) lab mix who will eat and play with anything would wag her tail to the point of exhaustion if gifted with such a thing! How weird.

[thoughtful]

Not to derail or make light but dead animals shame dogs? I think my (sweet gentle) lab mix who will eat and play with anything would wag her tail to the point of exhaustion if gifted with such a thing! How weird.

That was my first thought (well, my second; my first was "EW!") when I first heard about it. Dogs love the smell of meat and rotting things.

It is still very much a tradition among some people, though -- out of curiosity, I did a search and found recent examples from chicken-raising advice sites, recommending it.

I really want to hear these people try to explain why the fuck they did that to a child. :evil-eye:

[Mama Mia]

The article stated when the deputy came to investigate, one of the other children opened the door and a bunch of dogs ran out and chased away the deputy. One of the commenters thought perhaps the abused child had maybe accidently let the dogs out and they killed a chicken, thus why they tied the chicken around the kid's neck.

Otherwise, so much WTF and so sad. It sounds like the other children were not abused, or at least not to the extent of the foster child?

Also the article says the kids are homeschooled, but how could they be getting and education with both of the parents working? It seems like they were unschooled and self taught???

Slightly off-topic, but many people homeschool with both parents working by having the parents work different shifts. Just like they do to care for small children, or children in public school when school isn't in session.

I find it incredible that a social services supervisor would abuse her kid in such a public way! Yes they had lots of land and were in an isolated area, but clearly this had a high risk for being found out, which she must have known. Horrible, horrible people.

[Palimpsest]

I've ceased to be surprised when stories like this about child abuse hit the press. Still shocked by the details, most definitely. Surprised, no. :(

Usually these cases only get significant press coverage when the abuse is so bad that the parents/guardians actually get arrested AND the parent/guardian is in a job or profession that is likely to cause dismay and outrage in the general public. Dr, nurse, preacher, SW, lawyer, teacher, and so on.

For those interested in the correlation between homeschooling and abuse (obviously not all homeschoolers are abusive but some abusers homeschool to hide the abuse) this is an interesting site.

hsinvisiblechildren.org/our-position/

They are the first to admit that their database is not complete. They are also very clear that they are not against homeschooling and only want minimal oversight of homeschooling parents. At the moment, this is completely lacking.