Children made to dig own graves

[The1calledTKE]

TRENTON, Tennessee (AP) -- A couple facing criminal abuse charges forced some of their 18 foster, adopted and biological children -- many of them disabled -- to dig their own graves, warning the youngsters they could be killed and nobody would care, according to investigative documents.

A search warrant affidavit released in the case against Thomas and Debra Schmitz also alleges that the children were beaten, locked in a cage and punished by having their eyeglasses, leg braces or crutches taken away.

A home care nurse told authorities the "children were forced to dig their own graves" and told by the couple "they could be killed and buried in the back yard and no one will care," according to the affidavit.

The nurse said she saw two children, ages 8 and 10, forced to sleep in a locked metal cage without a mattress or blankets. The youngsters were "curled in a fetal position in the cage," the affidavit said.

Debra Schmitz, 44, was charged on June 22 with three counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of child abuse; Thomas Schmitz, 45, was charged with one count of aggravated child abuse and one count of child abuse.

The Schmitzes, who were investigated on similar accusations four years ago in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area, moved to this town 85 miles northeast of Memphis in 2000. They were not charged in that case.

They have denied wrongdoing and, on legal advice, have refused interview requests since their arrest.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/07/....ap/index.html

What is the world coming too?

[CatStarESP4]

These parents are sick and heartless. What they did is absolutely inexcusable!

I just feel awful for the children and in the way they were treated by this couple.


I have said this before and I will say it again, just when I think society could stoop down any lower, it is something like this that make me think otherwise.

[AlphaFrog]

Why would you willing take in children and then do that to them?

I thought they do all kinds of background checks and checkups. How did these people get approved and then pass inspections?

[Kevin]

Those are some sick terds.

[kddani]

how are they allowed to have 18 children in their home? Foster kids, and then adopted???

My guess would be $$$... they get checks from the state to take care of the foster kids, and possibly money as well for the disabled ones that they adopted (if they're disabled enough, probably getting SSD/SSI)

What is also sick is the state of a system that will not catch that sort of thing going on when there's that many kids there.... wonder how long they've been doing this stuff to those poor kids?

[AGDee]

I read this yesterday and it made me sick.

I think a big part of the problem is that they don't have anywhere to put these kids so these families that take on 18 of them aren't stopped. It's not exactly easy to find foster families for disabled children. While I'm not as familiar as the system as it relates to physically disabled children, I'm quite familiar with how things are going in the mental health system in Michigan. So many facilities for mentally ill children have been closed that there is no where for them to go.

In fact, here is an article from the Detroit Free Press on 7/7/04

Thousands of children sit needlessly in the nation's juvenile-detention facilities because they need mental health services, costing those facilities more than $100 million a year, according to a survey commissioned by two lawmakers to be released todayin Washington.

read the rest


My gut instinct is that it is no easier to find placements for physically disabled kids than it is to find placements for the kids in that article.

Sad state of affairs for these kids... (and part of what makes me a liberal).

Dee

[carnation]

This report makes me physically ill. First, because of what happened to the children. Second, because now a lot of folks will tar all of us big families with the same brush and run around saying that we all treat our kids like that.

Although my children have no "special issues", there are dozens of families around who do have many children who do have them and they do well. The children are loved and they thrive.

This same kind of horrible thing happens all too often in small families but it's quickly forgotten and it's kind of like what happens to the Greek system. A bunch of guys from a dorm get plastered and go out and do something awful and it might not even make the news. The Greeks go out and do it and the papers jump all over the Greeks with accusations of how all Greeks are that way.

I don't want anyone to think that anything but the smallest percentage of large families act like this.

[tinydancer]

I can't think when I have read anything so horrible.