Worst.Story.Ever
August 7th, 2008 by COD
Well, my day is pretty much shot after reading this. Thanks Don.The family that took in this severely abused little girl should be be nominated for Sainthood. Her natural mother should be tied to post in the Everglades and left there to slowly starve to death until she becomes a snack for the vultures. And when I say severely abused I mean it. This may be one of the worst cases in history. Of course, the state had several opportunities to rescue this little girl and blew it every time.
Instead the mother got off with probation, and to this day sees nothing wrong with what she did to her daughter.
I don’t know whether I should be depressed that this happened in the first place, or encouraged that people like the adoptive family exist.
23 Responses to “Worst.Story.Ever”
I’m pissed off about this, yes. But I think I am equally as pissed off at the adoptive family who put their son in a laundry room to sleep so that Dani could have a bedroom. And I’m just as upset that this boy seems ok with that.
I’m glad Dani has a new family and a real home. I’m glad she’s doing better. But I feel for that boy as well.
Toni
Yeah, I thought that was kind of weird too. The laundry room? The laundry room is where the dog sleeps, not your kid.
Oh and I’m stealing your “educational anarchist” banner.
toni
Sounds like the boy, like the rest of the family, is a wonderful person, willing to give to a little girl in need. He sleeps on the couch. He’s fine. He knows he’s loved.
And what do we have going on is FL that might help this situation, you ask? Why another proposal — supported by our Republic Governor — to cut property taxes. To replace some, nobody thinks or suggests it will be all, of that funding with sales taxes. So the rich pay less, you see, and everyone else pays more.
And screw any little kid who doesn’t get the attention she deserves when yet another round of budget cuts happen.
No, they won’t fire the CPS workers who looked the other way. They can’t afford to.
Nance
No, read the article again–he SNEAKS on to the couch when the parents go upstairs to tuck the girl in. His room is in the laundry room.
That is not right, no matter how you try to spin it.
Toni
It’s hard not to want to smack the crap out of that little girl’s bio mother – even hearing that her IQ was measured at 77 only made me slightly more compassionate. And to hear of the way she pities herself, that she “cares about herself more than other adults” in one psych evaluator’s opinion…UGH. Have to wonder what kind of parenting resulted in her…
It may not be the greatest situation in the world to move the son into the laundry room, but maybe they don’t have any alternatives. If it’s a two-bedroom house, what are they supposed to do? I’m sure if they had the means to provide both kids with their own rooms they would. The reality is that this whole family is making sacrifices to help this little girl. If you don’t like it, send them $60,000 so they can build an addition.
The laundry room bit bothered me a little, too, but when Dani was placed, the state would have had to have done a home inspection, which would have included inspecting the sleeping arrangements for each of the children. Considering the fact that I have no other information than what little is provided in the article, I’m going to assume that the laundry room isn’t a dungeon, that it has enough space for him, and that it has an appropriate exit since housing codes (at least around here) won’t let you use a basement as a bedroom unless you have egress windows).
That’s a good point Dana. The reporter made it sound like the son was sleeping in a bare cold laundry room, which probably isn’t the case. That said, these are state agents in FL, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in their abilities!
“Love it or leave it” right, Don? Not quite. Dana makes a good point that the inspection would have ruled them out if they though their son would suffer. The reporter does make it sound as though the laundry room is less than ideal, especially when you add “nestled in between the washer and dryer” bit.
Still, they turned around and completely redecorated his room to suit her. As a child, I would not have been happy with this, not in any way. And no, I do not trust FL investigators to have done their job properly.
But you are right–at least **she’s** got a home.
toni
I’m not sure what you mean with the “love it or leave it” line. I’m just saying don’t be so quick to get all judgmental when you know next to nothing about their situation.
There’s a lot more to having a home than having your own room. I grew up in a 2BR house that was under 800sf. My sister and I shared a room when we were young, but I spent most of my teen years sleeping on a pull-out sofa in the living room. Like the parents in this story, my parents worked blue-collar jobs and did everything they possibly could to provide for us. It was tough for them, with two non-disabled kids. The most important thing is to have a family that loves and cares for each other. Having your own room is minor detail when you consider the big picture.
You said “Quit complaining or fork over $60,000 for them to build an extension”–hence, “love it or leave it”–eg:(for further explanation) “you’ve no right to complain, you don’t know them!!11!!!OMG!!11!!”
It isn’t about having your own room, it’s about having a room that isn’t the laundry room. I don’t care about sharing rooms, my girls did that. I don’t care about sleeping on a pull out couch, that’s fine too. I care about the fact that the boy was moved into the laundry room “between the washer and DANI’s Rocking Horse” (direct quote from the article, so no, I am not judging) but I am questioning some things:
(direct quotes)
“William was used to living like an only child, but since Dani has moved in, she gets most of their parents’ attention. “She needs them more than me,” he says simply.”—She gets the most attention, he gets ignored and he’s resolved this with “she needs them more than me”–SAD
And this whole thing is just wrong:
” He gave her his old toys, his “kid movies,” his board books. He even moved out of his bedroom so she could sleep upstairs. His parents painted his old walls pink and filled the closet with cotton-candy dresses.
They moved a daybed into the laundry room for William, squeezed it between the washing machine and Dani’s rocking horse. Each night, the 10-year-old boy cuddles up with a walkie-talkie because “it’s scary down here, all alone.”
After a few minutes, while his parents are trying to get Dani to bed, William always sneaks into the living room and folds himself into the love seat.”
I have no doubt in my mind that Dani is taken care of, this article proves it. But their own biological son is suffering, is being “punished” for their “need” to have a girl child.
Toni
A local story here:
http://cbs3.com/local/Mayor.Mi.....87146.html
Charges are now being brought against the “social workers” & the parents that allowed a 14 year old disabled girl to die under their watch. Quite a surprising change in the system.
The son has a roof over his head and is being fed, but the article does leave the impression that he is sort of forgotten in the overwhelming amount of care that his new sister needs. It’s one thing if childbirth brings a disabled child into your life and you are forced to adjust. However every family I have personally known that was forced into that situation has gone overboard in the opposite direction to make sure the other kids know they aren’t forgotten. We don’t know the author’s motivations, but the article certainly gives the impression that the son has been essentially forgotten.
It won’t be funny if he ends up a delinquent because he starts acting out to remind his parents that he still exists.
Having your own room is minor detail when you consider the big picture.
To you, yes. To a 10 year old boy who has seen his life turned upside down, not so much.
A little bit more on the story:
“About this story
St. Petersburg Times reporter Lane DeGregory and Times photographer Melissa Lyttle met Danielle and her new family at their home in February. All of the scenes at their house and in speech therapy were witnessed by the journalists.
The opening scene and others were reconstructed from interviews with neighbors, the detective, Danielle’s care manager, psychologist, teacher, legal guardian and the judge on her case. Additional information came from hundreds of pages of police reports, medical records and court documents.
Michelle Crockett was interviewed at home in Plant City.
In June, Danielle’s new parents sold their Florida home and moved out of state. Bernie built Dani a treehouse. Last week, she began summer school.
Lane DeGregory can be reached at (727) 893-8825 or degregory@sptimes.com.”
It seems they’ve moved anyway and I’ll presume their new house is bigger. The laundry room may have been a temporary measure until that happened.
I just think that critisizing them for moving him into the laundry room is unwarranted when you don’t know the details, don’t know the individuals, don’t know how the family functions, and your entire basis for making the judgment is a few lines in a newspaper article. Making assumptions that the son is “suffering” or about how it will affect him down the road is nothing but speculation. Enough said.
Don–I’d encourage you to brush up on your reading comprehension skills. Not only did I point out, in bold writing, what was occurring, but the owner of this blog, pointed it out and Dawn just now pointed out that everything written was officially witnessed by the writers; therefore there is no reason to believe that their claims in the article are anything but accurate.
The writers WITNESSED this first hand. They wrote exactly what they witnessed. This isn’t a case of the news spinning something towards a certain bent–for once, this is the truth as they witnessed it. I’ve been a subscriber to the St. Pete times for a number of years and they’ve won multiple awards for having accurate, factual, non-bent, reporting. Their reputation is too important to them to lie or “bend” a story.
Therefore, please go back and re-read the article and the comments again. Everything we’ve stated here is based, factually, on the facts that were written on the article; as cited by Dawn. NO ONE is making assumptions. No one is “judging”. It’s written in black and white and has been verified as the truth.
Therefore, our “opinions” are spot on.
Thank you very much,
Toni
I think I’m with Don on this one. They were very likely in a small house, they’d feel the girl had to be close to them but may have wanted their son to still have his privacy and not be disturbed by the new child so the laundry room was the best they could do until making other arrangements, which they eventually did.
I have no doubt the situation wasn’t the best for their son and wouldn’t have been healthy in the long term but it seems to have been a short term thing. An awkward fix in the moment.
Anyway, I hope the best for them.
Toni,
Maybe you should brush up on *your* reading comprehension skills. I never claimed that the article was not accurate. I simply think that it’s impossible tell enough about this family from the article to make judgments of the type you seem to be making. You could go read the entire four years of posts on my blog and you still wouldn’t know half of what there is to know about my family or how we interact or make decisions, or the things we struggle with in private or our financial situation. Yet you think you can tell that their son is “suffering” and “being punished” (your words) based on a couple paragraphs in the newspaper. I guess I just prefer to err on the side of giving someone the benefit of the doubt rather than jumping to condemn them.
That’s the problem with bleeding heart type people–give them the benefit of the doubt. Where did I ever say I was outright condemning them? Didn’t. But because I’ve got a dissenting opinion, it’s deemed “condemning”. (I wonder if because these people are Christians, that’s why it’s seen as condemnation instead of constructive. Makes sense, typical and obvious)
Nah, sorry. Take your heart and bleed elsewhere. I applaud their decision to adopt this little girl, but feel that the decision was not quite thought through enough.
Did she just call Don a bleeding heart Christian? Epic fail on all counts!
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