Do you guys remember....

[conuly]

The same week Autism Speaks produced their god-awful "Autism Every Day" video two children were murdered by their parents, and for the life of me I can't remember either of their names.

There was the little girl whose mother ultimately went to prison after smothering her, and there was the teenage boy whose parents did not go to prison even though they locked him in his room and set the house on fire, and god damn it I don't remember their names. And then afterwards AS said some absolutely unforgiveable garbage, worse than what they'd already said in the video, because of course they did.

And now it's bugging me that I can't remember those names. I keep thinking and thinking, and I keep coming up with "Madeleine McCann", and of course I know she's somebody else. I even know who she is, naturally, so why I'm confusing her for them I just don't understand.

Comments

[acelightning73]

The DeGroot boy's father was a police officer. The cop's girlfriend occasionally snuck food or blankets to the boy against the father's insistence. The boy had incontinence problems, and he was not allowed to use any of the bathrooms in the rather expensive house. When he pooped in his pants, his father would take him in the back yard, make him take his clothes off, and hose the child off with the garden hose, even in freezing cold weather. There is a particular mind-set in some adults, that the way to make children obey behavior rules is to punish the child physically for any transgression, by beating or inflicting burns on the kid, so he'll know not to excrete in unacceptable places. Teach the kid some DISCIPLINE. And the description of the child's life and death indicate that this was his father's motivation - make the kid BEHAVE. If he poops or pees in his clothes or inside the house, he must be punished to make him remember never to let it happen again.

I can't begin to imagine how someone can treat their own child like this.

[conuly]

The DeGroot boy's father was a police officer

Oh, is *that* why they got off scot-free? I thought it was just the autism thing, but now I know he's a cop....

[acelightning73]

That "disciplinarian" mind-set is common in cops, Marine Drill Instructors, and certain types of Christian fundamentalism. The more humiliating and painful the "discipline", the more effective they believe it will be. If a kid knows that that when he takes food out of the fridge without permission he's going to lose the privilege of eating for several days, he will stop stealing food - he gets MORE food when he follows the rules.

[acelightning73]

The girlfriend was sentenced to 25 to life in jail for murder (although she was an 'accessory', in legal terms). The kid's father, the real villain, got the same amount of time. He was the one who denied the kid food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials in order to "teach the brat some DISCIPLINE and OBEDIENCE"

[conuly]

No? I remember very clearly, and I looked it up after I got their names confirmed. They only served six months in jail.

https://autismmemorial.wordpress.com/2006/05/19/christopher-degroot/

[acelightning73]

The case on Long Island was a boy whose father forbad the child to use any of the bathrooms inside the fairly upscale house, nor to sleep in any of the beds. The boy had issues with toileting, and occasionally wet or soiled himself. His father would strip the child's clothes off, take him outside in the back yard, and hose him down, and not give him a towel to dry off with. He compelled the child to sleep in the garage, which was unheated, and to lie on the hard concrete floor with no cushion nor blanket. The outdoor temperature was 19 degrees Fahrenheit when the boy was sent back to bed in the garage. In the morning, he was dead of hypothermia - "froze to death". The child's school had been trying to get the appropriate local agency to step in, but the father wouldn't respond to the CPS workers. There was very obviously something really terribly wrong with the man.