Couple accused of starving 4 sons

[Whoa_Nelly]

Couple accused of starving 4 sons

Police said the Collingswood pair fed only the girls. A DYFS worker had visited repeatedly.
By Toni Callas and Linda K. Harris
Inquirer Staff Writers

COLLINGSWOOD - For the four adopted sons who lived in the three-story beige house on the White Horse Pike in Collingswood, there was no crisp bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, no big glasses of milk and peanut-butter sandwiches for lunch, no plates of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

<snip>
On Friday, Raymond and Vanessa Jackson, 50 and 48, respectively, were arrested and charged with four counts of aggravated assault and 14 counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Both are being held in the Camden County Correctional Facility on $100,000 bail each.

Three of the sons, ages 9, 10, and 14, are in foster homes and Bruce Jackson is in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital. Two adopted girls, ages 5 and 12, along with a 10-year-old in the process of being adopted, were also removed from the home on Friday.

<snip>
Meanwhile, a case worker with the Division of Youth and Family Services who made repeated visits to the home, and whom the division did not identify, has resigned, and approximately 10 managers and supervisors involved in the case have been suspended with pay, said Colleen Maguire, deputy commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services

more...
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/7107110.htm

[Rowdyboy]

1. The parents should never, ever

ever, ever be let out of jail. And I'd feed them the harshest diet the law will allow, which will be far superior to what they subjected their "sons" to. These people are evil.

[The Zanti Regent]

16. WHERE ARE THE RIGHT TO LIFERS ON THIS??????

I guess once again, they're silent because the boys came out of the womb!

[Nikia]

2. That's horrible

There is no excuse for not feeding children and it sounds like these boys were actively prevented from eating. Unfortunately, they may be permenently damaged. My sister works with a woman who was starved as a child and is very small as an adult because of this. The case worker should be jailed too.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Unless the caseworker did something criminally negligent. . . .

. . . .he/she should NOT be jailed.

Public system social workers, especially those in child protective services (CPS in Arizona, DYFS in New Jersey), are grossly underpaid and criminally overworked. There is currently an investigation into the way CPS in Arizona has been managed and mismanaged over a long period of time.

DO NOT blame the social worker out of hand. Many of them are sincerely dedicated individuals who have gone through college at their own expense/loans to try to help those less fortunate than us. Their burn-out rate is atrocious, and many agencies are forced to hire untrained people to fill desperately needed positions, and/or work those already employed until they simply can't function any more.

All these low-tax people are starving these social services of desperately needed funds, and then they wonder why foster-parent applicants aren't adequately screened, why social workers don't make weekly visits, why paperwork isn't filled out, why complaints aren't followed up on.

It's the economy, stupid, as someone once said. An economy that shortchanges the most vulnerable and then blames those who are trying to do something about it.

As E.J. Montini, Arizona Republic columnist wrote not too long ago, we need to look at the successes of these severely over-burdened agencies and wonder how in heaven's name they do as much good as they do with such paltry resources of time, money, and staff.

Tansy Gold, mother of a former CPS case manager who burned out at 27 after too many 60- and 70-hour weeks for $25K a year.

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. I understand the burnout/overload

But how was it the caseworker missed the physical condition of these children?

[WildClarySage]

9. Apparently she never saw the boys

it would be very easy for them to pursuade an overworked case worker that the children were healthy and busy, and prove their 'health' by pointing out the other children.

She/He certainly should have followed up, but as a social worker (not in children's services) I can attest to the overworked/underappreciated feelings and I'm going to give him/her the benefit of the doubt until I hear a specific allegation.

[Tansy_Gold]

10. **IF** the caseworker was criminally negligent . . . .

. .. . and that's what I included in the header of my original post, then yes, charges should be filed.

There are good cops and there are bad cops. There are dedicated firefighters and there are pyromaniacs who get into engine companies. There are good and bad in every profession.

There are also stresses on social service agencies that don't allow them to hire the best qualified people for the job. Sometimes they just grab a warm body, y'know? And sometimes those warm bodies don't get much training.

The report said the caseworker resigned (i have not read the entire article, so I could be missing something here), and some may take that as an admission of guilt. But I have had acquaintances who were desperate for a paycheck and because of minimal qualifications, they were accepted as caseworkers at Arizona's CPS. They got minimum training, which usually consisted of a few day-long sessions on how to fill out paperwork and then a week or two of "shadowing" another caseworker.

The shadowed worker might not have much experience; my daughter, with a BSW, was a shadowed trainer when she had as few as six months experience with CPS. She knew she couldn't begin to adequately train another caseworker, someone who did not have EITHER any previous experience in social work or a degree. Yet they needed warm bodies.

So maybe the caseworker on this case quit because she knew she wasn't qualified. Maybe her lack of qualification led her to do a poor job. Maybe she just didn't care and had taken the job just to get a paycheck. There are a could dozen reasons why this may have happened, including, of course, criminal negligence.

But I think the idea that a qualified, dedicated social worker would have just ignored or casually dismissed inspections on four children is at least a little far-fetched. Just as there are complex reasons why people do the horrible things these "parents" have done, there are complex reasons behind the poor performance of the social service agency and its personnel.

It's just so easy to scream "Off with their heads!" rather in the fashion of our chief awol asshole. As thoroughly horrible as this case is, rash response won't solve the underlying problems.

Tansy Gold, who has heard more than her share of the horror stories and doesn't know how anyone can be a CPS caseworker for more than a month and remain sane.

[E_Zapata]

4. And I wonder what the motivation was to keep the girls healthy?

I just wonder.

sick.

[PennyLane]

20. Yep.......

my mind was running rampant on that my self! I shudder to think what
they had in store for the daughters.

[GOPFighter]

6. This is outrageous!!

What the Hell is going on in this country? I'm so pissed about this I can't see straight! We yammer on about how important children are to us as a nation and then we entrust their welfare to underpaid, overworked, sometimes incompetent social workers and teachers, and cops. Oh that's right, taxes in America are too high, after all it's OUR money and the government has no business taking it from us. What fricken' hypocrits we are. Let's face it we don't really give a DAMN about anything but MONEY in this country. Screw the kids.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[InkAddict]

7. Fundie Mommie Dearest's reply for assistance:

"No one told you to have kids." "It was your choice to....(whatever)." No, I will not talk to your father about this..."

Obviously, no one's health, education, or input influenced those decisions nor the mildly rebellious ones (sarcasm) that include going back to school when the kids did, raising one's own legitimate babies until they were in school, etc...I certainly screwed up when I forgot to consider what that six year blank would do for my resume and the nearly half income loss (temporary sacrifice). The real problem was that I was too stupid to have a son (only daughters)....

But, hey, after never working outside the home, she's no leech - she gets her SS and brother-dearest keeps her in groceries, home maintenance, and transportation, if by this time he MUST do it for such WONDERFUL people! I also believe, don't ask-don't tell" may apply - a true mother's sacrifice (more sarcasm). Daddy, the SS notch baby,is good for an opinion once in a while and can drive a car so he's still useful too. Favored Sister-dearest assures vendors supply "humanness" to USAF bomb products so the cannon fodder have no trouble learning how to use the latest video game) and collects awards for it last time I checked--no help there either!

Well, I do remember someone say that IT was the American "career path of the future. And we're the dysfunctional ones??? NOT! Nevertheless, the hopes and dreams are gone forever...Bye-bye Miss American Pie...Life music has passed - hallelujah!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[arwalden]

8. But It's A Good Think They Didn't Let Any Queers Adopt Them...

... I can just hear the fundamentalists saying now.

[Djinn]

11. How do you starve a 19 year old??

Where these kids intellectually disabled? how do you starve a 19 year old? why didn't he raise the alarm? very weird story here but I too seriously doubt the social worker had the time to visit them much let alone properly investigate. You'd have to assume that there was some kind of psychological threats to keep the kids (especially the older ones) quiet so maybe they were good at disguising their abuse.

Having spent sme time working with social workers in child protection - they do an unbeleivably hard job for F all pay and no thanks and then they go home to try and sleep with the faces of abused kids haunting them.

Bet these kids wish they could have lived with a nice stable loving gay couple who desperately wanted the share their lives??

[bleedingheart]

12. All I can think of is Stockholm syndrome...because

the fact this kid remained in that home is weird...

I suspect some sort of other types of abuse as well.

Overall its wrong and they should be locked up.

[markses]

15. The cops thought the 19 year old was 10!

He was 4 feet tall and weighed 45 pounds! Un-fucking-believable.

[PennyLane]

21. Probably........

.....years of neglect! He only weighed 45 lbs. That's the size of a 6 year old!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Seven adopted kids?

You sort of wonder about these people who adopt tons of kids, like the so-called "celebration family" that was revealed to be abusive a few years back.

[cally]

14. Unbelievable

How could they adopt 7 children and treat them this way. These parents should be locked away for life. I wonder how the children will ever recover from this psychologically.

[gauguin57]

17. on nbc news tonight ...

... they reported that the four boys weighed a TOTAL of 135 pounds. 135 pounds for FOUR kids!

Absolutely horrible. I pray these kids can recover, and that they're taken care of by someone who will give them lots of love and security. I don't know how they'll ever get over this, though ... emotionally or physically.

Letting the girls chow down while the boys look on hungrily? WTF is up with these people? SICK SICK SICK!

[PennyLane]

22. They'll Get theirs.........

.......in prison!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. this is truly disgusting....who gave this sicko people children?!?!

they should all be up on charges

[RamboLiberal]

19. Anyone surprised these were fundie parents?

In marked contrast to the four boys, the three girls were well fed, went to medical appointments and took vacations with their parents to Willamsburg, Va., where the family had a time-share apartment. The girls were permitted to order Chinese takeout while their brothers starved, Mr. Sarubbi said.

Yet the boys seemed unaware of their plight, he said.

"The parents had essentially brainwashed the children into believing they had eating disorders," the prosecutor said, adding, "The saddest part is I don't think the children even knew how bad off they were."

<snip>

The evangelical church attended by the Jacksons, who are born-again Christians, is in Medford, about 20 miles away. Congregation members said they could not imagine that the Jacksons had starved their sons.

"There is no way on God's green earth that this happened," said Frank Jacobs, 50, a member of the Medford congregation, the Come Alive New Testament Church, who said he has known the family for 15 years. He said the children were lively and active members of the church, attending Sunday school, acting in pageants and singing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/27/nyregion/27JERS.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Why is it that so often these people who abuse or kill their kids turn out to be fundies?

[bluestateguy]

23. Truly evil

Life sentence in prison. There must be no tolerance or bullshit excuses for this.