NORWALK, Ohio - A boy whose parents are accused of making their special-needs adopted children sleep in cages testified Thursday that the couple forced him to live in the bathroom as punishment for urinating in his enclosed bed.
On another occasion, Sharen and Michael Gravelle forced him to stay in his "box"
for up to two weeks, the school-age boy said at the Juvenile Court custody hearing.
Living inside a box, is not abuse according to the Gravelles, I hope they can keep that thought in mind when they are getting comfortable inside their jail cells. The only thing that makes this story even worse, is knowing that this could have been stopped years ago if someone had done their job and looked into this situation. The young boy continues to share his experience living in this abusive homes:
In earlier testimony, the boy said most of his brothers and sisters slept on wood with blankets but no pillows or mattresses in the cages.One girl's head was shoved in a toilet by a parent because she was drinking water out of it, and another had her head pushed into a toilet because she urinated in bed, the boy said.
The boy testified that he had to sleep in the bathroom for nearly three months because he wet his bed at night.
"Another time, I spent a good portion of my life in there," he said. "If I was really good, I'd get to come out for an hour." Full Story
What is that if not abuse? Did the Gravelles expect society to look the other way because these kids where disabled? In truth, we should have been working even harder to protect these children because of their disabilities.
H/T Tina
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