they sound like lovely parents

[Muscletang]

Boy Testifies About Foster Home With Cages

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.

"I couldn't come out of my room until I wrote the whole book of Deuteronomy," he said. "I was up there for like a month."

The boy said he has grown tired of his box, but was ambivalent when asked whether he preferred being with the Gravelles or in a foster home.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "There's no sense getting comfortable at any place."

The Gravelles are trying to regain custody of the 11 children, ages 1 to 15, who have problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV and a disorder in which children eat dirt.

The Gravelles were accused of making most of them sleep in cages but have not been charged with any crime. The parents say the enclosures with alarms were meant to protect youngsters with behavioral problems.

Sharen Gravelle shook her head "no" frequently during his testimony and has said the children have lied to investigators.

Under cross-examination from the Gravelles' attorney, Kenneth Myers, the boy testified that he didn't know whether he loved his parents but "I like them. They're good parents."

The boy admitted lying often when he was younger and being violent and abusive toward his siblings.

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."

The children were removed from the home in September, after a child-services investigator visited the home and examined the chicken-wire cages. In testimony this week, the county investigator, Jo Ellen Johnson, compared the home to a kennel.

Judge Timothy Cardwell will determine whether the children were abused or neglected. If the allegations are not proved, the Gravelles could regain custody.

The boy who testified Thursday did not look at his parents when he entered the courtroom but smiled slightly when prosecutor Jennifer DeLand asked him to point to them.

The boy testified that the children would set off a shrill alarm when they opened an enclosure door at night. They were let out when their parents were ready for them in the morning, he said.

He described various punishments for wetting the bed. "We'd have to go upstairs and scrub it. The younger ones would get spanked. We would have to go pull a bucket of weeds," he said.

When he wet the bed, the boy said, he often had to stand outside "just in my wet pajamas" until the other children were finished using the bathroom.

Hmmm and if there isn't enough evidence, they get the children back!? These people get to get pissed on then left outside for a little bit. Lets see how much they like it.

[2strokebloke]

I already heard about this. They probably think they are really great parents. But should anybody be allowed to have 11 children? How do they even feed them? What reason is there that they should be able to keep that many children, even disregarding the cages and abuse? The mind boggles.

[BNaylor]

Sounds like a clear cut case of child abuse. If it happened where I live the parents would be in jail. It sounds like the children may need to go for rehabilitation to get them civilized and functional.

IMO - The worse punishment was the boy having to write the whole book of Deuteronomy.

[GTP Dad]

These "parents" need to be caged for a while just like they caged those kids although their rooms will have bars and a toilet.

This whole story is so absurd that the worst part of it is that it took child services so long to investigate them and remove the children from the home. I thought that foster homes were supposed to be checked at least quarterly.

[TexasF355F1]

Geraldo had them on and they just acted suspicious. They look a few bricks shy of a full load too. I say put them in cages above a major intersection for a week in each major city in each state. Allow them to be humiliated.

That is sick, i mean how in tha hell could someone do that horrable stuff to a child. I am a strict parrent ( I am affraid of them gettin hurt, more like over pertective) , But this makes me look like an angel. I would never do this to a child. Making them live in cages....Shuving their heads in tha toilet......This shit pisses me off more than anything.....If they get them kids back I say we should hang them and tha state for bieng so stupid!!!!!

[twospirits]

After reading this story, I feel sad for the kids having to live in that environment.

TS out

[Gotti]

who have problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV and a disorder in which children eat dirt.

LMFAO
This is actually a real disorder? Children who eat dirt?!? hahahahahahahaha

I'm sorry but thats Fing hilarious

btw whats Deuteronomy?


and those parents should get locked up

[BNaylor]

Originally Posted by Gotti

btw whats Deuteronomy?

It is one of the books of the Bible (Old Testament) covering Moses and the Ten Commandments.