19B®

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Here's one that I'm curious to get some thoughts on.

Jan 6, 2022, 2:38 PM

There's a good bit to this story, and it's serious, but I'll try to abbreviate as much as possible.

Setting: there's a family that moved into a house near the entrance to our street, probably around 2 years ago. House is maybe 300' away from mine. I think they used to have a minivan with like 6 stick figure kids on it, but that's since gone by the wayside in lieu of a custom Excursion, a ridiculously massive, lifted vehicle, presumably for carting around this massive family. Which, oddly, we never really saw. I always wave at the father when he's in the driveway when I'm driving past or walking the dogs, don't think he's ever acknowledged me, so I pretty much didn't like him from the start. No biggie, lots of people are unfriendly assholes.

I see two of the teenage boys walking their two German Shepherds here and there, and a lot of those times were during weekday school hours, so...homeschooled, maybe? It didn't occur to me that I've never seen the other 4 kids that apparently reside in this house.

The New Development: having some porch drinks at a fran's house last week, and their neighbor across the street walked over for a bit. Haven't seen her in a months, and she appeared to be a bit distraught, because within a few minutes, she started sharing something she is dealing with at work. She's an admin/counselor of some sort at the HS around the corner, and has lots of "problem" kids she sees regularly. One of them is a 16 year old 10th grader who comes to see her every day. He weighs around 65 pounds and is so pale that you can see the veins in his arms, almost translucent. Severely malnourished.

She's telling us about this family, and it's pretty awful, but I still haven't connected any dots about who they are and where they live. He's the oldest of 4 foster siblings--next oldest is a brother who goes to the same HS, and 2 younger daughters who are homeschooled. The foster family they were living with decided to adopt all 4 of them. Once it was official, within a few months, the parents decided they'd made a mistake and attempted to "give them back". State of SC was like "that's not how it works, you adopted them, if you give them up, you'll also lose your biological children."

So they kept the 4 adopted kids, and proceeded to psychologically crush them (again, according to this particular kid). He is whipsmart, according to our friend, and has the best handwriting his teachers have ever seen.

She shared that they lived in our neighborhood, which isn't "poor"--I think our personal biases like to comfort our consciences by assuring us this stuff only happens in poor neighborhoods. A little disconcerting, but big neighborhood with hundreds of houses, probably somewhere far away and people we've never seen. I pressed a little, and she reluctantly shared that they're actually the neighbors right down the street from us. Mind blown.

Some of the stuff apparently happening in this house, as relayed...it's pretty bad:

--as soon as he gets home from school (oddly, I've never seen this kid, but 19She says she's seen him walking to and from the bus), his school-issued Chromebook is taken away from him, and he and the other 3 adopted kids are forced to stand for hours wearing weighted "jackets", and hold books at arms-length, and other "punishment", for...nothing, apparently.

--they're fed grits and water, and little else, which explains the malnourishment; the house is fully stocked with food, none of which is for or shared with the adopted kids; this should raise flags with DSS, who has visited multiple times, but all they see is a clean house (DSS doesn't show up unannounced) with plenty of food. The parents are smart enough to not leave any physical marks from abuse, and it sounds like much of it is psychological anyway.

--the two younger sisters are never allowed out of the house, even to the backyard; it's like they don't exist. I haven't ever laid eyes on them in two years, and really didn't know they were there--the only inkling I've ever had was the stick figures on a long-gone minivan.

--at Christmas this year, the two biological sons opened presents, got all kinds of stuff; the 4 adopted kids were made to sit quietly, hands folded in their laps, and watch. And that's it.

--there are cameras in every room, including the bathrooms. Why? That's weird and creepy af, but even worse, if DSS interviews the kids in any room of the house, the parents will know what was discussed, and they likely use this to discourage any truth being relayed to authorities under fear of reprisal.

--the windows and glass door on the front of the house have all been treated with some kind of "film", similar to reflective window tint on a car, so there's no way to see into the house.

Friend thinks DSS/"the system" is failing them, but I'm not sure what else DSS can actually do. She said the more reports they get, the more ability they'd have to act, and she encouraged us to call and file a report. I don't know what I'd even tell them though. It sounds horrifying, and this is the kind of damage that kids don't just snap back from when they turn 18. This will probably eff them up for life. The younger brother recently got in a fight (maybe with one of the biological boys, might have threatened to kill him or something), and got sent back to foster care--which is what he wanted, according to the 16 year old. As bad as the foster system is, it's apparently far preferable to what these adoptive parents are doing to them.

What would you do if this was happening a few doors away from you?

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In a normal world you go whip this guy's assss and walk the adopted kids out of the house to the applause of your neighborhood, ushering them into the arms of solid adoptive parents.

The reality is you get involved with these folks, and it's your life that gets effed up far worse than any repercussions they've received. We've somehow created a system where there's as much risk from doing the right thing as the wrong thing.

Doesn't help you sleep at night, I certainly understand that, and I don't know what to tell you honestly that would help the horrible situation.

I've mentioned my family's interactions with the SC juvenile "protection" system over the past two years, when my sister and brother in law fostered two boys from a home with a completely absentee, neglectful mother. The boys have ultimately gone back to the mother at the insistence of the state, despite no changes in the mom's behaviors that spurred them from being removed from the home. The two sisters are back as well, despite the mom's boyfriend previously being arrested for molesting one of them. It breaks my heart and makes me wonder exactly where the mission statement of a govt entity gets this bastardized that this is the best they can do.

Here's one that I'm curious to get some thoughts on.

Can you like post that with um

I'm sure it'll be TLDR for most, but it's causing me

Re: Here's one that I'm curious to get some thoughts on.

Call child protective services

If I'm you, I am calling DSS and making reports at ANYTHING

Can DSS not interview them at the school? I feel like

I would think so, and I may have asked that, but don't

well, we learned from Oxford HS shooting

Burn the house down with everyone inside.

Oh, totally agree with that.

He could be a cantaloupe.***

THISSHITFUCKINGPISSESMEOFFFUCKTHOSEPEOPLE

I agree, if this wasn't abused kids I'd advise 19B to mess

what kind of dogs you got?

Get Carter Coyle Live 5 Investigative Reporter on it***

A few thoughts, with the caveat that I don't know SC law or

Counselor is required to report in SC***

She has, and she's not the only one, according to her. OH,

Plant drugs, call cops. I dun know, but now I've got

Holy G-d. This hits home for APM.

this is ####### insane man

I would drive down to chucktown

can you see their wifi network?***

here we go...

Call DSS again, inform them of the cameras

This is the problem with the world we live in.

Daughter has a friend in school who was taken from her

Sounds almost identical to something that happened near

Give the dad a bottle of booze but spike it with arsenic***

I think you gotta call DSS...

Uhhmmm...

yeah, it was your ex-wife. He totally forgot to tell you

ruh roh***

I've never seen anything like that.

Somebody needs to provoke the dad into violence or

You know it's bad when Lakebum suggests getting the

I'm actually not totally FOS on this one

Thanks for sharing this. And you can thank your friend's

I am with you. Action is needed.

Your friend is a school counselor

Counselor is a mandatory reporter

My dad used to do legal work for DSS when he retired from

Abbreviated???…

I would think the counselor could report the grandma, too

IF what is being said is true, she should be made to beg for

First step - Do Not over react when you only

Screw caution - you have specific details & visible “proof”

Re: Here's one that I'm curious to get some thoughts on.

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but

The specificness of what he is telling leads me to believe

Just off the cuff, calling the POPO and telling

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