Reply #7: Judge Rules Caging Ohio Children Was Abuse

[emad]

Thursday December 22, 2005 4:46 PM


NORWALK, Ohio (AP) - A couple who adopted 11 children with a host of health and behavioral problems abused some of the youngsters by making them sleep in wooden cages without pillows or mattresses, a judge ruled Thursday.

The children will remain in foster care until Juvenile Judge Timothy Cardwell holds a hearing to determine what to do with the children.

Their adoptive parents, Michael and Sharen Gravelle, have not been charged with a crime and denied abusing the youngsters. They said they built the cages in 2003 to protect the children from each other and themselves.

The children, ages 1 to 15, have problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and a disorder that involves eating dirt.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5497723,00.html