Parents Accused of Imprisoning and Torturing 13 Children

[DonRocks]

Instead of our obvious gut instinct that says, "Shoot them now, or force them to die a slow, painful death," I'm hoping that this discussion can focus on prevention.

What can we do to stop things such as this from happening? I stress: Instead of an outlet for our anger, I'm hoping that this group can come up with ideas to ferret out people like this going forward; otherwise, there's no point in discussing this here, as so many other media outlets are undoubtedly having comments calling for these peoples' heads.

I think it's pretty clear that this would have happened, even if the penalty was "Prolonged death by slow torture."

Warning: Do not read this if you'll be traumatized by details of child abuse:

"Horrific Details Emerge as Perris Parents Accused of Holding 13 Kids Captive Are Charged with Torture" by Paloma Esquivel, Sonali Kohli, and Joseph Serna on latimes.com

One idea: Care about your neighbors, even if you've never met them before. Notice things, be a little nosy, and if you're proven wrong, apologize and simply explain why you were concerned - then introduce yourself, shake their hand, and invite them over for a glass of wine one day. If my neighbor did such a thing to me, for whatever reason, I would thank them. In fact, when I had a Little Brother (i.e., the Big Brothers program), I was questioned a couple of times by strangers (picture a white male in his 30s, walking through the woods with a black pre-teen), and I always thanked them for their concern, rather than resented their intrusiveness. Hell, when I crossed the Canadian border with my son, the authorities questioned him (not me), and I thanked them for it.

[dracisk]

This is inconceivable. How could no one have noticed that something was seriously wrong at that house? As I read the article I thought the parents must have been mentally ill, but the article says there's no evidence of that. Is there no oversight over home schools?

As I'm thinking more I'm realizing I know all the neighbors on my block of singe family houses except the people in one house. I see cars parked in the driveway, but I've never seen the people who live there in the 3.5 years I've lived in my house. So I guess something horrifying could be going on in that house and I'd have no idea.

Anyway ... highly disturbing. I like Don's advice above.

[weezy]

21 minutes ago, dracisk said:

This is inconceivable. How could no one have noticed that something was seriously wrong at that house? As I read the article I thought the parents must have been mentally ill, but the article says there's no evidence of that. Is there no oversight over home schools?

There is no oversight of home schools in California, where this occurred.  It varies on a state by state basis.  I remember a similar, somewhat less horrific, situation happening out in the Shenandoah Valley/Winchester area about 10 years ago.  At that time, Virginia also did not oversee home schools; I do not know if that has changed.