CA - 13 victims, ages 2 to 29, shackled in home by parents, Perris, 15 Jan 2018 #8

[InsomniMom]

I'm a little afraid to post this because of judgment, but the restraints conversation is weighing on my mind.

I work with kids and adults (up to 21) who the public schools cannot handle because of their level of violence or self-injurious behavior. I'm talking about a 6 year old who detached a retina in one eye through head banging, a boy who broke his own leg kicking through a wall, a 19 year old who knocked a teacher out, and another who threw a pair of scissors at someone's head with enough force that they stuck into the wall. In other words, they are truly a danger to themselves or others.

We use quiet rooms. If a kid is at risk of hurt themselves in the quiet room (ex. choking themselves with something), we go in and hold them until they are no longer trying to hurt themselves or others. We are only allowed to hold a kid for 10 minutes and then we have to try to release them because of worries about nerve damage. If they are still unsafe, we have to try a new hold to decrease the likelihood of nerve damage. In training, we heard stories about accidents where kids were hurt because adults utilized restraints incorrectly. I'm scared to imagine the level of nerve damage these kids might endure. We have video cameras everywhere and we must document every instance of restraint, even if it is 5 seconds long.

Also, regardless of whether a kid is in the middle of banging their head against the wall, if they say they need to use the bathroom, we have to let them use the bathroom.

A co-worker used to work in a psychiatric hospital and they had similar rules about chemical and mechanical restraints.

There is no feasible reason to restrain someone for long lengths of time, ever! Many of my students have intellectual disabilities; that also is not a reason to restrain for long periods of time! Plus, they aren't learning coping skills in restraint. It is our last resort when we can't keep them safe any other way. If we just kept them in a locked closet all day, they'd never learn to deal with disappointment safely. We would never see progress. Kids are violent because they don't know how to handle their emotions or get what they need in another way.

It is impossible these restraints were "legitimate". In fact, we had one little boy who came to us after CPS found him in a similar condition (naked, chained to a bed in his own waste). The government oversees and approves our use of restraint, but his parents were put in jail despite claiming they had no other way to keep him safe. Restraint should never be used as punishment or as a way to make things easier on parents or staff. It is only allowed in acute crisis situations.

I've been following this case for days and it makes me sick. It makes me more ill to think people even entertain the idea that this treatment could be acceptable if the kids were disabled.

I'm sorry if I'm dredging up an argument and all the posts about possible reasons for restraints were attempts to figure out an argument the defense could make... I worried some posts went beyond an attempt to decipher a possible defense and argued that it was okay. It is hard to tell tone and meaning with text.

Edited to add: No one I work with (or have heard of) enjoys restraining. It is a risk for both us and the children we're trying to help transition to a less restrictive environment. I've gone home and cried about my kids. I celebrate days where no one needs restraint to stop injuries. I'm disgusted that anyone would enjoy restraining another human being, especially their own children.

Thank you for all the work you do for victims! I only stumbled upon WS while researching this case. I'm in awe of the ways you all have helped LE over the years.

This is my first post but I just had to chime in here. I agree with you completely. My son is on the spectrum and occasionally becomes very aggressive. We have a series of interventions we employ to calm him down and encourage appropriate behavior, including various kinds of sensory input (deep pressure, vestibular, oral, etc.), social stories, reward charts, breathing exercises, reflexology, massage, and others. We do occasionally have to resort to restraining him when he's very escalated and engaging in self harm or extreme aggression, but we do it very rarely and only use safe holds that we have been trained in by professionals. We aim to restrain him for as brief a period of time as possible (3-5 minutes), and would NEVER use physical restraints like ties. While he is restrained the other parent will speak softly to him, read from a favorite book, or rub his feet so that he doesn't interpret it as a punishment, but rather an opportunity to calm down and regroup. He also has a behavior modification plan in place at school so that we can ensure we're consistent in how we respond.

It's just beyond my comprehension that anyone would attempt to justify chaining children to beds as some kind of well-intentioned therapeutic technique. Even if we were to put aside the fact that the survivors were literally left to wallow in pools of their own waste, restraint of this type is NEVER appropriate. It's abusive. Period. I'll leave this alone now because I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseam, but it's been bothering me and I felt I needed to add my perspective as a parent of a child who exhibits aggression and self harm.

 

[Rosegold68]

iPads? I don’t think giving them internet access whilst they are so prominent in the media I’d a great idea!

 

[Pseudonymph]

Maybe this has been discussed, but is that drawing meant to represent a bulls eye?

The kids were imprisoned in their rooms and needed something to do. I think somebody drew this to be a target for a ball-bouncing game. That’s why the light is broken. It doesn’t have to have a deep meaning IMO.

 

[Jondy09]

iPads? I don’t think giving them internet access whilst they are so prominent in the media I’d a great idea!

I agree. However, it is possible to disable the internet on the device and make sure any nearby wi-fi is password protected, in case they turn the internet capability back on.

 

[Stunned]

I wonder if one of the reasons the girl survivors were starved was to help too keep wacko woman the only breeder in the house.

 

[Stunned]

The kids were imprisoned in their rooms and needed something to do. I think somebody drew this to be a target for a ball-bouncing game. That’s why the light is broken. It doesn’t have to have a deep meaning IMO.

Is that a light or smoke detector?

 

[December]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...use-full-of-chains-and-freed-her-12-siblings/

This article specifies the deputies observed chains and padlocks being used.

 

[cady]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall to observe mama in her jail cell. Bzzzzzzzzzzzz Bet she talks to herself, in between spitting.

 

[Jilllian]

Jillian, thank you for all you do for these children. You're amazing.

I agree though. A friend of our family is a foster mother, has been or years. She has also also adopted. We often find her distraught that after all the kids go through, at the ends of their birth parents, and all she does to be their mother, they say "when I'm an adult, I'm going to go and find my Mom and live with her... etc etc etc.

They don't mean it to hurt, that's just where their loyalties lie majority of the time.

Thank you for saying that, Ana.

What I've seen particularly in the foster kids I've had in my home (and worked with at my day job) that have been over 9-years-old, and particularly teenagers, is that they live in a fantasy world that their parents have changed, and will be the ideal parents if given a second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc.) chance. They think they learned their lesson or magically have changed who they are and would, at any chance of reunification, earn their parent of the year awards.

However, I once had a teenage foster daughter who eventually moved out of my home to go to college. She said she realized if she hadn't been in foster care from the age of 3-18 (I was her 51st, and final foster parent), she wouldn't have gone to college. She said she'd likely be on heroin if she was raised by her birth parents. But she was fiercely loyal to them still, just recognized she was better off in care.

I've read that some (most?) of the Turpin kids have developmental delays, most likely from extreme neglect. If this is true, I hope their developmental issues protect them in some ways while they're processing what's been done to them.

The most resilient kids I've seen on the planet have been those I work with at a foster care agency, and those who've been in my care. I bet the Turpin kids are resilient as all get out.

If I had a mansion, I would quit my job and offer to raise (re-raise?) these kids, as I'm sure many here would.

So heartbreaking.

 

[SandyQLS]

Quoting myself: difficult to get sharper close up on iPad editor, but I think this is a ink smudge as the color is consistent in the photo, and the drawing is loose cartoon drawn by a visually skilled person.

I don't think it is a kids drawing because of the height, scale, and in Texas, how many kids were there and what were their ages... They were very young at this time? Just some thoughts.

The first child was born in 1988, and the twelfth in 2005/2006. The bankruptcy that caused them to leave Texas was in 2010, so the oldest was 22 then and the youngest about 4.

 

[human]

I have lived in several apartments in the US and in Japan, that had windows that opened outward, and screens on the inside. The windows were controlled with a hand crank like this. If you don't have an option like that, I suppose you could buy a DIY screen, that could be easily snapped in and out. Then you could open the window, snap the screen in place. When you are ready to close it, you could remove the screen and close the window. When the window is closed you could either store it some place, or leave it on the closed window.

O/t. Those are casement windows. The worst. I had them replaced with double hung.

 

[human]

Yes, I think Elizabeth Smart is a poster child for Stockholm Syndrome. She had endless opportunities to escape, and took none of them. She was simply not trying to get away.

Wow. So did Jaycee Dugard, I think reading their books may give one true insight and it sure was not about not trying to get away,

The fear and mind control.

 

[Lulu_la_Nantaise]

Hi everybody! Long time reader first time poster here.

I have to think that the polaroids left behind at the Texas house as well as the drawing on the wall were cries for help.

Can anybody make out what the word is that is written next to the drawing on the wall?

BBM

Could the polaroids have been taken by the cleaning crew? Either to explain to their manager that they needed more time/staff, or to document a "before/after" advertisement for future clients?

Now I don't see why polaroids which are quite expensive and not digital photos which can be sent instantly...

 

[human]

I think the picture on the wall was drawn by one of the parents. The kids would have surely been beat for drawing on the wall.

Sent from my Z981 using Tapatalk

It is a strange picture, The hands are like those a three or four year old would draw but the face looks,like the work of an older child.

I cannot believe an adult would draw hands like that. I don’t know why they would get beat for that. Did,they get beat for smearing feces on the wall?

Smearing feces is often a sign of sexual abuse

 

[Leila]

All right, folks .. it took 4 days but I've finally caught up here. I'm a longtime WS lurker but just made an account today bc I wanted to have access to some of the links/attachments in the Turpin threads. I've followed every article on this case from every news outlet since day 1, but you guys have done a fabulous job collecting/organizing links here & I THANK YOU SO MUCH for that.

I am/was a court reporter/stenographer in CA from Feb 2011 thru April 2017 -- I'm just out on medical rn -- but I've spent several hundred hours taking down all manner of child abuse & domestic violence type cases in family law & civil court in Northern California. I am NOT an attorney & def NOT an expert by any means, but I will say I feel for the ppl here who are offering counter-arguments to the alleged abuse, or possible explanations for the alleged abuse -- NOT BECAUSE WE DON'T BELIEVE THE ABUSE ACTUALLY HAPPENED, but bc we are trying to formulate in our minds what the defense MIGHT say when/if this thing goes to trial. (And calling it "alleged abuse" is not at all indicating the abuse didn't happen -- that's just the language we are "supposed" to use while the case is pending. It's semantics, really.)

Keep in mind it might not actually go to trial. They may reach a plea agreement of some kind. I'd wager that's pretty likely, considering the widespread media coverage affecting potential jury pool, AND esp if the prosecution does not want the kids to have to testify. (I'm aware most of the "kids" are not really "kids" but considering their assumed developmental delays, well, all the more reason to not make them testify & relive all this nightmare .. I want them to get on w/ their healing & their lives.)

Incidentally, I am a white brunette 29-yr-old female, born 1988, and reading about the eldest Turpin daughter really hit me. I'm 5'9" & 140 lbs. If she really weighed in the 80s when they found her...my god. I can't imagine. Yes I've seen all the photos .. & my heart breaks w/ every new detail I hear. I am glad the media is lumping all the children in together regardless of age, bc I daresay the damage done to the adult children is even worse than that done to the minors...as in accumulatively, obv.

I feel strongly that the contents of the journals may not play a role in the case at all. We don't know yet what's in them, & I somehow doubt they are day-by-day, play-by-play details of the alleged abuse. I was never abused or neglected in the manner the Turpin kids were, but I was raised in the LDS church & was instructed to keep a journal from a young age, and most of what I wrote was just what my parents & church leaders WANTED me to write or EXPECTED me to write, as opposed to any of my real actual thoughts/feelings at the time. JME

One thing kinda bugging me is all the speculation about LT's smiling during the most recent hearing. I don't have children but yes I agree it is TOTALLY BIZARRE for any genuinely caring mother to smile for EVEN ONE MOMENT in such circumstances .. but this has come up in many other cases I've followed over the years. Skylar Neese's teenage murderer Shelia Eddy raised many eyebrows after smiling/smirking thru her first few court appearances. Yeah maybe not totally relevant bc she was very young & this was a totally diff type of case, BUT many observers commented that it may have been 1) pure nervousness, 2) her way of signaling "everything's okay" to onlookers (or even just to herself?) or 3) it was simply her genuine reaction to suddenly being in a totally foreign & very heavy situation. I don't think it's right for the media to scream "LT SMILES THRU ENTIRE COURT APPEARANCE!" bc that's not what she did...but that's just the defense atty in me, I guess .. like, I'm just trying to see their potential angle on it. It's NOT justification, and yeah I hope these "parents" (massive eyeroll) get what's coming to them. I'm just looking at it objectively from having sat in a heck of a lot of courtrooms (tho yes I acknowledge I've spent a very short time working in the field, compared to some of the attys on this site).

Welcome aboard!

 

[SandyQLS]

On one of the wedding photos.... last one as the baby was present, I noticed the oldest girl has a bra strap slipping down her arm Was surprised to see that. Though on reflection it might have been a cami top under the pink dress. Someone bought her appropriate underwear at least

I noticed that LT has a farmer's tan line on her arm from being out in the sun, while the survivors have absolutely pale arms in every photo.

 

[human]

Thanks. I didn't realize that changes in venue were rare, actually. I'm happy to be learning more.



I don't know if I'm missing the point of your comment. The article was not in reference to the Turpin case in particular, just child abuse in general. It shows me some insight into the mindset of a tortuously abused child. I personally view the "planning" as a loosely defined term, here. More than one sibling would hit this 16-18 turning point at the same time. With little means or opportunity to communicate or act, I could see "the plan" sort of percolating for two years. The catalyst for "the plan" or what set it into action that night? Who knows, and certainly that article doesn't address it.

On another note, all of the theories put forth regarding the drawing on the wall are so interesting. I can only imagine how horrible it would be for the kids to see it again. Or maybe it would be validating in some way. Unless they have some effed up photo albums (which I wouldn't put past them at this point) they might only have hazy memories if past homes. *Personal anecdote, I moved a lot as a military kid and seeing pictures of old homes brings back crazy memories - not bad ones, just memories I didn't know were there. Particularly pictures I haven't seen a hundred times, say looking through Grandma's old album. My childhood was before digital. Mom would get doubles sometimes, but still sent different photos to relatives than she put in the albums I cherished looking at as a kid.*

The article was about abused children still “loving” their parents.

I think in this case since the children had planned an escape for two years, it indicates that they did not “love” their parents.

Running away is one thing. Planning for two years and risking one’s life to run away seems to indicate getting away from them was worth the chance of death rather than stay with the parents any longer

 

[cady]

It is a strange picture, The hands are like those a three or four year old would draw but the face looks,like the work of an older child.

I cannot believe an adult would draw hands like that. I don’t know why they would get beat for that. Did,they get beat for smearing feces on the wall?

Smearing feces is often a sign of sexual abuse

The drawing wasn't necessarily done all at once. Could have been a target, then added, head, then hands in no particular order. Looks like different writing objects used. "signature" at another time, too. Maybe they had childrens books, but I sort of doubt it. Children actually learn a lot from kid books. It was said that most of them had rudimentary ability to read and write, so I guess there must have been something to read......

 

[Tricia]

Hey Everyone,

Remember it is against TOS to discuss other posters with each other. Please stay on topic.

Thank you,
Tricia

 

[Zelda1010]

The article was about abused children still “loving” their parents.

I think in this case since the children had planned an escape for two years, it indicates that they did not “love” their parents.

Running away is one thing. Planning for two years and risking one’s life to run away seems to indicate getting away from them was worth the chance of death rather than stay with the parents any longer

I was drawn to the part that mentioned the various ways kids "cope" with abuse. Internalizing it, taking it out on another, suicide, running away, murdering the abuser. The child may not be able to do any of these things in the midst of the worst of the abuse (chained up perhaps) and when the abuse isn't happening and they could make their move, they have very mixed up feelings. That's what I got out if it, anyway.

I do hope you are right though. If they felt no love toward their abusive parents it would make the rest of their lives easier. Each one of the 13 will have a different mix of feelings to sort out, I'm afraid. Bless their hearts.