Hi everybody! First time poster here! (hope I do this right)
Shocked and saddened by this story, of course. I noticed that the article mentioned that this boy was sexually molested by another child. It could have been during one of his foster home experiences, but it probably occurred in between, during a stay at an institution. I worked for a couple of years as a houseparent at a children's home, and I can attest to the fact that whenever abused kids are thrown together, they abuse each other. We even busted three-year-olds engaging in acts like the one little Gabriel described (at night, as they slept 3 to a room). We also had a boy who would victimize his own younger brothers whenever he got a chance. For many of them, this sort of behavior is all they know. The saddest thing is that some of those children were in for different reasons (physical abuse, parents on drugs or in jail, some were even brought to the home voluntarily by parents who needed time to get their lives "in order"), but by the time they left the children's home, they could add sexual abuse to their list of traumatic life experiences.
Years later, when I became a teacher and was called upon to report cases of suspected child abuse, I always hesitated because of what I saw in the children's home. It's a really tough call to make when you're not sure about the homelife, but you're very sure that the alternative is terrible.
Btw, in my experience, the psychotropic meds are passed out like candies to even the littlest kids in state care, especially Lexapro and Adderall. It's heartbreaking--so young, and so messed up.
