TX - Alfredo & Leticia Ines kept daughter, 12, in closet, Brownsville, 2010

[not_my_kids]

There is a chance that she also didn't do anything out of the ordinary when she did eat that called attention. After the first time that she wolfed it down and threw up from her stomach reacting to it, she would have slowed down.

(My ex controlled every bite I ate for 2.5 years. He was paying for it, so I didn't eat unless he said so.)

I agree the school should have known, but due to the fact that CPS is the Great American Weapon now, they are heavily overburdened. People see them as all powerful and call in reports on any old thing...maybe the school did report it and nothing was done.
Since it as at CPS discretion which one's are followed up on, they have to choose. A child who is a little thin is not going to be followed up on as well as a child with physical signs of molestation or abuse...sad as it is.

That said, I imagine the starving did come first, then the closet. I only say this because if I tried to starve my kids, I'd have to lock them in the closet to keep them out of the food. We already have to padlock everything. (My six year old is a chronic overeater, she has too much stomach acid being put out, so she always feels hungry, even immediately after she eats. In this case, it's to keep her safe.)
I wonder if all of their kids were abused, or if she was the "chosen one". I have seen it many times where one child is abused and the others in the home are not. I have no idea why, but it seems to happen quite a bit. Or maybe it was because she was the only girl, and her mother being overweight, it could have started with good intentions and then ended up in hell for the child.
Now, if they are smart, she won't be sent home, but unfortunately, if there are no lasting mental or physical effects, they may send her right back home. The great CPS mantra, counseling and parenting classes fix everything.
EDIT for clarity: I meant cognitive effects, obviously there will be mental effects, likely for the rest of her life.

 

[kbl8201]

that's the problem. cps/dcfs/dhs whatever has no clue when to do nothing and when to do eveyrthing it seems.

 

[Texas Mist]

"Closet girl" trial to begin Monday in Brownsville

October 30, 2010 7:37 PM
Jazmine Ulloa

BROWNSVILLE — Jury selection is set for Monday in the trial of a mother accused of keeping her daughter locked in a closet every day after the girl came home from school.

Leticia Ines, 40, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree injury to a child and unlawful restraint. She and her husband, Alfredo Ines, were arrested in late January, when police said they learned the couple had been keeping their 12-year-old daughter confined in a closet after school for about a year, letting her out only to use the restroom and to eat.

Leticia Ines appeared at a court hearing Wednesday for final pretrial proceedings.

Medical examinations show that her daughter, who will not be named because she is a minor, was not physically or sexually assaulted, officials said. In court documents, she denies threats or abuse.

“I sleep on the floor,” the girl said in a medical examination record. “My mom doesn’t want me to take stuff from the fridge and eat them in my room. When I go somewhere, someone has to go with me. When I misbehave they locked me in my room but not most of the time. When I did wrong, she hits me.”

The mother told investigators that she does not want her daughter to go out and that “she sleep real hard, so she locks her in there,” according to court filings. She also said she uses the closet for punishment, officials said.


more here

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/brownsville-44057-monday-trial.html


<snip>

The boys have been placed with relatives.

The woman's husband and girl's stepfather, Alfredo Ines, faces trial later on similar counts.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/state&id=7757620