11 children found in cages with alarms in foster home
Posted 9/12/2005 10:30 PM Updated 9/13/2005 10:22 AM

CLARKSFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio (AP) — Sheriff's deputies found 11 children locked in cages less than 3 1/2 feet high inside a home, but a couple denied they had abused or neglected the children.

No charges had been filed against the children's adoptive and foster parents, Mike and Sharen Gravelle, as of Monday night.

"The impression that we got was that they felt it was OK," said Lt. Randy Sommers of the Huron County Sheriff's Office.

The Gravelles said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children sleep in the cages at night, County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said. The cages were stacked in bedrooms on the second floor of their house, he said.

The children, ages 1 to 14, were described as having conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.

The children were found by a children's services investigator on Friday when he stopped by the Gravelles' home outside Wakeman, about 50 miles west of Cleveland. Deputies returned to the house that evening.

Some of the cages were rigged with alarms, Sommers said; others had heavy furniture blocking their doors. The children didn't have blankets or pillows.

One of the boys said he'd slept in the cage for three years, Sommers said. And a neighbor recently reported seeing the children working long hours in the family's yard, he said.

The children were placed with four foster families Monday.

A woman who identified herself as Sharen Gravelle's mother but refused to give her name said the children were happy and loved. "This year they have played and had fun and laughed like no other children have, which they have never been able to do," she said.

The Gravelles do not have a listed telephone number.

Sommers said there were no apparent signs the children had been malnourished or beaten, but they were sent to a hospital for examination. Their conditions were not available Monday.

In March, a couple who had recently moved from Ohio to Florida was charged with neglect when their adopted teenager was discovered malnourished in a crib-like cage. The then-17-year-old weighed 49 pounds, investigators said.

The twin-bed-sized crib had been prescribed when the boy was much younger and lived in Ohio. It had been fitted with a lid, chains and a padlock, investigators said.

Nice to see the state did a thorough job checking these people out BEFORE THEY GAVE THEM 11 FUCKING FOSTER KIDS!!

but what exactly would have screamed, we are going to lock them away in cages?

but what exactly would have screamed, we are going to lock them away in cages?

Show me a picture of these people--I guarantee they look like the kind of people that would do that.

Yeah we really need to start judging people on how they look.

Can we rate them based on their yard?



If you can't mow the grass, you probably can't raise your kids.

Seriously B nobody cares what your house looks like.

Seriously B nobody cares what your house looks like.

I'll give you $100 for that van B. $150 it it runs. I'm gonna trick it out like the Mystery Machine.

Hmm.

Definitely bad. But certainly not the worst ever.

Don't tell Chris_H_2 that I exaggerated in my thread title.

Show me a picture of these people--I guarantee they look like the kind of people that would do that.

Besides, I doubt they were given all 11 of these kids at once, and I doubt they waited until they had all 11 before they started keeping them in cages. It's not a big surprise, children's services in most communities are understaffed and overworked. The foster care system in this country is a mess.