A mother in Oklahoma locked her son in apartment closets for over four years. On Thursday, LaRhonda McCall, age 37, and her friend, Steve Vern Hamilton, age 38, were charged with child abuse. The boys’ mom was charged with 29 counts and the friend was charged with 24 counts. The couple allegedly beat the boy with “fists, bike chains, cables, extension cords, and/or boards,” which left the boy with permanent scars. She also allegedly, tied him up, naked, to a ladder and poured sugar water all over him to attract insects, as well as pouring alcohol all over him and lighting it on fire, burning her son. In another instance she made him stand outside, barefoot, in the snow, for more than 45 minutes.

The boy was malnourished and covered in bruises when he contacted a security guard at a National Guard armory on the 25th of September. The boy told authorities that he had spent the most of the last 4 ½ years locked in closets and he never attended school or seen a doctor. The boys sister, who is 18, stated that she would bring her brother food but never had the courage to help get out. The boy has six younger siblings that are also in the Department of Human Services custody along with him. Even managers of two apartment complexes they lived at stated they never saw the boy but they did see the seven other children.

In 1996, in New York, the mother was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the death of her 2-year-old daughter. She only served six months in jail. The toddler died of starvation in 1995. She and her friend are being held in the Oklahoma County jail on a $40,000 bond, each.

I read this story and I was appalled. Not only was the woman charged for manslaughter in the death of her two year old daughter but she was released and allowed to keep the rest of her children. Why would they do that? If the authorities would have taken her kids away from her then, maybe this boy would not have been tortured the way he was. Plus, the 18 year old sister could have said something to someone to help him. This story was just awful and really made me feel sick. I can’t believe someone would do this. I mean I can, because you hear about it all the time. I would really like to know what goes through people’s heads that do these sorts of things. She had to know that she would get caught, eventually. Plus, why bring children into this world just to be mean to them? They did not ask to be brought into this world. Kids are a blessing and a miracle. There are so many families that cannot have kids and would love to adopt kids, especially babies. Also, I truly believe that if the parents cannot take care of their kids, there should be a limit to the number of kids they can have. I know that sounds like a foreign country where you can only have one or two kids because of the population. I know a few families that keep popping out kids and live off the state. They can’t keep or even want a job as long as they keep having kids and get free money. The families like that should have to be ordered to be on some sort of birth control or face consequences.