Another Nominee for Parents of the Year.

Details of this story Police Check Leads to Discovery of two Caged Boys at Vancouver Apartment began to come out yesterday.  As more details come out today, it is a stomach churning, heart-wrenching story.

First off...much blessing and goodwill to the unnamed 'maintenance worker' who first alerted authorities to the conditions in the apartment.   There is a quote commonly credited to Edmund Burke:  All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.  The historical accuracy of this quote can be questioned...it's real world truthfulness can not.  I don't feel even the least bit hypocritical praising this 'maintenance worker' either...My opinion that government should leave people alone does not extend to locking children in cages.

So...maintenance worker must have gone into the apartment for something, and noticing the sub-human conditions with children present, he notifies Child Protective Services.  CPS attempts to make a visit, but no one answers the door.  CPS can hear something in the apartment, so Police cooperation is obtained to perform a Welfare Check.

I've often said I could not do the job that a police officer is required to do.  Just reading the section where Officer Skeeter describes what she found makes my skin crawl:

Down a hallway, Skeeter could see a child's small arm sticking through a barred cage panel that replaced a bedroom door.  
Skeeter's police report noted that the apartment had a filthy floor, boxes of garbage and pop cans strewn about, dirty dishes and little to eat in the kitchen.  
Skeeter walked down the hall and spoke with Higdon's 9-year-old, who said the 5- and 7-year-olds were rarely let out of their room. A child's gate and a heavy blanket covered the lone window, and there were no lights on.  
Skeeter peered into the dark and saw the two boys in diapers, smelling of urine. They appeared to share a small, dirty matress. Both communicated by moaning.

I would not have blamed Officer Skeeter one bit if she had had a 'firearm malfunction' at that exact time, removing the 26-year female resident of the apartment from the face of the Earth.  Likewise, I wish the boys birth father, 30-year old John Eckhart, had resisted arrest just a little when he returned home that afternoon.

When asked why the boys were locked in a room/cage, at least both pieces of trash had consistent answers:

"They can't be controlled. This is the only way I can contain them," Skeeter's report quoted Higdon(the 26-year old fiancee) as saying.
Loving Dad said:

“What am I supposed to do, let them run around the house and get into everything? What kind of f…ing parenting is that? How f…ing stupid are you? I don’t want them getting into everything, duh. They are both autistic.”
What kind of parent indeed.  I can't even imagine having the gall to take the 'Self-Righteous' approach in this situation.  My wife's mom works in group homes for the State of Connecticut...there are a lot of autistic people she works with that are not locked in cages.

Meanwhile, the boys birth mother finally made an appearance Wednesday afternoon.  30-year old Jona Bronson appears to be quite shocked by all this going on with her children, who she hadn't seen for OVER A YEAR.

What a joke.  Mom and dad where never married, and mom says that when her and the Worlds Most Amazing Man split up, she let the boys stay with their dad because either: 1. she didn't want to disrupt the boys routine or 2:

“When I decided to leave, he told me if I took the kids, he would either kill himself or he would kill me and the kids. And so I did what I felt was right for them but at the same time I can see that I didn’t, and I’d like to make it right. I would really love to make it right, because I love them and would sell everything I own for them if I could. I just didn’t know the first step.”
It all depends on which story you read.  Either way...WTF!?!?!?!?!??!?  Mom voluntarily left her two autistic kids with a guy she was breaking up with because he was a controlling druggy, but leaves her kids when he threatens to kill either himself or the kids?  How much better off would the world have been if he HAD killed himself after she left with the kids?

I might be reading too much in, but it seems to me Jona wanted the heck out of a bad situation, and couldn't care less what was happening to those kids.  She DIDN'T CARE ABOUT SEEING THEM FOR A YEAR!!!!!!!!  But now, this has serious interview/book/and movie potential...who wouldn't want kids that can earn you money!

I just hope the 11-month old that was found in the apartment is salvageable...no one else involved with this story is.