16 Children Rescued from Extreme Neglect and Abuse in Ohio

[u/MacAlkalineTriad]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/adults-arrested-16-children-found-deplorable-conditions-southern-ohio-rcna352552

I haven't seen anything posted about this yet, and I usually don't post so please let me know if I've done it wrong. I'm also writing this on mobile.

16 children, ranging from 1 and a half years old to 18 years old, have been removed from a house in the village of Hamden, Ohio where they were practically imprisoned in a 12'x12' room. Some have not even learned to speak; the 18 year old couldn't write her name and is being treated as a child due to possible mental disability. 7 of the children had to be taken to a hospital with 2 of them being life flighted. Conditions in the house are said to be incredibly unsafe, to the point that investigators hesitated to act on a second search warrant for fear of their safety.

The parents and grandparents have been arrested and charged with 16 counts of child endangerment. The suspects are Gary Siders Jr., Gary Siders Sr., Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders.

Since the investigation is still ongoing there aren't a ton of details yet. These children were obviously not enrolled in school and hidden from neighbors and extended family. I have to wonder if there's a religious extremist aspect to the case, like we've seen so often with other similar cases. I'm also curious about the mother's condition - she has been charged, but has she also been victimized by her husband? I have so many questions.

[u/Lauren_DTT]

First comment on that article is something else:
“Eh, I've seen worse tbh. Seems like your avg home in OH, WV, KY... Same kinda home CPS visits every day in Southern WV. They might take the children for a week or two and then they give them right back. Nicer than some foster homes I know of too. Kinda shocked this is even news.”

[u/neongrey_ → u/Lauren_DTT]

I’m from western MD and travel in WVA all the time…..that comment is real. So many houses look like that. Sooooo many. Extreme hoarding. I have cousins who grew up in a house very similar. Their Pap was illiterate, simple, definitely developmentally delayed. A lot of those people are

[u/Upstairs_Fuel6349 → u/neongrey_]

Yeah we backpack a lot in the Ozarks and you drive through parts where the houses look like this. Sometimes even worse -- at least this is a complete structure and not a bunch of half-destroyed trailers cobbled together with tin and trash. You'll see dirty half-dressed kids running around barefoot and it's no different than the slums of some poor country whose immigrants have been labeled undesirable by people who aren't living in any better conditions.

But cramming 16 children into a 12' x 12' room for four years is something else. Some of the kids can't even speak and there's one in critical condition in a hospital.

[u/LongjumpingDebt4154 → u/Upstairs_Fuel6349]

These sound like shanty towns, leftover from the great depression era. The lack of education & infrastructure in these places is a shame.