555-Pound Boy: Mother Of Obese Son Arrested For Criminal Neglect (VIDEO)

Jerri Gray was arrested in June for criminal neglect of her 14-year-old son who weighs 555 pounds. Watch the video below.

Comments

[jrjones529]

it's not criminal to be an outlier.

[EquesLignite]

The child should be treated, and it is crime of the government not to provide him adequate health care. This case just highlights the urgency of a single-payer system where anyone who is sick can get treatment. America can do better than this

[Flavor]

Let me say this, clearly this is a cry for help but let me tell you bloggers this, right here in america are the biggest elementry school children i've ever seen in my lifetime and I found out some reasons why, first we as a country don't eat right, vegetables are foreign to us. Believe it or not P.E. has been dummied down when I attended school we had P.E. for one hour everyday now they don't and some schools here just plainly don't have P.E. When I ask why this was, the answer given was we had to cut back on some curriculm (duh!) now when I was in elementry school when you saw a soda machine it was in the teachers lounge and you got a look at it when one of the teachers open the door to the teachers lounge either going out or in. Breakfeast was breakfeast, for us in the mornings but what the children are given today is pre-package artificial food. I don't want to make fun of this child because as I look around there are many heavy children in our schools and it is not the child's fault, I have been voicing my opinion on this for the last year, put P.E. back in the schools, take out those junk machines, take out those soda machines, and let us have a real no child left behind, instead of the behind of the child. Just my view.

[Tamar Abrams - Huffpost Blogger]

As a foster parent for the past 10 years, I've seen children who've been horribly abused and neglected. i also know how few people are willing to step forward to care for/love/nurture children removed from the care of their parents. If states removed every fat child from his or her home, where would they go? How do we judge this woman who is merely struggling to survive and care for her son? Obesity is complex and has many underlying causes. Clearly the boy needs some help but why are we so eager to remove children from the families that love them?

[Flavor]

Exactly Tamar, you see it's easy for people to point fingers at this child but the way I look at it it's flavor's fault and the village, our schools have dummied down P.E. and now we say how did that happen? (duh!). Common sense, has appeared as if it has gone out the window, this mother needs some help and by the way where the h-LL is the father,mom always is the first to get blame. I hope the judge, will get this young man some help as well as the mother and I will contribute if they set up a fund to help him socially and to get him to a healthy weight, and the exercise he will need as well as learning how to eat the right foods. I do believe this intervention is positive but don't take that child permanently from his mom, get them some help. In that case most of the schools in the USA should be behind bars for not teaching healthy kids. Yes, the parents need to step up and do their part but if you know nothing you will produce nothing.

[burtmckinly]

It is a problem of Civilization.

[burtmckinly]

"Collecting the maximum number of calories with the least amount of effort is, after all, the dream of every creature, including those too primitive to dream. With the BK Quad Stacker - four beef patties, four pieces of bacon, and four slices of cheese for $4.99 - man edges close to realizing this ambition. And that's without the fries." (Extracted from the article, Why Are We So Fat? July issue of New Yorker.)

[sheputstheLinPAIN]

I do believe that this child is a victim of neglect, but obesity is just one result of neglected children. There are many ways American families neglect their children - this one just so happens to have visual consequences. What about the drop-outs, the drug users, the sexually active, the intellectually neglected, the emotionally deprived, the little ones raised by TV, video games or religion? Americans think they have some right to make children without being honest about what they can give. I am enraged by people like the Palins who endorse abstinence programs (a form of neglect) and then exhibit cultural arrogance when they decide to keep the child (resulting in a neglectful single teen parent environment).

I do not believe in finding the parent criminally negligent, because it's a legal Pandora's Box , but - people please - start taking more repsonsibility for your children or don't have them!! I'm a liberal, but I don't want to have to pay to your kid's incarceration because of your bad parenting.

Maybe some real consequences might scare people enough (out of their shameful self interest) to parent, rather than come up with excuses for why they can't.

[bwpeterson]

Would anyone even bat an eyelash if the mother was arrested for this child weighing fifty five pounds and not five hundred fifty five pounds? I somehow doubt it.

[alieninvader]

Anorexia exists in families everywhere. Show me some cases where the parents were arrested.

[nikki12]

Yes, that is true but if a parent does not get help for an anorexic is that not a form of child abuse or neglect? It is a parent's job to make every effort to make sure their child gets proper nutrition and if there is a medical reason why it is not happening then that needs to be addressed or it is neglect.

[Gregory Kauffman]

Is this child abuse? Yes. There is clearly evidence of harm to the child's physical and emotional welfare. Was it intentional or mean-spirited? That's not so clear.

[bolmah]

State services do nothing for the children that are in the system. They are a number of people that want to help and it is rare to find a person that genuinly want to help. State services only target the poor and helpless in this case. If she were wealthy and her by was 555lbs they wouldn't dare try to threaten her with an arrest. the State services exploit and intimidate the ones that they weak and if this is not an example of that, I do not know what is.

[Epiphany8]

I think this is another example of the over-inflated ego of our "system" that shows it needs to evolve. What can a stranger or strangers give this child that his mother cannot be equipped with along with the love that she has for him. Think about all the millions of children that eat the same or worse than this kid probably does and they are not as big. There is clearly something else going on with this particular child, physically. The trauma of the system poking its nose in now and doing its heartless probing could cause even more problems for him. This boy is still alive and needs to be healed. Punishment is not appropriate here. Like I said, another example of how "the system" focuses on the problems, which make them bigger. Let's try seeing a problem and focusing on the best solutions. What could hurt with that?

[bolmah]

I find the system very stupid in arresting this single mother of a teenage boy. who is going to take care of him? Our fabulous Foster care system!! if this boy is taken away from the only person he percieves "Loves him" he will fall into a deeper depression and it will be no telling if he will eat more. They should try to work with her than give her a crimnial record.

[ddDinah]

It really to bad for this young man, I feel for him. BUT what has happened to our country that no one seems to care about this woman being arrested for WHAT? Did she rob a bank, did she kill someone?
GAWDS what has happened to our country? And no one seems to care about the fact if you have aging parents or grandparents, the Government is about to deny your elders health care under the Obama health care for anyone but a baby boomer. It Genocide of the elderly plain and simple. Does congress care, NOPE...Not the Democrats. I'm ashamed to say I voted for Obama, ASHAMED. But never again.

[alieninvader]

If you actually had voted for Obama, you might have taken the time to realize that NO ONE, except for Republicans, is talking about taking health care away from the elderly.

[cuomofied]

Sorry, Independent voter here, voted Republican by default beause the only one who I could support was Ron Paul. I advocate for a 100% funded, any doctor or hospital you prefer, total care for veterans and I support taking care of existing seniors and individuals who will be dependent on the system in the next ten years. But it will go away regardless of alturistic adventurism - we cannot financially sustain it. So we must do away with it and move towards something that works.

So, sorry to burst your bubble, but your stereotype is WRONG.

[David Bernkopf]

You're facts are way off. I'm ashamed at you for speaking without checking your facts.
NO ONE will lose health care.
As for the the young man. It was irresponsible to let the child get to half that weight.
The obesity of the young in this country is a major health care problem with far reaching consequences.

One of many listed statistics-

In a study of 8550 children nationwide it was found that 20% of American 4 year olds are obese, thats a BMI over the 95th percentile or a BMI of 18. This sets them up for multiple health risks in later life such as diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and more.

www.diabetesincontrol.com

[IDIOTA]

Yeah, and all parents who give their kids any form of sugar shod be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because sugar is poison, though delicious. Every obese adult should be arrested or hospitalized, too. And let's discuss your womb.

[bolmah]

Good Point you make.

[moreDumber]

That's almost a good point, but it fails. Healthy kids can eat sugar, but a quarter ton kid is gonna die. Adults are responsible for themselves. And my womb? I'm pro choice but come on, a 14 year old should be considered a person.
Remember, getting arrested doesn't mean you're all done. Someone suspected abuse here and it seems reasonable to do so... Let the courts decide. They really do work sometimes.
Just chill out!

[IDIOTA]

My point is that it is a slippery slope. What's next? Being arrested for suspicion of feeding trans-fats? And how come they only arrested the mother? Why not the supermarket or the candy store owners who sold him food? What about his aunts, uncles and McDonald's? Surely they noticed his obesity. Whenever a fat person orders one hot dog, he is asked how many do you want?

[delagirl]

Like the lawyers said...what about young teenage girls with eating disorders? Should their parents go to jail? What about pregnant teens? Should the parents be punished for that too? Of course not. That would be ridiculous.

They did describe how the mother actually tried to get him help by signing him up for a state run program and took him there, then was denied because he was TOO overweight for them to handle. It sounds like with her working 2 shifts a day she probably didn't have the money/time needed to get him help. I'm not saying she should take no responsibilty here, but it sounds like this is being taken too far. A felony? Really? So she can sit in prison with the REAL criminals (murderers, rapists, thieves). And what will that do to the boy? He will probably blame himself and the cycle will continue.

[RuffNReddy]

What irks me is that no one noticed when he reached 200, 300 or even 400 lbs!
He didn't balloon in a day, this was ongoing.

How is that possible? Teachers, family, even the mother.... this boy is not invisible.
Arrest isn't the answer and yes, there are loads of FREE programs for families that need assistance. State funded nutritional guidance through food stamps, WIC (feeds kids up to 5 but, offers referrals), youth programs (scholarships), counseling.

But, if that isn't what she wants for him, incapacitating him with food, doubt, insecurities and the inability to know a healthier lifestyle will certainly keep him safe, indoors, out of harms way (violence, guns, gangs, drugs, for those who argued that angle) for a while, till his heart gives out.

There is help but, no one stepped up when it was clear he needed it. On the health and weight spectrum, this is the extreme to it's counter, starvation. If she was starving her kid, she'd be arrested. Instead, a slow death from fattened organs, joint problems, diabetes, sick heart, clogged arteries.... same difference.

Having worked in social work, with children, there are clear depictions of parents avoiding better nutrition because it's just easier to get a Big Mac than to make spaghetti. If you don't provide it, they won't know. If you don't demonstrate, they'll never learn. Advice is free & counseling is provided by state funded social workers.
But, again, arrest isn't the answer.