Pa. parents charged after seven children found living in deplorable conditions and removed from home

[Jilly_in_VA]

Seven children were removed from a home in Pennsylvania and their parents were arrested after police allegedly discovered them malnourished and living in a home in deplorable condition.

Officers with the Pennridge Regional Police Department responded to the 600 block of Roseann Lane on the afternoon of Apr. 23 for a report of two minors entering an abandoned trailer, according to a police report filed on May 19. Police found two girls, 12 and 14, who appeared unkempt and lived in a trailer next door.

Out of concern for the girls, the officers requested from their parents, Shawn and Crystal Robertson, to see their living arrangements.

The home was "in obvious disrepair and disarray," the report says. There was also a bicycle lock on the fridge at the home that Crystal said was because they had little food and referred to the children as "garbage disposals with legs."

Police also found another child, a 16-year-old girl, at the residence. Bucks County Children and Youth responded to the home to investigate.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pa-parents-charged-seven-children-found-living-deplorable-conditions-r-rcna86609

This is not to mention the animals, pet and otherwise. I can understand poverty, and to some extent, that affects people's housekeeping, but this is outrageous. What is wrong with people?

[Chainfire]

1. It is easier to make babies than to take care of them.

Five will get you ten that the parents also have a drug problem.

[Princess Turandot]

2. As bad as this description is, the situation as described in the police affidavit was much worse..

There was very little food in the locked fridge. They were living in something beyond squalor, with garbage strewn about the floors and holes in the walls and floors. There were literally no cleaning products on hand for hygiene or in the kitchen.

The father first told the police and then a child welfare social worker that they had three children. When the others were discovered, he told them that he lied because he 'didn't want to get in trouble'. I wonder if they were born at home and never registered with the municipality where they were born. (The family had only lived in that location for 18 months; the youngest kid was 4 years old.) They had no formal education.

The police noted that despite the lack of people food, they did have food for the animals.

The narrative begins on page 4. Not for the faint of heart.

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23826410/robertson-affidavit.pdf

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. All these kids

should be permanently removed from the parents' custody and the parents' rights terminated ASAP. I'm not normally in favor of enforced sterilization, but in this case, having read the document, I will make an exception. Rats (assuming they are fancy rats) must be remanded to the Humane Society at once. It's my experience that a lot of people like those little guys. As should any other animals. An effort should be made, going forward, to keep the children together. They've had enough trauma.

[The Jungle 1]

4. This happened in my community. Couple of miles away from my home.

Here is how I see it. Yes the parents are to be blame. There must be punishment and the parents need EDUCATION.
These seven children never went to school. How can that be? One child was 16. They were filthy and had matted hair that had to be cut off. One child had maggots in her hair. They did not have enough to eat. We are not a third world country. This happened right here in southeastern Pa. We are a wealthy community.

Here is the question. How could our child services systems fail this bad. Why didn't the Pennridge school district know these 7 kids were not in school. Why didn't the neighbors in this small community question what was going on. I would think, but don't know, that the family was on public assistance. No one checked on the conditions of the family?

Blaming only the parents is not the way forward.

Also understand that the police in this nation are under a lot of pressure for their actions. This department gets to say: Hey we saved 7 children this month. They could have just walked away and minded their own business.