Jackie FarahThe way police are describing the conditions in a home where they found 19 kids living alone this week make me want to cry. Kentucky authorities say the home where the kids were alone for a week had dog feces an inch thick on the floor of one room. The youngest child was 8 months, the oldest only 14 years old. And to top it off? The area was going through a heat wave, but the kids had no air conditioning.
How much worse could it get for these poor kids? Wait, don't answer that. The reports out of Kentucky are already pushing me to my limit.
To be honest, the whole story of how all 19 kids ended up alone is hard to understand -- and not just because most of us wouldn't leave a dog alone in such conditions (although these kids were allegedly left with nine dogs plus a cat!).
The latest allegations include the arrest of a woman named Jackie Farah, a 32-year-old who seems to be the mother of at least some of the kids. Police have charged Farah with 14 counts of criminal abuse and five counts of wanton endangerment. They say that she and a man named Irving "Joe" Smith left town for a "family emergency" right in the middle of the heat wave, leaving behind the 13 kids who live in the house plus six cousins who were visiting for the summer.
If what police allege turns out to be true, think about this: they had to know what it was going to be like in that house. Leaving a 14-year-old in charge of 18 younger kids would be bordering on insane in any situation -- I don't care how responsible the 14-year-old is. But then you just keep adding in the awful factors, and you throw the heat on top of it?
I can't think of a single excuse for doing this to a human being, period. Doing this to children? That's just plain cruel.
What part of this story just set you over the edge?
Image via Warren County Sheriff's Office
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Comments 113
14 years old? No that is not old enough to care for that many kids. But.... It is old enough to get help. Like someone said an inch of dog poop does not appear overnight... I knnnnnow I am a bit prejudiced in my view because at 14 I was living alone at university in a flat...Was their situation just so normal to them that they didn't think there was cause for alarm? Did they think they were "doing fine?"
WTF is wrong with people???
The living conditions were horrible with all the dogs & everything. And I'm not downplaying that at all. But what I find amusing is that every news story is mentioning that they were living without air conditioning, oh good heavens. We never had air conditioning - my parents house still doesn't have air & there are kids living there! When did air conditioning become a necessity for raising children?
No I am not "implying" the 14 year old is at fault. I am saying that the sad thing is that implication is that they were not "Probably scared to death just like the others. " that this was normal to them. That the kids did not calll 911 like one of the other posters said any 4 year old should know to do.. because this situation did not seem dangerous or uncomfortable to these kids. The true sorrow here is the fact that a child can grow to 14 years of age and not think that living in these conditions is abnormal or horrific. That they blindly accept this as a day in day out way of life.
It is just awful.I can't imagine this happening,as hot as it has been and still is.
I am a firm believer that what you do to others, should be done to you. They should put her in prison and then make her live in the same conditions. Once you take away the rights of other people/children, your rights should be taken away too. If you have a mental condition, then you should be in a mental institution.
This is incredible. I am the oldest of 8 and did do alot of child care. I was very responsible but was also closely supervised by my mother, who was home when she wasn't working. Our home was clean, there weren't dogs and cats covering the place in filth and there was only one occasion when I was alone with all of the children for three days and that was because my mother was in the hospital for surgery. She called from the hospital several times a day to be sure everything was all right and I as 16 at the time.
There is no excuse for this extreme neglect and abuse. I cannot understand anyone leaving their children in the care of this woman and in that filthy house. Children are so precious. I really feel for the older child. The stress and pressue must have been terrible for her. This woman needs to lose all of her children. They need good homes.