Mightier Than the Pen

The house from which the children were removed. Authorities are investigating allegations of neglect and abuse.

MORRISTOWN, NJ (AP) – Child welfare authorities removed eleven children from the custody of their mother Tuesday, reacting to the crowded, unsanitary conditions in the family’s residence, a giant shoe.

The children, ranging in age from less than a year to just shy of eighteen, were visibly dirty upon their removal from the premises, but a state-appointed physician subsequently examined them and found them to be in good health. The mother, whose name is being withheld, has been in police custody since Tuesday, as well, awaiting arraignment on multiple charges of endangering the welfare of children. Other charges are pending, according to a police spokesman. The mother has yet to name an attorney.

State child welfare inspectors first became aware of the family’s squalid home environment last month. A representative of the agency visited the shoe. The representative documented the inadequate hygiene and overcrowding, and warned the mother of the consequences of keeping the home in such a condition.

According to neighbors, the family does not send the children to school, and the other neighborhood children seldom interact with them. “We rarely see any of them,” said Melanie Davis, a nearby mother of three. “We once took our kids over there on Halloween for trick-or-treat, but that family didn’t have anything to give out except some leftover bread and broth from the night before. The mother eventually came to the door and said, ‘I don’t know what to do’.”

John Da Silva, another neighbor, does not recall seeing the father of the family, but with so many young children and a mother who seems never to leave, he knows the man must exist. The father was apparently not at home, however, when the authorities came to take the children.

The fate of the children remains unclear at this stage. Preliminary psychiatric evaluations have raised the possibility that the children were physically abused, but an agency spokesman said that was not certain. He did, however, mention the ten-year-old, a nimble boy who keeps expressing a desire to jump over a candlestick. “That’s just plain weird,” said the spokesman.