Given my interest in homeschool reform, I am familiar with many if not most of the entries at the Coalition for Responsible Home Education\u2019s<\/span> Homeschooling\u2019s Invisible Children<\/a> database. This database was started by homeschool alumni concerned about the role homeschooling can play in intensifying and hiding abuse by allowing abusive parents to isolate their children. (I suppose this is where I add the\u00a0caveat that I am not\u00a0anti-homeschooling, just pro-accountability.) <\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, I found<\/span> the most recent entry<\/a> interesting for several reasons. Let\u2019s take a look:<\/span><\/p>\n Five children between the ages of 5 and 16 were physically abused by Jonathan Robert Schumm and Allison Nicole Schumm. Jonathan Schumm was a Topeka Councilman, Allison Schumm blogged extensively about their lives, and the Schumms had received an Angels in Adoption award in 2013<\/strong>. They had 4 biological children and 10 adopted children (two sibling groups of 5, adopted in 2008 and 2013), and were fostering 2 additional children when they were arrested. The Schumms\u2019 biological children were homeschooled, and the adopted children were removed from public schools to be homeschooled as soon as their adoptions were finalized.<\/span><\/p>\n According to court documents, a 12-year-old child was tortured or beaten by the Schumms, and 4 others were also physically abused, in October 2015. The family had been previously investigated by child protective services in 2013 during their second adoption proceedings after a child\u2019s foster family reported bruising on him and abuse of the other children. In her blog, Allison Schumm describes placing her other children with a relative during the CPS investigation so that they could not be questioned. The reports were ruled unfounded. Schumm also describes forcing some of the adopted children (younger than 10 years) to carry heavy burdens across the yard as punishment.<\/span><\/p>\n Jonathan Schumm was charged with one count of aggravated battery or child abuse for the 12-year-old and four counts of child endangerment for the other children. Allison Schumm was charged with the same crimes, though as an accomplice. The children were removed from their home by child protective services.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I was surprised that the family received an\u00a0Angels in Adoption award with (apparently) so little vetting. I read through the linked posts in which Allison tells her family\u2019s adoption story (<\/span>p<\/span>art 1<\/a>, part 2<\/a>, and part 3<\/a>) and found additional details. It seems the Angels in Adoption award was not the only one the family <\/span>received. Shortly before adopting the second sibling group of five, the\u00a0Schumms received the \u201cProject Belong 2013 Adoptive Family of the year\u201d award. I also learned that the Schumms were initially told they would not be permitted to adopt<\/a>\u00a0this second sibling group,\u00a0because they already\u00a0had eight children (three biological\u00a0and five adopted).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A few short days later we were told that because of our family size and the needs of the children we would not be able to adopt them. Our whole family spent the day we found out terribly depressed, but God used worship music to encourage us. We sat in the van with 5 empty seats waiting to eat lunch at the park with the Hoffman\u2019s and God used these words to remind us that he was in control of everything. \u201cI know who goes before me, I know who stands behind, the God of angel armies is always by my side.\u201d God knew this would happen and it was well within His hands, we just needed to trust and obey. The very next song we hear the chorus \u201cDon\u2019t give up, help is surely on its way, don\u2019t give up, the dark is breaking in today, just keep on moving through these storms and soon enough you\u2019ll find the door, just don\u2019t give up, oh, and don\u2019t give up\u201d We later found out that before we even knew we were turned down God\u2019s hand was moving. Many people had already been working behind the scenes to get DCF to change their mind about the adoption. Our friends and family wrote countless letters explaining our hearts and support system. Those who didn\u2019t write lifted us up in prayer.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Ultimately, in the face of this support for the Schumms, DCF changed their mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not anti-adoption. I have, however, read more than a few\u00a0stories where couples have adopted oversized families, sometimes over concerns from\u00a0DCF or other agencies, and have later been found guilty of abuse or neglect. I\u2019ve also read more than a few stories where these oversized families are praised by politicians or given awards, and then turn out to be abusive. We\u2019ve seen this before here on the blog, such as when I wrote my 2013 post, HSLDA: Man Who Kept Children in Cages a \u201cHero\u201d<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n In that post, I wrote about Michael and Sharon Gravelle<\/a>, who adopted eleven special needs children and were found to be keeping those children in cages, beating them, and holding their heads under water in the toilet.\u00a0According to the Akron Beacon Journal, as quoted in my post:<\/span><\/p>\n Scott Somerville, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association in Virginia, said he talked with Michael Gravelle before the story broke in the media, and he believes this is a family trying to help special children.<\/p>\n When a social worker visited the house last week, there was no resistance to an inspection, said Somerville, whose organization represents home-schooling families on legal matters.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had nothing to hide,\u201d Somerville said. \u201cHe told me why they adopted these children and told me the problems they were trying to solve.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he is a hero.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There seems to be an automatic assumption that any family that would adopt ten or eleven children\u2014and especially special needs children\u2014must by definition be worthy of praise and honor. Here\u2019s another example from Homeschooling\u2019s Invisible Children<\/a>, this one from 2005:<\/span><\/p>\n Wilson and Brenda Sullivan\u2019s 17 year old mentally handicapped adopted son was found caged in a crib by investigators responding to an anonymous tip. He was severely malnourished and weighed only 49 pounds, less than what he weighed when the couple had adopted him at age 7 ten years prior. Two other adopted children, aged 10, were kept in similar cages. The family homeschooled. The couple had been praised for their willingness to adopt special needs children by the governor himself in 1995.<\/strong> Wilson died before the trial was completed, and Brenda was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There is a serious problem with the assumption that everyone who adopts does so with good intentions and aware of their limitations\u2014it\u2019s simply not true. Another website database, Pound Pup Legacy<\/a>, tracks cases of abuse among adopted children in an effort to call for reform of the adoption process. A quick perusal of their website\u00a0should disabuse any reader of the idea that adoptive parents are\u00a0always motivated by altruism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Regular readers of my blog are familiar with the concept of childbearing as a form of child collecting. Within the quiverfull movement, large families are praised and the more children a woman bears the more highly the family is regarded. I grew up in a family influenced by this movement and I well remember the feelings of superiority that came along with being part of an oversized family. But children are a lot of work, and every additional child divides the amount of time a parent can spend on any individual child. There\u2019s a reason the youngest Duggar children would run to their older sisters, and not their mother, if they were hurt or upset.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In some cases, adoption can function similarly, providing couples with a means to expanding their families far beyond what most people would feel capable of handling. Jonathan and Allison Schumm adopted five children and had three of their\u00a0<\/span>own\u00a0and another on the way. With eight children and one\u00a0on the way, most parents would focus\u00a0their energy on the children they had, but\u00a0the Schumms\u00a0felt compelled\u00a0to adopt more children. And given the awards they were receiving, I think it\u2019s safe to say that their oversized family brought them attention and praise, and some degree of status within the adoptive community. And Allison herself wrote that<\/a> she was not \u201cdone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s perhaps worth noting that the Allison used quiverfull language on her blog. Some segments of the quiverfull movement deify adoption and praise it as yet one more way to expand one\u2019s family. I grew up reading Above Rubies magazine, with its stories of adoption and family expansion. It was only years later that I learned that many of these adoptions failed, given that they were initiated for the wrong reasons and carried out by parents with extremely concerning approaches to parenting and childrearing. You can read more in Kathryn Joyce\u2019s seminal\u00a0article, Orphan Fever<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In the end, I am left wondering about the process for receiving an Angels in Adoption award. It turns\u00a0<\/span>out\u00a0that the\u00a0Schumms<\/span>\u00a0are not\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0first family\u00a0<\/span>to receive this award and later be found to be abusive. According to Pound Pup Legacy<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n Jerry Sandusky<\/a>\u00a0received an award out of the hands of\u00a0Rick Santorum<\/a>, a decision that needed to be reverted back in 2011, when it became clear Sandusky had molested several boys, including his own adopted son.<\/p>\n Senator\u00a0Chuck Grassley<\/a>, awarded\u00a0Damien and Allonna Stovall<\/a>\u00a0with an Angel in Adoption, in 2012. Six months later, the couple was charged with beating their adopted children with belts and wooden spoons, although those charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n In 2007, Representative\u00a0Patrick Murphy<\/a>\u00a0determined an award should be given to\u00a0Steven G. Dubin<\/a>, whom at the time was under investigation for fraudulent adoption practices\u00a0. . .<\/p>\n In 2005, convicted criminal, Representative\u00a0William Jefferson<\/a>, nominated one of his cronies\u00a0Renee Gill Pratt<\/a>, and a year later, Senator\u00a0Johnny Isakson<\/a>\u00a0awarded\u00a0Faith Allen<\/a>, the former \u201csavior\u201d of\u00a0Masha Allen<\/a>, who abandoned her adopted daughter in Washington DC, the day after the Angel in Adoption gala.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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