{"id":34787,"date":"2018-01-16T09:11:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T13:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=34787"},"modified":"2018-01-18T15:31:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T19:31:11","slug":"starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html","title":{"rendered":"Starvation, Chains, and the Picture-Perfect Homeschool Family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cPolice find 13 emaciated siblings aged from 2 to 29 in Perris home with some chained to beds as parents are arrested<\/a>,\u201d the headline read. I couldn\u2019t not click. I am the oldest of 12 children myself. What in the world happened to\u00a0this family? So I clicked.<\/p>\n

Two parents have been arrested after police discovered 13 emaciated siblings bound with chains and padlocks inside a house in California.<\/p>\n

Early on Sunday morning, a 17-year-old girl managed to escape from an address in Muir Woods Road, Perris, Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Department said.<\/p>\n

After managing to call 911 from a mobile phone, the teenager told officers her 12 brothers and sisters were being held captive inside the house by her parents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another article reported that the children were homeschooled<\/a>. I wasn\u2019t surprised. I was too.\u00a0Mega-sized\u00a0families and homeschooling seem to go together more often than not these days.<\/p>\n

But what did take me aback, at least momentarily, was the\u00a0picture:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The matching dresses. I remember matching dresses. The matching haircuts is overkill\u2014in my big homeschool family, we could choose our hair length, and we had a\u00a0say in its styling, particularly as we grew. Still, this image feels familiar in an uncomfortable way\u2014my parents never did a vow renewal, but\u00a0I know\u00a0what it is\u00a0like to stand with your siblings in matching clothes and smile sweetly for a camera, the perfect photo op.<\/p>\n

What startled me was that a family could come to such horrific abuse today\u2014thirteen emaciated children shackled to their beds, saved only after one child managed to escape the home and run for help\u2014after looking so picture perfect. I knew\u00a0in theory that abuse is often hidden, plastered over with a smile and a patina of happiness and unity. But this family looked to all the outward world so much like mine<\/em> in so many ways.<\/p>\n

I suppose part of me still wanted to assume that a family who would come to such straights\u2014the starvation, and the chains\u2014would look dysfunctional in the pictures. That they would look different from my family, different from other homeschool families I knew. Of course, I knew that wasn\u2019t true. I knew that\u00a0even that level of dysfunction could be hidden. I knew it. And\u00a0<\/i>yet,\u00a0those pictures still hit me like a bucket of cold water.<\/p>\n

The parents had a\u00a0Facebook page. The photos were striking, yes, but the comments hit home just as hard:<\/p>\n

\"Turpin<\/p>\n

\"Turpin<\/p>\n

\"Turpin<\/p>\n

If Facebook is any indicator, this family pulled off the big happy family look to perfection:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlown away how I have my hands full with just one and look at you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLouise Turpin is a super mom. I really couldn\u2019t have handled it.\u00a0i\u00a0KEPT BUSY FROM MORNING UNTIL NIGHT WITH MY FOUR.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched your wedding video. It was great. Your children are so well behaved. I am so proud of you Louise and David. You have a great family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeautiful family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat looking family. Louise you look as young as some of the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeautiful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This family would have fit into the homeschooling community I grew up in without a problem. Their family would have been a bit on the big side, but there were other families there with 9, 11, or 12 kids. The kids are bit think, but there\u00a0were other families with kids as thin. Yes, the family\u2019s adult children stayed at home and never moved out on their own, but there were other families (although not mine) where that happened too.<\/p>\n

And I suppose that is what is so sobering about all of this.<\/p>\n

I am left wanting more details. How did this happen? Perhaps better understanding how such dysfunction could lurk under these pictures\u2014or, if the abuse was recent, where things went wrong\u2014will help us better watch for such situations going forward. What could have been done? What could have been noticed, or acted on? What would have\u2014could have\u2014helped these children? How\u00a0do we do better, in situations like this?<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Police find 13 emaciated siblings aged from 2 to 29 in Perris home with some chained to beds as parents are arrested,” the headline read. I couldn’t not click. I am the oldest of 12 children myself. What in the world happened to this family? So I clicked.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":34808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[386],"class_list":["post-34787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeschool","tag-child-abuse"],"yoast_head":"\nStarvation, Chains, and the Picture-Perfect Homeschool Family<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"'Police find 13 emaciated siblings aged from 2 to 29 in Perris home with some chained to beds as parents are arrested,' the headline read.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Starvation, Chains, and the Picture-Perfect Homeschool Family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"'Police find 13 emaciated siblings aged from 2 to 29 in Perris home with some chained to beds as parents are arrested,' the headline read.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-16T13:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-18T19:31:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2018\/01\/Torture-Child-Endangerment-Investigation-in-Perris1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"615\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"410\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html\",\"name\":\"Starvation, Chains, and the Picture-Perfect Homeschool Family\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-16T13:11:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-18T19:31:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"'Police find 13 emaciated siblings aged from 2 to 29 in Perris home with some chained to beds as parents are arrested,' the headline read.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/01\/starvation-chains-and-the-picture-perfect-homeschool-family.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Starvation, Chains, and the Picture-Perfect Homeschool Family\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. 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