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Clayton a boy of 6 years
of age (now 19) was a minor involved in an abusive family scandal in one of
Indiana’s trailer parks. His story was not publicized because of his young age
at the time the story was released.
Clayton was confined to a 2 X 2 foot closet wrapped by a wire fence
bound by chains and was starved. This happened to him at the age of six by his
very own parents, Joseph and Carmen (his step-mother). His biological mother
was present earlier on but abandoned Clayton at his father’s house. She said
she would return but she was never heard of again. He was abused and neglected
by his parents and was confined to the 2 x 2 foot closet for hours and sometimes
even days. He was rarely fed and when he was, he was given food that was hard
to eat or anything that was unappetizing such as hot sauce. When he was not
given food, he ate the pieces of paper placed on the floor of the closet, which
were covered in his own waste because it served as a way to keep the floor of
the closet clean. When he yelled for help or when he asked for food his father
and stepmother poured dish soap down his throat. They punished him by smearing his own waste in his face
whenever he defecated on himself and then his father urinated on him. He slept
in this closet standing, wrapped by wires and chains. The only shred of
kindness he received was from his stepsister, who was not punished like he was.
She gave him cereal when her parents left the house and untied him because she
knew where the keys were. Clayton says that he remembers her rubbing lotion on
him and cleaning him up before his parents got home and quickly tying him back
up so that they would not know she helped Clayton. He remembers not being
allowed to play with other kids because he was usually always in the closet,
but he used
to ask himself why he was locked away, he says, "I wondered why I couldn't
be a normal child. Why I had to be confined and what I did wrong."
Even
though Claytons step sister (she as 14 yrs of age at the time) was not abused
she ran away and was detained by Kentucky police. When she was told she was
going to be returned to her parents she told them her situation and what was
happening to Clayton. Because Kentucky police officer Todd Pate had no authority
under Indiana’s jurisdiction he informed Indiana police. But even after the
Indiana social worker visited Claytons home they found no evidence to prove
what Officer Pate claimed. Officer Pate did not want to believe that Clayton’s
stepsister lied about the vivid descriptions, so he devised a plan to get
Clayton to Kentucky; he called her parents to pick her up. He assumed Clayton
would come along and he did, Officer Todd Pate saw Clayton and saw that he had
all the signs of abuse and neglect and seemed to be a weak little boy so he
unraveled the truth. He got the chance to interview Clayton because he told his
parents they were conducting an investigation of the family. Officer Pate
approached Clayton and he gave him actual food (crackers and peanut butter,
which Officer Pate says Clayton ate a lot of). Clayton did not say anything in
the beginning but Officer Pate told him that Joseph (Claytons dad), wanted
Clayton to tell him everything and Clayton answered, “He does?” (with
love for his father and with a childs innocence) and Clayton was recorded
expressing everything on cassette tape. His parents were detained and arrested
for 4 years. Both of them completed their sentence in half the time and he
never saw them after that.
Clayton
overcame all odds of what could have happened to him because of the abuse,
things such as possible alcoholism and drug abuse. He had the opportunity to do
those things but he says, "You can't let it define you to be a bad person. You
have to grow from it and learn from it and be a better person." Clayton
believes that his father deserved to be in jail longer then the 4 years he was
supposed to be there and that he was robbed of his childhood but that that is
no excuse to go bad. He is grateful to officer Pate and aspires to be a police
officer just like him to help children going through a silent abuse or any kind
of abuse. Clayton is the example that contradicts the idea that “all aspects of
social life are acquired by socialization”
because if that were true he would be much different then the way he is now. He
developed his own personality by
learning what not to be like. He became a well rounded young man and now he says,
"I treat everybody with the utmost respect, even if they don't give it to
me…If I can make one person smile a day, my goal's been made. I just want to be
better than what he [his father] couldn't be, what she [his stepmother] couldn't
be. I just want to be the best—the best at being a great person." Clayton
defeated the expectation of a child from an abusive past to get anywhere and is
now well on his way to living a normal and healthy life.
Posted By: Jenesis Lopez
The
article can be found on the following link:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Claytons-Survival-Story/1
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