Friday, February 3, 2012

Boy Defeats All Odds After Neglect and Abuse







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


No comments:

Post a Comment