GUILTY PA - Shirley & Sharon Baker for child endangerment, Jeannette, 2009

Oh those poor poor babies had to make a run for it!
 
poor babies, I am glad they did make the run and that the littlest one was safe, imagine if they'd just kept quiet :(

I dont understand who would agree to foster and then do these things? like the kids arent hurt enough already, regardless of why they lost their parents?
 
poor babies, I am glad they did make the run and that the littlest one was safe, imagine if they'd just kept quiet :(

I dont understand who would agree to foster and then do these things? like the kids arent hurt enough already, regardless of why they lost their parents?

I was thinking the same thing. These childrens lives are ripped apart only for them to have them abused and neglected by the people who are supposed to take care of them. My heart breaks for these children but I am glad they were able to get out.
 
The article said they were replaced in new foster homes. I hope they were all kept together. These children need each other.
 
This is so very sad and heartbreaking. When I was a child, my siblings and I were raised in a foster home. The children in the home were removed from their biological homes and placed with a "good home". I can speak from experience that the abuse was horrendous and rampant, I was hoping things had changed in the last 40 years but I guess not. :furious:
 
This is so very sad and heartbreaking. When I was a child, my siblings and I were raised in a foster home. The children in the home were removed from their biological homes and placed with a "good home". I can speak from experience that the abuse was horrendous and rampant, I was hoping things had changed in the last 40 years but I guess not. :furious:

My son can vouch that not all foster homes are bad
He was my foster son, now he is my son
 
The article said they were replaced in new foster homes. I hope they were all kept together. These children need each other.



BBM:

That's what I noticed too, lizzybeth. I hope they haven't been separated too. Looks like they watch out for each other.
 
It always makes me sick to hear these stories. My folks were foster parents all of my growing-up years. My brother and I were adopted by them after starting out as their foster kids. Over the years we had many kids come and go,and the stories they all had! I remember being around 11 when we got sisters who would cry every night (at first) for their mother. I would get them into bed with me and tell them "It'll be alright. You'll still get to see your mom. While you're here we're all sisters and my mom and dad will be your mom and dad, too. You'll see, they'll love us all the same." We'd wind up falling asleep together. It was never very long before the new kids started calling my folks mom and dad. But I always wondered why the kids would want to go home when they had been so abused and neglected there, which is why we got them. At any rate, I thought all foster parents were like my folks. Since I've been an adult, and seen so many of these awful stories, I've come to realize how blessed we were to go to the family we had. Quite a few of our past foster kids still keep in touch as adults, and it's disheartening to know that their lives went downhill again once they went back to their natural parents. Tammy, one of my foster sisters, and I still keep in touch with email and calls.
 
Why did the neighbors not say anything. In the OP link, the neighbor said the kids were out there all day long, and she even told one of the sisters the kids could climb the fence, yet the neighbor did nothing.. Have we as a society become that apathetic?

E*E
 
As a former foster kid I can only speak from my experiences,in 2 different states,that the majority of the FP's *I* experienced were,at best apathetically neglectful to,at worst,downright abusive.Their primary motivation was money-period .Most had no business parenting ANYBODY.
Is this true of all FP's?Of course not & is why Im a huge advocate of families becoming FP's *however* the system is horribly flawed & faulty & until theres massive COUNTRY WIDE overhauls these things will continue to happen,sad but true.
I know Id LOVE to be a FP but,unfortunately,I am realistic in that Im not capable of doing it right now so Im involved with my States GAL program.In pray for these kids.
 
As a former foster kid I can only speak from my experiences,in 2 different states,that the majority of the FP's *I* experienced were,at best apathetically neglectful to,at worst,downright abusive.Their primary motivation was money-period .Most had no business parenting ANYBODY.
Is this true of all FP's?Of course not & is why Im a huge advocate of families becoming FP's *however* the system is horribly flawed & faulty & until theres massive COUNTRY WIDE overhauls these things will continue to happen,sad but true.
I know Id LOVE to be a FP but,unfortunately,I am realistic in that Im not capable of doing it right now so Im involved with my States GAL program.In pray for these kids.


I understand well sort of where you are coming from. My best friend when I was a teen was a foster child and had been for the majority of her life. When I met her she was with a husband and wife who also fostered 4 or 5 other kids, and 2 were special needs. There were allegations, and I don't know if they were founded or not and they were all moved. But from all the time I spent there, they did seem to love the kids and for the most part they were well looked after. But you also got the feeling they did it for the money as well, the wife loved to but things from the home shopping networks on TV.

The family after that had many fosters, and was at best OK'ish. I only met them once when I spent the weekend there, and I can't remember if they knew I was there or not.

Through the time I knew her, she spoke very little of her life before, and the things she shared with me, I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with others. But she was really thankful that her brother got adopted by a very loving family. Despite what she went through all though years, she is still the sweet person I knew way back then.

I would like to think the majority of children who grow up in the system turn out like her, and rise above all the difficulty they experienced.

E*E
 
I think when I am older if my husband is willing which I dont see why he wouldnt, I want to foster some kids. And they will NOT be abused.
 
Four children — ages 9, 7, 5 and 2 — tried to escape alleged mistreatment at their foster home in Jeannette by hitching a ride back home to Pittsburgh...

Their foster parents, sisters Shirley Baker, 72, and Sharon F. Baker, 62, of 1520 Harrison Ave. were each charged Thursday with four counts of endangering the welfare of children.

The boys told police they climbed a chain-link fence to get away. One boy said they were trying to get to back to Pittsburgh because they were hungry and thirsty after being locked out of the house for most of the day, according to a criminal complaint.

The 2-year-old, who was barefoot, had bruises on his back and wore a dirty diaper, the complaint said.

"One of the boys said his brother had been hit by the foster parents," Stahl said. "That boy had black-and-blue marks on his back. He also said they were being denied food and water."

http://triblive.com/mobile/1223534-...scalzo-stahl-custody-matter-alleged-allegheny
 
October 2009:

At a preliminary hearing before District Judge Joseph DeMarchis, Lucy Deguffroy of 514 Greenwood St., testified that she saw the boys in the Bakers' backyard on the afternoon of Aug. 24. Soon after, two of the boys climbed over a chain link fence and headed onto the busy roadway, she said...

Defense attorney John Foster asked that all charges be dismissed. He said no evidence was presented that Sharon Baker heard Deguffroy or saw the boys go over the fence. Shirley Baker could not be held accountable for something she was not aware of, he said...

[District Judge Joseph DeMarchis said] "You had not one, not two, not three, but four children literally disappearing" for a time. "We had not one, but two caretakers. Something is terribly wrong, in my opinion, in the caretaker department."

http://triblive.com/mobile/1211775-...-jeannette-bakers-fence-police-sharon-charged
 
April 2010:

Shirley Baker, 73, and her sister, Sharon Baker, 64, were sentenced yesterday to serve one year on probation for endangering the welfare of four foster children in their care.

The Bakers were admitted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time nonviolent offenders. They did not plead guilty to the charges against them, and they will be eligible to have their criminal records expunged.

Judge Alfred Bell ordered that the Bakers' records cannot be expunged for three years and that they be prohibited from serving as foster parents.

That was a condition of the deal offered by prosecutors to dispose of the case without the Bakers having to serve any jail time...

[District Attorney] Grace said there was no evidence to prove that the Bakers injured any of the children in their care...

The Bakers were foster parents for an Allegheny County agency, Three Rivers American Indian Council....

http://triblive.com/mobile/1175237-...re-jeannette-westmoreland-agency-barred-grace
 

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