Another Russian adoptee dies in the US

[Doublethinker]

Another Russian adoptee has died, this time in Herdon, Virginia.

Yesterday, Chase Harrison, 21 months, of Purcellville, died after being left in his adoptive father's Yukon for "several hours." (here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901888.html?hpid=sec-metro), here (http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6945196&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1), and here (http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/news/2008/jul/09/unattended-child-found-dead-herndon/). ) The father, Miles, Harrison, 49, was supposed to drop the boy off at daycare, but drove to work instead, "forgetting" that the boy was in the car. Chase was discovered around 5:00 PM last night when a co-worker reported he saw something in Harrison's SUV. (The windows are tinted.) Yeterday's temperature reached 91 degrees. According to a study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the temperature inside the Yukon would have ranged from 131-172 degrees.

Miles Harrison, is the managing relocation manager for Project Solutions Group (http://www.projsolgroup.com/index.cfm?action=bios). He collapsed in the parking lot and has been hospitalized since Chase was ****ounced dead. Police expect to charge him with manslaughter, which carries as much as a 10 year prison term. The adoptive mother, Carol Harrison, 45, is not implicated. They have no other children.

Chase was adopted three months ago, but no further information on the adoption has been released.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11201587&postID=8170149725062811763&page=1

[kosse]

RIP. But why post this here at the rants section?

[PeterRJG]

This tragic idiocy happens all the time. To all sorts of babies from all sorts of backgrounds in all sorts of countries. I'm sure the OP is trying to make some sort of point, but all that's been illustrated here is that the father is a neglectful tool who will legally pay for his horrid negligence.

[Doublethinker]

This tragic idiocy does NOT happen all the time among adopting families.

Because they, unlike original fathers and mothers, claim to be more ready, more experienced, more well-off, in other words better than original parents. And when this **** is pulled off by a family who's supposed to be dying for a baby (adopters? giving a child to an 8-hour daycare???), it looks more like they got sick of this 'disposable product' after toying with 'it' for a while.

The adoption agency involved in the placement of Chase Harrison (Dmitry Yakovlev) was European Adoption Consultants, Inc.

The Russian Ministery of Education and Science has banned the agency and three other's just today.

Good ****ing riddance, morons.

[kosse]

...
I still fail to see the point of this rant. Yes, there are bad parents. It's horrible that a thing like this happened. These people will get punished. Is there more to it?

ps. In western countries people usually go to work so it's perfectly normal for kids to spend 8 hours at daycare. The reason they go to work is that they could offer their kids education, good home and stuff like that.

[PeterRJG]

This tragic idiocy does NOT happen all the time among adopting families.


It happens all the time amongst all families. Adopted, fostered or natural. Parents or caregivers leaving kids in cars to overheat is all too common in this world. Sad, but true.




Because they, unlike original fathers and mothers, claim to be more ready, more experienced, more well-off, in other words better than original parents.


Do they? Prove it.



And when this **** is pulled off by a family who's supposed to be dying for a baby (adopters? giving a child to an 8-hour daycare???), it looks more like they got sick of this 'disposable product' after toying with 'it' for a while.


BS. It was an act of tragic negligence. They'll do jail for their "disposable product". Or they should. It'd be manslaughter in my country.



The adoption agency involved in the placement of Chase Harrison (Dmitry Yakovlev) was European Adoption Consultants, Inc.

The Russian Ministery of Education and Science has banned the agency and three other's just today.

Good ****ing riddance, morons.

Yep, that's what I thought. Another "US hates the Russkies and this is why" thread. This is what it boils down to, doesn't it mate?

Again: it was an act of crass and tragic negligence. No tinfoil hats or black helicopters or anti-Russian hatred involved.

[Kap2406]

It happens all the time amongst all families. Adopted, fostered or natural. Parents or caregivers leaving kids in cars to overheat is all too common in this world. Sad, but true.
+1... San Francisco scientists claim that since 1998 376 children have died in transportation due to fatal temperature conditions.

I see where OP is coming from, thou. A couple of years ago an adopted Russian girl was killed by her foster mother, who beat to death a two-year old child. Followed by two more "incidents" resulting in deaths of adopted Russian kids, which caught a lot of attention back in Russia. That is why Russian news agency closely monitor any similar cases.

[eskachig]

Do they? Prove it.The agency is responsible to ensure they don't just give kids to anybody, and is licensed to work in Russia. I don't know if their accident rate is worse than typical, but they're definitely supposed to screen applicants thoroughly.

[randir14]

Yeah I'm sure they're adopting Russian babies just to kill them because they hate Russians. Give me a break. You must still be stuck with the paranoid Cold War mentality.

[Ichhabe]

it looks more like they got sick of this 'disposable product' after toying with 'it' for a while.

This is actually the most stupid thing I've ever read. I was actually going to say "...on mp.net" but it is actually for me the most stupidest thing,...ever.
That is why I chose font size 7 because it impressed me so much that it just had to come out big.
You young man should be proud.

[PeterRJG]

The agency is responsible to ensure they don't just give kids to anybody, and is licensed to work in Russia. I don't know if their accident rate is worse than typical, but they're definitely supposed to screen applicants thoroughly.

No agency can predict that a person is or isn't likely to be neglectful and leave a kid in a car to die.

[LineDoggie]

Another Russian adoptee has died, this time in Herdon, Virginia.

Yesterday, Chase Harrison, 21 months, of Purcellville, died after being left in his adoptive father's Yukon for "several hours." (here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901888.html?hpid=sec-metro), here (http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6945196&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1), and here (http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/news/2008/jul/09/unattended-child-found-dead-herndon/). ) The father, Miles, Harrison, 49, was supposed to drop the boy off at daycare, but drove to work instead, "forgetting" that the boy was in the car. Chase was discovered around 5:00 PM last night when a co-worker reported he saw something in Harrison's SUV. (The windows are tinted.) Yeterday's temperature reached 91 degrees. According to a study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the temperature inside the Yukon would have ranged from 131-172 degrees.

Miles Harrison, is the managing relocation manager for Project Solutions Group (http://www.projsolgroup.com/index.cfm?action=bios). He collapsed in the parking lot and has been hospitalized since Chase was ****ounced dead. Police expect to charge him with manslaughter, which carries as much as a 10 year prison term. The adoptive mother, Carol Harrison, 45, is not implicated. They have no other children.

Chase was adopted three months ago, but no further information on the adoption has been released.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11201587&postID=8170149725062811763&page=1

I would have thought Quotation marks would be in order since this was lifted word for word for the blog referenced above

[tyovan]

And of course I'm sure he would have been much better off in a state orphanage run by the oh-so-compassionate Russian government, eh Comrade?

[kosse]

And of course I'm sure he would have been much better off in a state orphanage run by the oh-so-compassionate Russian government, eh Comrade?
Obviously even Russian prison is better than being indoctrinated by heartless, capitalist pigs.

[F-22 Raptor]

When Adoption Goes Wrong
Most Americans who adopt children from other countries find joy. But others aren't prepared for the risks—and may find themselves overwhelmed.

Pat Wingert
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 3:16 PM ET Dec 8, 2007

Peggy Hilt wanted to be a good mother. But day after day, she got out of bed feeling like a failure. No matter what she tried, she couldn't connect with Nina, the 2-year old girl she'd adopted from Russia as an infant. The preschooler pulled away whenever Hilt tried to hug or kiss her. Nina was physically aggressive with her 4-year-old sister, who had been adopted from Ukraine, and had violent tantrums. Whenever Hilt wasn't watching, she destroyed the family's furniture and possessions. "Every day with Nina had become a struggle," she recalls now.

As the girl grew older, things got worse. Hilt fell into a deep depression. She started drinking heavily, something she'd never done before. Ashamed, she hid her problem from everyone, including her husband.

On the morning of July 1, 2005, Hilt was packing for a family vacation, all the while downing one beer after another and growing increasingly aggravated and impatient with Nina's antics. "Everything she did just got to me," Hilt said. When Hilt caught her reaching into her diaper and smearing feces on the walls and furniture, "a year and a half of frustration came to a head," Hilt says. "I snapped. I felt this uncontrollable rage."

Then Hilt did something unthinkable. She grabbed Nina around the neck, shook her and then dropped her to the floor, where she kicked her repeatedly before dragging her up to her room, punching her as they went. "I had never hit a child before," she says. "I felt horrible and promised myself that this would never happen again." But it was too late for that. Nina woke up with a fever, and then started vomiting. The next day she stopped breathing. By the time the ambulance got the child to the hospital, she was dead.

Hilt is now serving a 19-year sentence for second-degree murder in a Virginia maximum-security prison. She and her husband divorced, and he is raising their other daughter. She realizes the horror of her crime and says she isn't looking for sympathy. "There is no punishment severe enough for what I did," she told NEWSWEEK in an interview at the prison.

Hilt's story is awful—and rare—but sadly it is not unique. Adopting a child from another country is usually a positive, enriching experience for both the child and the parent. Over the last 20 years, foreign adoption has become more popular, and Americans now adopt about 20,000 children from Guatemala, China, Russia and other nations each year. (In the last few years, as restrictions and red tape have increased in some countries, the number of overseas adoptions has begun to drop.) Longitudinal studies show that most of these kids do quite well, but in a small but significant number of cases, things go very badly. Since the early 1990s, the deaths of 14 Russian children killed by their adoptive parents have been documented. (That disclosure was partly responsible for Russia's decision in 2006 to suspend its intercountry adoption program while it underwent review.)

Cases like those are extreme, but clinicians who specialize in treating foreign orphans say they are seeing more parents who are overwhelmed by their adopted children's unexpected emotional and behavioral problems. And though reputable agencies try to warn parents of the risks, not all succeed. "In the past, agencies were a bit naive," says Chuck Johnson of the National Council For Adoption, which is responding to the problem with a massive education initiative. "Now we're urging them to give parents a more realistic message." Some parents struggle to find effective treatment for their kids. Others seek to give them up. Reports that a growing number of foreign adoptees were being turned over to the U.S. foster-care system recently prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to order its first national count: 81 children adopted overseas were relinquished to officials in 14 states in 2006.

Why do some adoptions go so wrong? Clearly, it's not the kids' fault. Their behavior is usually the result of trauma, mistreatment, malnutrition or institutionalization in their home countries—problems more common in places like Eastern Europe. But "the country of origin doesn't matter so much as the child's experience," says Dr. Dana Johnson, director of the University of Minnesota's International Adoption Clinic. Some are found to suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, mental illness or reactive attachment disorder, an inability to bond with a parent. Prospective families undergo an arduous screening process, including home visits, and specify how much disability they can handle. But even families who specifically request a "healthy" child sometimes go home with a troubled one. In some cases, the mismatch is inadvertent. But in others, orphanages or adoption agencies overseas—eager to find homes for difficult children in their care—mislead prospective parents or fail to disclose the full extent of a child's problems or personal history.

Emotional and even physical problems can be difficult to detect at the time of adoption, especially in infants, and often aren't diagnosed until months or years later. Hilt says that's what happened to her. She and her husband decided to adopt after being told she'd probably never conceive. After passing their agency's screening, they brought home their first daughter from Ukraine in 2001, and that went so well they decided to adopt two Russian sisters. But when they flew to Siberia to meet them in May 2003, they were told the sisters were no longer available. Instead, they were told, they could adopt Tatiana, a lively 18-month-old, and Nina, a quiet, withdrawn 9-month-old. They visited Tatiana every day for a week, but officials never let them see Nina again. "They said she had a bad cold," Hilt said. Nonetheless, they signed adoption papers for both girls. But when they returned to finalize the adoption in January 2004, they were told that only Nina was still available. The Hilts hesitated. They suspected a bait-and-switch, especially when officials insisted they sign papers testifying they'd spent many more hours with the baby than they had. "The whole process didn't feel right," Hilt said. "But we figured we could love any child. You convince yourself that everything will turn out OK."

But from the start, Nina "literally pushed me away," Hilt said. Over time, Hilt found herself resenting the little girl. "We'd been such a happy family, and then Nina came and everything changed," Hilt says. "I began to realize that we had made such a big mistake." (Tatyana Kharchendo, the doctor in charge of the Little Sun Child Home #1 in Irkutsk, where the Hilts adopted Nina, did not directly answer Hilt's charges, but insisted the child "was absolutely healthy and beautiful.")

No one is exonerating Hilt or others like her. But Joyce Sterkel, who runs the Ranch for Kids, a Montana boarding school for disturbed international adoptees, says she's come to see the parents as well as the kids as victims in these tragic cases. "It's a horrible thing, but I understand how some people end up killing these kids," she says. "They have no empathy, no affection, no love. My heart goes out to these parents because they don't know what to do."

When Sterkel, a nurse, first started working with international adoptees in the early '90s, she didn't see many deeply troubled children. But 10 years ago she adopted two Russian boys whose American parents had given up on them. One of them, a 14-year-old boy, had just been released from a juvenile-detention center after trying to poison his mother. Over time, Sterkel was approached so often about adopting other children that she decided to open her camp. Today it houses 25 to 30 kids from all over the country, and has a waiting list. The overwhelming majority are from Russia, Romania and Bulgaria, but she also has had children from South Korea and Colombia. Some were bullied or raped while institutionalized or were the children of prostitutes, drug addicts or alcoholics. "I have gotten calls from parents who say the child they adopted has killed the family dog, threatened to kill them, and no one will help them," she says.

Emotional, behavioral and physical problems are not unique to adopted children. Biological children can have the same range of issues. But adoptive parents often assume they know what they're getting into because they get the chance to meet their child in advance. That was the case when Kimble and Shellie Elmore of Los Angeles met a 10-year-old Russian child named Tania in 2005. The director of the orphanage proudly described her as an "angel."

But as soon as they took custody of their new daughter, her behavior changed dramatically. "She was completely out of control," Kimble says. Tania would scream for hours at a time, then fall into deep sullen silence. After signing Tania over to the Elmores, the Russian court handed them her file. They were stunned to find that she had a history of violence and had been transferred from one orphanage to another. They called their adoption agency back home, but were mistakenly told that there was nothing that could be done, that Tania was now their legal daughter. (The American Embassy could have helped, if they'd known.) Seeing no alternative, they boarded a plane and brought Tania back to California. By the end of the first week, she was admitted to a hospital psychiatric unit. She came home a few days later, but things grew worse. She tried to stab her father with a spike and attacked a police officer who came to the house in response to a 911 call.

Doctors diagnosed Tania with bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and attachment disorder, and suggested she be sent to Sterkel's camp. In the past year the Elmores have exhausted their savings and retirement funds trying to pay for private residential treatment. "We know she's just a child and we want what's best for her," says Kimble. "But we don't know how to help her. Adoption is supposed to be a touchy-feely thing surrounded with the glow of new parenthood. But no one says, 'What if the worst happens?' "

Psychologist Karyn Purvis of Texas Christian University, who has done extensive research on troubled adopted children, says many of these kids simply don't respond to stern lectures and timeouts. Lab workups of her patients often reveal extremely high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. "The children, for the most part, were in safe homes living with safe people," Purvis says, "but those cortisol levels told us that their children did not feel safe with them, even if they'd been living safely with them for years." Children like them are almost constantly in a hypervigilant state, she says. They don't let their guard down long enough to forge affectionate relationships.

Over the past several years Purvis has developed new methods to restore a sense of security and trust to traumatized kids. If a child becomes violent, for instance, Purvis often responds with a "basket hold." She cradles the kids firmly but gently in her lap, facing outward, with their arms crossed in front of their chests. She rocks and quietly soothes until they calm down, then asks them to look her in the eye and tell her what they want. Purvis's assistants have taken to calling her the "Child Whisperer."

Sometimes techniques like these result in dramatic turnarounds. The family of a 5-year-old adopted from Russia thought they had no choice but to seek psychiatric hospitalization after she threw her baby sister down the stairs. But after the parents adopted Purvis's methods, the little girl finally started talking about the serious abuse she'd experienced. The child's behavior changed markedly. But her mother "changed even more," Purvis says, "because now she has hope."

Purvis is quick to say that her techniques don't work with every child, and older kids can take much longer than younger ones. "They have to unlearn what they've learned," she said. The next step, she says, is for prospective adoptive parents to get more training before and after they adopt. "Very few agencies are training parents to deal with brain damage, sensory deprivation, aggression," Purvis says. "A lot of these parents are smitten with the hope that they'll make a difference in a child's life, but they need very practical tools. I consider myself very pro-adoption. But I'm also very pro informed adoption. "

Peggy Hilt wishes she'd heard this message years ago. "If I knew then what I know now," she says, "I would have gotten help for Nina and for me." The best she can hope for now, she says, is that her story will prompt others to seek that help before it's too late.
Warning Signs for Adoptive Parents
Adopted children often go through a period of transition and adjustment once arriving in the United States from another country, but sometimes problems persist, behavior worsens, or new problems arise with time. Acting out and defiance may be protective measures children take because of a history of abuse, neglect or maltreatment. Karyn Purvis, director of Texas Christian University's Institute of Child Development and an expert in the treatment of troubled adoptees, says parents may need to seek the counsel of a clinician who specializes in international adoption cases if their child consistently exhibits any of these behaviors:

****** acting out, like masturbating or inappropriate touching of others
Aggressive, bullying, violent behavior
Night terrors or sleep problems caused by fear
Behavioral melt-downs when parents are trying to get the child to do homework, or when there is lots of noise or activity
Resistance to any expression of affection, like kisses and hugs from family members, but approaches strangers indiscriminately
Explosive anger when confronted with relatively minor disappointments or delays
Insists on being in control at all times
Terrified of being alone, or the other extreme, insists on being left alone
Hoarding or stealing food

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/74385

[F-22 Raptor]

http://adoption.about.com/od/adoptionrights/p/russiancases.htm

Here's a whole record of Russian kids getting killed by their adoptive parents.

[Bro Jangles]

http://adoption.about.com/od/adoptionrights/p/russiancases.htm

Here's a whole record of kids getting killed by their adoptive parents.
in this world there are a**holes who shouldnt have kids. nationality withstanding. this case was a man who was negligent and made the worst mistake of his life, the internal trauma that he cased himself and his wife will be worse than any jail time he is givin.

[PeterRJG]

http://adoption.about.com/od/adoptionrights/p/russiancases.htm

Here's a whole record of Russian kids getting killed by their adoptive parents.

And that proves what exactly? How many adoptive or fostered kids murdered by their parents, or allowed to die through neglect or negligence aren't Russian? Come on, list those, so your case has some merit. Make comparisons.

Otherwise, it's a tinfoil hat exercise. Which it is, anyway.

[Doublethinker]

It happens all the time amongst all families. Adopted, fostered or natural. Parents or caregivers leaving kids in cars to overheat is all too common in this world. Sad, but true.



Do they? Prove it.


Prove what?? The main thing an agency is responsible for is to research the adopting family's history as well as check and ensure, that they are suitable for the role.




BS. It was an act of tragic negligence. They'll do jail for their "disposable product". Or they should. It'd be manslaughter in my country.



Yep, that's what I thought. Another "US hates the Russkies and this is why" thread. This is what it boils down to, doesn't it mate?

Again: it was an act of crass and tragic negligence. No tinfoil hats or black helicopters or anti-Russian hatred involved.


Yep, I don't think there's any hatred.

Simply Russian children are considered 'disposable', that's why agencies care more about $$$ than about establishing what kind of the future awaits a child.

[Doublethinker]

This is actually the most stupid thing I've ever read. I was actually going to say "...on mp.net" but it is actually for me the most stupidest thing,...ever.
That is why I chose font size 7 because it impressed me so much that it just had to come out big.
You young man should be proud.

Not really. An adopting family should try to create some sort of bonding between themselves and a child.

While turning the kid iin for 8-hour daycare...

[Doublethinker]

And of course I'm sure he would have been much better off in a state orphanage run by the oh-so-compassionate Russian government, eh Comrade?

Its not about being in an orphanage or being adopted by foreigners.

Its about the attitude of adopting agencies.

[Doublethinker]

Obviously even Russian prison is better than being indoctrinated by heartless, capitalist pigs.

yeah-yeah, keep talking the usual bull****, your 'russia strong idiots' cliche is always there to help you.

[Bro Jangles]

Not really. An adopting family should try to create some sort of bonding between themselves and a child.

While turning the kid iin for 8-hour daycare...
in the real modern world few families can afford to spend so much time at home especially after going thru a very expensive event like ADOPTING a child.it just realistic that both parents would work.

[Doublethinker]

in the real modern world few families can afford to spend so much time at home especially after going thru a very expensive event like ADOPTING a child.it just realistic that both parents would work.

You just don't get it, do you?

As an adopting family, they can't get off the hook with the usual explanations that can be used for usual families.

Not rich enough so its hard for you to provide the necessary level of comfort for an adopted child? Don't adopt. Not enough time? Don't adopt. You have a failing memory and can spend MORE THAN EIGHT HOURS MINDING YOUR BUSINESS without even thinking for a second: 'wait, I think I wasn't alone when I got here'? Don't adopt.

[Bro Jangles]

You just don't get it, do you?

As an adopting family, they can't get off the hook with the usual explanations that can be used for usual families.

Not rich enough so its hard for you to provide the necessary level of comfort for an adopted child? Don't adopt. Not enough time? Don't adopt. You have a failing memory and can spend MORE THAN EIGHT HOURS MINDING YOUR BUSINESS without even thinking for a second: 'wait, I think I wasn't alone when I got here'? Don't adopt.
so only the top 15% of america should be able to adopt? only bradjolina, and maddona? some hard working families will be able to care for a child, a child can survive in daycare.

[Doublethinker]

so only the top 15% of america should be able to adopt? only bradjolina, and maddona?


I don't think that only top Hollywood star types can sustain a child and and a wife to take care about the child.

More like a person with a moderately high and stable level of income would be required.



some hard working families will be able to care for a child, a child can survive in daycare.

Exactly the kind of attitude I was talking about. 'A child can survive'. It shouldn't be about survival, it should be about providing the necessary level of emotional comfort to a child that has already been through lots of hardships despite young age - losing real parents or having them turn him into an orphanage as well as an orphanage itself are no pieces of candy.

[Bro Jangles]

More like a person with a moderately high and stable level of income would be required. Really?



so if an adult isnt with a child 12 hours a day that kid will grow up to be a shell of a person with no emotional grasp on reality? take me i grew up in daycare. my father was gone 4 years of my life total. my mom worked full time almost since my birth, and guess what, they never left me in a friggin car. there are responsible poor people.

[Doublethinker]

dude,

I don't know you.

[Bro Jangles]

dude,

I don't know you.
good if you did it would defeat my point, because im ****ed up

[Mousepad]

2 main points in Russia for adoption by westerners
a) they must have clear record of crime, drug, etc with full requests in local police and medical departments of wanabe parents by russian orphanage
b) they will get in most cases only kids with health problems wich russian adopt parents or local hospitals are unable to take care of.
it's on the positive side

on a minus side orthanage always chek on the kid on regular basis untill 16 -years age and in case of "sh/t happens" always have a right to take him back, but it's not working with foreigners so "sh/t happens" and it gives a perfect excuse for local "Kyle's mom's" - type to stear all sorts of 'crap storms' about "they killing our babys" and they not in this for kids, they here for "crap storms". Sadly we have a lot of orphans and not so much parents that ready for adoption, so we have to give them in foreign familys, but kid must have full family - period.

RIP to the baby

[PeterRJG]

Yep, I don't think there's any hatred.

Simply Russian children are considered 'disposable', that's why agencies care more about $$$ than about establishing what kind of the future awaits a child.

Disposable. OK, it costs thousands of dollars to travel to the Russian Federation, go through a bunch of bureaucratic bollocks to obtain the adoptee , arrange for a visa for the kid in question, bring the child back to the US and then arrange that it dies through neglect or some other repugnant method.

Does that make sense to you?

The only common denominator here is children. They aren't "disposable" by any definition, Russian kids or otherwise.

If a lot of Russian adoptees end up dying, it has *zero* to do with the fact that they are Russian. Absolutely fvcking zero.

There are much worse off nations than the RF that Americans, et al, adopt kids from. And far more corrupt agencies too.

[Doublethinker]

Sure, no arguing here.

What bothers me is exactly this sort of problem - you can't check on a family that is living in another country, so the methods of control are absent even in theory.

And notice that - Americans eagerly control the life and well-being of adopted American children, i.e. children of local nationals.

Perhaps, some sort of a dialogue could be established between American and Russian counterparts so that American organizations control the life and well-being with Russian adoptees with equal zeal.

[PeterRJG]

Perhaps, some sort of a dialogue could be established between American and Russian counterparts so that American organizations control the life and well-being with Russian adoptees with equal zeal.

How do you know they don't? You're convinced that there's a conspiracy to kill Russian adoptees in the US, aren't you?

[Doublethinker]

Disposable. OK, it costs thousands of dollars to travel to the Russian Federation, go through a bunch of bureaucratic bollocks to obtain the adoptee , arrange for a visa for the kid in question, bring the child back to the US and then arrange that it dies through neglect or some other repugnant method.

Does that make sense to you?

The only common denominator here is children. They aren't "disposable" by any definition, Russian kids or otherwise.

If a lot of Russian adoptees end up dying, it has *zero* to do with the fact that they are Russian. Absolutely fvcking zero.

There are much worse off nations than the RF that Americans, et al, adopt kids from. And far more corrupt agencies too.

OK, I'll conceede that one, I was a bit over the line with that comment.

But lack of control means, that these aren't just accidental but also mistakes caused by imperfection of the system in general.

As some posters commented on the article, why the hell aren't National Family Caregivers Association or Donaldson Institute all over the place??

[Doublethinker]

How do you know they don't? You're convinced that there's a conspiracy to kill Russian adoptees in the US, aren't you?

Because I haven't managed to come up with any info that such control is established by US organizations.

Perhaps you could share, if you've got such info?

[PeterRJG]

Because I haven't managed to come up with any info that such control is established by US organizations.

Perhaps you could share, if you've got such info?

*Common sense* should tell you that there is no conspiracy to kill Russian adoptees in the US.

As stated before, kids of all walks perish in tragic incidents of neglect like being locked in a car all day. Adopted, fostered, natural...You aren't going to be able to screen for that in a prospective adopter...what can you do? Ask on a questionnaire if they're likely to leave a kid in a car?

Think about this: there's far more involved in adopting a kid than there is in having one naturally. There's no screening or bureaucratic procedure involved for a guy to bang a female and get her pregnant, and then to raise that kid.

[Doublethinker]

*Common sense* should tell you that there is no conspiracy to kill Russian adoptees in the US.

As stated before, kids of all walks perish in tragic incidents of neglect like being locked in a car all day. Adopted, fostered, natural...You aren't going to be able to screen for that in a prospective adopter...what can you do? Ask on a questionnaire if they're likely to leave a kid in a car?

Think about this: there's far more involved in adopting a kid than there is in having one naturally. There's no screening or bureaucratic procedure involved for a guy to bang a female and get her pregnant, and then to raise that kid.

I've already stated that I don't believe in any sort of conspiracy to kill Russian children. Why do you dwell on the subject?

As for the rest of this, I've already made my position clear: in Russia, our government agency checks up on adopting families. Same true for the adopting families of American children in America, to my knowledge.

But as far as I know, US Adopting-related agencies aren't that preoccupied with the fate of children of foreign nationals adopted by Americans. As noted by Americans themselves in the aforementioned link, they don't.

As for why I see this, as a personal matter, because surely white Americans will probably want to adopt white children if they have the chance - no racism here, just the truth. And the Russian orphanages are full of children and are much more corrupt than in other white countries, so it just comes to the fact, that these are Russian children that can be 'bought' by families that wouldn't have passed the test if they were trying to adopt a child in other European country. And lack of control, means that exactly this category of adoptees is in the greatest danger.

[Aerosoul]

Some relatives of mine adopted a Russian boy several years ago. He's alive and well.
Or is he!?

Dun, dun, dun.....

[Doublethinker]

Some relatives of mine adopted a Russian boy several years ago. He's alive and well.
Or is he!?

Dun, dun, dun.....

move along, troll.

[Doublethinker]

As the other poster there said:

It really doesnt matter how you twist it look at it or poop on it its still going to be the same ****.

An adopted child ESPECIALLY an infant will need complete and total bonding and reattachment if they are going to stand any sort of chance of having some sort of a normal...um no wrong word....functioning life....
Putting a infant in daycare does NOT do that.
My heart shudders when I hear of BABIES in daycare. It doesnt do much when I hear of toddlers in there either , but when I hear that someone has put an adopted baby/child in there it crushes in two.
NO ONE should be able to adopt unless they are going to be a full time MOTHER at HOME for the first 5 years of adopting.

But you know what ? I think we are all being WAY TO HARD on the poor dumb dad....

Why are we not holding the adoptive mother responsible ?

Frankly unless she was in hospital for something VERY serious I hold her responsible for this babies death
Where the hell was the 'mother' (and I use that term loosely) ?

Quoted for truth.

[Doublethinker]

More info:

European Adopting Consultants, which allowed the family to adopt Dima Yakovlev, were also engaged in another case of a death of an adopted child - a Russian child renamed to be Logan Higginbotham (http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/14990).

http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/14990

Died of massive head injuries.

[Doublethinker]

Adoptee deaths rare, experts say 12 Russian cases troubling, puzzling

By Russell Working
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 21, 2004




In some cases, the children lasted only a few months in their new country.
Luke Evans, 16 months, died six months after he arrived in the United States. His adopted mother, Natalie Fabian Evans of Lowell, Ind., is accused of shaking him to death.
In other cases, they survived a little longer.
Yana and Anatoli Kolenda, both 11, died in 2002--nearly five years after their arrival in America--when their adoptive father stabbed them and his wife to death at their home in Westfield, Mass., then fatally shot himself.
Circumstances differ widely in the deaths of 12 Russian adoptees whose parents have been accused of killing them in the past eight years, ranging from what prosecutors portray as flashes of rage to abuse that spanned weeks.
Yet beneath the grim tales are common threads. Defense attorneys say parents were stunned by the extent of their children's medical needs and behavioral disorders. Prosecutors accuse the defense of trying to shift the blame to innocent victims, who survived the deprivation of Russian orphanages only to die in the families that were supposed to care for them.
And the doctors and psychologists who treat such children say some parents are rushing into adoption unprepared for the problems that can accompany youngsters from Eastern European and other orphanages, ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome to emotional disorders.
The deaths, these experts say, are only the tip of an iceberg of adoptive families ill-equipped to deal with troubled children.
"We're talking about very, very at-risk children placed with families who don't know what they're doing, who are often left completely on their own," said Dr. Jerri Jenista, a Michigan physician and adoptive mother who consults with families seeking children abroad. "It's a prescription for disaster."
Studies show that most adoptive parents are happy with their children--whether from Russia or elsewhere. These parents wince when the press plays up deaths in adoptive families, said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a New York nonprofit devoted to improving adoption policy.
"Far more children die of abuse and neglect in biological families than in adoptive families," Pertman said.
Agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics do not break out child slayings according to whether or not the victim is adopted.
Still, experts knew of no other country from which so many children have been killed.
"It just didn't seem to exist until this phenomenon happened with the Russian< kids," said Thais Tepper, a Pennsylvania adoptive mother and co-founder of the Parents Network for the Post-Institutionalized Child.There have been other cases of severe abuse that did not result in death. A Utah couple face criminal charges for allegedly starving two Russian children and an Ohio man imprisoned on charges of throwing his adopted Russian daughter at the wall, breaking her spine and leaving her unable to walk. Doctors and psychologists who treat such troubled children in international adoptions say abuse cases are too numerous to count.
Agencies that deal with adoptions often protest that in spotlighting abuse or killings, the media misses the more commonplace stories of happy adoptions. Antonia Forkin Edwardson, executive director of the Joint Council on International Children's Services, an umbrella group of adoption agencies, said abusive cases amount to only a tiny minority of the thousands of adoptions that occur every year.
"The majority of international adoptions are positive," she said. "Families are happy."
Others say the agencies share a degree of blame for adoptions gone wrong. While agencies do home studies, seldom is any psychological screening done to weed out parents with anger-management problems or those inadequate to the task of raising children, said Ronald Federici, an Alexandria, Va., neuropsychologist who specializes in internationally adopted children.
"I've never known a family to fail a home study," he said. "I have a family that was charged with multiple counts of child abuse [after the adoption]. They were major alcoholics before. The home study didn't find it."
The suspects in these cases differ from the profile of parents who kill children nationwide, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. None of the alleged killers had a prior record, compared to 56 percent of family murder defendants nationwide.
Ten of the adults accused of killing Russian children--or 83 percent--were women, compared to 55 percent of parent killers of children nationwide, perhaps because mothers of adoptees are more likely to stay at home and therefore have more contact with the children.
One reason for the high number of deaths among Russians may be that some parents are unprepared for the problems related to fetal alcohol syndrome in a country where alcohol abuse is rampant, experts say.
Even if Russian parents insist on raising a disabled child, child welfare officials visit when the child is 6 or 7 years old and urge them to surrender their youngster to an orphanage, said Boris Altshuler, head of the Moscow children's advocacy group Right of the Child, which advocates reform in Russia's orphanage system.
Violent deaths for 12 adopted Russian children

Alex Pavlis (6)
From: Yeysk, Russia
In U.S.: 6 weeks
Died: Dec. 18, 2003
Schaumburg, Ill. prosecutors say Alex's adoptive mother, Irma Pavlis, 32, beat him to death. She has pleaded innocent.
Liam Thompson (3)
From: Ekimchan, Russia
In U.S.: 5 months
Died: Oct. 16, 2003
Gary Thompson of Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to 15 years to life for scalding his 3-year-old son and leaving the child to die in an unheated basement. His wife Amy is awaiting trial.
Jessica Albina Hagmann (2)
From: Moscow
Died: Aug. 11, 2003
Patrice Hagmann of Prince William County, Va., was sentenced to probation and
two suspended 5-year terms in the death of her daughter. Hagmann said she
smothered Jessica while trying to calm a tantrum.
Maria Bennett (2)
From: Ussurisk, Russia
In U.S.: 9 months
Died: Oct. 23, 2002
Susan Jane Bennett, 41, of Lancaster, Ohio, was sentenced to three years in prison last November for reckless homicide in the death of her daughter, who died of shaken baby syndrome.
Yana and Anatoli Kolenda (both 11)
In U.S.: 5 years
Died: Oct. 20, 2002
Richard Kolenda, 49, of Westfield, Mass., fatally stabbed his wife and two adopted Russian children and then shot himself to death, according to police.
Zachary Higier (2)
Died: Aug. 15, 2002
Natalia Higier, 47, of Braintree, Mass., was charged in the death of her son Zachary, 2, who died of severe head trauma at home. She said he fell out of his crib, but doctors told police that Zachary's injuries were consistent with falling from a three-story building.
Jacob Lindorff (5)
From: Pskov oblast, Russia
In U.S.: 6 weeks
Died: Dec. 14, 2001
Heather Lindorff of Franklin, N.J., was sentenced to six years in prison in the death of her son, who died of blunt head trauma. Lindorff's husband, James, 54, is serving four years probation for child abuse.
Luke Evans (16 months)
From: Inozemtsevo, Russia
In U.S.: 6 months
Died: Nov. 30, 2001
Luke's adoptive mother, Natalie Fabian Evans, 33, of Lowell, Ind., was charged in the death of her son, who died of massive brain injuries. She claimed he hit his head in the bathtub. Trial is set for July.
Viktor Matthey (6)
From: Amur region, Russia
In U.S.: 10 months
Died: Oct. 31, 2000
Union Township, N.J., prosecutors charged Robert and Brenda Matthey in the death of their son, saying the parents locked Viktor overnight in an unheated pump room where he died of hypothermia. A jury deadlocked on manslaughter charges May 19 but convicted the couple of lesser abuse charges.
Logan Higginbotham (3)
From: Smolensk, Russia
In U.S.: 7 months
Died: Nov. 25, 1998
Laura Higginbotham, 33, of Shelburne, Vt., pleaded innocent to involuntary< manslaughter in the death of her daughter, who died of a massive head injury. Higginbotham said the girl fell and hit her head.
David Alexander Polreis (2)
From: Tula, Russia
In U.S.: 6 months
Died: Februrary 1996
Renee Polreis was sentenced to 22 years in prison in the killing of her son in Colorado. Polreis claimed David beat himself to death with a wooden spoon in a fit of rage.
Source: News reports
Chicago Tribune



http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/15097

[Doublethinker]

As I said before, this isn't just some weird conspiracy theory, its a trend noted also by experts, a very troublesome one.

[Bro Jangles]

As I said before, this isn't just some weird conspiracy theory, its a trend noted also by experts, a very troublesome one.
yes its tragic, but your looking at 12, in one year the average number of RUSSIAN adoptions is around 4000. that excludes local, and other areas, the fact is theree is a percentage of messed up people out there, you try to prevent it, but youll never know when a father will snap a kill his whole family.

[Doublethinker]

yes its tragic, but your looking at 12, in one year the average number of RUSSIAN adoptions is around 4000. that excludes local, and other areas, the fact is theree is a percentage of messed up people out there, you try to prevent it, but youll never know when a father will snap a kill his whole family.

You must have not read the article attentively.

Despite the numbers, there's no other group within the US among adoptees that shares such a number of DEATHS (i'm not even taking cases of physical harassment, only deaths).

And while I'm glad, that many Russian adoptees found good families, you can't just look at 12 (already 14) victims and just say "tum de dum, oh well, **** happens" and just walk away from the problem.

And as the article notes, many of those adopting families, find themselves unprepared to deal with sick adopted children when they finally see instead of a happy child who'd hug them and smile at them, a sick child, who sometimes walks around the house, defecating and peeing across the house because of his disease, banging his head on the walls (like Alex Pavlis did).

And that is when they sometimes 'snap out', or start harassing, beating and starving children.

Lack of control + lack of monitoring of psychological state of adoptees as well as adopters allows these kind of cases to turn from accidents into a trend.

[DS73]

Adoptee deaths rare, experts say 12 Russian cases troubling, puzzling


All together very good find, number is not puzzling.



Yet beneath the grim tales are common threads. Defense attorneys say parents were stunned by the extent of their children's medical needs and behavioral disorders. Prosecutors accuse the defense of trying to shift the blame to innocent victims, who survived the deprivation of Russian orphanages only to die in the families that were supposed to care for them.
translated.

Parents were lied by orphanage authorities and children medical condition was left out of discussion. Good example of letting commercial companies do such job.

And the doctors and psychologists who treat such children say some parents are rushing into adoption unprepared for the problems that can accompany youngsters from Eastern European and other orphanages, ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome to emotional disorders.
That is why romanian authorities stopped dealing with American commercial agencies.


"We're talking about very, very at-risk children placed with families who don't know what they're doing, who are often left completely on their own," said Dr. Jerri Jenista, a Michigan physician and adoptive mother who consults with families seeking children uoabroad. "It's a prescription for disaster."
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/15097Quoted for true.

About children in car. Some quote:


An average 33 children died per year from 1998-2004 from heatstroke after being left unattended in a vehicle.
On days when ambient temperatures exceeded 86°F, the internal temperatures of the vehicle quickly reached 134°F to 154°F
taken from http://www.usa.safekids.org/.

OT. What I like in american society is that these guys aren't afraid of action and have comities, societies, etc. tackling pretty much all aspects of our lives.

[kosse]

The status of many children has deteriorated since the collapse of communism because of falling living standards, an increase in the number of broken homes, and domestic violence. In Moscow, approximately 6,000 children per year were brought to the Center of Temporary Isolation of Minor Delinquents (COVINA). These children stayed in COVINA for no more than 30 days. During this period, a child's case was investigated, and his or her guardian was located; however, in 90 to 95 percent of these cases, the police simply returned the children to their families or to the institution from which they had run away. Many officials considered such domestic problems private affairs and preferred not to interfere. Ministry of Labor and Social Protection estimates indicated that approximately 1 million minors spend most of their time on the streets of big cities, neglected by their parents or caregivers. According to data of the Training and Research Center of the Ministry of Education, almost 130,000 new children are registered annually nationwide as lacking parental support and supervision. In St. Petersburg alone, the number of street children was estimated to be between 20,000 and 45,000.

Figures for homeless children were unreliable. According to the Ministry of Labor, estimates of neglected children ranged from 100,000 to 5 million. In 2002, an estimated 681,000 vagrant children were detained by law enforcement agencies, 2.5 times the 2001 rate. Approximately 50,000 adolescents were on the local and federal lists of missing children in 2002, 13.5 percent more than in 2001. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that approximately 50,000 children run away from home each year. According to the State Report on the Status of Children in the Russian Federation for 2003 (reporting statistics as of 2002), there were 700,000 street children and neglected children. The number of homeless children reportedly was growing by 100,000 to 130,000 every year and had reached about 1 million, according to Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin; however, estimates from NGOs were much higher. Moscow authorities indicated that 40,000 working street children lived in the capital but claimed that 80 percent were from places other than Moscow. Homeless children often engaged in criminal activities, received no education, and were vulnerable to drug and alcohol abuse. Some young girls on the street turned to, or were forced into, prostitution in order to survive.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41704.htm


Furthermore human trafficking and trafficking especially in children seems to be a major problem according to the document.

It's not long ago when there was a documentary on national television here about a Russian orphanage for non-priviledged disabled children. In all honesty, it was house of horrors and death rate was propably very high. There seems to be very little political will in Russia to take care of disabled people. Now what I don't get is why it's such a big deal when even a fraction of these kids are offered a decent life for example in US.

And it's worth noting that this problem would not even exist if Russian parents took care of their children. Besides, getting adopted to US is a fecking jackpot considering what's the alternative in many cases.

I think Doublethinker shouls start worrying about all the neglected children in Russia itself before starting to take jabs at people in other countries who are trying to help.

[Brute]

And of course I'm sure he would have been much better off in a state orphanage run by the oh-so-compassionate Russian government, eh Comrade?

No, of course not! Death in an 130 F car is a lot better than a life in a "state orphanage run by the oh-so-compassionate Russian government"! You know, "Better dead than red" and all that jazz, Mister.

Think before you type!

[0rphie]

Sure, no arguing here.

What bothers me is exactly this sort of problem - you can't check on a family that is living in another country, so the methods of control are absent even in theory.

And notice that - Americans eagerly control the life and well-being of adopted American children, i.e. children of local nationals.

Perhaps, some sort of a dialogue could be established between American and Russian counterparts so that American organizations control the life and well-being with Russian adoptees with equal zeal.
Sorry dude, you have no freaking idea what "we" do to our "own children", you might be stunned to learn. This tragedy could have easily happened to an adopted infant whose biological mother lived next block. You just do not follow the local news that is why you may think that "we" do those terrible things to kids from other countries. How about putting their own son (9 yo) in a cage where he lived most of his life. The parents were not some bums, the father worked as an engineer for a big military contractor. Or a recent case where a police officer had to shoot down a guy who was stomping on a toddler in CA.

I know a family who adopted two Russian girls (6 and 8 yo) from an orphanage. when they traveled to meet with them for the first time and came back they were heartbroken because of what they had seen. Their own children grew up and left home already and they decided that they want to care for somebody else. They immensely regret that in their time they could only afford two own children, because of financial constrains. Now they probably could have afford to adopt whole orphanage. This is not the point though. they decided to adopt two children who know each other so they would be comfortable in a new home. A guy with whom I worked before and had two of his own children adopted two more, one from Indonesia the other from The Netherlands, his home country. He did not treat any of the four differently. Most people who adopt do care about the adoptees.

[Doublethinker]

Furthermore human trafficking and trafficking especially in children seems to be a major problem according to the document.

It's not long ago when there was a documentary on national television here about a Russian orphanage for non-priviledged disabled children. In all honesty, it was house of horrors and death rate was propably very high. There seems to be very little political will in Russia to take care of disabled people. Now what I don't get is why it's such a big deal when even a fraction of these kids are offered a decent life for example in US.

And it's worth noting that this problem would not even exist if Russian parents took care of their children. Besides, getting adopted to US is a fecking jackpot considering what's the alternative in many cases.

I think Doublethinker shouls start worrying about all the neglected children in Russia itself before starting to take jabs at people in other countries who are trying to help.



Those adopters who killed adoptees weren't really doing a good job, were they?

[Doublethinker]

Sorry dude, you have no freaking idea what "we" do to our "own children", you might be stunned to learn. This tragedy could have easily happened to an adopted infant whose biological mother lived next block. You just do not follow the local news that is why you may think that "we" do those terrible things to kids from other countries. How about putting their own son (9 yo) in a cage where he lived most of his life. The parents were not some bums, the father worked as an engineer for a big military contractor. Or a recent case where a police officer had to shoot down a guy who was stomping on a toddler in CA.

I know a family who adopted two Russian girls (6 and 8 yo) from an orphanage. when they traveled to meet with them for the first time and came back they were heartbroken because of what they had seen. Their own children grew up and left home already and they decided that they want to care for somebody else. They immensely regret that in their time they could only afford two own children, because of financial constrains. Now they probably could have afford to adopt whole orphanage. This is not the point though. they decided to adopt two children who know each other so they would be comfortable in a new home. A guy with whom I worked before and had two of his own children adopted two more, one from Indonesia the other from The Netherlands, his home country. He did not treat any of the four differently. Most people who adopt do care about the adoptees.


Yet again, I'm not arguing against the fact that most of those who adopt are really good fathers and mothers, and that there are idiots and monsters among biological parents.

Yet what saddens me, is that it is no consolation for those 14 dead.

Also, that is result exactly of what you say - good nature and kindness of American adopters, NOT effective work of organizations meant to control the life of adoptees in their new families.

[Doublethinker]

And of course I'm sure he would have been much better off in a state orphanage run by the oh-so-compassionate Russian government, eh Comrade?

yes.

He would have been alive.

Any more questions, my mentally challenged friend?

[0rphie]

Yet what saddens me, is that it is no consolation for those 14 dead.

Also, that is result exactly of what you say - good nature and kindness of American adopters, NOT effective work of organizations meant to control the life of adoptees in their new families.
I am very sorry for those 14 and probably more dead. I agree, a yearly visit of a DSS worker to a family who adopted a child form a foreign country might have helped.