The following write up was in the paper this morning. The seven year old was one of my students. The school is the one that called Children and Youth based on reports my assistants and I gave my principal and school nurse. I did remove her name from the article because I still feel pretty uncomfortable blogging about my work and students, but I mean, this is in the paper.
I still can't even process it all. Somedays it's just too hard to wrap your head around how children could be mistreated so badly.
POTTSTOWN — Her home allegedly infested by flies and bed bugs and littered with dirty diapers, feces and rotting food, a Pottstown woman faces charges she endangered her four children.
NAME REMOVED, 27, of East Second Street, waived her preliminary hearing before District Court Judge Thomas Palladino on charges of endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering other persons in connection with a December incident that authorities described as a serious case of child neglect.
"It was a real-life horror to see what the kids were living in. It was horrific. It was a self-imposed squalor by NAME REMOVED. No child should have to live like that," said Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Nathan Schadler.
"To call the conditions deplorable would be giving them an upgrade. I've never seen a case of such squalor and disgust," Schadler added.
Thompson remains free on bail pending her formal arraignment on the charges in county court later this year.
An investigation of NAME REMOVED began in December when borough police received a report of alleged child neglect occurring at the home. Police, accompanied by officials of Montgomery County Children and Youth Services, went to the home on Dec. 3 for a check of the house and to remove four children, ages 1 to 7, from the home, according to court papers.
"The house was infested with flies that were in every room of the house. There was also what appeared to be human feces on the doorway," alleged Pottstown Detective Rebecca Moletzsky, adding an open bag of tobacco was on a table within reach of children.
Police also found a bucket of dirty water that posed a danger to the children on the kitchen floor and an overflowing bag of garbage.
"There were bowls, plates and containers with old food with flies in them or flies going in and out of the food. There was no edible food in the refrigerator, and it was completely filthy. Also there were dead flies in the refrigerator," Moletzsky alleged.
Beer bottles, trash, old food and dirty diapers were scattered throughout the house and dirty mattresses were discovered in the children's rooms, authorities alleged.
"The mattresses were flipped up because they were infested with bed bugs. The children have bites all over them. A pile of feces was in a corner of the room. One of the walls had the drywall ripped off and there were pieces of drywall and dust all over the floor," Moletzsky wrote in the arrest affidavit.
In the bathroom, authorities found mold forming on a bathtub that did not appear to be used for a while, a dirty toilet and a sink filled with junk, including a stereo and electrical wiring, according to the criminal complaint.
"No child should think that's the norm growing up living like that. It should be human conditions. These conditions were inhuman. Anytime children are forced to live under such conditions we must protect them," Schadler said.
If she is convicted of the charges at trial, NAME REMOVED faces a possible maximum sentence of 4½ - to-nine-years in prison.
