Over the years we have posted extensively about abuse in adoptive families, and within our archives collected information about many different abuse cases. Abuse in adoptive families comes in many shapes and forms, ranging from neglect to deprivation, sexual abuse, exploitation and physical abuse.
When looking at the physical abuse cases, there seem to be two patterns that often emerge. Children, especially babies, beaten or shaken violently, and cases related to so-called "discipline".
Just two weeks ago, the California town of Paradise, was shocked by the abuse taking place in their community, when Lydia Schatz was "disciplined" to death by her adoptive parents for the mispronunciation of the word "pulled".
Outrageous as it may sound, this is not the only case where a child received cruel and unusual punishment over mispronunciation. In 1988, 5-year-old mentally delayed Abert Smith was beaten to death by his foster mother for not saying his prayers correctly. And in 2006, Jane Cochran tortured her 4-year-old adopted son to death, again for incorrectly saying his prayers.
So far most cases of absurd discipline we were able to find related to devout Christian adoptive and foster families, but an excerpt in the complaint of Boe v. Christian World Adoption, shows not only adoptive families sometimes engage in ridiculous forms of "discipline", but adoption agencies sometimes do the same.