A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.
The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.
It is quite possible their obsession with the Internet is to blame, but if it hadn’t have been the Internet, it would have been something else. Whether it was lack of knowledge as to raising children, lack of basic love for one’s children, or pure evil on the part of people who could control the life of the defenseless, remains to be seen…..what ever the cause, these babies will continue to need protection from their parents.
nothing to do with anything electronic – ervything to do with two parents moronic
It is not as if they cannot have noticed when the children actually pleaded for food and attention. Despicable.
What do you expect in a state where parents seem to have only recently figured out that children should not sit alone in cars in 100+ degree weather.
{Sigh}
[blockquote]It is not as if they cannot have noticed when the children actually pleaded for food and attention.[/blockquote]
Don’t be so sure. Addictive behavior can shut out the world pretty darned effectively. I have the same level of obliviousness when I’m reading a good book. Or playing Sid Meier’s Gettysburg.