When a little boy walked into his school and passed by a teacher, she was immediately grossed out by what she saw in his hair. As he continued walking, something seemed off with his step, and she looked down in horror at what was hanging between his legs.
A Panama City Beach, Florida, couple was arrested after their 6-year-old child’s teacher found bed bugs in his hair and lunch.
Helena and James Jones were arrested and charged with child neglect after the teacher’s findings – which lead authorities to discover that not only did the boy weigh just 37 pounds when he was found and often came to school in diapers.
Despite his age, the kindergartner wasn’t potty trained and wore a diaper to school daily, which administrators routinely saw hanging down between his legs, heavily soiled and appearing as if it hadn’t been changed since the day before. He was drastically underweight at just 37 pounds and was on medication that he had to be given throughout the school day which impaired his ability to walk and hold himself up. The boy was being overmedicated.
“Not just the fact that he is extremely underweight, but there is concern that he is being overmedicated so defendants can more easily supervise him,” deputies wrote in a report. “The overmedication is contributing to his health issues and is keeping him from learning at school.” School staff had reportedly removed bed bugs from the boy’s hair several times over the course of a year.
Just weeks before the Jones’ were arrested, their house was condemned following a bed bug infestation. The boy’s bed was infested, and blood was found on his sheets from bites. He also defected blood, which authorities believe was due to the medication his parents were giving him.
The family moved back into the condemned home after they were told to leave, AL.com reported.
The child was living with Helena P. Jones, 54, and James Claremont Jones, 59, whose relation to the boy was unknown, but both were arrested on Thursday and charged with neglect for the deplorable conditions he was forced to endure.
It’s absurd that it took a year for these degenerates to be arrested and this boy rescued and brought to safety. It took months of him progressively getting worse, being brought essentially to the brink of death, before anything was done about it.
At first sight of any of these obvious signs, authorities should have been called, but perhaps nobody wanted to get involved for fear of overstepping their bounds. When it comes to a child’s safety, all precautions should have been taken no matter what.
