Family Feeds Dogs, Starves Daughter, 14

SEATTLE — A father and stepmother were charged with withholding their 14-year-old daughter's food and water so drastically that she weighed only 48 pounds, authorities said.

Jon Pomeroy, 43, and his wife, Rebecca Long, 44, could face as much as four years in prison if convicted of criminal mistreatment, prosecutor's spokesman Dan Donohoe said. The couple were released on bail late Monday after the charges were brought.

The girl was removed from the family home near Carnation, about 40 miles east of Seattle, in August after a neighbor called child welfare authorities.

According to prosecutors, Long confirmed to a deputy that she considered the girl a behavior problem and restricted her water as discipline. The woman said she had been home-schooling the girl and her 12-year-old brother for four years.

The girl, who is 4 feet 7 inches tall, told authorities that she was given primarily toast to eat and only half a small cup of water per day. She said her stepmother even watched when she brushed her teeth to make sure she didn't drink extra water.

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Even the family's two dogs were fed normally and had recently been taken to the vet, authorities said.

The part that upsets me the most is the poor girl. But the fact that they were homeschooled bothers me too. As if homeschooling didn't already have a stigma attached to it. We try and teach our children, believing that we are the best teachers for them, (Our Public School System has pretty poor statistics), and then this loon comes along and raises doubts again in the minds of all the PSS advocates; NEA etc. Ugh!

See last post for scripture. :-)