The Feral Child

by Lane DeGregory

Ark of Hope for Children helps abused and neglected children, hoping to bring them to light, hope and fullness. For this amount of neglect I have no words. Please comment once you read the full story.

"Her caseworker determined that she had never been to school, never seen a doctor. She didn't know how to hold a doll, didn't understand peek-a-boo. "Due to the severe neglect," a doctor would write, "the child will be disabled for the rest of her life."
"The authorities had discovered the rarest and most pitiable of creatures: a feral child. The term is not a diagnosis. It comes from historic accounts- some fictional, some true- of children raised by animals and therefore not exposed to human nurturing. Wolf boys and bird girls, Tarzan, Mowgli from "The Jungle Book."

Part One: The Feral Child

PLANT CITY- The family had lived in the rundown rental house for almost three years when someone first saw a child's face in the window. A little girl, pale, with dark eyes, lifted a dirty blanket above the broken glass and peered out, one neighbor remembered. Everyone knew a woman lived in the house with her boyfriend and two adult sons. But they had never seen a child there, had never noticed anyone playing in the overgrown yard. The girl looked young, 5 or 6, and thin. Too thin. Her cheeks seemed sunken; her eyes were lost. The child stared into the square of sunlight, then slipped away. Months went by. The face never reappeared. Just before noon on July 13, 2005, a Plant City police car pulled up outside that shattered window. Two officers went into the house- and one stumbled back out... read more

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Blair Corbett, founder, Ark of Hope for Children visit the Ark at www.arkofhopeforchildren.org for more helpful articles by Blair. Original article posted by Lane DeGregory, journalist, Tampa Bay Times Lane DeGregory can be reached at (727) 893-8825 or degregory@sptimes.com. Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.