CHILD ABUSE: THE STORY OF CANDACE NEWMAKER

 CHILD ABUSE: THE STORY OF CANDACE NEWMAKER

The story of Candace was revealed to many through a video game, apparently never released on the market, called "Petscop". During the gameplay, a boy named Paul discovers a dark and sinister side way. Among the various macabre references, there are many related to the rebirth and Newmaker. It seems that the game refers precisely to the girl who died at the age of ten during an "attachment therapy" session. Candace was born in North Carolina to parents from whom she and her brother are taken away due to neglect. The two are separated, and Candace is entrusted to an unmarried woman, Jeane Newmaker, who works as a pediatric nurse in Durham, North Carolina. A few months after the adoption, the woman makes the first complaints about the attitude and lack of empathy of the child, who seems to enjoy playing with matches and killing goldfish. Candace is thus introduced to psychiatric sessions and the taking of psychotropic drugs which, according to her adoptive mother Jean, only worsen the child's behavior. In April 2000, the two travel to Colorado to undergo an intensive two-week program of "attachment therapy" sessions for the "modest" fee of $ 7,000. Before recounting the experience of poor Candace, I would like to explain in a few words what are the theories and methodologies behind this "attachment therapy", and also to point out that this practice is absolutely not recognized at a clinical and scientific level by the society of psychologists and psychiatrists. Children who follow this path are usually children in foster care or adoption, who can develop feelings of anger and detachment towards reality, and indifference towards the new parent figures. Those who believe in the practice of attachment therapy argue that the child should initially be subjected to manipulations, by therapists and parents, aimed at immobilizing the kid to the point of unleashing anger and despair which, theoretically, should lead to catharsis due to the inability to move. At that point, the parental figures will have to take care to cradle, bottle-feed the baby and force prolonged eye contact to trigger feelings of maternal and paternal bond from the minor towards the adults. This therapy also instructs parents to have total control over the child through the use of practices that have often caused the injury, or even death in some cases, of many innocent children. Some of the practices are deep and forced massage of the epithelium, aversive tickling, punishments related to the control of food and water intake, denial of social relationships outside the family environment, sitting without doing anything for prolonged periods of time, etc.

Now, let's go back to Candace's story and her horrifying experience at the Attachment Center in Evergreen, Colorado. During their second week at the center, the unlicensed therapists Connell Watson and Julie Ponder decide it's time to attempt a "rebirth" session on Candace. The girl is lying on the ground on a blanket in which she is wrapped, and then covered with pillows with which she is literally compressed by four adults with a total weight of 673 lbs. The compression, the darkness and the fetal position assumed by the girl should reenact the exit from the uterus during birth, after which the rejoin to the adoptive mother should follow. Mrs. Watson, whom I am ashamed to call Doctor, urges Candace to push and free herself from pillows, blanket and four, I repeat four, adults sitting above her. After less than ten minutes of the rebirth session, Candace begins to show signs of discomfort saying that she cannot breathe and that she cannot free herself. The little girl asks who the person sitting on her head is and continues to beg the people on top of her to give her the chance to breathe; she is called a "coward", and she is told that she doesn't really want to be reborn but to die. The torture lasts for 70 minutes during which to the pleas of Candace, Watson's assistant replies "then die!". Then, the girl asks "for real?". Candace vomits and defecates wrapped in that lethal grip and then dies of asphyxiation. When the team notices that the girl is no longer showing vital signs, they attempt a CPR maneuver to restore the heartbeat, but it is all in vain. Candace is declared deceased at Denver hospital. I don't want to list what the verdicts were when the case was brought to court, because these offenders, including the adoptive mother, will never pay enough for Candace's murder. Instead, I would like to say a few words in memory of some of the children who lost their lives or suffered aberrant physical and psychological violence due to the therapy practiced by these fools: 

• Andrea Swenson, 13, survived the trauma afflicted during the recreational path at the center in Evergreen. When she asked her adoptive parents what would happen to her if she took drugs in large quantities or if she cut her veins, the answer was "you would die". Andrea overdosed after taking aspirin in high quantities, suffered all night and vomited until the morning of the following day. In response, her adoptive parents left her at home alone and went bowling. She was found dead in the corridor by a neighbor.  

• Lucas Ciambrone, 7, malnourished, beaten, bitten and forced to sleep in a bare toilet in his adoptive parents' home in Florida. After he was pronounced dead, the autopsy revealed burns, signs of violence and five broken ribs. The parents declared that living with Lucas was hell due to his brutal violence. The school denied the child's aggressive behavior.

• David Polreis, 2, beaten to death by his mother who took him to therapy due to hypothetical attachment disorders. The woman claimed that she beat him to death and acted in self-defense (he's a 2-year-old boy, not Chucky!)

• Krystal Tibbets, 3, killed by her father during an attachment therapy practice taught in a Utah clinic. The man immobilized her and compressed the abdomen of the little girl until she passed away.

• Logan Marr, 5, on a whim was glued to the chair and silenced with duct tape by the foster mother, who locked her in the basement where the child died of suffocation. The woman said she only performed some of the techniques taught her by attachment therapists.

• the Gravelles children, 11 children adopted by the Gravelles spouses, 10 of whom were forced to sleep in cages. The case brought to light accusations of extreme control over food intake and use of the bathroom, and severe punishment. The children were homeschooled and supervised by a therapist who practiced "attachment therapy".

• the Vasquez children, four children, three of them locked up in cages, malnourished and permitted only primitive sanitary facilities. The fourth child, the foster mother's favorite, was undergoing hormonal treatments to delay puberty. There was no therapist involved in this matter, but the adoptive mother stated that the children suffered from reactive attachment disorder.

These are just some of the difficulties and sufferings that many children face. These cases demonstrate that having children or adopting minors is NOT everyone's right; not all adults have the mental abilities and maturity to take charge of the education and growth of another human being. I was hoping all these pricks were rotting in some jail, but we all know most of them have already been reintegrated into society. A round of applause for the crap that, much more commonly, is called humanity. Thanks for reading. Martina.