Teen handcuffed in basement should have gotten help sooner
Lewis DiuguidFamilies with mentally ill children have options.
Unfortunately some people learn too late that they can seek help. A Northland couple, David Martin Sr. and Pamela Martin, were arrested and charged with felonious restraint and child abuse Tuesday after a hot line call earlier resulted in police finding the couple’s 17-year-old handcuffed to a pole in the basement.
The teen said he had been there several months. The couple said in court records that their son was bipolar, had attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and was “out of control,” The Kansas City Star reported. The parents said they were unable to buy his prescribed meds and had “run out of solutions to help him.”
The father withdrew the teen from high school on Sept. 27, allegedly to home-school him. That effectively took the boy off the grid so people who could have intervened were unable to see him slipping away mentally.
Mental health services are available for families in such situations. They don’t have to suffer alone, nor does the child. The teen went from about 130 pounds to 103 pounds.
The teen remains with a foster family.
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