Social worker in caged kids case gets probation

Elaine Thompson

Private social worker Elaine Thompson won’t go to prison after all for her role in the “caged-kids” case in Huron County. Thompson, who practices in a controversial field known as “attachment therapy,” was hired by Norwalk couple Michael and Sharen Gravelle as a last resort to help their 11 special needs adopted kids [“The Exorcists,” March 7].
Thompson was well aware of the wood and wire cages the Gravelles had constructed to contain their children, who roamed the house at night beating the crap out of each other and eating batteries. Yet the social worker claimed she approved of the cages as a desperate but needed parenting tool. Unfortunately, the Huron County prosecutor didn’t see it that way. After charging the Gravelles with child abuse and endangering last year, he slapped Thompson with charges for aiding them.
Thompson pleaded guilty in exchange for taking the lesser charge of failing to report a crime. This week, a Huron County judge stopped short of sending her to jail (she was facing three months), but instead sentenced her to five years of probation. Her social worker license will be revoked until she’s off supervision. — Jared Klaus

This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2007.

I agree entirely with Julia Gomez’s comment on Jared Klaus’ article (“The Exorcists: The fine line between saving children and torturing them,” March 7, 2007). That article was one of the worst journalistic jobs I’ve seen in years. If these children were as horrid as Klaus painted them, the Gravelle’s and Elaine Thompson would never have been charged in the first place. And yet, curiously, the Gravelles, supposedly desperate to control their beastly mob, were taking on more children.
Demonizing foster and adopted children is exactly what Attachment Therapists, and the parents caught up in this cult-like pop psychotherapy, do routinely. (They even interpret *good* behavior as sneaky and manipulative.) And when there is evidence to the contraray and the press STILL assists in repeating this vile stereotype of foster/adoptive children, these children are undoubtedly hurt even more.
Thompson pled guilty to *not reporting a CRIME.* That crime was her therapy approach, aka “Attachment Therapy” and its associated Attachment Therapy parenting (aka Nancy Thomas parenting; http://www.childrenintherapy.org/proponents/thomas.html) that the Gravelles admitted to following. Thompson belongs in jail even more than the Gravelles. She was the trusted professional, one who was supposed to curb abusive parenting, not encouraging it on the basis of some bizarre, fringe psycho-babble.
The Gravelle/Thompson case, however, points to a much more serious problem. Attachment Therapy (aka Holding Therapy, Rage Reduction, etc.) is denounced as abusive by the American Psychological Association’s Division on Child Maltreatment and other organizations. Yet the State of Ohio is quite generous when it comes to Attachment Therapy, subjecting who knows how many children to actual — and I am chosing my word precisely here — torture. Indeed, public funds financed the Attachment Therapy of the Gravelle children. Who has been held accountable there?
Attachment Therapists try to get off the hook by claiming they don’t do the coercive Holding Therapy anymore, but look at how Ohio’s leading Attachment Therapist Gregory Keck, Ph.D.(in criminology from Union Institute) presently describes Holding Therapy on his website:
Holding Therapy….Holding the child or adolescent is accomplished by having him lie across the laps of two therapists and/or his parents. His right arm is behind the back of the lead therapist, who is sitting closest to the child’s head. His left arm is free, or may be restrained if he uses it to try to hit the therapist or to engage in self-stimulation such as scratching or fidgeting. Such self-stimulating activities may increase during holding as the child attempts to deflect contact with the therapist…Holding produces emotional responses that are unlikely to occur in any other kind of therapeutic intervention….Some people refer to holding therapy as rage reduction therapy. We think that the term “rage reduction” is a limited description of what holding encompasses. Of course reducing the child’s rage is a desirable and necessary outcome…. (http://www.abcofohio.net/holding.htm)
Ohio clearly needs a children’s ombudsman to stop the government from subsidizing abusive and unvalidated therapy.
Heaven knows what it will take for the *Cleveland Scene* to stop referring to a 5-year-old child, who is placed in restraint and then provoked, as becoming a “monster.” The lack of compassion for a helpless human being put in that impossible position is truly appalling.

2 replies on “Social worker in caged kids case gets probation”

Linda Rosa, RN says:

April 12, 2007 at 5:13 pm

I agree entirely with Julia Gomez’s comment on Jared Klaus’ article (“The Exorcists: The fine line between saving children and torturing them,” March 7, 2007). That article was one of the worst journalistic jobs I’ve seen in years. If these children were as horrid as Klaus painted them, the Gravelle’s and Elaine Thompson would never have been charged in the first place. And yet, curiously, the Gravelles, supposedly desperate to control their beastly mob, were taking on more children.
Demonizing foster and adopted children is exactly what Attachment Therapists, and the parents caught up in this cult-like pop psychotherapy, do routinely. (They even interpret *good* behavior as sneaky and manipulative.) And when there is evidence to the contraray and the press STILL assists in repeating this vile stereotype of foster/adoptive children, these children are undoubtedly hurt even more.
Thompson pled guilty to *not reporting a CRIME.* That crime was her therapy approach, aka “Attachment Therapy” and its associated Attachment Therapy parenting (aka Nancy Thomas parenting; http://www.childrenintherapy.org/proponents/thomas.html) that the Gravelles admitted to following. Thompson belongs in jail even more than the Gravelles. She was the trusted professional, one who was supposed to curb abusive parenting, not encouraging it on the basis of some bizarre, fringe psycho-babble.
The Gravelle/Thompson case, however, points to a much more serious problem. Attachment Therapy (aka Holding Therapy, Rage Reduction, etc.) is denounced as abusive by the American Psychological Association’s Division on Child Maltreatment and other organizations. Yet the State of Ohio is quite generous when it comes to Attachment Therapy, subjecting who knows how many children to actual — and I am chosing my word precisely here — torture. Indeed, public funds financed the Attachment Therapy of the Gravelle children. Who has been held accountable there?
Attachment Therapists try to get off the hook by claiming they don’t do the coercive Holding Therapy anymore, but look at how Ohio’s leading Attachment Therapist Gregory Keck, Ph.D.(in criminology from Union Institute) presently describes Holding Therapy on his website:
Holding Therapy….Holding the child or adolescent is accomplished by having him lie across the laps of two therapists and/or his parents. His right arm is behind the back of the lead therapist, who is sitting closest to the child’s head. His left arm is free, or may be restrained if he uses it to try to hit the therapist or to engage in self-stimulation such as scratching or fidgeting. Such self-stimulating activities may increase during holding as the child attempts to deflect contact with the therapist…Holding produces emotional responses that are unlikely to occur in any other kind of therapeutic intervention….Some people refer to holding therapy as rage reduction therapy. We think that the term “rage reduction” is a limited description of what holding encompasses. Of course reducing the child’s rage is a desirable and necessary outcome…. (http://www.abcofohio.net/holding.htm)
Ohio clearly needs a children’s ombudsman to stop the government from subsidizing abusive and unvalidated therapy.
Heaven knows what it will take for the *Cleveland Scene* to stop referring to a 5-year-old child, who is placed in restraint and then provoked, as becoming a “monster.” The lack of compassion for a helpless human being put in that impossible position is truly appalling.
Monica Pignotti says:

April 13, 2007 at 6:00 pm

I fully agree with Linda Rosa’s comments. Elaine Thompson’s failure to report and condoning of the cages and the so-called “attachment therapy” she practiced is, in my opinion, abusive and a disgrace to the Social Work profession. She deserves to have her license permanently revoked and she should never be allowed to go near another child or any other client as a Social Worker. Moreover, if there were any social justice for these innocent children, Ms. Thompson should be serving time in prison, alongside the Graevilles. It is time to stop blaming the victims who are innocent children, and hold all of the adults responsible accountable.
Monica Pignotti, MSW