RTR3H0SQ
(IN PHOTO) A girl places her fingers on her lips as she stands in a classroom at the therapy and development centre for autistic kids in the Asociacion Guatemalteca por el Autismo, or Guatemalan Association for Autism, building in Guatemala City March 13, 2014. Nine children, from 6-14 years old, with autism are enrolled at the centre which provides activities and therapies catered to them. The centre is the only one in the country that specifically conducts programs for autistic children, according to the association. Reuters

Wisconsin police had charged a couple of child neglect after it was discovered that they lock the 13-year-old autistic daughter of the woman in a basement. The basement has cement block walls, concrete floors, a single cot and a box of pull-ups.

But it didn’t have a toilet, and the girl had to answer the call of nature right where she was by wearing diapers, reports Chicago Tribune. It also does not have a sink or heater, which results in a very unsanitary living condition for the girl who goes to school at Wisconsin Middle School with a faeces-filled diaper.

Her stepfather reportedly is disgusted with her and calls her “Stink.” He does not allow her to use the family bathroom or other furniture. When she is allowed upstairs, she must stand on the carpet, according to one of her two stepsisters.

The girl’s teachers and school personnel have informed the Waukesha Department of Health and Human Services in December of her condition such as coming to school in soiled pants, dried faeces on her hair and stool coming out of the sleeves, bottom and neck of her shirt. As a result, the other pupils made fun of her.

When the school tried and told the mother that her condition is not acceptable, nothing happened. The girl, who has low-level autism and some cognitive disabilities, still goes to school in the same unsanitary condition.

However, on March 3, an anonymous parent called the Brookfield police and told them how the girl was treated like an animal. The police removed her from the family home and basement with a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius.

Ironically, a family support specialist has been working with the couple since spring of 2014 and had seen the teen’s deplorable conditions, but the specialist appears to have done nothing at all to correct the mistakes of the parents or report what she witnessed, reports Fox.

To contact the writer, email: v.hernandez@ibtimes.com.au

RELATED STORIES