Should Jerri Gray, Mom of 555 Pound Child, Be in Jail?

What constitutes neglect of a child? As a former Social Worker if a child had a roof over his head, clothes on his body, and some food in the refrigerator then he was being taken care of. Times have gotten stricter especially as our children's obesity has reached an epidemic level. Not only is it unhealthy but for many of us we will be paying for hospital bills and even special needs down the road due to poor nutrition.

Jerri Gray is a mom from South Carolina who has been charged with neglect and put in jail. Her 14-year old son, Alexander, is 555 pounds. I feel for her. I really do. She seems to have some legitimate reasons that her child's weight is under control. But it is not to late. There are reasons she has not taken advantages of getting him help. She seems to not have health care that will pay for the treatment he needs. She works more than one job making it hard to make nutritious meals.

Alex is in the custody of the Department of Social Services. Jerri wants Alex back and wants to learn how to get him and most likely her healthy. I have seen pictures of her on the Internet and she is a heavy woman. Granted she is not morbidly obese as is her son but she is his role model and if she goes through McDonalds's and gets a supersize everything then so will her son. If neither is active and it seems they are not those calories just turn right into fat.

Alex will die without help. As a child his mother is his advocate and in charge. We don't have all the facts but it seems we have enough to surmise that Jerri doesn't have the time for healthy food and perhaps out of guilt for being single and working allows Alex to eat what he wants.

In my venue for over 15 years we would want to unite the two and get them into counseling; parenting classes; support classes for children; and help them. Paying for Jerri to be in jail makes no sense to anyone. I would expect Alex to be eating more out of stress. He may be hording food or sneaking it but I would bet that he is eating. Unless he is in a hospital which he isn't he cannot get the help he needs.Let's not punish moms for circumstances they can't also control or don't know how to control. Let's give them tools to turn their lives around.