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Blue Spring parents lock 12 year old cerebral palsy son in empty house for 5 weeks

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Blue Springs Missouri parents lock cerebral palsy child in house
Pictured, Janine and Brendon Luke, Blue Springs, Missouri couple.
Blue Springs Missouri parents lock cerebral palsy child in house
Pictured, Janine and Brendon Luke, Blue Springs, Missouri couple.

Janine and Brendon Luke, Blue Springs, Missouri couple charged with child neglect for locking cerebral palsy-stricken 12-year-old son in a house for five weeks.

A Missouri couple have been arrested have been charged with child neglect after police say they locked their cerebral palsy-stricken 12-year-old son who uses a wheelchair alone in a house for more than a month.

Janine and Brendon Luke, both 30, from Blue Springs, were arrested last Thursday in the case involving their special-needs son.   

According to probable cause affidavits obtained by Fox 4, Janine Allen Luke and Brendan J. Luke, kept the child confined to an empty house without any in-person adult supervision for five weeks beginning on or around May 10.

A local police described the case as the worst case of child neglect he has ever come across.

The Lukes kept watch over the boy using a home security system equipped with cameras.

Unclear is what public or local affiliates, if any, existed for the child’s extraneous needs being addressed. 

At the time of their arrest last week, the parents reportedly told investigators they were forced to leave the house because their son was violent and prone to outbursts.

According to the documents, the mother and father also attempted to deceive their neighbors by creating an illusion that there was someone living with their son.

Lori Ross, CEO of Foster Adopt Connect in Kansas City spoke of the unique challenges of caring for children with cerebral palsy well with KTEN. The caretaker has fostered more than 400 children, including two with cerebral palsy.

‘What they chose to do is absolutely uncalled for,’ Ross said of the parents charged. ‘If a child was to need help with feeding or toileting, that’s something that would need an adult caregiver to be with him at all times. That child would potentially be at risk of dying from complications related to those issues.’

Ross said she’s sympathetic to families who seek assistance for children with disabilities within a complicated matrix of agencies. She said that system was already tough to navigate, and during the COVID-19 era, the network of agencies broke down further.

However, Ross said the choices the Luke family made were dangerous.

The 12-year-old has since been taken into protective custody.  

The parents have been released on bond and ordered to have no contact with their son.

As of Thursday, the Lukes have yet to make their initial appearance before a judge.  

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