Mom Of 555-Pound Teen Speaks Out
A mother is being charged with neglecting her obese teenage son, raising issues about whether the government has the right to intervene in one's family life.
Born and raised in South Carolina, Alexander Draper grew up to reach a dangerous 555 pounds by the age of 14. That's when law enforcement stepped in.
"The first and foremost concern is Alexander's health," Lt. Shea Smith told CBS News.
Alexander's mother, Jerri Gray, was charged with unlawful neglect of a child for allowing him to become obese.
"There have been opportunities to get Alexander some treatment over the course of the last several months and unfortunately some of those things have not been taken advantage of," Smith said.
But Gray, released from jail Monday on $50,000 bond, says she does not have enough money to get her son the treatment he needs.
Alexander is in the custody of the Department of Social Services, who in a statement to CBS News said they only intervene when "health care professionals believe a child is at risk of harm."
"Obviously her son is certainly in need of some medical attention," Lt. Smith said.
Jerri Gray and her defense attorney, Kim and Grant Varner, appeared on The Early Show Thursday to discuss the situation.
Asked how his weight gain got so out of control, Gray said, "Well, a lot of times it had to do with lifestyle. A lot of times I had to work fulltime second shift or fulltime, third shift. And I wasn't home a lot."
Gray told guest host and "Britain's Got Talent" judge Amanda Holden she had been monitoring her son's diet, but that there were times she had to purchase fast food, when she'd have to sleep between shifts.
Asked if there are steps she could've taken earlier to have helped him not reach that level of weight, Gray said, "When I had a second shift hob, I would've rather been home, so that I could've spent more time focusing on preparing more low-fat type-meals."
While Alex is under state care right now, Gray believes her son needs to be with her. "Mentally he needs to be with me. We both need to be included together in whatever program that they have to offer so that we both can benefit from it. So as our lives go on together, then we will have learned how to control it and keep it under control."
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. Born and raised in South Carolina, Alexander Draper grew up to reach a dangerous 555 pounds by the age of 14. That's when law enforcement stepped in.
"The first and foremost concern is Alexander's health," Lt. Shea Smith told CBS News.
Alexander's mother, Jerri Gray, was charged with unlawful neglect of a child for allowing him to become obese.
"There have been opportunities to get Alexander some treatment over the course of the last several months and unfortunately some of those things have not been taken advantage of," Smith said.
But Gray, released from jail Monday on $50,000 bond, says she does not have enough money to get her son the treatment he needs.
Alexander is in the custody of the Department of Social Services, who in a statement to CBS News said they only intervene when "health care professionals believe a child is at risk of harm."
"Obviously her son is certainly in need of some medical attention," Lt. Smith said.
Jerri Gray and her defense attorney, Kim and Grant Varner, appeared on The Early Show Thursday to discuss the situation.
Asked how his weight gain got so out of control, Gray said, "Well, a lot of times it had to do with lifestyle. A lot of times I had to work fulltime second shift or fulltime, third shift. And I wasn't home a lot."
Gray told guest host and "Britain's Got Talent" judge Amanda Holden she had been monitoring her son's diet, but that there were times she had to purchase fast food, when she'd have to sleep between shifts.
Asked if there are steps she could've taken earlier to have helped him not reach that level of weight, Gray said, "When I had a second shift hob, I would've rather been home, so that I could've spent more time focusing on preparing more low-fat type-meals."
While Alex is under state care right now, Gray believes her son needs to be with her. "Mentally he needs to be with me. We both need to be included together in whatever program that they have to offer so that we both can benefit from it. So as our lives go on together, then we will have learned how to control it and keep it under control."
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This kid will cost an easy million dollars to house - fed - and treat. His mom will probably get another 200,000 in free legal help.
Do we have to pay a million dollars for every fat kid a mother allows to get this way?
IF we have to pay the million, then we should have a right to demand intervention earlier and some reasonable rules. You can't have it both ways.
but cannot be older than 25 years old.
Jimhenry
Blogger
www.cashforclunkersfacts.info
http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.info
http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/A-Ap/African-Americans-Diet-of.html
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=841f652449a8afaceac88487da0abe8a
What has happend to African Americans, is that we have migrated into the convience culture diets. I remember when I was a child and my mother could not afford to get Mcdonalds for me when I wanted a hamburger. So what did I get? a momma burger, which was a hunch of ground beef with peppers and onions, cheese, two slices of loaf bread and cut up potatoes. Which was still healthier than anything I could get at Mcdonalds. I remember that I had many meals with lima beans, rice, potatoes, string beans, peas, carrots, and so on. Back then we didn't go to Mcdonalds every night, we went to the kitchen table and got our meals. McDonalds, Burger King, KFC was a weekend or every once in a while treat for us. Now everyone goes to these places everyday because no one believes that they have the time to cook meals.
What you are missing is that she said that she couldn't make those meals because she had to work the later shifts, so she decided to buy fast food. What that is implying is that she went out and got something unhealthy. I agree, her being away from him because of her work schedule is effecting his diet, but the obivious is clear, she does not have any idea of how to manage her health and therefore does not know how to manage his. She is overweight just like her son is, so what is needed is not a weight loss program but rather some form of counselling to find out what the underlying issues that she and her son has.
Also to Toldyouso,
What you said about black diets is partially true, in the sense of minority groups recent dietary trends, however, historically, traditional african societies did not eat unhealthy. They had a diet of primarily beans, rice, vegetables, chicken and fish. What you see now with black people is a result of picking dietary habits from southern whites and dependence on low grade table scraps (chiterlings, chicken backs, haug mauls). You are placing way too much blame on the trend toward bigger backsides, saying that because Latino and Black people tend to like their women bigger is the reason why folks are getting overweight. I have eaten around poor and aflenent white people and their diets are no better than black and latino diets, it is not that folks want to have a big booty, As I have many white women complain to me that their butts are way too big and they want to get rid of them as it is a general shift of our society to a sessile convience driven world. No one has time to prepare foods from scrach (at least that is what people believe) and no one has time to exercise or their jobs require them to site behind a computer (like mine).
Your example of how much more expensive a healthy meal is a little misleading. If it cost you approximately 7.50 to purchase a Big Mac extra value meal, and about 30.00 to purchase ground beef, cheese, lettace, tomatoes and potatoes, it would always be cheaper to make the meal from scratch. This is because the number of meals yielded from purchasing the items from scrach would be greater than the number of Big Mac meals (about 3.5) for the same price and it is almost always healthier to make a fast food type meal from scratch than to purchase from a fast food estiblishment, because you can control the items you want to put into the meal and you would almost always come out with less fat, sodium and sugar.
It is not the expense of purchasing the items, it is how much does value their time and that is up to individual. You can eat a healthier diet on a budget as long as you are willing to spend time cooking.
She can't watch his eating habits all the time because she's working several jobs and he probably eats some of his "fast food" meals at school. School programs are based on profit and many of them are not healthy food programs.
Where's the dad? If she didn't have to work three jobs to pay the bills, she could spend more time cooking low-cal meals for her son.
This is not the Business of The Government!
We use to have something called the Constitution.
Even for the Slave States!
Actually, this kind of Gov reaction should not be considered funny, or taken Frivoluosly.
It is Because of these flawed governmental interactions, that this Nation, Constantly prosecutes the innocent, While the "Guilty Goes Free!
They're the cause of so many "Enrons, Worldcoms, Tycos, that go for so long undetected.
They are the reason we're now sentencing a 71 yr old man "Maddoff,to 150 yrs in prison. Excluding, Excusing his Wife and Family!
But if you are Role Playing, on the internet, like everyone else, including MSNBC's CHRIS HANSEN & Perverted Justice,
You can be prosecuted for "INTERNET BULLYING".
People, whom are constantly preoccupied doing the "Wrong Things" find it "Difficult to Impossible, to "DO THE RIGHT THING".