A tip led investigators to a Newark apartment where they found two children, aged 7 and 4, cowering under a bed soaked in urine, feces, and vomit. Investigators later found the pair’s 7 year old brother, his dead body stuffed in a plastic storage container in a closet. He had died some weeks before of starvation and blunt trauma. It was revealed that the state’s Department of Youth and Family Services had been involved with the family but had ended this involvement the year before. Several employees were fired and a lawsuit bought by a children’s rights group resulted in reform of the system. The newspaper reports of the case do not mention homeschooling, but do mention that Faheem and his twin brother had never been to school. While we we make a point of not including cases where homeschooling is not involved explicitly, we list this case both because it is possible that New Jersey’s lax homeschool regulations (homeschool students are not required to submit any paperwork or take part in any assessments) may have played a role in social workers not ensuring that the boys were attending school before ending their involvement with the family the year before Faheem’s death, and because this case illustrates the danger absence from school can pose to children in abusive families.
Date: January 2003
Location: Newark, New Jersey
| Documents: | Date: |
| Newark Abuse Death Gets Uglier | 2003-01-07 |
| Funeral Set for Boy Found in Basement | 2003-01-27 |
| To Settle Suit in Boy’s Death, New Jersey to Pay $7.5 Million | 2006-11-12 |
| Reports of Abuse Made Against Mother of Irvington Girl Who Died | 2011-05-24 |
