Page 54 - WilmU Spring Summer 2013

House of Healing
AMBER AND JAMES PARRISH
Amber: B.S., General Studies/Business Management
(in progress)
James: B.S., Behavioral Science (in progress)
hen Amber and James Parrish first laid
eyes on the boys who would become
their sons, they almost didn’t believe
what they were seeing.
Could this be right? they wondered.
Fourteen years old and 40 pounds? Ten years old
and 28 pounds? Nine years old and 23 pounds?
The boys were drastically underweight and were
wearing clothes fit for children half their ages. They
had been reported by a stranger who saw the eldest
of the brothers, 19-year-old Bruce, digging through a
garbage can in search of food.
They were removed from their home in 2003 amid
accusations of abuse and placed in a safe haven
foster home run by James Parrish’s grandmother.
That’s when James Parrish and his wife, Amber,
first got to know the boys and found out what had
happened to them.
Before they were rescued from their “house of
horrors,” police said, the boys – TreShawn, Terrell
and Michael – were systematically starved, fed
mostly pancake ba er and raw oatmeal, and severely
neglected. Their adoptive parents, Vanessa and
Raymond Jackson, claimed their four sons were so
small because they suffered from eating disorders
and were not able to gain weight normally. Police
found a lock on the refrigerator and an alarm on
the kitchen door of the Jacksons’ home. One boy
told authorities he chewed on windowsills and wall
plaster because he was so hungry, and bite marks
were discovered around the house.
“This is by far the most horrific case of child abuse
and child neglect that we have seen over the years,”
Camden County, N.J., prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi
said during the Jacksons’ trial.
The case made international headlines and
resulted in a $12.5 million lawsuit se lement from the
New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services.
Police arrested and charged Raymond and Vanessa
Jackson with 28 counts of child endangerment and
aggravated assault. Raymond Jackson died of a
stroke during the trial; Vanessa served four years
in prison and was released. Both denied that they
starved the boys.
Now in their new foster home, the boys rapidly
began gaining weight and growing. But they had
plenty of anger and resentment from their horrid
BY JAIME BENDER
PHOTOS BY SUSAN GREGG AND TIM SHAFFER
Have you ever met a stranger and just listened?
Chances are, if they’re willing to talk, they’ve
got a pretty interesting story to tell. Theymight
inspire you to make a change, help others or
do something you’ve never done before.
Theymight even become a lifelong friend.
Here are three stories of Wilmington University
students that will inspire, enlighten and
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a series that will be published in future
issues of WilmUMagazine. These stories
are not in order of importance or rank.
WILMINGTON UNIVERSIT Y MAGAZINE