Parents: Abducted boy wants to help other kids

[clevin]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16690284/

Winfrey said the boy told her off-camera that he was "terrified" to contact his parents during the last four years.

In the TODAY interview, his parents suggested that Shawn was too afraid to ever try to escape, even though he was apparently left alone for hours at a time during the four years he went missing.

"You gotta to remember that Shawn was 11 years old when he was taken. So he was much more vulnerable then than he is now and obviously something was done to keep him there," Craig Akers said. "You know you can be bound mentally as well as physically. You can be so terrified and so afraid that it can control your life, which obviously it did."

I seriously doubt this kid's word. 4 years? Im guessing he has some sort connection with that "kidnapper".

[obeygiant]

Everybody says that its stockholm syndrome but the kid was living some kind of life. He was able to get his lip pierced so he obviously had some kind of freedom.

Here is what your good friend Bill O'Reilly said about it:

"Last night, I said 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck might have accepted his kidnapping by Michael Devlin rather than trying to escape. I also said I don't believe much in the Stockholm syndrome—that is the captive becoming attached to the kidnapper. Now, Greta Van Susteren disagreed with me and so did many of you. This is a complicated, disturbing story that is important for all Americans. After teaching teenagers in high school, it is hard for me to believe that a normal kid would stay in a horrible environment when escape was easy, especially if the child had confidence in his parents. No question this monster Devlin made threats and intimidated Shawn. But teenagers have brains and Shawn had the freedom to get away if he wanted to. The situation is made even more complicated by the fact that kidnapped children are always traumatized. There's huge damage done to any child in that situation. Now, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reasonably editorialized today that the public does not have to know all the details of this case and that further damage can be done to Shawn Hornbeck by the media. That is certainly true. But it's also true that we're living in a dangerous time and children must be taught about evil, and must be prepared to face it because they'll likely have to. All American children must be taught survival skills, and must be prepared to face crisis situations. That is the lesson of the Shawn Hornbeck story."

The Factor continued to take issue with the idea that Shawn Hornbeck experienced Stockholm syndrome: "When this story broke, you had all these experts scurry out and immediately say Stockholm syndrome. They don't know the boy, they don't know the circumstances, they don't know anything. And I thought that was irresponsible. Because, again, I taught high school. I know these kids. I know how rebellious teenagers are. I know that they don't respond well to any kind of oppression. And this is the exact opposite of that." Dr. Debra Mandel said, "A lot of times, the syndrome is put out and we hold the criteria so dear to us, that it has to meet it perfectly. And a lot of times somebody may be a little sub-threshold from the syndrome, so that you can have qualities like that. And if somebody has been terrorized, and if somebody's been threatened that their family's going to be killed if they speak up, or that they're going to be killed, they live in that state of terror. And they will sometimes develop a very strong loyalty to their abductor." The Factor felt the media was too easily blaming Stockholm syndrome: "I think it's too glib and too easy to say Stockholm Syndrome, bing, bang, bang, that's what happened. I don't think that's what happened. I hope that this is something that's explainable, because American parents and children need to know what happened there. It's very important.

You have to give the kid the benefit of the doubt that he was afraid for his life, but the question if he liked the life he was living must be raised.

[Ugg]

but the question if he liked the life he was living must be raised.

Why? What business is it of ours? This kid has enough to deal with without the media and the public descending on him as though he were a freak.

[obeygiant]

Why? What business is it of ours? This kid has enough to deal with without the media and the public descending on him as though he were a freak.

Your answer is that its none of our business? If thats your stance then why comment on anything?

The question is if the boy wanted to be where he was or not.

[it5five]

Your answer is that its none of our business? If thats your stance then why comment on anything?

Ugg was right. It isn't our business. This was a personal event that happened to a boy and a family. I don't see how you say "If thats your stance then why comment on anything?" when this situation really isn't our business, whereas politics is everyone's business, since it is a public thing.

[aquajet]

Whether or not the boy liked his extended stay is none of our business. Our only business is to make sure the kidnapper doesn't do it again.

What possible benefit can we, the public, gain by asking this question? It's ludicrous. Leave it to the boy, his family and his therapist.

[DZ/015]

The possible benefit we can gain is being able to help prevent our children from suffering the same fate.

[leekohler]

Your answer is that its none of our business? If thats your stance then why comment on anything?

The question is if the boy wanted to be where he was or not.

So- as long as kidnappees like their kidnappers it's OK? Give me a ****ing break. :rolleyes:

[obeygiant]

The possible benefit we can gain is being able to help prevent our children from suffering the same fate.

yes


So- as long as kidnappees like their kidnappers it's OK? Give me a ****ing break. :rolleyes:

and no.

[Cybergypsy]

The kidnapper let him do thing his parents would not Hence he stayed...

[aquajet]

Well that explains everything. So all we have to do now is let children have everything they want. That'll stop them from being kidnapped. Brilliant.

[obeygiant]

Well that explains everything. So all we have to do now is let children have everything they want. That'll stop them from being kidnapped. Brilliant.

Thats not the point and you know it.

[Ugg]

Thats not the point and you know it.

The point is that a sensationalist press and a vengeful public are not the way to come to a conclusion about why this happened. The kid needs counseling. When the counselors come to a conclusion why this happened, then it's time for public discourse, until then, you and all the other armchair psychiatrists are just fanning the flames of vigilantism.

[benthewraith]

We don't even know why it happened and how it happened. This case screams eeriness, but we don't know. Oh, and the kid was not even in puberty when he was kidnapped.

This kid needs counselling, not the media down his throats.

[bousozoku]

The sad thing is that his parents could be monsters and that's why he stayed away so long.

The family has a lot to reconcile with only the issues of Shawn's being gone so long and the media won't do anything to help. Let them be so that they can get on with their lives.

[solvs]

Here is what your good friend Bill O'Reilly said about it:

And he wonders why people don't like him. I don't know what the situation was, but I feel bad for any kid that gets kidnapped. Just as I do for any kid with an abusive parent they can't get away from. We don't know the situation, but neither does he.

I suppose a little sympathy is too much to ask for from Mr. Falafel.

[poopyhead]

People are judging the situation based on seeing a 14 year old kid on tv. it is important to realize that the situation does not truly involve a 14 year old but instead an 11 year old who was kidnapped, driven a few hundred miles away from his family, held in relative isolation if not true confinement, and according to the news today repetedlty sodomized by a 30 something year old man. To judge why the kid stayed based on what one would feel the appropriate reaction of a 14 year old would be is inappropriate and uncalled for.

[poopyhead]

You have to give the kid the benefit of the doubt that he was afraid for his life, but the question if he liked the life he was living must be raised.

Why do kids stay with abusive parents or foster parents? Why do adults stay in physically and mentally abusive relationships? Why do bad things happen to people every day that they never talk about or do anything about?

are you suggesting that it is because they like it?