# Russian PROBLEM CHILD sent HOME ALONE: thoughts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649 "2010-04-10T16:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Obsidian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/51bf81/32.png) [@Obsidian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obsidian)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/81 "2010-04-12T20:34:01Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > To compare a child – any child – to an animal is well . . . I don’t have the words. I’m really not defending the woman in this case. . . because she apparently didn’t even try to get the kid help. . . but in the story **needscoffee** linked, calling those kids animals is probably an insult to animals. One of them poisoned the mother. Another one killed 10 horses and 4 cats. It’s just really sad, because there are parents out there who are saints (the above people _still_ attend the boys’ therapy sessions), and as a poster-person on the national news. . . they get this woman. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/82 "2010-04-12T20:51:08Z")
> [@Obsidian](#): > > I’m really not defending the woman in this case. . . because she apparently didn’t even try to get the kid help. . . but in the story **needscoffee** linked, calling those kids animals is probably an insult to animals. One of them poisoned the mother. Another one killed 10 horses and 4 cats. > > It’s just really sad, because there are parents out there who are saints (the above people _still_ attend the boys’ therapy sessions), and as a poster-person on the national news. . . they get this woman. Exactly. You remember the badass Jason Statham played in “The Transporter”? Well, the dad apparently needed _two_ of those guys to help him deliver the news to the kids that they were going to be moved. These aren’t aren’t your garden variety menaces here. They’re full-fledged Damiens. Still, on a certain of level I do have to respect the adoptive parents’ devotion. They’re hardier souls than I would ever be. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/83 "2010-04-12T20:56:09Z")
If they hated their parents so much and can’t attach to anyone, why were they so angry at being moved? It’s so hard to understand minds like that, but I’m curious. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/84 "2010-04-12T21:04:21Z")
Let’s not confuse these two _very_ different cases. o.k.? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/85 "2010-04-12T21:31:55Z")
BTW, the American nonprofit adoption agency that was used, [WACAP](http://www.wacap.org/), has been around for 34 years and is very well regarded. [Here](http://www.wacap.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lpl%2fH4%2bX8L0%3d&tabid=36) is their response to this situation (pdf). ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/86 "2010-04-12T21:58:06Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > BTW, the American nonprofit adoption agency that was used, [WACAP](http://www.wacap.org/), has been around for 34 years and is very well regarded. [Here](http://www.wacap.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lpl%2fH4%2bX8L0%3d&tabid=36) is their response to this situation (pdf). This smells worse and worse. The adoptive mother didn’t even try to go to the agency that helped her adopt this child when she was having trouble with him? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/87 "2010-04-12T22:40:59Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > BTW, the American nonprofit adoption agency that was used, [WACAP](http://www.wacap.org/), has been around for 34 years and is very well regarded. [Here](http://www.wacap.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lpl%2fH4%2bX8L0%3d&tabid=36) is their response to this situation (pdf). I can’t say I’m terribly impressed by their requirements for adoptive families. From that FAQ (selected): > [@](#): > > Q: What is done by WACAP to ensure the safety of the child and the positive adjustment of the family? >  Prior to the adoption WACAP conducts a careful investigation of each family (see below for more details) which includes federal and state criminal and child abuse history checks. >  WACAP requires each family have a minimum of 10 hours of training and complete a “Parenting Resource Plan – a 13-page questionnaire, including 3 pages dedicated specifically to questions for families adopting an older child. >  WACAP provides several training opportunities for families prior to or after placement >  WACAP maintains an online chat board for families who have older child placements, which is monitored by a WACAP social worker. >  A WACAP case manager talks with the family when they are in the foreign country and contacts each parent within days of the child’s arrival home. >  WACAP adheres to Russia’s required post placement visits with the child and family four times after placement at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after placement. For older children additional visits are typical. I would think that a single parent especially should have more than “10 hours of training” (that’s a weekend- with plenty of time left over!), and anybody who’s ever gotten a mortgage knows a 13 page questionairre is nothing. Getting into grad school is much harder than this process. I’d suggest a lot more visits during the first 6 months as well. ANY international adoption- I don’t care if you have the sweetest best natured kid on earth- is going to have a rocky adjustment period and you’d think there’d be more immediate presence than a frigging chat board for God’s sake. ADOPTED VOLDEMORT IN TENNESSEE: So anybody else have kids try to burn house down or say they wanna kill u? ADOPTED DONDI IN OHIO: Oh sure, that’s just a phase. Probably had too much soda pop. Just doesn’t seem like much real support. ---
**Author:** ![MaddyStrut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@MaddyStrut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaddyStrut)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/88 "2010-04-12T23:19:12Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > So’s the idea that he was a psychopath, at least if his adoptive mother did not have him evaluated by a mental health professional of some sort. From the article in the OP, it sounds like she talked to psychologists, but didn’t take him to see one. I doubt a decent psychologist, psychiatrist, or therapist would diagnose someone as psychopathic (or anything else) without seeing the person first. > > For that matter, it doesn’t smell right that she didn’t take him to a therapist or psychiatrist or enroll him in school. That’s what bothers me. I see nothing about who diagnosed or even evaluated the child. Was it a professional or was it mom reading the internet? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649/89 "2010-07-20T21:21:14Z")
A discussion of the Ceausescu regime orphans online reminded me of this case and I wondered if charges were ever filed against Hansen or what else became of the case. The [latest update I can find](http://www.aolnews.com/article/who-will-write-the-end-to-russian-orphans-story/19530144) is from earlier this month and doesn’t mention Torry Hansen facing any charges. It does mention the new adoption pact twixt Russia & America. The child is at a small group home where it’s said he has forgotten Russian “or pretends to”. There’s a picture of the kid for those interested. I think the truth to this, not surprisingly, lies between the Russian version and the Torry-Ann version: I think she was less a flake than the Russians paint her and the child far more disturbed than their contradictory reports indicate (they talk in the article about how emotionally healthy and normal he is and then describe a child who is anything but); I think it was a serious situation, that there was some non-disclosure (possibly because the orphanage personnel didn’t know it) and that Hansen handled the situation very very very badly, but I hope the new agreement will tighten adoption procedures and background checks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-problem-child-sent-home-alone-thoughts/535649.md?page=4)