Mother of 555 pound teenager charged with neglect

(CBS) 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."

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at what point did mom not realize to stop what she was doing.... gah. worst parent of the year candidate for sure.

Pictures of said monstrosity or it does not exist....:suspect:

only one i could find thus far:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.parentdish.com/media/2009/05/555-poundteen-update.jpg
http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2009/06/25/image5112386g.jpg

Good heavens...the poor boy almost has gravity :eek:

Kinda liiks like biggie smalls

I'm torn on the issue but not because I don't feel sorry for the boy. I do. Basically I don't feel it's the governments right to intervene in one's personal life. I don't like government control and they already do way more than they should and it's getting worse everyday. At what weight is the government going to start considering people obese? Certainly 500+ lbs is but if we have a 160 lb 14 year old, is that obese? "It depends" is the best answer for that as there is so much more to it than weight and age. It might be grosely obese for one child but not for another with a totally different body structure and height. I definitely can't think of any reason why 500+ lbs would be considered healthy in any way unless that person is 15 feet tall. Unlikely. I am against the government stepping in, in any way in this simply because it does leave the door open to interpretation and anytime you give the government interpretive powers, they take all they can at the people's expense.

Now saying that I do feel the mom was negligent. Saying she didn't have the money to get him treatment seems to be justified by having to work 2 and 3 jobs. However maybe she had to work that much to pay for all of that food! Are his parents large people? Does obesity run in the family? If so it would be difficult for the mom to stop feeding her son. A genetic makueup like this would also make it very easy for the boy to put on so much weight. I'm willing to bet this started very early. He was probably a large baby. By no means is genetic makeup an excuse to let a parent help their child get to this size but it can partially explain how it was allowed to get this far. She's definitely captain of the parenting failboat.

Good heavens...the poor boy almost has gravity :eek:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Peter-Griffin-is-fat-Seriously

^That's exactly what I thought of when I read that comment!

^:lol:

honestly that was the first thought that came to mind when i read the thread title

at some point, like say when your 12 year old kid is 300 pounds, wouldn't you stop feeding it?

Good Gawd.

It costs a total of zero dollars to walk around a little and eat less. In fact it costs negative money due to the savings from buying less food.


I agree with above post though that it is ridiculous for the government to step in. it's none of their f'ing business.


the fact that he's 555 pounds means there was a time when he was 500 pounds and his parents let him gain 55 pounds. How on earth is that not completely retarded parenting.

I lol'd at the, "I hate the government steeping in" comments. what would you have the "free market" do?make a reality show out of this guy so he can make enough money for treatment?. :D:

I lol'd at the fact that you're not afraid of losing your freedoms. I also lol'd at the fact that we who pay taxes are now paying for some kid to go on a diet. ROFLMAOLOLOL -_-

let biggest loser take care of his weight issue..

at 11 i was making my own food. tuna fish FTW!!!!! lol

I'm sick and tired of this crap!

We all know it is Bush's fault.