Everything about this story is the worst thing I’ve ever heard. Let’s start with that.
Last year, news broke that a 6-year-old girl had been raped by her temporary caretaker, who had also been a teacher at a preschool. This preschool was owned by Arkansas state representative Justin Harris and his wife, Marsha. Harris said he was “devastated and sickened” by this news. Here’s what he didn’t say: that 6-year-old girl was his legally adopted daughter.
The Harrises adopted the little girl and her sister, 3, in 2013. But six months later, he gave them to the man who ultimately raped the older girl. In addition to passing off two children to a rapist, they continued to collect adoption subsidies. Sweet people. The Harrises faced no charges, and Rep. Harris wrote off the allegations as attempts to “smear” him, and spewed Bible verses at the reporters questioning him.
This early part of the story is sad enough. But it keeps going.
Now, the Arkansas Times, which broke the original story, spoke to sources who told them why the Harrises “rehomed” the girls: they believed them to be possessed by demons.
Chelsey Goldsborough, who regularly babysat for the Harrises, said Mary was kept isolated from Annie [Mary and Annie are pseudonyms] and from the rest of the family. She was often confined for hours to her room, where she was monitored by a video camera. The reason: The Harrises believed the girls were possessed by demons and could communicate telepathically, Goldsborough said. Harris and his wife once hired specialists to perform an “exorcism” on the two sisters while she waited outside the house with the boys, she said.
Multiple sources who interacted with the family confirmed Goldsborough’s account that the Harrises believed the children were possessed, and another source close to the family said that Marsha Harris spoke openly about the supposed demonic possession.
Goldsborough said she watched “Mary” on a monitor and only entered her room to give her food and water. The girls’ rooms had alarms and locks and were separate from the boys. They weren’t even allowed near each other, “because of the Harrises’ belief in demonic possession and telepathy.”
The two girls, as well as their older sister who was hospitalized before she could be adopted by the Harrises, had experienced a history of neglect and sexual abuse, and suffer from reactive attachment disorder. Another foster couple and DHS say the Harrises were aware of the girls’ history; the Harrises say they were not. The former foster family, as well as Goldsborough, insist the girls weren’t dangerous, as the Harrises say they were.
As of the writing of this post, a Change.org petition calling for Rep. Harris’s resignation in the wake of this information has more than 5,300 signatures.
Source: Arkansas Times