7-Year Old West African Adoptee Beaten to Death for Mispronouncing a Word in English[TRIGGER WARNING: child torture, murder] Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz of Paradise, California were charged with second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter respectively for the death of daughter Lydia Schatz, adopted from an orphanage in Liberia.
During a homeschool lesson, 7-year old Lydia allegedly mispronounced the word “pulled” from a children’s book as “pull-ed.” The couple claimed the mispronunciation was a “willful act of defiance” indicative of attachment disorder and commenced their “Biblical” discipline.
Lydia’s adoptive mother held her down on the floor while her adoptive father whipped the back of her body with PVC plumbing supply tube, causing massive tissue damage. The beating lasted for nine hours.
Kevin Sears, Elizabeth Schatz’s attorney, said the case was a tragedy, but emphasized that the nine hour whipping had intervals of prayer and reflection.
Police report that Lydia’s 11-year old sister Zariah, a fellow Liberian adoptee, also sustained serious injuries for spelling English words incorrectly.