The Kalama Foster Children

 2008:  Five children were routinely abused at the hands of their grandmother and foster parents. The children were beaten with belts, hit on the hands with spoons and struck in the teeth with a hammer. The children were also forced to sleep under the house with the family's dogs. As a form of punishment, the children were made to run laps in the yard while being shot at with a pellet gun. In addition, the children were never taken to visit a doctor or a dentists until after their removal from the house.

 

During the preliminary hearing against the children's caretakers, the prosecutor stated: "Life was torture" for the children, and "No child should have to endure the cruelties that these children did."  

 

The children's foster parents, Gabriel and Barbara Kalama, were sentenced to five years probation. The children's aunt, their primary abuser, received just five years in prison. [6]