European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 27, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A group at Texas parents has filed a has ult on behalf Olp eople who have to Lopati troubled children. The Darker Side of adoption for some children Early abuse leaves lingering psychic scars by Lisa Belkin new York times before he turned 13 and was placed in a  Hospital Mark Richards i Rcd to Burn Down his Home. He sexually abused his younger brother at knife Point and made the child jump on a trampoline while Mark Slabbed at his moving feet with a Butcher knife before Tina Chandler was sent away Lor treatment she hacked apart several pieces of furniture and threatened to kill her two Brothers setting ire to heir Blue jeans in the laundry. Chris Harlow attacked his parents and fondled a girl at school. Anthony Griffith pummelled his teachers and raided the school Kitchen often devouring live Frozen pizzas straight from the Freezer. These children All adopted As toddlers irom the Jonas department of human services represent the Darker Side of adoption. While Moil of the children hollered Lor adoption by both private and state agencies do not have serious problems experts a a growing number Bear profound psychic scars from abuse suffered at lha hands of biological parents. Many of Thesa youngsters who once would have been consigned to institutions Tor unmanageable children Are now reaching their teens the Aga when their anger and pain often Lurn violent or sett destructive. Until recently most american social workers and psychiatrists believed that a Loving adoptive Home was a cure Tor abused children. Now they say that abuse can often have lingering effects that love alone does not cure. This new realization comes As adoptive parents across the United states begin to demand More detailed information from government adoption agencies that handle most of the troubled children and seek state assistance to help handle children who they say Are out of control. The parents of Anthony Chris Tina and Mark Are part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of parents in Texas who have adopted troubled children. The suit demands thai the stale turn Over the Complete background file of every child including detailed medical and psychological history according to Neil Cogan the attorney Lor the parents and an associate Dean at Southern methodist University Law school in Dallas. In addition the parents suit seeks to require the state to pay for or provide residential psychiatric care for heir children which can Cost up to $15,000 a month. The stale of Texas tiled a response asking that the suit be dismissed on the grounds that an individual cannot sue a state in Federal court. In Colorado an organization Tot parents whose adopted children Are violent and mentally ill was founded live months ago and has about 2,000 members. In California Tom and Janice Colella had the adoption of their son revoked and received a $70,000 Solell Cronl from the state on charges that the Orange county department of social services know the boy was disturbed but did no Levi them in countless communities nationwide Small groups of such parents have formed weekly support groups As a Way to Cope. Experts stress thai no one can predict Wilh certainly whether a particular child will Lurn violent or destructive and that the adoption system has More than its share of happily Ever after results. The problems that do occur they say Are More Likely to come with older children with nightmarish childhoods the Type of children stale agencies lend to handle than from newborns who Are More often put up for adoption through private agencies. Elaine Schwartz an adoption specialist w la the Federal department of health and human services said that she knows of no figures tracking the number of adopted children who become violent bul estimates that the percentage of kids who explode is maybe 0, 10, 12 percent the seeds of the problem seem to have been planted about 10 of 15 years ago when government social service agencies began to aggressively step up their efforts to find families for hard to adopt children. That was when they coined the phrase special needs children " said Alice Bussiere. An attorney Wilh the National Center for youth Law in san Francisco. She was referring to children whose age race physical or mental Handicap or the fact that they were part of a sibling group made them More difficult to place. Until then they were just called undo Pablo and icy grew up in Foster  in the late 1970s, Lor instance agencies began to work with local television Stalions in producing weekly segments Hight lighting one child in need of adoption. There was some criticism that the spots exploited the children and misled prospective parents by showing youngsters in Serene soiling with no mention of the abuse in their pasts. Bul most agencies called the segments effective and they Are still used in nearly every let Evision Market in Texas and in Many other Stales a 1980 Law the Federal adoption assistance acl. Spurred the Effort to find Homes Lor children with special needs uttering monthly subsidies of about $200 to $300 to families who would adopt them. This coupled Wilh an increasing willingness by the courts to remove children from their natural parents in the Case of abuse or neglect meant thai an Ever larger percentage of children adopted irom state agencies in the 70s and 80s had special needs. I knew my child was disturbed irom the time i brought her Home at b months old and she would unroll the toilet paper and try to stuff it Down her Throat said Gail Trenbeth a nurse and lha founder of the attachment disorder parents network in Boulder. Colo. But the social worker said Shell grow out of it " now she is 9, and Trenberth said the family has not entertained guests because their daughter would grab their genitals and Pul her hand Down their  they do not go out to dinner because she said we had to remove the candles so she did t Burn Hersell the Flowers which she would throw or try to eat and the sugar packets which she would eat Wilh Tho  two years of residential psychiatric care did not help her daughter Trenberth said although a recent stay at a 13,000 a month program in Evergreen Colo-., appears to have eased her daughter s symptoms. Trenberth is one of Many parents of special needs children who believes her Raughter is an unattached child a clinical category that has Only been recognized by the psychiatric Community in the past Lew years. According Lodr. Kan Magid director of psychological services at Golden medical Center in Golden Colo., and the author of a Book about unattached children such children Are so severity abused irom birth that they become unable Laform emotional Bonds in later life the symptoms Are said to Worsen As the children approach puberty. Seme parents blame the Sale Lor creating the problem by hiding facts about their child s past. Eptembar27,19bb the stars and stripes Paga 1s