Ruby Franke, the mother of six behind the family YouTube channel “8 Passengers,” has been charged with six counts of felony child abuse by the Washington County Attorney in Utah, a spokesperson for the attorney’s office confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday.
Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested last week after law enforcement found Franke’s 12-year-old son emaciated and with open wounds and duct tape on his wrists and ankles. The boy had climbed out of a window of Hildebrandt’s home and ran to a neighbor house for help, according to a probable cause affidavit acquired by NBC News.
Franke’s 10-year-old daughter was found at Hildebrandt’s home in a similar malnourished condition, according to the affidavit. Officials said the condition of the children was so severe that they were transported to a local area hospital. Franke’s other four children were taken into the care of Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services.
Hildebrandt was also charged with six counts of felony child abuse. Each count carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000, the county attorney told NBC News in an emailed statement.
Monstrous woman, and sadly she infected many dumb mothers with her bullshit.
What’s even crazier, from some of what I have seen online, she was/is Mormon and many/good portion of her viewers seem to be too… they all claim this lifestyle as normal and it is quite frankly scary and jarring to see some of the comments saying she was just a ‘strict parent’.
Just reading about some of her, “parenting advice” it was obvious that she was a terrible person. And to think some people actually listened to her
Do you have an example? I dont really want to go rooting around in that rabbit hole trying to find out.
Withholding meals as punishment was one example I saw in a different article.
Not defending her other actions, but the case I heard on NPR this morning they are using against her, was her daughter was assigned to make her own lunch to take to school. She didn’t do it and then had the school call this woman to bring her lunch. Mom said the natural consequence of failing to make your lunch and bring it was to not have lunch. On this ONE incident, the mom is right. We have to teach our children there are natural consequences for bad decisions.
But it sounds like this one incident is the least of her charges.
There are a bunch on this tiktok page: https://www.tiktok.com/@got2bviral/video/7273876424195312938
She threw their homework and other things in the trash. Said they had until the end of the day to pay cash or do chores to get it back so they could learn the real value of their things.
She took her son’s bed away for seven months, apparently because he played a prank on his brother.
Oh, and the kids had to make their own school lunch in the morning. The school calls one day because her 6 year old daughter didn’t have any food. She let the girl go hungry. Quote:
My hope is that she’ll be hungry and come home and go, ‘oh man, that was really painful, being hungry all day. I will make sure to always have lunch with me.
one time as punishment she cancelled christmas for the younger 2… the older 2 got presents like usual. another time she didn’t allow her oldest son to sleep in his room for 6 months oh and he slept on a bean bag during those months… when he did have a room he wasn’t allowed to have a door. if you want to see examples check out mormon stories podcast. they go into detail.
What is this a chatgpt story? There is almost no substance…
Are we really as society going to look at websites like this that are 1% story content? 99% add content that frankly I visually dont even process?
Am I the only one? I literally wouldn’t click on an add link even if it was something I want!
The article contains quite a big error too. Her two eldest children are over 18, have moved out and and are estranged from their mother. The eldest daughter actually helped the police, she posted on Instagram (or maybe TikTok) from outside the house when her mother was arrested. Initial reports said two of the children found in the house weren’t hers but I don’t think they’re the other lady’s either, she’s in her late 50 iirc.
This is very common homeschooling education.
Homeschooling doesn’t automatically mean child abuse. I was homeschooled and knew a lot of homeschooled kids, and none of us were ever abused.
A child abuser will abuse children and good people don’t. It’s as simple as that.
Being around other kids helps kids learn social skills.
Most of us do that in school. Homeschooled kids can lack that depending on how the parent socializes their kids. Some homeschooling parents realize that they have to socialize their kids. Those parents put their kids in sports or scouts or other places where the kid can socialize. Other parents are oblivious that social skills are learned, then you can end up with some really awkward people out there.
As someone who was homeschooled and now holds a master’s degree, I will proudly own the ‘weirdo’ title and make no claims to normalcy. And I suspect most of my 7 siblings would do the same.
But saying we’re all ‘likely retarded’ is a bit peculiar to me. Most homeschoolers I’ve met (which I suspect is more than most folks, being from inside the community) come from high-functioning or highly-religious families, with very few notably ‘retarded’. How many homeschool kids have you actually known?
Not every homeschooled child is abused, but when I worked for CPS, a HELL of a lot of abusive families used it as a means to keep their kids away from those pesky mandatory reporters.
That’s fair. I definitely think it needs better oversight, if it’s to exist at all.
For sure, socialization is super important, and you need to be very intentional about it with homeschooling. Personally, I grew up with both a very tight-knit group of friends from other homeschooling families (and actually a few that weren’t homeschooled). I also went to what’s called a “co-op” for a time, which is basically like a school run by a bunch of parents that take turns teaching classes and such. I also did attend a normal school until I was 9, which I’m sure affected my early development of social skills. And on top of all that, I went to university and worked a number of very social jobs, all of which helped a lot.
But yeah, homeschooling is certainly not without its own issues and personally I’m not planning on homeschooling my own son, which I’m sure tells you plenty.
