animated image of mother and adult son laughing

They later had two more kids.įrom the start, Samantha seemed a willful child, in tyrannical need of attention. They already had three biological children, but they felt called to add Samantha (not her real name) and her half sister, who is two years older, to their family. Samantha’s parents, Jen and Danny, adopted Samantha when she was 2. “Because I thought that someday I was going to end up doing it on somebody.”Ĭheck out more from this issue and find your next story to read. “How did you feel when you were doing that to your stuffed animals?” “You were practicing on your stuffed animals?,” I ask her. She tells me that she pretended to kill her stuffed animals. Starting at age 6, Samantha began drawing pictures of murder weapons: a knife, a bow and arrow, chemicals for poisoning, a plastic bag for suffocating. “So I made a whole entire book about how to hurt people.” “I wanted the whole world to myself,” she says. But when we steer into uncomfortable territory-the events that led her to this juvenile-treatment facility nearly 2,000 miles from her family-Samantha hesitates and looks down at her hands. She seems poised and cheerful, a normal preteen.

She flashes a smile when I ask about her favorite subject (history), and grimaces when I ask about her least favorite (math). The girl needs supplies: new jeans, yoga pants, nail polish.Īt 11, Samantha is just over 5 feet tall and has wavy black hair and a steady gaze. Samantha’s mother is visiting from Idaho, as she does every six weeks, which means lunch off campus and an excursion to Target.

We’re sitting in a conference room at the San Marcos Treatment Center, just south of Austin, Texas, a space that has witnessed countless difficult conversations between troubled children, their worried parents, and clinical therapists.

This is a good day, Samantha tells me: 10 on a scale of 10. Listen to the audio version of this article:įeature stories, read aloud: download the Audm app for your iPhone.

Animated image of mother and adult son laughing