While they claim the word cage is "grossly inaccurate," two scientists from the University of Florida reportedly admitted to confining one "disobedient" son with ADHD, while keeping a younger child under an overturned crib at night.
A pair of scientists who worked full time at the University of Florida have been locked up behind bars, after allegedly doing the same with their own children.
Dustin Huff, 35, and Yurui Xie, 31, have been charged with aggravated child abuse after, according to police, they admitted to locking their two kids inside a makeshift wooden cage and under an overturned crib.
According to Inside Edition, the shocking discovery came after one of the two children, a 6-year-old boy, told his teacher he didn’t want to go home from school because he would be locked inside a cage his father built. The child said he was placed in it while his mother worked.
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After the teacher contacted the Department of Children and Families, a social worker and an officer from the Gainesville Police Department visited the home — where the parents allegedly fessed up immediately and said it had been going on for about a year.
“I’m not used to walking in and seeing a cage where children are kept at night and of course when home alone,” Gainesville Police Sergeant John Pandak told Fox 35 Orlando. “They were quite open about it. The impression from my understanding speaking to the detective and patrol officers, it was, to them, a normal thing. As if it was okay.”
The older child, the parents reportedly said, was locked in the wooden cage while Xie worked because he had ADHD and was “disobedient” — adding that his behavior made it hard for them to find child care. Per police, Huff would release the boy when he returned home from work.
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The boy’s younger, 2-year-old brother allegedly had a pen of his own inside his parents’ closet.
The toddler was reportedly kept on a mattress under an overturned crib — which had metal springs and wires hanging from it — with the mother saying they positioned it that way to prevent him from climbing out of it at night.
The parents have been placed on administrative leave by the college and are still being held on $600,000 bail at the Alachua County Jail.
“Ms. Xie is a committed mother and would never do anything to harm her children. The use of the word ‘cage’ is grossly inaccurate,” her attorney told Inside Edition, after the mother entered a not guilty plea.
Police told Fox 35 that the children are with “safe and vetted family members.”
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