Homeschooling’s 

Invisible Children

Child of Amanda Joliff

Content note: Case narratives include descriptions of severe violence inflicted on children, including abuse and neglect, sexual violence, torture, and murder, as well as mentions of suicide and domestic violence. They also include photos of victims and perpetrators of violence.

Jolliff

A 14 year old Colorado boy was kept padlocked in a small room with no light and boarded up windows by his mother, Amanda Joliff, for all but a few hours a day. The teen was allowed one meal a day, if that, which came to a total of about four meals a week. The family’s house was filthy, smelled of urine, and was infested with mice. When Joliff and her boyfriend, Richard Smith, left home for several weeks, the boy escaped and was found hiding under a neighbor’s porch. Joliff claimed the teen was “developmentally delayed” and said she locked him up because he “irritated” her. The teen had been removed from school to be homeschooled three years earlier and was registered as a homeschool student, but his mother was not educating him.

Date: September 2011
Location: Erie, Colorado

Documents: Date:
Locked Up Teen Found Living in Filthy Condition 2011-10-21
Portrait of alleged abuse, neglect of boy undetected for years 2011-11-01
Mother jailed for locking son in mice-infested trailer and only feeding him four times a week 2012-03-14