Starving student blames stingy host family
[quote]updated 3:43 p.m. CT, Wed., Feb. 27, 2008
HALLOWELL, Maine - Jonathan McCullum was in perfect health at 155 pounds when he left last summer to spend the school year as an exchange student in Egypt.
But when he returned home to Maine just four months later, the 5-foot-9 teenager weighed a mere 97 pounds and was so weak that he struggled to carry his baggage or climb a flight of stairs. Doctors said he was at risk for a heart attack.[/quote]
lookin pretty cut there guy.
[quote]marathe wrote:
lookin pretty cut there guy.[/quote]
V-Diet.
McCullum says he was denied sufficient food while staying with a family of Coptic Christians, who fast for more than 200 days a year
200 days a year? I’m not one to disrespect religions and all, but seriously, fuck that noise.
Further Quotes:
“He said he never got breakfast and his first food of the day usually was a small piece of bread with cucumbers and cheese that he would take to school for lunch. There was a late-afternoon dinner consisting of beans, vegetables and sometimes fish, and a snack of bread later in the evening.”
“McCullum sometimes bought food, but at one point was reduced to stealing it from a supermarket. He was caught, but the store accepted the small amount of money he had and let him go.”
So the host father says it’s all a lie and that McCullum would get for and hour and a half and consume as much food as 6 people. How would that explain the weight loss??
[quote]CrewPierce wrote:
How would that explain the weight loss??
[/quote]
They say he was active and exercised. Clearly, this is also forbidden in that religion…moving.
I knew an Italian girl who went to study English in Britain, in one of those programs where you stay with a family, and claimed that her host family fed her the bare minimum. Basically, in many cases, the agencies that set up these exchange student things, pay the families a certain set amount to do so. So, if the families are hosting in order to make money, it is in their monetary interest to basically give the kid the least possible.
If you are going on a study abroad vacation and staying with a family to learn the language “comme il faut”, beware!
Killer abs. Quads need some work.
I’m surprised he didn’t eat the host family. Some good protein right there.
The sad thing is that the family received compensation to cover the kid’s meals.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
CrewPierce wrote:
How would that explain the weight loss??
They say he was active and exercised. Clearly, this is also forbidden in that religion…moving.[/quote]
Clearly, but that’s a given when you fast for 200 days.
I think at some point personal responsibility towards safety has to come into play. He was told by his friends that he needed to get help and refused it, I think his/his families lawsuit is silly after that point.
I think he needs to cut.
This guy has probably posted here asking if he’s lean enough to start gaining and whether 800 calories a day is enough as long as he throws away his yolks. No wait, this was the latest guy asking if Tanita scales work.
I read the article. The first thing that came to mind was where were the parents of the starving kid. I then found out that parents were told to have as little contact as possible in order to prevent any distractions.
If I am that kid and losing that amount of weight so rapidly plus having to steal for food and teachers noticing there is something wrong, then screw everyone, I am getting the hell out or I am going to contact my parents to let them know about my situation.
Imagine if the family has some strange rituals that you were not aware of or not expected to participate in? Or even going around dressed as female, would you still complete the program?
[quote]Scott M wrote:
I think at some point personal responsibility towards safety has to come into play. He was told by his friends that he needed to get help and refused it, I think his/his families lawsuit is silly after that point. [/quote]
Agreed, but it doesn’t help things that the AFS apparently lied to his family about his condition.
[quote]
The McCullums said AFS provided false assurances that he had seen a doctor and was in excellent health.
AFS, a nonprofit formerly known as American Field Service, is one of the largest and oldest organizers of student exchanges. Since its founding as an ambulance corps during World War I, the agency has arranged exchanges for 325,000 American and foreign students from more than 50 countries.
Contact was discouraged
The McCullums said AFS discourages parents from telephoning or e-mailing their kids abroad, believing the distraction would run counter to the program’s goal of immersing them in local culture.[/quote]
I don’t understand several issues with this case. First, what person in their right mind loses that much weight but does nothing at all to stop it aside from steal some food at a grocery store? Don’t they cut off your hands for that in some countries?
In the end, the responsibility lay with this student. It is ridiculous to allow that to happen and then wait until you get back to America to sue someone for it. If he nearly had a heart attack, he is the one who let things get that bad. If this were a small child things would be different.
btw, does anyone know this guys body fat %
[quote]Jetric9 wrote:
btw, does anyone know this guys body fat %[/quote]
I swear there are some guys going for that look on this website.
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown.
Don’t forget his other option was to live with a family in a bad area of town. Now given some of Egypts extremist groups his choice could have been starve or be killed for being an American.
To me his best option would be to tell the group “get me the hell out of here” but I doubt they would have listened. What I also couldn’t understand is how they couldn’t find a good home to place him in.