When the Siders children enrolled in online schools in the fall of 2019, it quickly became clear that they had significant problems, according to newly released records.
A 7-year-old girl couldn't speak in complete sentences or initiate conversation and hadn't been to see a pediatrician. Her 11-year-old sister didn't know all the letters of the alphabet and couldn't count beyond 12. Her 13-year-old sister didn't complete any schoolwork for weeks, and her 9-year-old sister didn't make any academic progress over 10 weeks.
That triggered an investigation in January 2020 by Gallia County Children Services, which runs counter to the narrative that the Siders family was able to stay off the radar for years.
In July 2026, the parents of 16 children, Gary
Jr. and Elizabeth Siders, and the grandparents, Gary Sr. and Christina Siders, pleaded not guilty to felony child endangerment after authorities found the children living in a small, squalid rental home in Vinton County. Gary Jr. and Elizabeth – as well as Josh Saunders and Brandon Henderson, part of the extended Siders family – also face child sex abuse charges.
But six years ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and complicated life, the first child welfare case against Gary Jr. and Elizabeth unfolded in Gallia County.
The Siders had nine children at the time, ranging in age from 13 years old to less than a year old. Elizabeth was pregnant with their tenth child.
Case worker Olivia Meadows told the Gallia County Juvenile Court in March 2020 that Gary Jr. and Elizabeth wouldn't take the children to doctors, speech therapists or vision and hearing screenings.
Their paternal grandmother, Christina Siders, was the one who interacted with the schools, not the children's parents, Meadows reported. The family said the children had been homeschooled before enrolling online, court records said.
The children were enrolled in two different online programs – Gallia Digital Academy and Ohio Virtual Academy – in 2019. One child completed none of her schoolwork while enrolled in Gallia Digital Academy. Officials at Ohio Virtual Academy told the Siders family that they believed a traditional brick-and-mortar school would be a better fit for their kids.
Meadows asked the court to order "protective supervision" until the family got back on track. Gallia County Juvenile Court Judge Thomas S. Moulton, Jr., agreed. When a child is under protective supervision, they are not removed from the home. Rather, children services supervises the family while working through a case plan.
Supervision of the Siders family on the first case ended in late October 2020.
Possible lead poisoning triggered second case
Two months later, child protective services opened another investigation because doctors detected high lead levels in four of the children. Lead poisoning can cause developmental and behavior problems.
Inside the two-story rental house in Cheshire, case worker Erin Canter found roaches, insects and gnats. She noted children scratching bug bites and their hair and bruising on the back of one kid's thigh. A nearly 5-year-old child couldn't speak any clear language. Another girl had a cavity in her baby tooth.
Canter worried about why the Siders wouldn't let her see the upstairs of the house. She also noticed that Gary Jr. and Elizabeth wore the same clothes all the time and didn't have consistent hygiene.
"After working with the family for around a month, the parents continued to show a lack of cooperation," a February 2021 judgment entry read. "The family was under a case plan last year but failed to maintain the improvements after the case was closed."
Elizabeth and Gary Jr. filled out financial disclosures for the court. Gary Jr. listed himself as "self-employed" and earning $1,500 a month, and both marked that they received Medicaid and food stamps.
But rotting teeth, bruises, insect bites, possible lead poisoning and a previous child welfare case did not persuade Gallia County officials to remove the Siders children from their parents' custody in 2021.
Instead, the court ordered another stretch of protective supervision.
Child welfare officials often work with families to improve conditions, rather than subject children to the trauma of being removed from their homes.
"Our first preference as a system, is if the child can be safe at home, to not separate the family because we know that creates a significant amount of trauma for the child," said Scott Britton of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. "There may be medical neglect or educational neglect. There may be dirty homes. Dirty homes exist everywhere and they're very common. What is the immediate safety threat to the children?"
Medical providers and child welfare workers believed the Siders would fail to follow up with doctor appointments for the kids once the case ended.
The second welfare case closed in June 2021.
Truancy case and a move
By October 2021, Gallia County Local Schools opened a truancy case against the Siders.
The eldest six Siders children had enrolled in Gallia County Local Schools in August 2020, according to school directory records, in the midst of the first child welfare case. That year, the district offered an online school option to stop the spread of COVID-19.
When in-person classes resumed the following school year, the Siders children weren’t attending.
The children were enrolled for the 2021-2022 school year. But in October 2021, just a few months after the Sider family's second child welfare case closed, Gallia County Juvenile Court filed six complaints against Elizabeth and Gary Jr. for failing to send their children to school. The court also filed truancy complaints against the six children, who ranged in age from 7 to 13 years old at the time and should have been attending Addaville Elementary School.
A neighbor living three doors down from the Siders’ house said the school bus would stop to pick up students along Honeysuckle Drive, including her own children. But it drove past the Siders' house.
None of the complaints, however, were served upon Elizabeth, Gary Jr. or the children because the court couldn’t find them.
Sometime in between the child welfare case closing and the start of the new school year, the Siders family moved out of state. A birth certificate for a Siders child born in February 2022 lists the family as living in Bloomer, Wisconsin.
The truancy cases were eventually dropped in January 2022. A court record filed at the time said the case would resume if officials could locate the family.
The Siders children were unenrolled from the district in April 2022, after attending zero days of school that year.
Five years later, Vinton County sheriff's deputies and agents with Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation found 16 Siders children while serving a warrant in a different investigation. All of the kids required immediate medical treatment, including some who needed hospitalization.
Following child fatalities or near fatalities, the Ohio Department of Children and Youth and county child welfare agencies conduct reviews of any complaints or cases. Those reviews are underway now.
Gov. Mike DeWine said on July 29 that it was too early to tellif the government had failed the 16 Siders children.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Siders children showed severe neglect years before rescue
