Two children were found locked inside a barn in West Virginia without any running water or bathroom facilities and their adoptive parents are now facing felony child neglect charges, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office says.
An investigation was launched Monday just before 6 p.m. after authorities received a 911 call regarding the welfare of the children, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
A sheriff’s deputy went to the barn in Sissonville and forced her way inside to find a boy and girl in the 20-foot by 14-foot room, the release said.
The children were locked inside without access to water, a bathroom, food or adequate hygienic care items, authorities said. At the main residence, another small child was found locked inside alone, the release stated.
Native speakers of the English language: By reading the headline did you know exactly who was locked in the barn? And if yes, tell me, a non native speaker, by which rule do I have to read headlines like this to not be totally confused. (I thought the parents were the ones who got locked until I read the headline a third time.)
Edit: Thank you for all the input and thoughts
It could be either but it wouldn’t make sense for the kids to get charged with child neglect for doing that to their parents.
I am a native speaker and spent a good 15 seconds trying to figure out why parents being locked in a barn meant neglect was happening.
I’m learning German, which wouldn’t have this issue. I’m sure other languages have ways to avoid such confusion.
It’s talking about the children because there’s no break
Or
Would mean it’s about the parents being locked up.
But be cause “found locked” comes immediately after “two children” we know the children are the subject.
English is nutty, most native speakers can’t explain the rules, because we just do it instinctively at this point. It’s a mismatch of a bunch of languages so it’s also a mismatch of different sets of rules.
It’s compact because it’s a headline.
You can’t tell who was locked in the barn from first part of the headline but when you read the bit about them being charged it can only refer to the parents, so the “locked in a barn” bit must be describing the kids and not the parents.
I am a native speaker and I think it could’ve been clearer, but I did know who was locked in. To me it read like this “The adoptive parents of (the of completely separating it) two kids found locked in a barn…” I don’t know the rule or anything, but on glance the of cut the sentence in 2 for me making the barn modifier apply to the children. It might also just be entirely grammatically incorrect too lol
I don’t tend to agree. A similar sentence could be; “Owner of Maserati found drunk in river charged with disorderly conduct.” Similar structure but less confusing because the Maserati can’t be drunk so the statement re charges must relate to the owner. In the present headline the “locked in barn” could equally relate to both parents or children, it is only the fact that child negligence is mentioned that you can surmise that the kids were the ones locked in. Grammatically, the sentence could be better as I write above.
Completely agree, headlines like this need to be much more clear. I feel with the standard to make headlines short it hurts the reader because things like this will happen
in context, it was clear.
but if you were scrolling and only saw up to ‘… west virginia’ to begin with…
english sure is fun!
I am a native speaker, and I read it correctly the first time. Parents locking themselves inside a barn doesn’t really make sense.
Look at the mug shot and interpret for the worst case - the kids being the ones locked in a barn.
The wording was bad, no doubt. I had to read it several times to make sense of the headline.
I think the headline needs a comma or two
It’s a confusing headline that forces the reader to consider context.
A better headline would have been;
Same. I went “fuck, the poor sods somehow got themselves locked up and 'murica is being 'murica”.