Court Records: Newly revealed filings show auth0rities had concerns about the Siders family long before the case came to light
GALLIA COUNTY, Ohio —
Court records reveal that the Siders family, now accused of endangering 16 children in Vinton County, had prior legal issues in Gallia County involving school attendance concerns in 2021.
In October 2021, an attendance officer for Gallia County Local Schools filed multiple complaints alleging that six Siders children, aged 7 to 13 at the time, were “absent from school without legitimate excuse” for the entire year up to that point. The complaints also accused the parents, Gary and Elizabeth Siders, of failing to send their children to school as required by law.
The family’s address was listed as Honeysuckle Drive in Cheshire, Ohio, in the court records. However, the cases did not progress because summonses were returned marked “vacant house.” By January 2022, the cases were terminated as the family could not be located.
Now, the Siders family is at the center of a more severe case in Vinton County, where investigators allege that 16 children were found living in “severe filth” and confined to a 12-by-12-foot room.
During a meeting of the Ohio Controlling Board on Monday, state leaders acknowledged the broader implications of the case.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Joel Potts of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.
Potts added, “I do think as we go through and do our investigations and we talk to these kids and we really start looking into things, we’ll have a much better sense about how we can certainly improve the system.”
