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Family cannot comment due to ABC contract

By Kate McGinty
Post-Crescent staff writer

A Kaukauna couple is facing national cries of child neglect and receiving taunting e-mails after a TV stint this week - but they're contractually banned from defending themselves, a relative told The Post-Crescent.

Glenn and Sara Chapman and their five children were featured Wednesday evening on the fourth-season premiere of "Supernanny," an hourlong ABC show that sends in Jo Frost, a British nanny who usually helps parents struggling with unruly children.

The now controversial episode kicked off on an unusual note: For the first time ever, the kids - not the parents - called in the nanny for help.

The show, which was taped last June, depicted daughters Brittany, 17, and Moriah, 15, as primary caregivers for their three brothers, Ethan and Cole, both 5, and Quinn, 3. They said they balanced that with online schooling and household chores.

Within minutes of the show airing, viewers from across the country flooded message boards at Supernanny's official Web site. Online posters accused the parents of neglect, said they reported the family to the state and encouraged others to follow suit.

Kaukauna police, who declined to comment, also havebeen staked out on the street where the family lives. A patrol car Thursday night slowly drove up and down the four-block street with no outlet.

The Chapman family declined to comment Thursday at their home. They signed a contract that bans them from talking to the media without ABC's consent, said Jon Gruetzmacher, Sara Chapman's brother.

Gruetzmacher, who called his sister a "very loving person," said the family has been flooded with vicious e-mails and phone calls since the show aired.

"I never would have dreamt in my wildest dreams what happened," Gruetzmacher said. "There's definitely no kind of child endangerment or child abuse whatsoever."

Karla Zehren, a social worker in Green Bay, said the show actually depicted a very typical case of neglect.

"I am appalled that someone, anyone, in the community has not reported these parents to Child Protective Services," she said in a letter to The Post-Crescent. "Hopefully this episode will provide the rescue these girls need, if not through the tips provided by Supernanny, then perhaps through calls made to Child Protective Services by concerned viewers."

Rosemarie Burke, a Newark, N.J. viewer who wrote The Post-Crescent, said she "watched in horror."

"Why are they not in a regular school?" she said. "The parents should be ashamed of themselves. I hope a relative intervenes and gives those girls a normal life."

The show was sliced into a 60-minute package after filming for 10 full days, Gruetzmacher said and the editing created an unfair portrait of the family, and some viewers have exaggerated concerns.

The teen daughters, who left traditional schools for one year and took online classes instead, returned last fall to high school, Gruetzmacher said. Their brothers are typical toddlers who throw occasional tantrums but are playful, happy children.

A spokesperson for "Supernanny" did not return phone calls Thursday.

A 60-minute package of edited clips alone cannot prove abuse, said Michelle Weinberger-Burns, manager of Children, Youth and Families with the Outagamie County Department of Health and Human Services.

Accusations of abuse or neglect usually require a more intimate knowledge of the family, not viewing a TV show, she said.