(Don’t bet on it.)

Here at Ethics Alarms we try to steer clear of posts on conduct that is so obviously unethical that even the dimmest MSNBC host could figure it out. Normally, a mother being arrested after one of her kids escapes from the home, emaciated and with restraint marks, and begs a next door neighbor for help, would fall into this category. But this mother was a renowned web expert on parenting, with a popular Instagram account and YouTube channel. Her @moms_of_truth account on Instagram had 341,000 followers, and until it was mysteriously shut down last year, her “8 Passengers” YouTube channel (named after her, her husband, and their six kids)had a very profitable subscriber base of almost 2.3 million.

Ruby Franke, the wise and admired mom, was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse in Ivins, Utah this week. A press release issued by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department stated that on Aug. 30, 2023 “a report came into our dispatch center regarding a juvenile asking for help.” Franke’s son, 12, had “climbed out of a window and ran to a neighbor’s home,” according to the police booking affidavit. The boy asked the neighbor for food and water. “The neighbor observed duct tape on (the boy’s) ankles and wrists and contacted law enforcement. Upon arrival, law enforcement judged the boy’s wounds and malnourishment to be “severe.”

Funny, Ruby never discussed that child-rearing technique on the web…

A search warrant was executed on the house from which the boy had fled, resulting in four more children being taken into custody by the Department of Child and Family Services. Two of them were in such bad condition that they required hospital care. Franke and her “business partner” Jodi Hildebrandt (Mr. Franke is apparently no longer in the picture), were arrested on the premises. The two women were each charged with two counts of “aggravated child abuse – intentionally or knowingly.”

The arrest report refers to a video that was posted on YouTube this week that appeared to be filmed in Hildebrandt’s basement. Franke appeared in the video, which apparently showed the condition of the children.

Franke became famous for her “8 Passengers” YouTube channel, which debuted in 2015 and included videos following the lives of Franke, her husband and six children. Despite the popularity of the channel, there had been increasing concerns over the parents’ authoritarian methods of parenting. Alleged co-abuser Hildebrandt is the founder of the Orem-based mental and emotional healing company “Connexions Classroom,” which purports to help people with addiction and mental health issues.

What’s going on here? I haven’t a clue, but it’s not good.

Franke’s oldest daughter, 20-year-old Shari Franke, wrote on Instagram following her mother’s arrest, “Hi all. Today has been a big day. Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”

So she knew her siblings were being abused “for years” but it took one of them having to escape restraints and run to a neighbor before any decisive action was taken, and it wasn’t taken by her.

Who was she consulting, Roxane Gay?