Posted on 05/30/2008 2:00:59 PM PDT by Utah Girl
SAN ANGELO, Texas — Lawyers for Child Protective Services have made a proposed agreement to return hundreds of children taken from the Fundamental LDS Church's YFZ Ranch.
The agreement is being discussed by lawyers for mothers, children and child welfare authorities in a hearing underway that is in response to a Texas Supreme Court ruling that the children should be returned to their parents.
A copy of the order, obtained by the Deseret News, seeks to have children returned to their parents beginning Monday. The proposed agreement also requires parents to complete parenting classes and cooperate with an ongoing investigation into allegations of abuse and negect on the YFZ Ranch.
"CPS has access to the residence of the subject child for unannounced home visits during the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.," the agreement says.
Parents must provide the address of the residence and the names of everyone living in the home.
The proposed agreement also seeks to prevent the families from leaving the state of Texas. It applies to approximately 139 children belonging to 41 mothers, but Judge Barbara Walther said in court she expects it will be expanded.
"The court thinks this ruling would be the same for each and every child," she said.
Will this lead to the eventual demise of Governor Perry? Just how much is this going to cost the state of Texas anyway? And then the lawsuits...
Don’t know about Gov. Perry. I have read that the first 19 days after the children were removed cost 7.5 million dollars. I calculated that was $750 per person per day. They are estimating it will take several more million dollars to return the children. I’ll be I could do it for a lot cheaper and make a profit. :)
Good to see the kids being returned home.
There needs to be a full accounting of this from the top down in CPS and whoever was responsible for this debacle needs to spend jail time (if CPS broke the law).
Now hopefully the investigators will get on with the job of investigating and stop this namby pamby feel good crap about getting the chilluns away from their evil parents.
I also hope this slap down of CPS reverberates across the country and puts the rest of the jerks in the different state CPS offices on notice.
No more.
And note that this is only a 'proposed' agreement meaning it ain't worth squat.
L
I guess as long as they’re only boinking teenagers it should be okay. I draw the line, however, at the pre-pubescent. As long as the law doesn’t go barging in like a bull in a china shop. People have rights, you know.
I’s suggest that there be FLDS mothers put in charge of supervising CPS management from the top down to the local office.
Frankly I would be surprised if the attny.’s don’t tell the CPS to pound sand, they’ll do as they please. The CPS doesn’t seem to be on very solid foundation right now.
Of coarse they broke the law. Government step way out of bounds here.
I don't agree with the polygamist thing and certainly not any form of child abuse, but from what I've read so far, no one has proven to me that there was abuse taking place.
Besides, I'm appalled by the use of such heavy handed tactics by the law here.
What the hell do ya need sniper positions, armored vehicles, automatic rifles for???
This looked like a bunch of well armed ya-hoos wantin an excuse to get all dressed up paramilitary style and show off their stuff.......buncha bravado is all it was.
The order should have been “returned forthwith”, even if it meant the social services had to stay up nights and a holiday weekend to get those children back home.
A situation occurred in Utah about 4 years ago. A 12 year old boy was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer: Ewing's Sarcoma. DCFS and the boy's guardian ad litem really overstepped their bounds in the case. Parker Jensen and his parents are taking the state of Utah to court in 2009. Here is his story (just an excerpt, click on the link to read the whole story).
t was about five years ago that Parker Jensen's name became synonymous with the issue of parental rights as his family took on the state's pursuit to force the boy to undergo chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer.And I will make a disclaimer here. Primary Children's Hospital is one of the best children's hospitals in the nation. I have a nephew with an incurable chronic condition, and Primary Children's has been wonderful to him and his family. The doctors have been fantastic. My nephew is in a study by himself and has his status reviewed by doctors across the country. But my brother and his wife have been able to get second opinions and everyone has been able to put my nephew's condition as their top priority.Now for the first time, the Jensens have laid out their full account of what happened in court filings this week. The Jensens continue to pursue a federal suit against two Utah physicians, two state child welfare officials and an assistant Utah attorney general.
In a 140-page statement of facts, the Jensens call themselves a "typical Utah family" from Sandy who was swept up in a whirlwind of medical egos and state bureaucracy.
They blame former Primary Children's Medical Center physician Lars Wagner for telling them that their son had almost no chance of surviving the cancer unless he had chemotherapy, not knowing that Wagner had also wanted to get Parker into a clinical study on Ewing's sarcoma.
Meanwhile, the Jensens maintain they were not convinced the lump in the bottom of their son's mouth was Ewing's sarcoma, and they wanted a second opinion.
Time and time again the Jensens say they sought more definitive tests and opinions, even going to doctors out of state — only to find that physicians with Primary had contact and influence with the other doctors.
After several meetings, Wagner threatened the Jensens that he would contact the Division of Child and Family Services to take their son away and force him to undergo chemotherapy.
The Jensens' court brief states that DCFS caseworkers simply took Wagner's word that chemotherapy was the only option for the boy and did no further investigation. Their investigation, which did not include the Jensens' side of things, was then reviewed by a state juvenile judge, which lead to an order and warrant for the parents' arrest.
Also alleged in their brief, the Jensens say DCFS was dishonest in some of its representations to the court, including the allegation that they fled the state to avoid the court's order. The Jensens claim they were already vacationing in Idaho when the warrant was issued.
Parker just 'normal' kid, dad says
In fact they'll be lucky if a whole lot of them don't end up in prison over this.
L
The parents' lawyers should recognize that they have the upper hand at this moment. The CPS was shot down, in part, because there is no way that a "one-size-fits-all" taking of the children could be justified. The same is true of any "one-size-fits-all" parental agreements.
The parents should insist on the return of the children and have their day in court to decide on particular agreements. The Texas Supreme Court decision does not mean that the parents must agree to anything at all. All the next steps must be justified by the CPS.
Yep. I think the FLDS have wised up and will make sure their individual rights are protected.
According to info posted here some weeks back by a local Freeper, the FLDS members refused to voluntarily submit DNA in order to establish who the parents of the children exactly were, in order to remain shielded from rape charges. However, Texas being a state that does not require a birth certificate for home births...the parents cannot then claim they are the parents, unless some kind of proof is offered. If they cannot claim they are the parents, at that point the children would then be wards of the state, as I understood what was posted.
If that’s the case, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, it would seem.
I understand the parents wanting to get their children back, but at this point I wouldn’t agree to give cps anything.
Allow me to familiarize you with 18USC242.
No such 'protection' exists under that Statute. CPS is in a whole heap of Federal Civil Rights Violations trouble.
L
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