Posted on 05/08/2008 5:54:21 AM PDT by MizSterious
"It's the plan that has to address the permanency," said Mary Walker, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. "Whether or not children will be unified with their parents or whether or not they will remain in foster care."
Children and parents are being interviewed this week, and Texas Child Protective Services will make recommendations. A judge would ultimately sign off on the plans. Court hearings addressing the children's status in foster care are scheduled to begin May 19 in San Angelo, Texas.
"Some of our moms are working on plans of their own that they can propose to CPS," said Cynthia Martinez with the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid Society, which represents some of the FLDS mothers.
The April raid was prompted by a phone call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old "Sarah," who was pregnant and in an abusive relationship. When Texas CPS and law enforcement responded to the YFZ Ranch, they claim they found evidence of other abuse, including teenage mothers. That prompted a judge to order the removal of all the children at the FLDS compound.
The children have since been placed in foster care facilities across Texas. In contrast to the massive hearing Judge Barbara Walther held that placed the children in state custody, individual hearings will determine what happens to the children now.
In a typical service plan, there are recommendations and requirements that may need to be completed before a parent is reunited with their child.
"If, for example, we have a parent who has some substance abuse issues, the plan may be that the parent go into rehab," Walker said. "If you've got issues with neglect, making sure the child is properly cared for, we'd look at parenting classes, homemaking classes. The plan has to address whatever changes are necessary to reduce the level of risk."
Walker said she did not know what the service plans would address or recommend with the FLDS children and their parents. Texas CPS workers have claimed that the polygamist sect has a culture that lends itself to abuse, with girls being raised to become child brides.
The Texas child welfare system gives authorities up to a year to work with a family. If necessary, a judge can grant an extension. With 464 children in state protective custody, authorities concede that this case is not typical.
CPS said it is working with the Texas Education Agency to deal with the educational needs of the FLDS children.
Educational assessments will be conducted on each child and sent to the school district where the children have been placed. Texas' educational authority will recommend the assessment be used on all FLDS children.
"It is anticipated that the children will continue their education on the campus of their foster placement," CPS said in a statement. "There are no plans at this time for the children to attend classes on any public school campus."
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has released new numbers on the children.
According to the May 2 census, there are 102 infants up to 2 years old. An estimated 99 children are ages 3 to 5; 131 children are 6 to 9 years old; 62 children are 10 to 13; and 42 are 14 to 17.
Texas authorities said there are 26 young women who the FLDS claim are adults, but the state believes are children. Two young men turned 18 while in foster care but have elected to stay with family members at a shelter, CPS said.
Some of the foster care facilities the FLDS children are staying in have racked up violations.
The Deseret News conducted an online check of the inspection records and reports for the facilities the judge ordered the children to stay in. They are publicly accessible on the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' Web site.
"Foster children are being spanked with a belt as a form of discipline," said one 2007 report for the Presbyterian Children's Homes & Services in Waxahachie, Texas.
"Foster child was made to stand on one foot in a closed closet as a form of discipline," said another report on the facility.
For most of the facilities, most of the 2007 violations were for mundane issues such as record keeping. The Kidz Harbor Home in Liverpool, Texas, was written up in February for two residents having sex at the facility. The Cal Farley's Boys Ranch in Amarillo was written up in February for not reporting a child's critical injury in a timely enough manner. It was also written up that same month for having a staff member becoming aware of a child's bruises, but failing to report it.
"You must report and document suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation to child abuse hotline and the designated employee/administrator as soon as you become aware of it," the report said.
Online records show several facilities underwent a new round of assessments and inspections just before the FLDS children were placed in foster care.
Interesting choice of words there. Presumably if "the little 3 year old boy" was her son, she would have described him that way. So here's another child who was allegedly "torn from his mother's arms", but actually wasn't.
By Stephen Dick
THE HERALD BULLETIN (ANDERSON, Ind.)
ANDERSON, Ind. Thu, May 08 2008
— The raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, that liberated 400 children from a life of abuse a few weeks ago was just the latest in a sorry history of messianic cults in the land of the free.
The sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, is in prison for raping children. With him gone there was apparently no leader, but also no shortage of men to keep the outfit and its philosophy going. It was a 911 call that brought police to the compound. Presumably made by a 16-year-old girl in the compound, no one has identified the caller and some speculate the call might have been bogus. Still, the call accomplished what it intended — to bust up a sect where men enjoyed the sexual services of numerous women and children, including boys.
The compound was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of Mormonism that believes in polygamy and practices it. Mormons outlawed polygamy more than century ago, but radical sects, like the one run by Jeffs, kept it going because the men loved the power and variety of partners.
All of these sects have one thing in common: sex. That’s all they are about, and the leaders use religion and fear to keep the women and children in place. Think of David Koresh who ran the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. He was using the Lord to gain as many sexual partners as possible. He read in the Bible about a woman with no breasts and concluded he had to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.
Jim Jones, the charismatic psychotic who led 900 people to their deaths, used sexual humiliation to keep his followers in line. The trials of the male residents of Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, most of them descended from Fletcher Christian who led the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789, resulted in rape convictions. The Pitcairn way of life was apparently one long epsiode of child abuse. There was no religion involved on the island, just isolation and patriarchy.
In his book “Rogue Messiahs,” Colin Wilson tells about the phenomenon of religious nuts who declare themselves to be the son of God or some such nonsense. These people have unusual powers to persuade and will only pick weak people who will back their psychosis with unlimited adulation.
They have sex with numerous partners but get incensed if other men in the sect begin straying. They are into absolute control. It makes one wonder what kind of person would follow someone like that, give in to his every demand and obey his every command. It could be concluded that anyone who enters into a sect or cult, from the leader on down, has a dysfunctional personality. The children, however, don’t even have time to develop a personality before they are degraded and force-fed the dogma that will keep them in line.
Here religion is the key. Messiahs have to convince their followers that they have insight into the ways of God. Once that’s accomplished, through trickery, the false messiahs can get the followers to do anything. Here’s the most valuable lesson I ever taught my son about religion: Find even the most religious person, one who quotes the Bible at length, one with most saint-like qualities, and realize that he or she doesn’t know anymore about God than anyone else. There is no human prophet who will give people a shortcut to salvation.
When religion becomes an obsession, however, there are always these phony messiahs to capitalize on people’s fears.
Many of the teen girls rescued in Texas were pregnant. The mothers were dressed like bit players out of “Gunsmoke.” Texas did the right thing taking these children and women away from sexual slavery at the hands of self-deluded leaders.
Lawyers have descended upon Eldorado like locusts to try and get the children reunited with their mothers, many of whom returned to the compound because it’s the only life they know, the only life, they figure, that God would want them to have. Photos of weeping mothers and children shouldn’t deter Texas from trying to give these children a decent life.
I’m well aware that we have freedom of religion in this country. We can worship as we see fit, but there’s a difference between worshipping and committing illegal acts in the name of the Lord. Christianity, like most religions, treats women and children as second-class citizens, but sects take that attitude to an even darker level.
Two of the reasons these messianic charlatans are rarely exposed are religion and family, two areas that states fear to tread. But once people realize that religious sects are simply an excuse to prop up delusional power and insatiable pedophilia the sooner the innocent can be set free.
Just this week, Wayne Bent, 66, was arrested in New Mexico on charges of felony sex crimes against children. He led the Lord of Our Righteousness Church and claimed he was, you guessed it, the Messiah.
Stephen Dick writes for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. He can be reached at steve.dick@heraldbulletin.com.
Source: Rushville Republican.
Sandwiches? If you say they are ham on rye, I will swoon.
I can only take so much shocking information at one time.
:p
Well I guess I am a harpy. Its an enlightening day for sure!
Notice not even a friggin NAME!
Not
“Who will be holding 3 year old Johnny, the boy I was caring for?”
Or even better (as all real mothers will attest to)
“I WANT MY SON JOHNNY BACK!! NOW! He’s 3! He’s my child and I want him back NOW!”
Notice, nothing near that was said. Talk about Twilight Zone spooky.
According to the Attorney General of Texas, the Barlow warrant is still in force, despite news reports.
I’ll just go with his information.
oh dear,
ham on rye plus chunky chocolate chip cookies too.
Do I need to get you some smelling salts???
“The en masse nature of the temporary hearing is unheard of.”
Wow. No kidding. You should have seen the look on the Judge’s face when she heard the CPS was on it’s way with 126 children.
Then it turned into 300 children and adults.
Then, 440+ children, along with their multiple and confused mothers.
This wasn’t just unheard of, it was totally overwhelming.
“I do not think it afforded due process to the parents or the children.”
I couldn’t agree more. There was a technical legal date requirement in the law, to deal with any known type of custody/abuse hearings.... but who would ever have thought they would have to deal with a case like the YFZ Ranch?
All at once?
I think the Judge decided that it was in the best interests of Justice, the State, The women, and children, to GUARANTEE they were taken somewhere safe, and as identical to their previous lifestyle as legally and economically possible, as quickly as possible, instead of favoring on the side of a technicality no one could have predicted.
The Judge put the safety of children above the letter of the law.
That’s the kind of person I want to be a Judge, if we’re gonna revote who we have as Judges.
CHOCOLATE TOO??
You are one sick puppy.
Well, if it’s just at lunch time, then all that really does is cut out the possibility of an affair.
Have a source for that? Not doubting what you say just would like to see what the AG said. Also, if true I wonder why Barlow has not been arrested since they know where he is.
The historic child-custody case stemming from last month's raid on a Schleicher County polygamist sect is expected to all but shut down the Tom Green County district court when hundreds of status hearings begin in less than two weeks.
All four state district judges and a retired state appeals court justice will preside over the status hearings, which are set to begin in each of the Tom Green County Courthouse's five courtrooms the morning of May 19.
In addition to 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, who has presided over the case, the following judges will preside over the hearings, court officials said this morning:
With a few exceptions, all other cases not related to the April raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that were scheduled between May 19 and June 4 have been postponed, and at least four of the judges each will hear between 10 and 12 cases per day, Woodward said.
The status hearings, required by law to be held before June 5 - the 60th day after 463 children were removed from the YFZ Ranch northeast of Eldorado - are usually perfunctory. Typically, they consist of little more than the state's Child Protective Services agency presenting a proposed plan the parents of removed children would be required to follow to win their children back and any objections from the parents' attorneys.
Although the presiding judge has discretion to do as he or she sees fit, Woodward said, status hearings do not generally result in the return of any children to their parents.
"Typically, that's not what these hearings are about," he said.
Court administrators have begun separating cases by mother, said District Clerk Sheri Woodfin - a move that will reduce the number of hearings but still result in a caseload numbering in the hundreds.
Excerpt. Read the rest at source: GoSanAngelo.
A real mother would do whatever was asked of her to get her child back. I know I would have said take my DNA, get me off this ranch & I will do whatever it takes to prove thats my baby! Not try to confuse CPS. This whole thing stinks. A real loving father would have done the same. He would have stepped up & said here is my DNA. I want to get my children back.
I’m kinky that way...
Chocolate AND vanilla.
~~sigh~~
I’m kinky that way...
Chocolate AND vanilla.
~~sigh~~
“I’m a frigid religous bigot?”
Hey, wanna go out for dinner? I heard the frigid religous bigot is really good.
I tried the fried religous bigot, but it was too greasy.
Well, yeah, especially since you threw chocolate into the mix.
Actually, she did follow the law. There is a provision to extend the 14 day period. She used it.
I don’t know what to say.
I feel so ...honored... by your tagline.
I heard more than once that a judge can tell how serious a parent is about straightening up and getting their child back within the first 24 hours (and we’re talking drugs, unsafe living conditions etc)
Because those parents will be both irrate but also saying “what do I need to do to get my child back” and will start complying instantly.
Not in this case by a long shot...which is why CPS and the judges are roll their eyes skeptical.
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