I know I haven't posted any more information on the Texas raid on the FLDS ranch lately, so I thought I would do a quick update. I haven't decreased my reading on the news articles, but after the last post on the FLDS, there didn't seem to be much point to posting until something started to change, which could only happen if the CPS started returning children, or the court cases started to be heard. This Monday was the start of the one group of court hearings.
Since the last post, the CPS figures for the number of children in custody by Texas Child Protective Services continued to rise. The number has been staying steadier for longer and the popular figure seems to be 463, with only one number jump in the last week.
Mom, since you wanted me to keep you updated on what I was seeing, I'll try to post at least one article for each point. Over the last three weeks, I've seen at least a dozen or more articles outlining each point, so if you search on google news, you should find more. Call if you have questions. :-)
First (not so recent) development. All the children have been placed into foster homes at this point. As stated earlier and research further, foster care seems to be universally, across the US, a TERRIBLE situation when compared with the general public (which isn't a stellar example in the first place). And what does the CPS, put these children into foster homes that would normally not be allowed to host foster children again because of physical, sexual, or verbal abuse. My suggestion is to not look much further into this, because it gets very depressing, very fast. These children have been ripped from loving homes (more on this later) into a culture that is far worse than the national average.
Second development. The CPS keeps being surprised when these children just keep being found to be older than they look! Both of the underage "children" who gave birth while in custody, were declared adults within hours of giving birth. From what I can pick up from the newspaper articles, I think the CPS accepted their birth certificates at that point just so they could take they children away, which was attempted... also within hours of giving birth. Apparently the mothers were generously given a few months to wean the children after a judge slapped one of the requests down. A lot of these "underage" pregnant children have already presented birth certificates, but as I said a few weeks ago, the CPS is ignoring evidence in favor of a "looks like" policy. This week, the oldest one to be cleared as an adult is almost 28 (as declared by a judge, not the CPS who still insisted that the "looks like" policy is the valid way to go... after all, birth certificates can be faked on a very short noticeway (that was sarcasm guys))
Mental Health professions that were present during the initial raid and care of children (by the police and CPS mostly) blasted the CPS for their poor conduct, lack of care for the children, and dishonesty in their monthly report to their board. This what was said all along by the women taken by the CPS. (1) No-one believed them when the raid took place; (2) the FLDS had their cell phones removed after a few videos of living conditions were sent by cell phone; (3) so far nothing the FLDS has said has been disproved.
According to the CPS, the whole reason this raid took place in the first place was because the CPS workers saw a broad base, a culture, of underage marriages. The number of those "underaged children" who are married or pregnant and underage has been dropping steadily, mostly due to the fact that now there are outsides in this loop determining the fate of these children: specifically, there are judges that accepts birth certificates as a reasonable indication of age!
Consider this: If the count of the number of children started out in the high 300's and has steadily risen to over 460 almost two months later, what recourse does a family have if children disappear? The CPS never kept records. The count is still not constant. Who knows if children were kidnapped, killed, abused, or tried to run away from their new situations? Only the parents will bear the burden of knowing they will not see their child again. Almost two MONTHS later, and children are still unaccounted for. Yeah. Not a pleasant thought.
In one instance, one of the husbands who has one wife ( 5 children by the same wife ), was not charged or accused of anything by the CPS, and was willing to move away from the ranch to regain his children but was denied his request. ( Mostly because he was appealing to a wrong court ) The sad part of this story is that he, his wife, and his lawer has only been able to find three of his children in state custody. Two of them are lost in the system somewhere.
Moving onto my final two points, I don't want to say that all the FLDS members are innocent, but I will say that even if all the CPS is still claiming at this point remains true, the FLDS ranch is a haven of peace and tranquility when compared to the rest of the world. Go ahead. Do some work for yourself and compare the claimed rate of underage/unmarried pregnancies in the general population to what the numbers of children the CPS is claiming to have gotten pregnant while under 18 (while married) at the FLDS ranch.
My second point is this: the legal age for marriage in texas is under 18. The numbers the CPS throws around is a smoke screen. The lowest age of marriage In Texas is 16 years of age with parental consent. The big problem that the FLDS members will have is that marriages are religious and not civil, so that if any man married a girl at 16, he could be legally charged with rape because the state does not recognize the marriage, even if he only has one wife. This is the issue that got Jeffs (the FLDS prophet) put in jail. The lowest legal age in Utah to marry IS 14, but it has to be a civil union, not a religious one, so when Jeffs helped arrange a marriage for a 19 year old and a 14 year old (yeah... that is really young), he was held responsible for accomplice to rape because it was not a civil union.
The violations perpetrated by Texas' child care services is not unique to the FLDS. Do a bit of searching on CPS, Child Protective Services, foster care, and the number of innocent lives broken and destroyed is too long and to painful to consider. Pray for children taken unjustly from their parents whether in Texas, Maine, or any other state of the union. The best therapy for the harms against children is the protection and healing available through the Grace of God.
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