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Toward a 'third way' for the children of Eldorado,By Johana Scotand Richard Wexler
Toward a 'third way' for the children of Eldorado
By Johana Scot and Richard Wexler http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/634733.html Special to the Star-Telegram Ruth, 34, an FLDS member and mother of four children in state custody, becomes emotional during a news conference outside the Yearning For Zion ranch near Eldorado on April 24. She had been separated from her children earlier in the day. During the Vietnam War, an American major surveyed the ruins of a village and explained that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it." That same "logic" appears to be behind the decision of Texas Child Protective Services to take every child from the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, not only from those accused of abusing them but from their mothers as well. As often happens when the topic is child abuse, the debate about the fate of the children is polarized. Some argue that the state trampled on religious liberty and should leave the families alone; others support the decision to take all of the children and scatter them across the state. Neither approach helps children. But there is a third way, and it might be the only way to avoid destroying these children in order to save them. Everyone knows the allegations about the place the children were taken from. Less is known about the harm of the place they went: foster care. Hard data belie the bromides from CPS about how the children are "doing well." Our jails, psychiatric centers and homeless shelters are filled with former foster children. A study of foster care "alumni" by Casey Family Programs and Harvard Medical School found they had twice the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder of Persian Gulf War veterans, and only 20 percent are "doing well." A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study compared outcomes for 15,000 children in cases where the decision on removal could have gone either way. That study found that even maltreated children left in their own homes with little or no help fared better, on average, than comparably maltreated children placed in foster care. The trauma is so great that even Texas' own star witness, child psychiatrist Bruce Perry, warned against separating the youngest children from their mothers. But Texas CPS did it anyway. These rotten outcomes occur even though most people in the system mean well. Removal from a parent is so inherently harmful that even good foster care often can't undo the damage. And not all foster care is good. The Casey alumni study found that one-third of foster children said they'd been abused by a foster parent or another adult in a foster home. Many other studies have found similar results, and the record of institutions is even worse. Although the YFZ Ranch raid is probably the largest mass confiscation of children in U.S. history, and a similar raid on the same sect in 1953 might be the second-largest, the third-largest mass evacuation of children probably took place in Illinois in 2004 -- at a faith-based orphanage housing foster children, a place once touted as a model institution, until news accounts revealed that it was rife with abuse. As former Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's "Forgotten Children" reports revealed, the landscape of Texas is dotted with isolated "compounds" where children are at risk of abuse -- but they're some of the very places that the state puts children taken from their parents. Had the people running the ranch in Eldorado really wanted to abuse children, they could have simply called the place a residential treatment center -- and Texas CPS would have looked the other way. Of course, child abuse is not a feature of every institution. Many try to do the best they can for the children in their care. But more than a century of research has found that, no matter how well-intentioned the staff and how pretty the grounds, the act of institutionalization is itself enormously damaging. It's been argued that the Eldorado children would fare better because the case is being watched so closely by state and national media. But that attention didn't stop CPS from breaking its promise not to institutionalize the youngest children, or from breaking its promise not to separate siblings. The problem with foster care One of the reasons that foster care is so traumatic is the harm caused by multiple placement -- bouncing children from one home or institution to another. Charles Gershenson, former senior evaluation analyst at the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, has said that once an agency moves a child three times, odds are "you have an agency-made sociopath. This child will never trust an adult again." Many of the Eldorado children already have been moved at least twice. And even if the Eldorado children get better treatment because their cases are under more scrutiny, that means only that things will get even worse for the typical Texas foster child. Caseworkers assigned to the Eldorado children have extra-low caseloads. But that means hundreds of other children either are going to go without a caseworker or will get a brand-new caseworker who doesn't know them and is desperately overloaded -- this in a system that, just last year, was regularly warehousing children in state offices. None of this means that no child ever should be taken from her or his parents. Rather, it means that foster care is an extremely toxic intervention that should be used sparingly and in very small doses. Instead, Texas CPS responded to the allegations at Eldorado with megadoses of foster care, and the children will suffer enormously for it. Rather than erring on the side of caution, Texas CPS made a profoundly reckless decision, throwing the children into a system that churns out walking wounded four times out of five. The allegations in this case are very serious. The issue is not polygamy -- the issue is child rape. It is likely that some of the Eldorado children really needed to be taken from the ranch. Others probably did not. In a situation in which the allegations revolve around the rape of young teenage girls, there was time to do a comprehensive investigation and make a case-by-case determination before removing the infants, toddlers and boys. (Yes, CPS is now making claims about young children with broken bones, but CPS acknowledged that it made these claims without such basic tools as X-rays, and doctors unaffiliated with the sect have said the proportion of children with broken bones is not necessarily unusual.) But now that the children have been taken, there is a third way -- an option in between sending them back to the ranch and continuing to subject them to the risk and trauma of Texas foster care. The state can treat these children, and their mothers, as what they really a refugees. The third way Both mothers and children have suddenly been transported into a world so different from what they are used to that, for some, it's like another planet. Something similar was endured by the "boat people" who fled Southeast Asia 30 years ago. Some boats were attacked by pirates who raped the women and children. But when these refugees finally reached our shores, no one was so unspeakably cruel as to suggest that the children should be traumatized by being taken from their mothers because those women could not stop them from being raped. Instead, families were resettled together. Each had an American "sponsor" family that led them through the adjustment to a new world. Churches and social service organizations wove a safety net around these families, keeping a close eye on them and helping with any problems. Several families were relocated into the same neighborhood so they could gain support from one another. The children of Eldorado, and their mothers, should be treated the same way. Of course, the two situations are not identical. For starters, the refugees wanted to leave their homelands. But that only means the trauma for the women and children of Eldorado will be greater. Some argue that even though not one mother has yet been accused of abuse, some might have condoned or aided abuse by the men. These are the same sorts of claims used all over the country to tear children from battered mothers. They are accused of being "bad mothers" for being unable to stop the abuser from attacking the children, or even for "allowing" the children to "witness domestic violence" when they themselves were beaten. But when a child really has been abused, taking her or him from the non-offending parent actually is even more traumatic than when the child never was abused at all. The child feels that the abuse must have been her fault -- why else would she be "punished" by being taken from her mother? It is likely that most of the women of Eldorado either didn't know the alleged practices on the ranch were abusive or had no way to stop them. There is a reason why a book by an ex-sect member is called Escape. Indeed, when it comes to the women, Texas has drawn some arbitrary distinctions. A 17-year-old mother is considered a victim herself, and her children are allowed to stay with her and be comforted by her when they need her most. An 18-year-old is deemed a suspect, and her children are punished by being taken from her. It's also been claimed that the mothers are impeding the investigation, and the children need to be taken from them in order to make it easier to get their stories out of them. If the children were with their mothers, there would be no need to rush. Now that Texas CPS has the children, the agency can hold them for as long as a judge allows. That means no matter how long the children and their mothers stuck to a phony story that CPS didn't believe, the children still would be safe, because they'd remain away from the alleged abusers. The children would not go home until any such ruse ended. And the "get the story out of the children" argument doesn't explain why even children barely over the age of 1 were taken. Memo to Texas CPS: You might be able to get a toddler to talk, but you can't get him to say much. We've even heard it argued that if the children were left with their mothers, they might sneak back to the ranch. But the ranch probably is under surveillance, and the FLDS women are nothing if not conspicuous. In any event, when the odds of such a bizarre scenario are compared with the odds of harm in foster care, it's no contest. Children are more likely to try to return to the ranch -- by running away -- if they are deprived of their mothers. If we really want to put the children first, we need to find a third way: We need to put them with their mothers. Read the studies online To learn more about the studies cited in this essay: Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study," http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care," http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf) Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports: www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren Johana Scot is executive director of the Parent Guidance Center in Austin ( www.parentguidancecenter.org). Richard Wexler is executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform ( An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and the Child Protection "INDUSTRY" Child Protective Services Does not protect children... It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of CPS. every parent should read the free handbook from connecticut dcf watch... http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US These numbers come from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN) Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS Perpetrators of Maltreatment Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59 Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13 Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241 Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12 Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5 Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per 100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a bunch of social workers. THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central intelligence agency wiretaping programs… THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6 This is Child Protection? By Gregory A. Hession, J.D. http://www.jbs.org/node/4632 Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families By Nev Moore Massachusetts News http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca 30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children. 27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated 33% were receiving public assistance 37% had not finished high school 2% receive a college degree 50% were unemployed Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment than the general population. *Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support 80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system. The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should just be blown up. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991 Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing. This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in the first place. Front-page story in USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close Read the studies online. Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study," http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care," http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports: www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than walking wreckage... CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS.... CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON... BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION... |
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