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Trauma of family separations may linger for FLDS children
Trauma of family separations may linger for FLDS children http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9490673 By Julia Lyon and Brooke Adams The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 06/05/2008 12:36:01 PM MDT Posted: 12:34 PM- More than a half century after Arizona separated polygamous families from their fathers for more than two years, women still weep when they recall childhood memories of the time. Their enduring pain may foreshadow the legacy of April's raid at the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, Texas. Though FLDS children were in state custody for about two months, they lost both parents and often, siblings - creating an emotional impact that can linger far longer, according to mental health professionals. "Those kids will never be the same from when they left - never," said Bonnie Peters, executive director of the Family Support Center, a Salt Lake City counseling agency whose clients include members of polygamous communities. For many of the children, the disruption of their lives continues, as their families settle into apartments and homes away from the ranch to await the results of a child welfare investigation. The raid by Texas authorities led to more than 450 children, from infants to teenagers, being taken into state custody and placed in shelters across the state. A district judge on Monday released the children to their parents, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Just how each child reacts to the experience will depend upon the individual, but post traumatic stress disorder is likely for many, said Patricia Merkley, a therapist who runs a Utah support group for women who are living in or have left polygamous communities. Depending on age and other factors, symptoms may include flashbacks, night terrors, obsessive thoughts, hypervigilance and extreme reactions. A child may fixate on the idea that mom is going to die or something is going to happen to her and she'll suddenly vanish, Merkley said. Reactions may be exacerbated because they were taken from a rural, isolated and collective family environment into a new culture. They were exposed to processed foods, new toys such as Slip 'n Slide and people who dressed and acted differently. "That can make them have an accelerated sense of trauma," Peters said. Dan Barlow was 21 when Arizona authorities intent on wiping out polygamy descended on Short Creek, as the FLDS community on the state border with Utah was then called. He had children taken into Arizona custody then - and today has children and grandchildren who were taken into custody in the Texas raid. A crucial difference is that mothers and siblings remained together in 1953, he said. "My little 4-year-old granddaughter there [in Texas] said, 'Mama, they put me in jail,' " he said. "I don't think our children felt that [in 1953] because they had their mothers. You can about stand anything if you've got your mother with you." After the Arizona raid, Barlow's wife and three children were placed with a Mesa family, then in a low-income housing development, before returning home. Barlow was exiled from the FLDS community in 2004, his wives and children reassigned to other men. Among them: Sarah Draper, who lived with their four young children at the YFZ Ranch. Testifying during a mid-April FLDS custody hearing, child psychologist Bruce Perry had warned that children ages 5 and under were most likely to be traumatized by being taken into state custody. He said efforts should be made to keep them with their mothers. Texas Child Protective Services followed that advice only for children under 12 months, and despite an early promise to strive to keep family groups together, separated dozens of siblings. Earlier this week, a CPS official said the state will examine what services may be offered to reunited FLDS families. Counseling is sometimes provided for families when a child returns home after foster care, said Marleigh Meisner, a CPS spokeswoman. As the area public mental health provider, Hill Country Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center has notified residents that support and debriefing is available. "What they do with that on a collective basis is up to them," said Linda Werlein, Hill Country executive director. "We don't knock on anyone's door and say, 'You have to get services.' " A few residents had requested help after the raid, she said. For FLDS parents, signs of the stress their children experienced are already evident. Lori Jessop, 25, said her 4-year-old daughter refers to any one who shows up at their temporary home in San Antonio as a police officer. Her 2-year-old has reverted to diapers and a pacifier. The children wake frequently in the night and cling to their parents during the day. Other parents say their children had a hard time understanding they were really going home with them; some said their small ones acted as though they hardly knew them. During an interview this week, the young sons of Edson Jessop and Zevanda Young hid their faces and told reporters they would just as soon throw rocks at them than talk. These parents say they know it will take love, patience and time until their children feel safe again. When Heidi Foster's eight children, raised in a polygamous Davis County group, returned home in 2005 after months in foster care, a long-term impact remained, she said. One child was very angry. Many of them were insecure, wanting to sleep in her room. The youngest had nightmares that began in foster care and continued for months after the children returned home, she said. Foster is part of the Davis County Cooperative, also known as the Kingstons after its leaders. She describes the group as fundamentalist Mormons who participate in multiple committed relationships. Foster said her group, like the FLDS, denounces cigarettes, drugs and profanity and encourages healthy, homemade meals. Returning home after foster care stints ranging from about five to 18 months, all of Foster's children were very emotional, she said. Home had become more sweet. So had their appetites: a newfound interest in junk food took time to fade. Foster's 3-year-old would cry at the movies until his parents realized what the problem was: he didn't have the candy his foster parents would buy him. A small silver lining: family's increased solidarity. "It's funny ... sibling rivalries were gone," she recalled. "They had such a renewed appreciation for each other." 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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