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 sup****t
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" re****ts 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 Wa****ngton, 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 pro****tion 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 are:
refugees.
The third way
Both mothers and children have suddenly been trans****ted 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 sup****t 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 Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care," www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf)
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
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 Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual 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 ***ual 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/articles.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/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/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/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
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 relation****ps. 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 Sup****t
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/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
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 ABOLI****NG 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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