More of a Victory? Not

I mentioned in my earlier post that the Texas Supreme Court ruling to return all the children was only a partial victory since the parents still do not have the children and the state still has control over them.

I also said that CPS would try everything they could to keep the children in their power. That’s exactly what happened today:

“By the time the third version was introduced, the language was made stronger and in CPS’ favor. It would be in place indefinitely so that state officials connected with the ongoing child abuse investigation “SHALL be allowed access to said property at any and all times.”

Wonder what the other objections were? There were actually three versions of the agreement:the first one being CPS have access to the ranch from 8 a.m. to 8p.m., members needed to cooperate with them and this agreement would end at the end of summer.  Remember that in CPS lingo, cooperate means do whatever they say without question.

We’re not sure what the second agreement was, but here is the third agreement-the one Walthers agreed to:

“…In order to take custody, FLDS parents or their designees must produce an affidavit and have themselves and their children photographed at the time of taking
possession of the child,” according to the order.

Also, the children would not be allowed to leave the state for at least 90 days, and if the families move within Texas, the parents must notify the state seven working days prior to the relocation.

And if the children were to travel within state lines more than 60 miles from where they live, the state must be told at least 48 hours in advance.

The judge also would have required that state officials be allowed access to the YFZ Ranch “at any and all times necessary to the investigation if any children are there. In addition, mothers and fathers must take parenting classes.”

No wonder they objected. Not only that, but one attorney pointed out that in order to add provisions to the order, there needs to be a separate hearing. In other words, this attorney wants the judge to follow the policy set forth by law for adding provisions to the agreement.

Then the judge said she would sign the first version of the agreement as long as signatures of all 43 FLDs members were on it. Notice-not all their attorneys sign the agreement-each individual client has to sign it-something that is very rare:

“Laura Shockley, a lawyer for several sect children, said few judges in her experience required signatures from an attorney’s clients. “Attorneys normally sign (agreements) on their own,” she said.”

By putting that stipulation in the agreement, the judge is giving CPS exactly what it wants-more time to hold on to the children, which has been their goal from the very beginning.

I also found this little tidbit interesting:

Attorney Julie Balovich of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represents many of the families from the FYZ Ranch in Eldorado, told the judge that the message from the higher courts was clear: Walther must vacate her order. Walther disagreed with Balovich’s interpretation… The article goes on to say that Walthers thinks she can only rescind her decision when all the clients sign the agreement.

She wants other people to follow the law, but she does not follow it herself.  That’s a rather odd example to set, isn’t it?

Now CPS has the weekend to move the children even further from parents and say on Monday- when one attorney will return to the 3rd Court of Appeals first thing Monday morning to have Judge Walther’s original seizure order dismissed- that they’re still not sure where all the children are.

Technorati Tags: flds, child custody, control, tyranny, corruption, cps

Powered by ScribeFire.

More of a Victory

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that CPS was wrong to take the FLDS children away from the parents.

“In its brief opinion, the court decided by a six-to-three justice majority that “we are not inclined to disturb the Court of Appeals’ decision. On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted.”

That is a good majority and I am quite pleased that this court saw that what CPS did was unlawful. However there are still some battles to be won. Judge Walther does have to rescind her temporary custody order, but she can stipulate that other things need to be done. So the children will be returned (I hope) but tje judge gets to dictate what they can do. Yes families will be reunited, but will still be under state control.

I say I hope the children will be returned because :

“The Department cannot scatter hundreds of children — including infants and toddlers — to the four winds and then complain that it cannot put the pieces of the puzzle back together again,” they said in a court filing.”

I can see CPS using the above argument to stall returning the children-“we don’t know where they all are” and using that to keep children in their care indefinitely. Seeing all the shenanigans they’ve put forth so far, this trick would be right up their alley.

And CPS is still continuing it’s song and dance that they can’t return children because they don’t know who belongs where. An argument again refuted by attorneys for FLDS showing that last week children were indeed returned to mothers without the DNA testing at hand.

And the article even admits:

“It is not yet clear how soon the children will walk out of shelters across the state. “
______________________________________________________________________________
I’m also concerned because of this article that says Texas wants these children in summer school.

“The raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado brought an abrupt end to the school year for many of the youngest members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Texas. Nearly two months later, education offered to the more than 400 children in state custody depends on where they were sent.”

This is what’s known as crisis-response-resolution. The state created the crisis of interrupting the school year. Their response is to test the children for placement, but hogtie the agencies that are doing the testing, and then the state can come in with their solution-summer school.

More from the article:

“The kids are not expected to enroll in a traditional public school but to be essentially “home-schooled” by teachers on site.”

At least they put home-schooled in quotes, since later on the article says teachers will be assigned/hired to teach the children. I’m going to assume that these are public school teachers-so the children will be publicly schooled-not homeschooled.

When it comes to homeschooling that seed of doubt must always be planted:

“Districts have told the state that many of the children are on grade level in core subjects, though some shelters report some children need catching up. “

Go into any public school and you will find the same thing-some children on grade level and some will need catching up. The way this is reported it is another insinuation that the FLDS people are liars and can’t educate their children up to whatever standards the state thinks are correct.

Remember what I said in the first part of this post -that even though families are supposed to be reunited, the state can and will dictate to them what they can do? One of those things will most likely be no homeschooling and I’m sure there will be some restrictions about religion put on them too.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Technorati Tags: flds, cps, child custody, courts, justice, homeschooling, education, parental rights, state control

Powered by ScribeFire.

Trash Bin Police

No, the title is not a joke. In England, people have already been fined for putting trash bins out too early, and putting the wrong types of garbage in the bins.

Now they want to go even further by having people fill out a census questionnaire about their garbage.

“They will also be told to give officials a breakdown of everyone who lives in their home, together with intimate information including details of medical conditions.”

Where we have heard that before-a breakdown of every one who lives in the home? That’s one of the demands made of the TX FLDS group. I guess there aren’t many FDLS people in England, so they need to go after the general population.

“Officials said the forms are designed to go to a ‘minority’ of the population – a definition that means they could be sent to as many as 50,000 homes.”

Who are they defining as the minority anyway? It could be the elderly, the poor, who knows? The officials say that the way the rules are now it is too difficult to identify which bin belongs to which family and so they can’t prosecute offenders.

Again that line of “we can’t identify who owns what bin” is very similar to the CPS lie of “we don’t know which children belong to which mothers.”

Isn’t it interesting that the exact same lines are being used in Texas and England?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Interesting Wording

Texas has decided to let Loiusa Bradshaw Jessop live with all three of her children, even though the state still has custody of all three children. And they will live under state supervision at a place chosen by the state.

Not much of a win there either. I also thought the wording of the headlines was interesting-the Houston Chronicle headline says “State to retain custody of newborn sect child”. The Salt Lake Tribune is trying to make Judge Barbara Walther a hero and so compassionate with their headline which says “...Mom can live together with infant and older children.”

I also noticed that the Tribune article did not state that all the children are still in state custody and they will live under state supervision and in a place the state decides. Why did they leave that information out, I wonder? To someone not reading carefully, the Tribune article gives the impression that everything is fine for this family and that is not the case at all.

CPS is still trying to get us to believe that they can not match children and parents without DNA:

“In a filing today, DFPS reiterated its concerns that families may leave the state if they are reunited, and that it could not match children to their parents without
genetic test results.”

Notice that they reiterated that fact today, May 27th in their new filing. Even though as FLDS attorneys point out once again:

“But attorneys representing FLDS parents argue that the recent reunion of 12 children with their families “undermines the department’s insistence that every single child is in imminent danger of abuse because of the parents beliefs,”according to a new filing.

The children’s release also contradicts the state’s claim that it can not match children and parents until DNA test results are in hand, expected by mid-June, the attorneys responded.”

And of course, CPS is terrified that people might flee to get out of their clutches. Heaven forbid that they should get out from under the jackboots of CPS.

Technorati Tags: flds, children, custody, spirituality, religion

Powered by ScribeFire.

Only a Dozen

“The state agreed Friday to temporarily reunite a dozen youngsters with their parents in San Antonio but fought to keep hundreds more in foster care while the Texas Supreme Court decides if they were properly removed from their families.”

Only twelve were returned, even though the 3rd court said the way CPS took all of the children was wrong. Why not return all of them? What is so blasted difficult about adhering to the 3rd court’s decision? By ignoring that decision, CPS themselves is breaking the law…again. We now by know that that is their standard operating procedure-breaking the law.

This release does not apply to other families in other cities, and even in this city it took an hour and a half of arguing to get the State to release the children:

“But the Jessops’ attorneys said they had to argue for an hour and a half late Friday afternoon for the release of two of their children when Child Protective Services officials balked at releasing them and even said they couldn’t confirm their whereabouts.

“I just took this little family law case pro bono because I was bored,” Haas said. “I’m not bored any more, but I’m scared.”

By saying they didn’t know where the children were !? CPS was hoping to dissuade the parents and keep the kids. Remember I said before that CPS will do anything to keep the children-here’s my proof.

And their attorney is right-we should all be concerned about what is going on.

The 3rd court’s decision bears repeating:

“The department (CPS) did not present any evidence of danger to the physical health or safety of any male children or any female children who had not reached puberty,” the order by a three-judge panel of the appeals court said in part.”

And if CPS doesn’t know who the mothers are then how could they allow visits in the first place?

“It is undisputed that the Department has allowed these mothers to visit their children. It has participated in status hearing with the parents In other words, the matching of children with parents did not become a problem for the Department until a court decided that it had to give the children back,” they said in their response.”

Exactly. Again more evidence of CPS lies in this case,and who knows how many others?

Technorati Tags: FLDs, child custody, civil liberties, justice

Powered by ScribeFire.

Victory?

A partial victory for the FLDS today:

“A Texas appeals court ruled today that a San Angelo judge exceeded her discretion when she ordered the state to take custody of children from a polygamist sect.”

She has ten days to vacate her order. I have a feeling she will wait all ten days before doing so. And in spite of this:

“It wasn’t immediately clear whether the decision means the children will be returned right away to the custody of their parents,…”

The judge overstepped her bounds, the appeals court said CPS did not have the right to take the children in the first place, and the children still won’t be returned to their parents!?!!!!!! And CPS could not be bothered to tell the mothers or their attorneys about this decision either:

“Two FLDS mothers whose children were placed in foster care learned of the decision from reporters as the two made their way to the courthouse in San Angelo, unaware that child custody status hearings that started here this week had been canceled in the wake of the appellate ruling.”

If it wasn’t for those two reporters, when would the mothers or attorneys been told about the decision? If it was up to CPS, never would be my guess.

Here is more of the appeals court decision:

“The existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the Department’s witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger,” said the unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of the 3rd Court….

The court went on to say that CPS took an extreme measure by removing the children before fully litigating the issue, and perhaps most importantly:

“Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse as the Department contends, there is no evidence that this danger is ‘immediate’ or ‘urgent’ … with respect to every child in the community.”

CPS still refuses to release the children:

“..Scott Dixon, a CPS regional director, said some shelters and facilities were already getting calls from parents asking when they could pick up their kids. Dixon advised them not to release any of the children until they get word from the state to do so.”

What more do they need-and why doesn’t CPS consider the appellate court part of the state?

CPS can still appeal, and I’m sure they will. This is a victory of sorts, but it’s still not over and lest we forget, the children still are not with their parents.

I had to laugh at CPS concern that these people might flee to another state or country, where Texas CPS can’t pursue them. I wouldn’t blame them if they did. CPS should recognize that they were the ones causing them to flee in the first place.

I also feel that part of the reason for the court’s decision was all the publicity surrounding this case. There were a lot of folks big and small addressing this issue and how CPS trampled the rights of these mothers.

We can’t give up-we still need to keep our eyes on this case to see what happens next. CPS will not give up without a fight so we need to remain vigilant.

Technorati Tags: flds, civil liberties, religion, spirituality, CPS, politics, justice

Powered by ScribeFire.

An Admission

Some mental health workers are not pleased with Texas CPS:

“Removing children from a polygamist sect’s West Texas ranch was unnecessary and
traumatizing, several mental health workers sent to aid the families wrote.”

Something some of us have been saying from the very beginning of this case. It is also important to note that three of these workers heard CPS lie to the mothers:

“That worker was among three who reported that CPS workers lied to the mothers. Several said the mothers were denied access to their lawyers.”

Now that the Associated Press has reported it, perhaps more people will believe that the State had an agenda and an already forgone conclusion when they raided the compound.

If you go here you can read all nine letters of complaint from the mental health workers.

(Hat Tip: The Common Room)

Technorati Tags: flds, civil liberties, mental health, complaints

Powered by ScribeFire.

Inoculations, Drug and Alcohol Abuse

The state wants to vaccinate all the children they kidnapped from the FLDS ranch, quoting a supposed law that says vaccinations are a need. I say supposed because the article does not give any number for the law. If there is no number attached to the regulation, it is not a law, but a recommendation. Since CPS has lied and misrepresented facts all throughout this case, and then does so again at the end of this article, I have no idea if this law they quote exists.

Not to mention, all the hearings about custody have not taken place yet. Why not wait and see which children will remain in custody before doing the vaccinations?

Parents are understandably worried that if they refuse, CPS will also use that against them and they will never see their children again. I don’t blame them one bit for having that concern.

CPS is not even giving parents time to show if their children were inoculated-which means some of them will have unnecessary trauma-all because CPS can’t wait to cause more trauma to the children. Then we see those quotes form the article:

“No child will be forcibly immunized, insisted Patrick Crimmins, a CPS spokesman.

“If a child refuses to be immunized, we’re not forcing any children to be,” he said.

But he emphasized that for the safety of the children, who are now unprotected against serious diseases, they do need to be inoculated.

Crimmins said he has heard no reports of anyone objecting to being immunized.”

Does he think people actually believe him? First off, a lot of the children who are young will be too scared to say no, not to mention that some of them can’t say no nor do they have all the information they need to make an informed decision. Hmm…not coherent enough to say no-isn’t that the defense used in rape cases? If someone is incapacitated in some way and can not say yes or no to intimate relations, and someone continues to have relations anyway, that person was raped? And the person who went ahead without getting an explicit yes or no can be tried as a rapist?

How is what CPS is doing here any different from rape? Contrary to the lie that Crimmins -what an interesting last name-very close to criminal-said, the article says:

“But calls are being made by older children to their parents at the ranch and one state source familiar with the issue, but not authorized to discuss the matter, confirmed that some older children are refusing shots.”

We know from the previous quote that although children supposedly won’t be forced to have vaccinations, they do need to be inoculated for their own safety. How will this policy work out practically? Crimmins believes all the children need to be inoculated-period. What will he do to get the ones that are refusing to go along with it? Make no mistake, they will be forced somehow to have those shots.

The article is perpetuating the lie that the children have never played with crayons and could not open a juice box. There is video on the internet of children playing with crayons, blocks, paints and a sandbox-all those are toys. And the juice box thing-you know what, I have seen them and the majority of the time I can’t open them. Does that mean CPS should be concerned about me since I can’t open them and therefore would not give them to children in my care? I figure that if I can’t open them, they can’t either.

Lastly the article includes this insinuation:

“Complicating the care is the children’s sheer number and the fact that in many child abuse cases that require children be removed, drug or alcohol addiction is involved.”

No warrants have been issued in this case. The one warrant that was issued was removed due to lack of evidence. No abuse charges have been filed-so much for all that evidence they found.

Perhaps they realize that they have no evidence so now they have to insinuate that some other type of abuse was going on. And now that they have that DNA, they certainly have the means to make their self-fulfilling prophecies come true.

Technorati Tags: vaccinations, health, drug alcohol addiction, civil rights, flds

Powered by ScribeFire.