Posted by Howard Richman on May 04 2008 at 09:59:59:
In Reply to: Re: TX takes children away from homeschooling polygamist sect puts them in foster homes where they will be homeschooled posted by Howard Richman on May 02 2008 at 09:32:31:
An article in today´s Salt Lake Tribune tells the story. Here is a selection:
AMARILLO, Texas - Now living hundreds of miles away from their rural Texas homes, some children at the center of the largest child abuse case in U.S. history are asking to bake bread.HowardThey want a wheat grinder and a place to plant a garden. They want to pray twice a day - sometimes with siblings, sometimes all together. And when the spirit moves them, they want to sing.
"They sing very beautifully," said Delma Trejo, executive director of The Ark Assessment Center and Emergency Shelter for Youth in Corpus Christi.
All over Texas, from Amarillo to Corpus Christi, the 464 children removed from a polygamous sect´s West Texas ranch are holding onto old ways even as they are nudged into a new life....
Under Texas law, parents are allowed to visit their children in state custody. Mary Walker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said supervised visitation is being arranged for mothers.
And fathers? "I believe that in some cases that is being allowed, if they have been identified as the fathers," she said.
But that is happening too slowly for some parents´ attorneys. "That´s been incredibly difficult since [CPS has] provided names but not contact information for the caseworkers," said Polly O´Toole, a Dallas attorney....