Caregivers: FLDS Children Scarred for Life... By CPS

[Mike Ellis]

Well, golly... who'd a-thunk the state might not be able to care for children as well as their own mothers? Most likely, anyone who thinks it is reasonable to separate mother and child because of ALLEGED abuse by the father.

Caregivers protest treatment of FLDS children, mothers | ScrippsNews

Caregivers protest treatment of FLDS children, mothers
Submitted by SHNS on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 12:04.
By JULIA LYON, Salt Lake Tribune

Children living in crowded quarters that led to upper respiratory illnesses. Youngsters plagued with diarrhea from unhealthy foods they usually did not eat. Distressed mothers enduring widespread rudeness -- such as flashlights shined in their faces as they tried to sleep.

Mental health professionals who helped care for FLDS women and children in the weeks after an April raid on the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas describe conditions and treatment they perceived as harsh and unnecessary.

"Never in all my life, and I am one of the older ladies, have I been so ashamed of being a Texan and seeing what and how our government agencies treat people," wrote one employee of Hill Country Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center in an unsigned statement.

Texas contracts with Hill Country to provide mental health services during disasters. Staff members met with the center's board of trustees last week, leaving them "spellbound." The board has gathered nine written statements critical of Child Protective Services.

Chairman John Kight said he wants state legislators and the governor to hear the employees' stories.

"You have damaged these children for their lives," he said. "This is an agency that looks like it's gone out of control."

(snip)

Not all Texas CPS employees were criticized by the Hill Country employees. One young man was described as sitting for two hours comforting a toddler separated from his mother. The Texas Rangers were "respectful and polite," according to another statement.

But the statements focus on the Hill Country staffers' dismay at uncaring behavior they say they witnessed by CPS employees.

A boy estimated at age 3 walked along a row of cots asking for someone to rock him after he was separated from his mother, one employee wrote. Two CPS worker trailed the youngster taking notes but not helping him. His brother, age 8, eventually took the child into his arms and sat with him in a rocking chair.

"That little boy will always be in my mind," the employee wrote. "How can a beautiful, healthy child be taken from a healthy, loving home and forced into a situation like that, right here in America, right here in Texas?"

Mothers who initially were allowed to stay with their children were later required to leave if their child was older than 12 months. Describing that day, one employee wrote, "the floor was literally slick with tears in places."

(snip)