<p>I’m not trying to be argumentative Hanna, but I think you are misinformed. No state is perfect, but Texas also has it’s fair share of foster parents/heroes and success stories. </p>
<p>I’m not debating whether foster care in the state of Texas is better than that in Massachusetts btw. (How did THAT become the issue?) I’m just stating I wouldn’t form conclusions (especially when your life is staked on them) without information.</p>
<p>“Texas also has it’s fair share of foster parents/heroes and success stories”</p>
<p>Of course. But we weren’t talking about the best foster home – we were talking about a typical foster home. If you’re going to take a bunch of kids away from their families (topic of the thread), most of them are going to wind up in placements that are mediocre at best. And that’s true when the system isn’t swamped with 400+ additional kids at once. Heaven help them all.</p>
<p>H - I think you are making a pretty damning statement if you are concluding that the typical Texas foster home is mediocre at best, especially when you state “I know nothing about Texas foster care.” This disconnect confuses me. You admit you have no knowledge on this issue, yet you are willing to make these strong and decisive conclusions. Illogical. (…she said in her best Mr. Spock voice ;))</p>
<p>I don’t disagree this situation in Eldorado is taxing to Texas resources. And sticky legal issues abound. But what would you have the State of Texas do? There is clear evidence of adult male abusers at the compound, which authorities must investigate. These people are not forthcoming with records or even basic information about their identity, which causes the investigative process to be lengthy and tedious. There is a real possibility children returned to their parents will be spirited out of state to other FLDS compounds in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Canada and Mexico. Imagine the criticism if that were to happen and children and young girls were allowed to be removed to another country by their abusers? Worse than that…imagine how horrible it would be for those children and girls to be removed from any possibility of rescue?</p>
<p>One thing is certain, the State of Texas probably has more resources, than say the State of Massachusetts. And as curmudgeon points out, the volunteer response has been good, which surprises me not at all. Remember Katrina? We have a good track record for digging deep.</p>
<p>So though you have issues with Texas, rest assured, there are many other states that couldn’t handle this situation at all. </p>
<p>Oh well…I suppose there will be those ready to lob the criticisms regardless of what we do here.</p>
<p>“you are willing to make these strong and decisive conclusions”</p>
<p>Refute them with facts if you disagree. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>“what would you have the State of Texas do?”</p>
<p>I’m not at all sure. It’s a tar pit of a situation. Letting the moms come along was a very good call. Since the phone calls only described abuse of adolescent girls, I might only remove that group. But there’s no great option here that I can see.</p>
<p>I’m more interested in knowing why you think you know what you think you know hanna. 
And I’m not so stupid as to be unaware when someone is trying to play musical chairs with the hot seat. In other words, show me your facts and I’ll show you mine.</p>
<p>MY personal experiences in observing the work of my aunt and uncle is that we have a system better than mediocre and but certainly not perfect. There are issues. While Texas is one of the top states for reimbursement to foster parents and homes, the system is undergoing huge changes in their investigative branch. And we are a big state, with big needs. </p>
<p>But I would not make the presumption that a 15 year old girl staying in a Texas foster home is more horrible than returning home with a 50 year old letch hellbent on using her as a broodmare, or worse.</p>
<p>“I would not make the presumption that a 15 year old girl staying in a Texas foster home is more horrible than returning home with a 50 year old letch”</p>
<p>Could you point to the post where I said that it was?</p>
<p>Forgive me H…but that seemed to be your implication. But perhaps you were just exercising your right to ‘damn if they do and damn if they don’t’.</p>
<p>Let’s just say I’M the person saying it. There could be much worse things than landing in Texas foster care.</p>
<p>shallwego – I saw the interview with 3 women on Anderson Cooper and I had the same thought. They all had exactly the same monotone-like inflections and cadence to their speech like they were in a trance. Very odd.</p>
<p>Re; women interviewed… they have lived very sheltered lives in a small community, so I’m not surprised that they have similar cadence and inflections. It reminds me of the way the Amish and Mennonite community members speak in rural Ohio.
Re foster care: My school has quite a few kids from foster care (therapeutic and regular), and I’ve had kids in my class in foster care, and have relatives that worked with kids in foster care in Texas. It ain’t pretty. My fear for the FDLS kids is that they may be plonked down in the average Texas foster home, where they may be frightened and bullied by the other foster kids. Seriously. The foster kids have been raised in extremely difficult situations and they are angry and hurt; not to mention often having problems with ADD/ADHD, anger management, abandonment issues, past sexual abuse, serious neglect, physical abuse etc. The foster parents may be saints, but the kids can be brutal, both to themselves and to others. Poor kids, they haven’t had the greatest role models growing up!!! So I really hope the FDLS kids can be returned to some type of relatives/family.</p>
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<p>I read somewhere, maybe the Washington Post, that authorities had basically agreed to look the other way at the polygamy as long as there was no evidence of child abuse.</p>
<p>Larry King had more tonight, including an interview with the author of Escape. </p>
<p>Couple of the attorneys who were present today also. They both report that the judge is handling the court proceedings in an outstanding way. I think the saddest thing is that there are many, many kids who have no idea who their biological parents are. It’s going to require massive amounts of DNA testing to clear up who belongs to who.</p>
<p>ldmom - I agree with you that the judgments coming down on Texas are harsh. I don’t know of any state that has the resources to deal with something like this. </p>
<p>Regarding polygamy - from what I’ve heard, the criminal charges won’t focus on polygamy, because these were spiritual marriages, not legal ones. However, since these men were not legally married to these young girls who are (or were pregnant), it solidifies their case for statuatory rape.</p>
<p>You take a “perfectly normal” child and plop him in a stranger’s home away from everything he knows, and it’s going to be hard. Most children in foster care do not come from what we would consider “normal” situations, and so bring many more problems with them.</p>
<p>It’s so much easier to blame the foster parents.</p>
<p>(Speaking as a former 5-year, 25 kid foster parent. - No, no more than 3 foster kids at a time; and most were short-term. For which I was “paid” a whopping $10.50 per day - for food, clothing, school supplies, repairs for damages, etc… Less that our local vet charged to keep a dog. Amazing how often I was accused of getting wealthy off the kids. Trust me, there was more day than dollar.)</p>
<p>Edit: Wish to encourage all of you to consider opening your own home to a child in need. Use your fabulous parenting skills (That’s not sarcasm - you’re here; you care about your kids!) and your various assets to up the average for foster care. You don’t even have to take the money - or, as one foster parent I knew did - bank it for the kid.</p>
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Binx, I bet you are one of those. 
Thank you for serving as a foster parent. I have “parented” foster kids in class, and know how truly challenging (and rewarding) the experience can be. (But in my case, I can go home and relax at the end of the day!) I hope that foster parent reimbursement rates and support services go up.</p>
<p>Are birth certificates issued to these children? </p>
<p>Is DNA testing being done to match them up with their fathers for prosecution?</p>
<p>“Regarding polygamy - from what I’ve heard, the criminal charges won’t focus on polygamy, because these were spiritual marriages, not legal ones. However, since these men were not legally married to these young girls who are (or were pregnant), it solidifies their case for statuatory rape.”</p>
<p>They better win, or they are going to be hit with lawsuits the size of which will keep the State of Texas paralyzed for decades. Unlawful imprisonment. Pain and suffering. Kidnapping. It will get ugly!</p>
<p>Re coming after the Texas compound legally:</p>
<p>Tax evasion–not sure that there’s been any talk about whether the compound engaged in tax fraud. But tax evasion has snared many a criminal when other legal ploys didn’t work.</p>
<p>Truancy–these kids are home schooled, for the most part.</p>
<p>Bigamy–agree with razorsharp, there is often only one legal marriage in the bunch–the rest are “spiritual wives.” Living with others without benefit of legal marriage won’t get you thrown into jail. It makes polygamy laws hard to enforce.</p>
<p>So the best ways to legally go after these people are for welfare fraud, sexual abuse of minors, and child abuse.</p>
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<p>There’s probably so much inbreeding among these families, that the DNA testing could get very interesting!</p>
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<p>Wow… you mean there’s a whole market for beds out there that I don’t know about?</p>
<p>We just sleep in the pew sitting up at our church.</p>
<p>I watched the footage of the woman giving a tour of their living quarters, too, and a few things really struck me. I wondered, “where are the toys?” I didn’t see a doll or building block, or stuffed animal on a bed, or toy car or truck anywhere within the sleeping quarters of the children. And there wasn’t a single book in any of the spaces she showed us. Have any of these kids ever had a Dr. Suess book, or Good Night Moon, or James and the Giant Peach read to them? All the walls were starkly empty with the exception of a photograph of Warren Jeffs here and there. The grounds were huge blank expanses (judging from aerial photographs). The “tour guide” at one point, proudly indicated a bare expanse of grassy lawn where the children played. But I wondered, “Are there no jungle-gyms, swings or slides?” She also showed a large space with straight backed chairs lined up against the walls and arrayed as if for a meeting, all facing a single easy chair with small side table next to it in the front of the room, and said, “this is our living room.” And I thought, yikes! How does anyone relax in there? Not a couch or comfortable chair in sight, except for the one obviously intended to be occupied by someone in authority at the front of the room. Judging by just this short bit of film footage, it would seem that the children living on the FLDS compound were extremely deprived the even the basics of childhood. I was shocked.</p>