FLDS polygamists -- nursing moms allowed to stay with babies.

[pnwmom]

This was a good move on the part of the Judge. The babies won't come to any harm while they're under the supervision of CPS, and they won't suffer from an abrupt weaning.

The earlier decision to separate the nursing babies and mothers was increasing sympathy for the polygamists, and wasn't helpful to the babies.

I'm more ambivalent about another decision the Judge made, to have the children homeschooled in their foster placements. Where do we draw the line between respecting the child's culture and enforcing the same restrictions that the parents were putting on the children? Does respecting the child's culture mean the state of Texas will be expecting the foster care providers to be enforcing the culture's religiously-based rules?

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2008/apr/23/adults-moms-to-stay-with-nursing-flds-infants-to/

SNIP

In deviations from the normal practice in child-removal cases, infants removed from the YFZ Ranch will not be separated from their adult mothers if they are still nursing, and older children will continue to be home-schooled in their foster placements.

The details, revealed at an informational gathering today presided over by 51st District Judge Barbara Walther, appeared to defuse much of the tension that had been building between attorneys for the hundreds of children housed at the San Angelo Coliseum and the state's Child Protective Services agency.

"I would like for this case to take on the normal progressions these things take," Walther told a crammed courtroom of more than 60 attorneys and reporters. "The Department (of Family and Protective Services) has been stretched beyond belief."

CPS attorney Gary Banks told Walther the agency planned to separate nursing infants from their adult mothers, an idea she rejected. Those 18 mothers should be placed with their babies, she said.

SNIP

[truedelphi]

1. I think that we need to make sure we are not unduly stressing kids that aren't in danger

The nursing infants were not directly in danger - but separating them from their moms certainly caused them to be anxious and unhappy.

And kids who are trying to make a lot of adjustments, like adapting to foster care, might not do well suddenly being tossed into the public school system.

[uppityperson]

2. Sounds like good reasoning to me.

Ditto what truedelphi wrote.

[izquierdista]

4. Too late now

That line was passed like it wasn't even there.

Instead of confronting the whole group and removing the source of the problem, the approach here has been to jail the whole group and slowly pick out the ones that aren't causing a problem, like the nursing infants. I hate to think what will happen if an infant spits up on a deputy though.

[kestrel91316]

7. None of the children or mothers have been jailed.

That's just a BALD-FACED LIE. The only ones arrested or jailed were the two men who interfered with the original inspection and search.

The children have been in protective custody in a STADIUM. Any adult women with them were there of their own free will.

What a freak. WTF is wrong with you?

[uppityperson]

9. Where has the whole group been jailed? Balogna.

that is a polite way of cussing about male bovine feces

[pnwmom]

13. It wasn't possible to remove only "the source of the problem."

Mothers weren't identifying themselves, their children, their husbands. People were living in huge group homes and young teens were obviously pregnant. How could CPS identify the offending parents?

[Xithras]

3. I can understand the homeschooling thing.

These kids have never been exposed to a real school in their lives. You can't just hand them lunch money and send them off to public school. They wouldn't know what to do, and it's very unlikely that the public school would have the resources to deal with their special needs.

[skorpo]

5. If they're home schooled you don't have to worry about...

the parents going to the schools to take them back. Non-custodial parents have been doing this for years.

[Sedona]

6. Why didn't they let the moms and kids stay at home

and remove the male pedophiles knocking up the young girls?

Makes to much sense I guess....

[izquierdista]

10. Shhhh

Stadiums and "protective custody" are where the moms and kids want to be. Other posters know much, much better than you or I do.

[Cerridwen]

11. "other posters" understand that the US "legal" system has been punishing

women for being victims of violence for decades. We, too, would like to know why women and their children are forced from their homes while the perpetrators of violence are allowed to remain in the home while women and their children are forced to leave for their safety.

I suggest you have a talk with a few judges.

[pnwmom]

15. One answer I read to this kind of question

is that the counsellors with CPS wanted the children and women in a neutral environment, that wouldn't be "reminding" them by its sheer physical presence of the rules not to talk to outsiders.

[Cerridwen]

16. I do understand that line of thought.

I think, however, that the poster to whom I replied doesn't.

This whole scenario is sad and horrendous for so many reasons. Ah, well, if I ruled the world...

[pnwmom]

17. It is sad and horrendous -- and horribly complicated.

And if I ruled the world I have no idea what the best way to handle this would be.

[pnwmom]

14. It's still possible that this will happen in some sort of settlement.

Just about anything could happen.

[Ilsa]

8. That was the most compassionate thing to do. CPS could end up with

some very unhappy infants, even sick infants, if they couldn't tolerate formula, which happens from time to time.

Besides, the state losses its moral authority with respect to pushing breastfeeding to prospective moms, many of whom are on WIC, if they rip these little babies from their moms.

[Cleita]

12. I think I can see why home schooling them at this time might

be a good thing until they can be introduced gradually into the outside world. Throwing them into public school without a transition period could be traumatic and maybe even dangerous in case where other children might want to taunt and tease them.

[varelse]

18. Good call on the part of Judge Walther

the mothers aren't consuming any deadly toxins that might make breast-feeding hazardous, so there is no reason to separate them from their nursing infants. It would unduly stress the babies and deprive them of the bond with their mothers and the best food a baby can have at that stage of development.