From Deseret News archives:
Officials plan to group FLDS kids in homes
"To make this transition as smooth as possible, we're going to try to keep these children in groups," Shari Pulliam of the Texas Department of Family Services said Saturday. "We're going to keep the teenage girls and their children together, the siblings together as much as possible."
Child welfare workers said they would also make an effort to be culturally sensitive to the 416 children who come from a fundamentalist background and will end up in foster homes here in the Bible Belt.
"That's why we're going to place in groups, where they'll worship as they're used to," Pulliam said. "We're working to not put them in places that will expose them to mainstream culture too quickly. We're treading lightly and with caution in our placements."
It still won't be home, said attorneys appointed to represent the children in what is turning into the nation's biggest-ever custody battle.
As some attorneys met with their clients being housed in the San Angelo Coliseum on Saturday, other guardians ad litem toured the sprawling YFZ Ranch as the sun baked down on the west Texas prairie.
Susan Hays, a Dallas attorney acting as a guardian ad litem for a little girl taken from the YFZ Ranch, left the ranch impressed.
"These people can build houses. It's an amazing facility, amazing construction," she said Saturday. "These aren't poor kids living in trailers. They're huge buildings, very clean and, frankly, they're a lot better conditions than the children are living in right now inside the coliseum."
Some of the children taken from the YFZ Ranch are being housed in nearby San Angelo, where they are sleeping on cots in what some of the FLDS have said are very cramped conditions. Attorneys have complained that they have had to conduct interviews with their clients in horse barns.
Patricia Deveau, a San Antonio attorney representing a 9-year-old boy, said the YFZ Ranch was a beautiful, self-sustaining community.
"I wanted to meet my child's father and see where he's been living so I can complete my own investigation," she said. "I was impressed with how self-sustaining this community is. I had no idea. It was an education for me."
Hays said it was sad to walk through a huge home that was completely empty.
Recent comments
Government run amuck. What reason will they need to strip your kids...
Al | April 24, 2008 at 7:51 p.m.
These are not just women marrying young. These are women being forced...
Anonymous | April 24, 2008 at 4:10 p.m.
I was also heartbroken to think of my own child to be taken away from...
DIANA | April 23, 2008 at 8:57 p.m.
- Schlesinger: Cohesion key for U.S. 9:35 p.m.
- Proposal to skip 12th grade now a bill 9:33 p.m.
- School vending machine bill fizzles 9:32 p.m.
- Bill: protecting child visitation 9:31 p.m.
- Exchange students learn Utah politics 9:30 p.m.
- 'Singles Ward' filmmakers sue 9:27 p.m.
- Running game is missing 9:22 p.m.
- 3 ranked MWC teams 9:20 p.m.
- Bill: Gov. could pick chief justice 9:20 p.m.
- Utah Demos: Repeal tax exemptions 9:19 p.m.
- High school players commit to BYU
- Utah Jazz Ironmen
- LDS veggie program helps Bolivians
- Teacher merit pay debated
- 15-month-old Rachel Toone dies
- SLC's City Creek moves ahead
- Utahn's 'Caveman Diet' catching on
- MWC race shaping 'Survivor' style
- Kaman, not Boozer, on All-Star team
- Cougars hope for fast rebound
- Teacher merit pay debated
189 - UNLV bombs BYU into loss
185 - Countering attacks on LDS scholarship
158 - Why do they hate us? Try asking
155 - Letters: Tea Party hypocrites
119 - Rally in opposition to benefit cuts
90 - White House mocks Sarah Palin
90 - High school players commit to BYU
84 - Utah football alters schedule
80 - Let's talk college hoops
78
The Kepler probe, launched 11 months ago to hunt for Earthlike worlds...
Interesting and entertaining observations of the Utah Legislature.
There's that word - HOPE again. Hope without proper action is depressing.
RE: Do as I say or I'm calling cops "That's the problem that people don't...
I am so sorry that the parents have lost both their sweet, beautiful little...
We Love you Toone family and are praying for you.
Those who don't believe there is a God who created the earth and heaven, tend...
How many WAC teams are ranked right now?
The EPA decided to clean up the pollution in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee....
It's nice to read an article discussing a Super Bowl ad and it has nothing to...
To Clueless at 5:13, My great grandfather's journal recounts that it was...
RE: Do as I say or I'm calling cops The instances you bring up are why I...




