From Deseret News archives:
Measure would assist 'Lost Boys'
A southern Utah lawmaker wants to provide money for transitional services for "abused, neglected or dependent children of bigamist families."
HB468 would require the Division of Child and Family Services to provide or contract out transitional services. The legislation would appropriate $250,000 with no expiration date.
The bill is being sponsored by House Majority Leader David Clark, R-Santa Clara, who heard the stories of teenagers who either ran away or were kicked out of the Fundamentalist LDS Church. A group of teens who were kicked out of the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., came to the Capitol to plead for money last month.
Teenage boys told of being urged to "repent from a distance" by FLDS leaders.
"They're from good families that had to make a horrible decision about exiling the child," Shannon Price, director of the Diversity Foundation, said Tuesday.
FLDS leader Warren Jeffs is facing criminal charges in Utah and Arizona, accusing him of forcing teenage girls into marriages with older men.
Some teenagers kicked out of the FLDS communities have found themselves on the streets, crashing at "party houses," becoming addicted to drugs and getting involved in crimes. Many don't have anything beyond an eighth-grade education.
"We know there are hundreds of children in the Salt Lake-area and the St. George-area who don't have a place to live," said Paul Murphy, the Utah Attorney General's Safety Net coordinator, who works with polygamous groups.
Price said if the Legislature approves the money, her foundation will purchase a transitional home near Dixie College to help the exiled teenagers.
"We have no housing for these children," she said. "When they're under 18 and they work to support themselves, they don't have time to go to school. This housing allows them to have room and board while they attend high school or study for their GED."
The bill makes it clear that DCFS can provide child protection or reunification services for children who live in polygamy. It also could apply to children from other polygamous groups in Utah. However, Murphy said the immediate need is the "Lost Boys."
"The hope is the 'Lost Boys' will be found and they'll have a place to stay and go on to do great things," he said.
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com
