'Lost Boys' watch Texas raid from afar

ST. GEORGE — They have family members who have been separated from their parents.

Just like them.

The raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch in Texas has been difficult for some of the so-called "Lost Boys," teenagers who have been cast out or who ran away from the fundamentalist communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. From a distance, they are watching their families get caught up in the raid and its aftermath here in Utah.

"I don't think it's right to take all their kids away, even if it's one case of abuse — if there's even that," said Simon, who was asked to leave Short Creek (the name for Hildale and Colorado City). "I really don't think there's as much abuse as they say there is. I mean, I wasn't abused."

The kids are feeling a lot of anxiety, fear and worry for their families, said Michelle Benward, the clinical director of New Frontiers for Families. She runs the "House Just Off Bluff," a drop-in center — just off Bluff Street — for the "Lost Boys."

"Right now, we have a community that is in incredible crisis," Benward said. "At the point of crisis, the resources should be put on the table to take care of the problem."

Using community and local church donations, a government grant and whatever money she can scrape together, Benward has helped create this home that acts as a sometime shelter for the young men. They are provided education and support transitioning from one community to another.

Since it opened last year, advocates say the home has directly helped about 100 of the estimated 1,000 cast-out teens.

All of that is now in danger if more funding isn't secured to keep the home open.

"I won't accept the bare minimum," she said in an interview with the Deseret News. "I'll have to work towards moving the kids into another situation."

Simon was barely 17 when he was asked to leave his home in Short Creek. He came home late from a movie.

"I thought I didn't get caught, and the next day my stepdad's like, 'Where were you last night?"' he said. "He said, 'Promise me you won't do that any more' and I said, 'I'll probably do it again.' And I was like, 'As a matter of fact, I don't really want to go to church or priesthood meeting anymore.'"