Reader comments
Most caregivers enjoyed the FLDS children

Some of the issues these homes normally deal with such as lack of trust among abused kids were present in the FLDS children. In order to establish trust, it may have taken a full year instead of two months. It's abusive to teach children not to trust anyone outside of their small group because the children are denied the opportunity to be able to be involved with others, including those who are wonderful people. They are psychologically abused in that they are presented with a negative view of the world that just isn't real. It seems like many of the workers cared very much about these children, but given what the children were taught it would be hard for some of the children to feel cared for. It is sad that the younger children missed opportunities for field trips due to the fear of the older children. After reading many posts, I think there are many people who underestimate the intangible psychological abuse that these children have suffered and if therapy is not court ordered, will continue to suffer.

These pathetic children should have never had to expierience this situation. It is no wonder that they would be distrustful of the outside world, after what they had been put through. It sounds like the home workers tried their best to care for these children. Thank goodness for those who were kind to these children after having their mothers torn away from them at gunpoint, the mental health worker's evaluation that the children were treated harshly by many CPS workers. I would be very leery of anyone, too. Many of these children could have been placed together, but, insted were cruelly torn away from siblings. Of course, it makes sense that these children would look up to any older child of their group for comfort, it was all they had, their parents were gone. So, sad. I admire the courage of the older children to watch over the little ones, if related or not.

I am certain these children have been psychologically abused. By the judge. She ordered infants as young as 1 yr old into foster care. Tiny children were torn from their mothers arms....Why? Because a few case workers thought they saw some pregnant teenagers. If any psychological abuse happened it was done to them by Judge Walthers and her heartless order.

Sheltering children from outside influences you deem poisonous is not abuse. It is good parenting. If you think that video games are not good for children, then don't allow them in your house. If you think soda is not good for children, don't let it in your house. That is parenting, not abuse.

On the other hand I am glad for kind workers that helped these children through a very difficult time. I am thankful for them and I am sure the parents are as well.

"Rolfe told the Deseret News the DNA samples could not be used without a court order."

Which, in Texas, are printed in gum wrappers.

Seems these Children are not so bad after all
Law Enforcement needs to learn it is their job to protect the public first
Like to serve and protect
The State is using the Cops against the People
So close to another Waco.

I have stoped commenting on these pages, but I just have to comment on this letter of gal50. what these kids learned is that the outside world truely is unkind. they are jerked from their families, lied to by cps, taken to all parts of the state of texas and siblings separated. you expect them to welcome this with open arms. these are not normal kids. they were given sewing machines to make clothes. what teenage girls in the usa can do this now. did they have patterns to follow? you people outside do not understand their ways. THAT DOES NOT MAKE THEM WRONG OR ABUSED. I am not flds, but I have been in their homes and I know that they are people who have been looked down upon for years. it is only natural that they would be on the defensive. we have taught them a great lesson that they will remeber for 50 years to come. just as their parents remember the raid in 1950�s.

Apparently my first post was not kind enough so I will try again.

Children removed from their parents have most certainly experience psychological trauma, the younger the child the worse the trauma. So I would expect the little ones not to trust anyone for a long time. Their world has been shaken, and they don't know where to turn. The older children were simply trying to fill in the void for the younger ones and help them avoid things that might bequestionable in their faith. Maybe they went overboard, but they were children too and their intent was good.

Teaching children that many of the outside influences of the world are not good, is not abuse, it is parenting. Many parents don't like video games, or soda, or various brands and types of toys. The children are taught to shun those things. This group (in many cases quite rightly) believes that the people outside their group are corrupt and immoral. This raid did not help that perception for anyone.

t's abusive to teach children not to trust anyone outside of their small group.

Really??
Then why are most children taught from a very early are "Don't talk to strangers!" "Stay away from those you don't know"
This is common stuff and it's done everywhere.
Give the kids a television?? There are MANY shrinks that would disagree and would rather give the children books and real interaction.

A real childhood is not parked in front of a tv and given money so they can go on "outings at the mall" or be filled with false expectations of what happens when they "grow up" (video games) Children that are taught to be responsible for their actions are few and far between in our "modern times"

I would question what group of kids is really suffering from abuse? What book would you rather use to raise children? The Bible? or the world famous Dr Spock on children, (a now known communist)??

>>It's abusive to teach children not to trust anyone outside of their small group because the children are denied the opportunity to be able to be involved with others... >...including those who are wonderful people. >...I think there are many people who underestimate the intangible psychological abuse that these children have suffered and if therapy is not court ordered, will continue to suffer.<<

The psychological abuse was inflicted by CPS who ripped these kids from their homes and families without reason or explanation. The good news is that, when they get back to their homes they can hopefully begin to forget about this rotten experience.

Talk about trust. How do you expect the children to trust "outsiders" when they are forcibly separated from their parents, and lied to? The parents and children were told the mothers were going to a "meeting", and then were forcibly returned to the YFZ Ranch

As a counselor and parent I have to strongly disagree with you. Teaching children not to trust people outside the family is what helps the children be safe. Raising children to trust everybody, or even almost everybody, leaves them open for being abused, which abuse is by far more severe than what they have been taught at home. I have not found that the FLDS children do not trust their mothers, which is most important. Parents give a safe haven for children to explore the world. Not wanting to participate in field trips with people they don't know shows they did not have the security they would have had with their moms around. The abuse they suffered being separate from their mothers will far outweigh the teaching of not to just trust anybody. Taking them with military force was traumatic and the children will have to deal with abandonment issues. Why should they trust people so heartless as CPS and all it accomplices? You might want to do your own research instead of taking AP news at face value - trusting everybody...

These children saw hundreds of armed strangers come into their homes and herd them on to buses and take them away from their families. Of course they weren't trusting. Yours would be suspicious of strangers, too, if it happened to them, and with good reason.

Maybe some of them were abused at home. All of them were abused when the state of Texas tore them from their families based on insufficient evidence. None were in immediate danger, and law enforcement knew it, because they waited four or five days after the initial hoax call while they gathered resources to carry out the raid.

Prosecute and punish the guilty. Let the innocent go free. Texas did it backwards by punishing the innocent first, while trying the alleged perpetrators in the media. They nearly got away with it.

Soooo many good comments on this article today. AMEN>

Gee, teenage and pre-teenage girls that know how to cook and sew and care for younger children. They must have suffered terrible abuse, NOT. The abused ones are all those other children in the US whose parents let them watch 4+ hours of TV per day and then hour after hour of video games. Those kids don't know how to do anything else. The reason "no child left behind" is doomed is that so many children are being raised like that and they never learn anything or even how to learn.

I may not approve of the FLDS ignoring laws against polygamy, but at least they aren't such a bunch of hypocrits like the people who think the FLDS parenting is abuse and the "typical" US parent is good.

Catch a clue people. TV and other modern technology isn't evil but modern technologies are easy to abuse. Teach your children. Nuture your children. Failing to do those things is the real abuse.

I am so sick of reading the comments on the web defending the right of the FLDS to raise their children any way they want to. It is one thing to shield your children from video games and sleaze. Its another thing to deny them knowledge of the world so that they will be handicapped in pursuit of any career and unaware of what options exist. The children's lives are preempted by the limitations imposed by their parents. They can never recapture the opportunities and vision lost to them by being shielded and molded. What about the lawyers, doctors, social scientists and engineers that might have been. Do their parents have the right to rise them so that they never even know those choices are there for them? If you are programmed to think you are on earth to make babies to increase your chance to get to heaven you don't throw off those ideas in time to have another dream before you are well and truly shackled.

"Most caregivers enjoyed the FLDS children"

That is a really unfortunately written headline.

How is that headline unfortunate?

"What about the lawyers, doctors, social scientists and engineers that might have been."

Let see: Raise children to serve God or raise children to serve some corporation or secular society?
That's a tuffy.

I agree wholeheartedly with gal50. It's exactly whay I've been saying all along, too.

just thinking II - it's good they can make dresses. Now, are they prepared to work for a famous designer? Or will they sit on a ranch THEIR ENTIRE LIVES, making babies and watering flowers, simply because they have no experience with the outside world. Big world out there - lots of opportunity - which they will miss out on simply because their parents kept them confined.

disagree gal50 - it's not a matter of teaching children to not trust people outside the family. It's a matter of the parents NEVER letting the children interface with anyone outside the family. That would be like raising a child and never letting them outside of the house. That's abuse.

amber - YOU ARE SO RIGHT! Thank you for stating what these other posters (except gal50) seem to be missing out of all this.

Parents can teach their children anything they want, and can confine their movement however they want. It's not illegal, but it is immoral, and it robs the children of any kind of future options or choices. Should be a civil rights violation.

>>It is one thing to shield your children from video games and sleaze. Its another thing to deny them knowledge of the world so that they will be handicapped in pursuit of any career and unaware of what options exist.<<

Why is it that so many think that these children are stupid or dumb?? They are not. To have a home school curriculum , you must provide the equivalent of a 10th grade education . This includes history,social studies,music, industrial arts, home economics, art, and mathematics. Do you think their school does not teach?? These children display at least an average education. All the people seem to have access to internet and cell phones, this requires some acceptance of technology ,even more than the average Amish community. Just because you choose not to cavort with your neighbor at the local gin mill, does not mean you are stupid.
Have another dream before you are well and truly shackled?? Just what do you mean by that?