It sounds so simple. An anonymous caller says that she is a teenaged girl being raped by a middle-aged man. What to do? Round up all 460 children who live at the ranch and then find out if any of them are actually being abused. Simple, maybe, but it sure is costing a lot.
THE COST IN MONEY
The Health and Human Services Commission of the Texas Senate has said that the cost of caring for the chidlren over the next year will be $21 million, but other senators there are saying it will cost more, because transportation and overtime pay for the caseworkers was not included in that estimate. There will also be more cost in psychological and educational assessments of the children.
Judges and court clerks have estimated that their costs will be about $2.25 million.
The raid itself is expected to end up costing $5.3 million, according to the seven state departments, eight local governments, and seven nonprofit organizations that were involved.
THE COST IN PERSONNEL
Texas doesn’t have enough social workers to begin with. The national government recently fined the state $4 million for not meeting a requirement that every child in the foster care system get a monthly visit from a caseworker. Now some of the caseworkers will have even more children to look after, although the state hired some new ones as a result of the raid.
State Senator Jane Nelson worries that the focus on the children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch might prevent the Child Protective Services from investigating new reports of abuse, and that some children could be in danger as a result.
THE COST IN LIBERTY
Has the state of Texas ever heard of the dictum that one is innocent until proven guilty? How about due process? How about writs of habeas corpus? Does an anonymous phone tip always result in the automatic removal of children from a home until the parents can somehow prove that they did not abuse them?
THE COST IN CHILD WELFARE
I do not know what the children at the Yearning for Zion Ranch have experienced or how they were treated. What I do know is that they have probably been quite traumatized by being taken away from their homes without warning and being farmed out to homes and facilities across the state. If some of the children were being well taken care of and were not being abused, how are they ever supposed to recover from what the state has done to them? I still haven’t heard of any concrete proof that any of them were being abused.
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SOURCE FOR THE DATA: “CPS’ Focus on Sect May Leave Other Children Unprotected, Legislator Warns,” Dallas Morning News, May 21, 2008
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You might not like what went on at the Yearning for Zion Ranch. From what I have heard, I don’t like it at all. But neither do I like the idea of violating people’s rights because one doesn’t like a group’s religious beliefs and practices.
Some people have said that the heavy-handed approach to the situation by the Texas CPS will be worth it if even one abused child has been rescued. I disagree. If one child was being abused, then only that child needed to be rescued. If the phone caller was being raped by her husband, then they need to prosecute him and take care of her. They shouldn’t violate the rights of all to potentially preserve the rights of one.
7 responses so far ↓
Mike Lovell // May 21, 2008 at 10:42 am
Sounds, like in the same vein as WACO, like the government just decided to go after some “wackos” on account of scant information.
And to address the social worker caseload, often times its the fit parents who seem to lose more [often] than those who have repeatedly run into jams with CPS who end up keeping their children and screwing them up before sending them into the world, or causing them physical damage or even death.
RG: A lot of what people are saying amounts to little more than rumors, gossip, and active imaginations. Some of it might turn out to be true, but we should act only on what we know to be true.
CPS is a mixed blessing. In my experience I have seen times when agents go way overboard and cause pain to innocent people and times when agents are negligent and allow children to get hurt or even killed. Most of the time they do a very good job to solve a very serious problem.
Personal Anecdote: My sister’s son collapsed one day, and she took him to the hospital. Moments after she entered the emergency room, a CPS agent began asking personal questions to find out if she had abused him. He had a brain tumor. When she got the diagnosis, she actually asked the social worker, “Do you think I planted a tumor in his skull?”
conrad // May 21, 2008 at 11:00 am
Why do they even bother taking an oath to defend and uphold the constitution ?
Who are the real criminals?
RG: I wonder. And I wonder.
lshaffer // May 21, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Gee, Kyle, is that the same sister who just passed away?
RG: Yes, I’m afraid it is. My sister, J, had a genetic mutation known as Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, which she passed on to her son. He died from complications from the brain tumor when he was 6 years old. She died three weeks ago from complications from breast cancer at age 33.
Suzanne Shell // May 21, 2008 at 10:51 pm
“Does an anonymous phone tip always result in the automatic removal of children from a home until the parents can somehow prove that they did not abuse them?”
Yes, in every state of this country. And in over 50% of those cases it results in termination of parental rights even when there was no evidence of abuse or neglect. The only legal grounds required to Terminate Parental Rights is failure to comply with a case plan. Injury or harm to a child is not required.
RG: Do you have any sources for those assertions? One reason that I have a hard time believing them is that I would think that CPS gets lots of bogus calls. Another reason is that I had a friend who worked as a call screener, and from what she told me, the result of such a call would not be an immediate withdrawal of the child but the launch of an investigation.
Pauline // May 22, 2008 at 9:38 am
My sister has had social workers keeping close tabs on her son since he was little, because he has Asperger’s Syndrome and has to go to a special school for children with behavioral issues. At times they have talked about taking him away, such as if our (mentally ill) mother were to stay overnight in the apartment.
At one point there had apparently been comments from neighbors, and in particular the social workers were concerned that my nephew was malnourished and kept having broken bones. But they investigated, and were apparently satisfied that the medication for the Asperger’s is an appetite suppressant and they just couldn’t get him to eat more, and that he is in the habit of doing reckless things like jumping from his bed across the room to his dresser (I forget if that was the time he broke his arm or his leg.)
BILL MEDVECKY // June 5, 2008 at 9:47 am
After a bill that will top 30 million dollars and is climbing as we speak, CPS has now conceded that it has one girl who might have been abused. She is a daughter of Warren Jeff’s who’s in jail for 5 years to life and just might not be a danger to any more little girls, if the story of this particular girl is proven founded.
Every single other charge CPS alleged to have occurred has been dropped by them it simply never happened.
As early as last week, CPS said that it had over 100 “Unclaimed” children in it’s custody and
asked the Supreme Court not to release them.
In 3 days, every single child was returned to it’s parent by documented proof available to CPS since day one.
You’ve all heard of the 31 pregnant “Children” who were taken into custody by CPS.
30 of the children were adults over 18, the oldest child was 37 years old!
Out of 465 children kidnapped. ONE is still in dispute and the taxpayers of Texas have a 30 million dollar bill for it as of today. The bills keep rolling in folks!
There are now 465 beds under contract by CPS to the facilities who took in the children. They will be empty for the next 6 month’s but you’ll still be paying for them. Ask the Governor why?
RG: I’m not sure that all your facts are precisely correct, but it seems like you are substantially right in what you wrote. As a sometime resident of Texas, I am completely appalled by the whole affair.
BILL MEDVECKY // June 19, 2008 at 7:08 am
FUN FACT TO PONDER:
After all the hype from CPS about how “Concerned” they were about sexual abuse of boys, broken bones, girls being groomed to have children before their breast’s fully developed, teen boys becoming pedophiles at age 50, throwing boys out of the Ranch and becoming “Lost boys”, all the Mother’s running for the border once they regained their childrens custody, you would think that since the children
were returned to their parents that CPS would very closely monitor these children who are so
in such great danger now.
How many times since they returned to their parents care has a CPS worker asked to enter the Ranch and verify that the children are being abused?
How many times has a CPS worker out in the field contacted and visited a family spread throughout the State to check on the children?
How many Mother’s are now sitting in Utah and Arizona with their children?
The answer is all same; NONE!
Why would CPS abandon the children if they were so “Concerned” about them?
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