Posted by Wendi (Flower Child) on April 26, 2008, 10:42 am
You will remember that this is the shelter where the children from Mt. Carmel were taken in 1993. The facility later attempted to bill the parents for the care of their children, though the children had been sent out of Mt. Carmel with amle amounts of money for their care and upkeep pinned to their clothing. One can only wonder where that money ended up - or whether these children and families will be treated more fairly.
Original Article
Children from West Texas polygamist sect find shelter in Waco
Saturday, April 26, 2008
By Emily Ingram
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Four buses hauling some of the 462 children taken from a West Texas polygamist sect arrived at Waco’s Methodist Children’s Home on Friday afternoon, the latest chapter in a controversial saga that has riveted the nation.
The buses, the last of which was empty, snaked along Herring Avenue at 3:55 p.m., turning into the campus and stopping briefly before moving deeper onto the grounds. The buses were escorted by state troopers and a Washington County ambulance.
Before and after the buses’ arrival, officials at the Methodist Children’s Home stopped all traffic into the facility, turning away a few cars before the children arrived.
A news conference set for 4:30 was initially delayed, then canceled, as children’s home officials busied themselves trying to get the children settled, spokesman Bryan Mize said.
Children’s home staffers want to focus on the youths throughout the weekend, he said. MCH President Bobby Gilliam was among those working to get the children acclimated to their new temporary home and wasn’t able to comment, Mize said.
On Wednesday, Gilliam told reporters the children’s home was expecting 47 children after a conversation with Child Protective Services officials. On Friday, Mize declined to confirm if that was the number of children brought to the local facility.
The children were taken April 3 from the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Eldorado, Texas, amid allegations of physical and sexual abuse of some of the children.
The state is placing the children in foster homes as far away as Houston.
In previous interviews, Methodist Children’s Home officials said the next few days would be spent gathering information about the children and helping them adjust.
A few days may pass before officials can gather all relevant information and determine what they’re allowed by law to release to the news media, they said.
For the moment, CPS officials said they hope to keep the sect’s 462 children apart from youths of different social backgrounds.
“We recognize it’s critical that these children not be exposed to mainstream culture too quickly or other things that would hinder their success,” agency spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said in an earlier interview. “We just want to protect them from abuse and neglect. We’re not trying to change them.”
While the children were being prepared for their move to foster homes across Texas on Thursday, about 100 protesters gathered in Salt Lake City in support of the FLDS parents, waving signs that read “Free the children” and “Got Constitution?”
Texas officials allege the sect encourages adolescent girls to marry older men and have children and that boys are groomed to become future perpetrators. Sect members deny the allegations.
Authorities now are investigating whether the call that triggered the raid of the Eldorado sect was a hoax, but state child welfare officials say their investigation has uncovered evidence of abuse and that they responded to the call in good faith.
Gilliam, of Waco’s Methodist Children’s Home, said earlier that a building had been prepared for the sect’s children, who will be kept separated from the local facility’s 180 other residents.
The Methodist Children’s Home dealt with a similar situation 15 years ago when, for 55 days, it housed 20 children removed from the Branch Davidian compound 10 miles east of Waco.
The compound and its apocalyptic followers under David Koresh were then in an armed standoff with federal law enforcement officials.
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