Bad News or Overdramatization?

[mysteriew]

From this article:
The color red is "not acceptable for clothing" for boys or girls, the guide states. Black Nikes and Crocs shoes of all colors are preferred for girls, except for red Crocs. The guide also indicates FLDS children do not play with red toys.
The red edict also stems from Jeffs, who banned the color after announcing it was reserved for Christ, who would return wearing a crimson robe. "To wear that color before he returned was mocking Christ," she explained.
People reacted differently to Jeffs' red announcement, Jessop said. Some women continued to wear red but didn't replace the clothing with that color once it was worn out, while others immediately threw away all red items, including one woman who ripped out the red rose bushes in her yard and changed them to pink roses.


Okay, now aren't we being a little bit hypocritical about the Red Crocs, what makes them okay when red roses are not even acceptable???:waitasec:

To me, it was encouraging to hear that some women continued to wear red clothing but just didn't replace it when it wore out. To me that means there is some hope, there may be some practical women there. The kind of woman who still thinks for herself.

I wonder about Warren's making that particular proclamation. Was it a way of testing the followers? Did he just not like the color red? Or is it a sign of weakness, that at least on that particular day he needed the ego boost that the others would obey him over a stupid order?

 

[Peculiar Petunia]

First a trampoline, now honey, which is not supposed to be fed to infants because of the (admittedly low) risk of botulism. Did only the baby boys get the smoothies?

 

[Leila]

After this next round of hearings, the individual hearings, is over, I think CPS will be looking at more long-term care for the children. When that happens, I hope CPS will ease up and gradually allow the children to start adjusting to the outside world.

There's some excellent children's programing on television and it wouldn't hurt for the younger children be watch some educational television.

With the summer months coming up, a picnic to a nearby park or lake would give them a chance to see other people and perhaps experience interaction with other children.

A trip to a local museum would also be a good outing, or to a children's theater.

There's a lot that could be done to slowly adjust the children to the outside world.

As far as I'm concerned, the FLDS will find fault no matter what is done, so why not expose the children to the outside world.

 

[mysteriew]

I read somewhere that since they are in group homes but segregated from other kids that once the hearings were over they plan to allow gradual but limited contact with the other kids in the shelters. In 90 days a decision has to be made on whether to keep them in shelters or put them in foster homes. Right now they are being tested and tutored, but school will be out soon. Though many of might be tutored through the summer in order to help get them school ready.

I think a summer camp with both FLDS and non-FLDS would be good. Because a lot of times the best way to connect to a kid is through another kid.

 

[Spazkat9696]

Question?? I skimmed the thread but did they find the "missing children"? Were they actually missing, or was this just confusion compounded by lies?

 

[mysteriew]

Question?? I skimmed the thread but did they find the "missing children"? Were they actually missing, or was this just confusion compounded by lies?

It's not really clear. I did read that CPS said they found one of the two, but the parents were disputing it. CPS does say that they have accounted for every child that they took out of the compound. But that there may be problems related to the fact that the mothers were not telling the truth about the children's names or the parent's names. Making it now difficult to connect mothers and children.

 

[Leila]

I read somewhere that since they are in group homes but segregated from other kids that once the hearings were over they plan to allow gradual but limited contact with the other kids in the shelters. In 90 days a decision has to be made on whether to keep them in shelters or put them in foster homes. Right now they are being tested and tutored, but school will be out soon. Though many of might be tutored through the summer in order to help get them school ready.

I think a summer camp with both FLDS and non-FLDS would be good. Because a lot of times the best way to connect to a kid is through another kid.

Mysteriew..............that's an excellent idea! Peer influence will play an important role.

I think it's likely that many of these children won't be returned to the FLDS. In this case, they need to slowly be integrated into the outside world.

 

[LinasK]

Mysteriew..............that's an excellent idea! Peer influence will play an important role.

I think it's likely that many of these children won't be returned to the FLDS. In this case, they need to slowly be integrated into the outside world.

Let's hope they don't try to convert the non-FLDS kids!

 

[Leila]

Let's hope they don't try to convert the non-FLDS kids!

Yikes..........I never thought of that!

 

[mysteriew]

How many 16 year old kids do you know who would be willing to give up their makeup, TV's, video games, fast food and so forth for very long?

 

[mysteriew]

As Richard Barlow walked eight of his children to a bus that would take them away from the YFZ Ranch, he gave each one advice.
"I spoke very freely. I said, 'Let us be at peace,' " he said.
And: "Be strong."

snip...The couple said they gave the state accurate names and birth dates for all of their children. And later they submitted DNA samples.
"We have nothing to hide," said Susan, 37.
But Barlow does have a plural family, which is something he declines to discuss in any detail.
As for underage marriage, neither he nor Susan supports it and both believe their own children should be adults before they marry. "Underage marriage is not one of our doctrines or covenants," he said.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9155045

This is going to be the hardest type of PR for CPS to deal with- alleged reasonableness. The Barlows say their children are all spread out.

In fairness I would like to point out that although Barlow evidently admitted to plural wives in the interview (and he said they were over 18), they were not interviewed, not named and they and their children are barely even mentioned.

 

[mysteriew]

Steve Pickell, an attorney ad litem for for Isaac, asked why the boy's Book of Mormon had been taken away and not returned. Pickell also asked whether the state's service plan requires the boys' mother to renounce her faith in the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Caseworker Missy McCarty said such a pronouncement by mothers would not be required, and added she did not know why the book was taken.
Judge Marilyn Aboussie said the state does not intend to interfere with the children's religious texts, and said she wants to know why the book was taken.
"I would like to hear if there was a good reason for that. I can't think of one," she said. "We would need an excellent reason for that."
Outside court, CPS spokesperson Bit Whitaker said many of the FLDS children's copies of the Book of Mormon had photos of Warren Jeffs taped into them. Workers had to remove them, Whitaker said, as Warren Jeffs is a convicted sex offender.
http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_9310669

 

[mysteriew]

Lawyers for the parents, who are in hearings in five courtrooms, are questioning the Child Protective Services plans for the children, which the state says are needed to protect them. The hearings began today.

The parents' lawyers said the plans are vague and at the same time call for requirements they consider questionable, such as testing the educational backgrounds of the parents, not just the children.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5789935.html

 

[mysteriew]

Remember the Canadian teen whose parents have said she is 17, she was only in the US a few weeks and was visiting her grandmother?

A historian who has compiled geneological maps of BC community says there is no grandmother in Texas, and that the girl has been gone for a much longer time than a few weeks- possibly as much as 2 yrs. And CPS says the girl is 16, not 17. There are also questions about her citizenship.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080519.POLYGAMY19/TPStory/National

 

[mollymalone]

I read that article and it's more smoke and mirrors from flds members. I read where there were at least 5 Canadian girls and two of those were married to Warren Jeffs. There's no telling yet if this particular girl is one of those two. Regardless, the usual reason the girls are sent from one place to the other is for marriages.

 

[mysteriew]

I read a previous article from the Globe and Mail and it seemed totally for the FLDS members, with no hint that the girl could be anything other than visiting her grandmother. This article is the first that offers any question that it could be anything else and it does raise the question that the girl might be married at the YFZ.

I haven't seen any suggestion so far in the Canadian papers that there could be any other Canadian kids involved. Doesn't mean there aren't any, just that the papers I've seen haven't acknowledged it. Info releases to the media are more tightly controlled in Canada, so they might not have been able to get info on the other kids yet.

 

[mollymalone]

I read a previous article from the Globe and Mail and it seemed totally for the FLDS members, with no hint that the girl could be anything other than visiting her grandmother. This article is the first that offers any question that it could be anything else and it does raise the question that the girl might be married at the YFZ.

I haven't seen any suggestion so far in the Canadian papers that there could be any other Canadian kids involved. Doesn't mean there aren't any, just that the papers I've seen haven't acknowledged it. Info releases to the media are more tightly controlled in Canada, so they might not have been able to get info on the other kids yet.

This is the first article I'd seen about the Canadians.

Children of Canadian women may be among those seized from Texas sect
At least 5 women living at polygamist compound came from B.C.
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

At least five Canadian women live in the fundamentalist Mormon compound in
Eldorado, Texas, and their children may be among the 416 children now in
protective custody. Teressa Wall Blackmore, who left the reclusive sect nearly two years ago, can name five young women sent from Bountiful, B.C. to marry American members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who are now living in Eldorado. Of the five, she says, two are married to FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs.

No one -- not Blackmore, Canadian government officials, B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal or the Texas authorities -- can say exactly how many underage Canadian mothers and children are in protective custody.
Not only are Texas authorities having trouble determining how many Canadians there are, they can't figure out who the children's parents are.

 

[mollymalone]

These articles are about the trafficing of women between Canada and AZ/Utah FLhttp://www.rickross.com/reference/p...olygamy103.html

From the link: Frequently, the girls are shipped out of town, to a sister FLDS town in Creston, British Columbia. In turn, that town ships girls to the Colorado City area.


http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy65.html
Trafficing in women

And I ran across this post by someone who lives near the Bountiful FLDS site:http://messengerandadvocate.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/the-yfz-flds-plight-some-interim-thoughts/
modest in 2008 Says:
April 24, 2008 1:28 PM
"I live close to the Canadian FLDS community and news here is that some of the children in Texas were Canadian kids sent to the ranch without their parents. The Canadian authorities are now getting involved too, making this an international, not just a Texas issue."

 

[mollymalone]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080502.polygamy031/BNStory/International/home
When the handsome ones go to the leaders
"And the discovery of a 17-year-old girl at the ranch from an FLDS community in British Columbia could expose a part of the church's life that governments on both sides of the border have long ignored. Her parents say she had been visiting her grandmother who was living at the Texas ranch. But a weeklong Globe and Mail investigation indicates the trip may have been a ride on a little-known underground railway that takes young girls across the Canada-U.S. border – in both directions – for one purpose: to be assigned as a so-called celestial bride to FLDS men.

Flora Jessop, a former FLDS member who fled at age 16 after she was forced to marry a cousin, said the practice of “trading” young women across the border was akin to international trafficking of young women for sexual purposes. ... Brenda Jensen, who was born into a polygamist FLDS family in B.C., said the insular communities require new blood “so they will not be so badly inbred.” The girls are taken across the border quietly at night and never return, Ms. Jensen said, adding, “The handsome ones go to the leaders.”

Mary Mackert, a former sixth wife in a celestial marriage, said she heard about an FLDS bishop in the U.S. who took a young Canadian girl as his second wife. In order to arrange for her U.S. immigration, the FLDS bishop divorced his first wife – whom he had legally married – and married the Canadian. She could then apply to stay in the U.S.
People travel between the FLDS communities in Canada and the U.S. all the time, she said. They get away with it, she said, because “they do not look like they are trafficking.”

 

[mysteriew]

But the only family who is talking is the family of the 16/17 year old. Otherwise it is rumor and speculation about who else from Canada might be involved, at least as far as I have seen.

Have you seen anything in the Texas press about how many they think they have that might be Canadian?