CPS Still Tries to Defend the Indefensible

2009-04-11 00:09:42

By Donald Richter

On the anniversary of the 2008 YFZ raid, Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein gave statements that clearly indicate that CPS is on the defensive regarding its actions during the past year.

“Did we make mistakes? I would say no,” she told reporters from the Austin American Statesman. “We did the right thing.”[i] Over a conference call that took place at the same time as FLDS members gathered at Fort Concho, she told media representatives that “the department had no regrets about entering the ranch.”[ii]

With all but one of the 439 children returned to their families, she defends CPS actions by insisting that the children “are now far safer than they were before” and states that this improved condition is the result of the classes parents and children were required to attend. “We not only brought this issue of abuse into the light of day,” she said, “but we also educated FLDS mothers and children about abuse, what it looks like and how to report it.”[iii]

As we have pointed out before, instructors of the state-required parenting classes recognized the superior parenting skills of the FLDS mothers and fathers and often remarked that they should have been teaching the classes. The homes never were abusive in the first place as CPS and the court well knew when they nonsuited the children. With costs of the raid at $12.4 million and climbing, Texas is paying rather dearly to find this out.

Ms. Heiligenstein has implied that the raid was responsible for the FLDS agreeing to abandon the practice of underage marriage. The statement that the FLDS issued in June, however, did not represent any shift in marriage practices in the Church but only a written clarification of a policy which has been in effect for the past several years.

Possibly the most blatant of Commissioner Heiligenstein’s misrepresentations is her statement, “If we had cooperation from the mothers, perhaps removal could have been avoided.”[iv] Here we have another attempt to change the story after the fact to justify CPS in its inexcusable conduct. Just after the girls from seven to seventeen were removed from the Ranch, the Salt Lake Tribune included the following statements:

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Patrick Crimmins, said he did not know why the children were removed…

Barlow and the teenager are the only people named in the warrant. It’s unclear how an investigation into their relationship lead [sic] to the removal of 52 other girls….

In general, Crimmins said, children are removed when authorities determine they have been or are at immediate risk of being abused or neglected. Crimmins said a questionable marital lifestyle would not be grounds for removal….

A spokesman for child protective services said the residents at the ranch were “cooperating fully” with investigators.”[v]

The article in the Statesman recounted former Commissioner Carey Cockerell’s insinuation that there were an excessive number of broken bones found among the YFZ children:

During last year’s Senate hearing, Cockerell told lawmakers that the children’s history of broken bones was a cause for concern.

But Heiligenstein said today that doctors later concluded that the number of broken bones did not exceed what’s typical for children. “That’s why you do an investigation,” she said.[vi]

Are we supposed to believe now that the broken-bones story helps provide any justification for the raid and the subsequent investigations? Was it necessary to traumatize almost 450 children and their parents to prove that there was really no reason to do so in the first place?

These latest comments by CPS are pretty lame excuses for the agency’s involvement in a raid that never should have happened in the first place. Children certainly don’t feel safer than they did before. As one mother told the Standard-Times, her four-year-old boy doesn’t feel safe now. “He didn’t really understand what was happening,” she said. “He all the time wants me to lock the doors at night….He’s the one that’s most affected by this.”[vii] Many other parents could tell similar stories of children who regressed in their behavior and are still haunted by insecurities.

Some bloggers have callously remarked that if children actually had suffered lasting emotional harm from the trauma of the raid they would hardly have returned to a gathering at Fort Concho on April 3^rd and 4^th of this year. Very few children did return during this time. The gathering was almost exclusively for parents still trying to come to grips with the disruption of their own lives; additional time needs to pass before many of the children are ready to revisit these scenes and experience their own catharsis. Hopefully, most fair-minded observers can see Ms. Heiligenstein’s statements for what they are—a desperate attempt to justify CPS for actions that really can have no justification at all.

. .

[i] Corrie MacLaggan, “Protective Services Commissioner Defends Sect Raid,” Austin American Statesman, 3 April 2009.

[ii] Paul A. Anthony, “FLDS Members Visit Fort to Mark Raid’s Anniversary,” San Angelo Standard-Times, 4 April 2009.

[iii] MacLaggan.

[iv] MacLaggan.

[v] Nate Carlisle and Brooke Adams, “Child Welfare Officials Have 18 Children in Custody from Texas FLDS Ranch; 52 Girls Removed,” Salt Lake Tribune, 4 April 2008.

[vi] MacLaggan.

[vii] Anthony.

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