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	Change Your Ways or Lose Your Children, Texas to Tell Mothers in Polygamist Sect By Robert T. Garrett Dallas Morning News May 15, 2008 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-polygamists_15tex.ART.State.Edition2.46911f3.html AUSTIN Texas, calling a polygamist sect an abusive environment, is poised to tell its mothers they will lose their children unless they distance themselves from portions of their religion. Some lawyers believe this could mean women would never be able to return to the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, and would have to choose between some of their beliefs and their children. But other experts said adults who have tolerated underage "marriages" of girls to older men and apparently have cast out teenage boys might have forfeited all rights to raise their children and are lucky to be given a shot at regaining their youngsters. In advance of court hearings that begin Monday, Child Protective Services has drafted 10 goals and 14 tasks that parents will have to work toward to regain custody of their children. CPS is proposing to give parents until next April to "provide a home free of persons who have or will abuse" children and "demonstrate the ability to protect the child[ren] from sexual abuse." The children will remain in state custody until a judge is satisfied that the parents have complied. On Wednesday, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins stressed that the guidelines known as service plans are silent about plural marriage and religious beliefs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "This is not about polygamy and it is not about religion," Mr. Crimmins said. "It is about child sexual abuse and our commitment to protect children." He said, though, that youngsters were removed from the ranch because "children could not be safe there. We are trying to determine what acceptable living arrangements the parents can develop so the children are safe and protected." Close scrutiny The guidelines suggest that any new form of communal living is suspect. As in most child-abuse cases, the service plans say that parents must give CPS workers the names of everyone in the home and let workers make unannounced visits to verify who's there. But the guidelines reflecting the fact that sect members at the ranch in Eldorado lived in large, four-story log cabins containing multiple families also say that entire residential buildings, such as duplexes, must be open for scrutiny. "Inform DFPS of your current living arrangements including all persons in your building or other residence [all floors; ages and gender of all members at present and anticipated] and inform DFPS by the next business day if there are any changes," says one task. The Department of Family and Protective Services is the parent agency of CPS. Susan Hays of Dallas, a court-appointed lawyer for a 2-year-old girl removed from the sect's ranch, said many of the women lack job training and would have a hard time making it in modern society as single mothers. University of Texas law professor Jack Sampson said that under national and state welfare reform laws, which spell out time limits and other requirements, cash assistance to the mothers wouldn't last long. Ms. Hays said some mothers "certainly could" have to choose between their religious beliefs and their children. "Child rape is not part of their faith," Ms. Hays said of the group. "Polygamy is. Somewhere in between there is where faith ends and abuse begins. The state needs to articulate how they see it." Mr. Sampson, an expert on family law, said there's no infringement on freedom of association and religion when the state must save children. He said state laws "do not recognize this as an exercise of religion" because underage sect girls have been sexually assaulted and teenage boys abandoned. "Religion does not give you the right to sacrifice virgins as the Aztecs used to do. These people sacrifice virgins," Mr. Sampson said. Ms. Hays countered: "These people are very Old Testament and they believe that God didn't come back and say, 'Never mind' to polygamy. Like Jews, Christians and Muslims, they're children of Abraham. And I believe Abraham was a polygamist." Living arrangements Mr. Crimmins said he couldn't specify what living arrangements would pass muster with CPS. He said status hearings on the children that begin Monday before state District Judge Barbara Walther in San Angelo will focus on the service plans. Former state District Judge Scott McCown of Austin said it's significant that CPS states in the service plans for sect children that the goal is reunifying families. In rare cases, such as when a father has committed horrific crimes against his children, CPS won't even attempt to put a family back together, he said. Mr. Sampson said sexual abuse and abandonment revealed at the ranch "would normally yield termination of parental rights" and not include an attempt at reunification. "But those kinds of actions are usually based in a much different context than we have here," he said. "So the state is making efforts to accommodate the protection of the children to the raising of the children by a caretaker who does a good job except for those two items" sexual abuse and abandonment. Mr. Crimmins of CPS said he doesn't know whether state caseworkers assigned to the more than 450 sect children will have time to insert additional information about each family into the seven-page template they were given last week as a starting point for the service plans. Legal aid lawyer D'Ann Johnson of Austin, who represents two sect mothers, said she's frustrated with what she's seen so far. "It's exactly the same for every single mother. I looked at this and thought, 'Great, what are we supposed to do now?' There are no specifics in it at all, just broad allegations," Ms. Johnson said. "They are acting as if the 1,700-acre ranch is one house." 'They will do anything' Compared with service plans in other abuse cases that The Dallas Morning News reviewed, state guidelines for the sect appeared to put a heavier-than-usual emphasis on job training, schooling of the youngsters and knowing how to tap into community resources. Still, Ms. Hays and Rene Haas, a Corpus Christi attorney representing a sect father, said the parents they have met are eager to learn what CPS will require them to do to get their children back. Said Ms. Haas: "These clients have said they will do anything, they will leave the ranch, they will find a house, they will get jobs. They're asking, 'What do you want us to do, and we'll do it.' "
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