by Sarah Lewis

Created on: June 02, 2008

This is a very dangerous precedent-setting case and America must wake up and look at what it could mean for everyone-all of us-each and every one of us. Sure Texas is the most egomaniacal state in the Union, but as a "bellwether" state, what happens here-will eventually happen there (where you are)too.
The whole 400+ FLDS children were removed from their mothers' (and fathers')custody on the basis of their being in a questionable and possibly hazardous "environment." That is what I heard on the News used to describe the legal reason for the removal. How many children are living in "less-than-optimum" circumstances? Does this precedent-setting case mean that children that are housed in "slums"-which are clearly "hazardous"-should be taken away from their parents as well? Don't answer too quickly here. Drive-by shootings have injured and killed how many children living on the wrong side of town?-right through their very walls? The vicinity was very definitely "hazardous." Shouldn't those children have been removed from their parents' custody for daring to house them in such a dangerous "environment"?

As a former Social Worker in Foster Care in another state (Federal Laws apply in all states), I came to realize the power that Child Protective Services agencies have. I also was educated as to how they came about their power. And I saw ways in which it was abused.
No voters ever voted to give Child Protective Services the power that they bear. I am quite certain that if they had, the laws against child abuse would not be so abusive of parental rights. (Oh wait a minute-we don't have any of those-parental rights?-nope-other than naming him/her) The laws prohibiting child abuse are not preventative, they are punitive. No child abuser is likely to have ever said, "It is against the law, so I won't abuse this child." No, only after the fact is the abuser called to answer. Accordingly, the "Social Work" that I saw was a glorified guessing game played according to the bias of the Worker in question. That is why there are so many kids hurt and killed in Foster Care and why so many are returned to their parents only to be killed. Child Protective Agencies would have us believe that the laws are all applied evenly and justly-but it just ain't so.
When I heard this case some to light, I knew. I KNEW that the phone call was bogus-it just gave them a legal "in" to get into the compound to get to the children. But the phone call did not truly establish "imminent danger" to

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