Court Orders Children Returned to Polygamist Families
Approximately 440 children who were removed by the state from a polygamist sect ranch near Eldorado, Texas are on their way back to their parents after the Texas Supreme Court ruling, despite strong arguments by lawyers and alleged evidence that the children have been sexually abused. The state Supreme Court upheld a ruling of a lower court and found that the Department of Family and Protective Services had no right to remove the children from the ranch in April after reports of sexual abuse and forced marriages to underage girls.
One 16-year-old girl will not be returning to the polygamist ranch because she has been identified as a victim of sexual abuse, but with that one exception, the court ruling allows for each and every one of the children to be returned to their parents. The child that has been identified as a victim of sexual abuse will not be released in order to prevent her from coming into contact with her alleged abuser, according to her lawyer.
Under the court order, the Department of Family and Protective Services will be allowed to continue to investigate the case and visit and interview the children after they are returned to the ranch. According to a report by CNN, these visits and interviews may be unannounced and could include psychological and psychiatric evaluations as well as medical examinations. The parents will not be allowed to interfere with these visits, evaluations and examinations.
The court has also ordered the parents to attend and complete parenting classes and to remain in the state of Texas. If the families wish to take any trips more than 100 miles from home, the Department of Family and Protective Services must be notified at least 48 hours in advance.
The parents of the children are currently making arrangements to take their children back to the Yearning for Zion ranch. Some children have already been reunited with their families, while others are waiting to be picked up. The children have been placed in seven facilities across the state, near Amarillo, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Abilene, Fort Worth and Corpus Christi.
The Department of Family and Protective Services maintains that the children were properly removed from the ranch because interviews conducted at the ranch provided evidence of systematic sexual abuse through the forced marriages of underage girls to much older men. Lawyers for the department also allege that young boys in the sect are groomed to grow up to be sexual abusers because of the belief system on the ranch.
The families of the Yearning for Zion sect say that they are victims of discrimination because of their religious beliefs and say that the children have not been abused or forced to marry.
A spokesman for the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has recently announced that marriages on the ranch will now only take place when women are old enough to give consent under Texas state law. The legal age to marry without parental consent in Texas is 18. The spokesman told reporters that the church would advise all Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints families that the church does not endorse the request or consent of the marriage of underage girls.
