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Sect kids reportedly coming to county
Published April 22, 2008
ALVIN — Alvin ISD officials are set to meet this morning with Texas Education Agency officials over the possibility of having to enroll children taken this month from a polygamist compound.
School district officials said they received word Friday from the Jim H. Green Kidz Harbor shelter in Liverpool that about 40 of the more than 400 children currently being housed at a shelter near San Angelo could be placed in foster care at the shelter.
“We have been informed there is a possibility youngsters from West Texas would be placed at a facility in Brazoria County,” Alvin ISD spokeswoman Shirley Brothers said.
Kidz Harbor asked area businesses Monday for donations such as towels, bedding, furniture and toiletries. Officials with the organization said they were asked by the state to take 40 children into its emergency shelter.
Kidz Harbor Board President Angela Colbert said she could not comment about where the children are from or the situation regarding their custody.
Officials with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services also declined to confirm or deny whether any of the sect’s children will placed in Brazoria County.
“Some of the placement decisions have been made,” said Shari Pulliam, public information officer for the state agency.
None of the children have been placed yet, said Darrell Azar, a Child Protective Services spokesman.
Complicated custody
Law enforcement officials raided the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints near Eldorado on April 3 amid allegations a 50-year-old man had raped and beaten a 16-year-old girl. Officials raided the compound and took more than 400 children living there into custody.
Authorities allege the FLDS church encourages underage marriages and births, subjecting children to sexual abuse or the imminent risk of abuse, The Associated Press reported.
A state district judge last week ordered the children to be taken into state custody after listening to more than 20 hours of testimony.
None of the children will be sent anywhere until DNA testing is done on them, Pulliam said. They will remain at the shelter in San Angelo for the next several days until all of the samples are taken, Pulliam said.
Judge Barbara Walther ordered the tests at the request of state officials, who have complained that members of the polygamous sect have continually changed their names, possibly lied about their ages and sometimes had difficulty naming their relatives, the Associated Press reported.
The DNA test results could take up to 30 days to come back, Pulliam said.
When the DNA sampling is completed, state officials will begin to relocate some of the children staying at San Angelo and will separate the children younger than 4 years old from adult mothers, The Associated Press reported.
Getting ready
Kidz Harbor has a licensed capacity for 68 children and right now has about 30, said Angela Colbert, Kidz Harbor board president. The shelter usually is contacted by the state to hold several children at once but never with this many kids, she said.
Though many of the children are held there temporarily, the shelter does have a more permanent placement for a few children, she said.
“We have a staff meeting to determine if they meet the requirements,” she said.
Children staying at Kidz Harbor must attend schools at Alvin ISD, Colbert said.
Kidz Harbor opened in 2003 on a 6-acre tract near Liverpool off Chocolate Bayou. The dorm-style facility includes a gym and swimming pool and takes children in CPS custody for up to 90 days from areas including Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery and Brazoria counties.
The private, non-profit shelter is funded by the state for each child it houses at the facility.
Colbert said the agency is seeking donations to fill the gap for the added children.
“We do need some help for their basic needs, food, clothing,” she said.
The agency also is looking for volunteers as well as added staff members, including a cook and two youth workers, she said.
Brothers said none of the children, whose ages range between 5 to 18 years, expected to come to the district were enrolled Monday. District officials are planning to have a meeting this morning about how to handle the students’ enrollment, Brothers said.
“These children may not have all of these things we need,” she said.
When students enroll in public schools, they must have documentation including birth certificates, immunization records, a Social Security card and educational records, she said.
Officials with the Texas Education Agency did not return calls seeking comment.
Complicated placement
More than 900 state Child Protective Services staff members and 410 Family and Protective Services staff members are at San Angelo working on the case, Pulliam said.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.
Each child will be evaluated on an individual basis and will be placed according to the education, health-care and counseling services available, Pulliam said. State officials also are looking for placements with a tremendous capacity to keep as many of the children together as possible, she said.
“We’re going to try to keep the teenage moms with their children,” she said. “We want what’s best for these children.”
As part of the placement process, officials also will consider the type of environment in which the FLDS children have been kept most of their lives, Pulliam said.
“We’re very concerned about that because they have not been in a mainstream culture,” she said. “We want to be careful to find placement where they won’t be exposed too quickly.”
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