Mental Health Workers Report FLDS Women Good Mothers

2008-05-13 17:44:47

By Donald Richter

Reports submitted by employees of the Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center and discussed in an article by Roger Croteau on The San Antonio Express-News Website of May 10, 2008, substantiate what those who have had personal association with the FLDS mothers and their children have known all along---these are loving mothers with well-behaved and well-adjusted children.

MHMR workers praised the mothers as "parents of healthy, well-behaved and emotionally normal kids." "These lovely women and children were gracious and kind always," one worker stated. "They tried to cooperate with every request, even when terrified that they were going to be separated from their children. The mothers are incredibly loving and patient with the children. The children were well-socialized and well-behaved and interacted willingly and happily with us."

"The children were sweet and well-mannered upon our arrival," another worker reported. "They obeyed their mothers and appeared to be healthy and well-nourished. They had none of the traditional withdrawal common in abused children."

All nine reports were favorable to the mothers but were highly critical of the state’s Child Protective Services agency (CPS) for removing the children from their community and separating them from their mothers and described many CPS workers as "high-handed, rude, or uncaring." Conditions at the shelter also were sharply criticized.

"I have worked in Domestic Violence/Sexual abuse programming for over 20 years," one worker said, "and have never seen women and children treated this poorly, not to mention their civil rights being disregarded in this manner. It makes us all wonder how safe anyone is who has children."

Some reports claimed that overcrowded conditions at the shelter contributed to the rapid spread of upper-respiratory infections and chicken pox. Another report described these deplorable conditions as a deliberate form of coercion: "The more uncomfortable they were the more CPS thought they would talk."

One MHMR worker claimed that he had been threatened with arrest when he protested the separation of special-needs children from their mothers after the mothers had been told earlier in the day that this would not happen.

That same worker was among three who reported that the CPS lied to the mothers. One report stated that such lies were a tactic used to make it easier to separate the children from their mothers. Several reports said that mothers were denied access to their lawyers.

When the www.captivefldschildren.org Website earlier reported in its timeline that six FLDS ladies, mothers and caretakers, had chosen to be taken to the Family Violence Shelter because CPS workers had told them that they would get their children back sooner if they did, a CPS spokesman called the claim "blatantly untrue." Apparently, the desire of the CPS was to make it appear that the ladies had gone to the shelter because they were afraid of something happening to them if they returned to the Ranch. One of the reports by MHMR workers makes an almost identical claim to that stated in the Website.

One MHMR worker reported, "The entire MH support staff was ‘fired’ the second week; we were sent home due to being ‘too compassionate."

The reports were written at the request of the MHMR regional governing board. Board member Jack Dawson remarked, "What they saw was so horrendous, they had to report it to the board. We were taken aback. I have every confidence their stories are accurate. Our people are professionals, with years and years of service in their fields."

Board President John Kite is trying to get Gov. Rick Perry and a legislative delegation to meet with MHMR workers. "We were literally astounded at what they told us," he said, regarding the reported CPS abuses. "They are trampling all over human decency and those people’s civil rights. How do we stop an agency that is out of control? We should not just sit here and let it happen."