FLDS consider options to keep their children
ACLU questions protection of sect members' rights
"We're going to contest those decisions in every possible way," Rod Parker, a Salt Lake attorney who is acting as a spokesman for the FLDS Church, said Sunday.
"It's a matter of getting their children back. For those parents and the children, too, it's their highest priority. They're going to do everything they can to get them back."
Texas authorities will begin collecting DNA samples of the children being sheltered at the San Angelo Coliseum today, in an effort to determine parentage. Child protective services workers have said they are encountering difficulty in determining who are some children's parents.
"It will take several days to collect all the samples," the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said in a statement on its Web site. "Once the samples are collected, (DFPS) will begin placing children in foster care."
Some FLDS mothers with nursing babies and toddlers may be unaware that they will be forced to leave their children behind once Texas officials gather the DNA samples from them.
Jessop said she and a group of other mothers tried on Sunday to visit their children housed at the San Angelo Coliseum and were turned away by law enforcement.
"They told us if we went on that property again we would be arrested," she said.
FLDS members said Texas authorities rejected their offers of personal clothing for the women and children staying at the coliseum and nearby Wells Fargo Pavilion.
An FLDS man said he tried to deliver a U-Haul full of the personal items nearly two weeks ago. "They returned everything," he told the Deseret News.
The FLDS people dress in conservative clothing and wear religious undergarments they make themselves.
The parents are expected to show up at the Schleicher County Courthouse square on Tuesday to give a DNA sample.
Jessop said the entire FLDS community is trying to do whatever it takes to get children returned to their families.
"We are very busy trying to find people who can help us. We are hoping our children can stay with other family members," she said Sunday. "We have had no guidance from Texas CPS on what we can do. We are trying to be ready and hope to find some relief. I know that something will open up. Heavenly Father will work his miracles. Heavenly Father will see us through. We depend on him."
Recent comments
To those who are stuck on STUPID and putting post after post about...
The Texan | April 23, 2008 at 11:55 a.m.
It is the judge who is giving the CPS whatever they want and refusing...
To Sue | April 22, 2008 at 7:45 p.m.
To live unincumbered from the Government
It is call Civil Rights...
Rights | April 22, 2008 at 1:07 p.m.
