What will happen to them? For now, they’re being housed in shelters in nearby San Angelo. In an unusual arrangement, more than 130 adult women from the compound are being allowed to stay with them. “You can imagine this is a whole new world for them,” says Marleigh Meisner, a spokesperson for Child Protective Services. Each child is being assigned an attorney and a guardian and will receive counseling and medical services (some of the kids have chickenpox, which they apparently weren’t vaccinated against). An April 17 court hearing will provide the children’s parents their first opportunity to respond to the abuse allegations. If a judge rules against them, the kids will likely be placed in foster care and could eventually be adopted by new families. (FLDS lawyers did not respond to calls for comment.)
For now, officials say they’re focused on easing the kids’ transition. Most have had virtually no contact with the outside world and have never seen TV or the Internet. Among those helping authorities is Shannon Price, director of the Diversity Foundation, a group that assists boys pushed out of FLDS. Don’t give them a Barbie doll or stare while they wash their undergarments, which are considered sacred, she advises. And keep them together as much as possible. They’re “like a refugee population,” says Price. “These children will need each other. They are very connected.” Which makes their potential separation an unfortunate, if perhaps necessary, option.
