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Sect Children Slowly Meet Outside World

Care workers advised to keep them away from TV—and red clothes

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 26, 2008 6:46 AM CDT
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(Newser) – The last of the 462 children removed from the compound of a polygamous sect have been placed in foster care in 16 locations around Texas, the Houston Chronicle reports. The caregivers have been given lengthy instructions on how to treat the children, including keeping them away from TV, radio, and the Internet, at least at first, and avoiding red clothing, as the sect believes that color is reserved for Jesus to wear on his return.

The children will be kept apart from other kids in the residential foster facilities and won't go to public schools. Buses taking them to their new locations had to stop several times because the kids were carsick. "Some of them probably haven't even ridden in a vehicle before," a state trooper told the Chronicle. Authorities hope that as time goes by, the children will break the sect's "code of silence" and tell them about its practices—or at least share their real names and ages.

A bus with women and children of the Yearning for Zion Ranch pulls into the Methodist Children's Home, Friday, April 25, 2008, in Waco, Texas.
A bus with women and children of the Yearning for Zion Ranch pulls into the Methodist Children's Home, Friday, April 25, 2008, in Waco, Texas.   (AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Jerry Larson)
Dan, 24, a father of two children currently in state custody and a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, walks down a road at the sect's compound.
Dan, 24, a father of two children currently in state custody and a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, walks down a road at the sect's compound.   (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Care workers have been advised not to give the children red clothes as the sect believes that color is reserved for Jesus Christ on his return.
Care workers have been advised not to give the children red clothes as the sect believes that color is reserved for Jesus Christ on his return.   (AP Photo)
Adults and children members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, gather outside temporary housing. The last of the children have now been taken to foster homes.
Adults and children members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, gather outside temporary housing. The last of the children have now been taken to foster homes.   (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
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Texas • child abuse • polygamy • child custody • Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints • Yearning for Zion ranch

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