Social Workers SEIZE Sobbing Girl From White Foster Home Because Foster Parents Aren’t ‘Correct’ Race

Social Workers SEIZE Sobbing Girl From White Foster Home Because Foster Parents Aren’t ‘Correct’ Race

Government is seldom the solution to problems. A vast bureaucracy that operates in black-and-white absolutes, the government, whether on a federal or state level, too-often messes-up solvable problems and insists that the solution to future problems is more government. Nowhere is this more-evident than in the child foster care system. A child has been ripped-away from the only family she has ever known. Why? Because she has a drop of American Indian blood in her and her foster parents are white.

Zkid

Social workers seized a hysterical six-year-old girl from the home of her white foster family on Monday because she is part Native American.

The child, Lexi, sobbed, clinging to her foster father Rusty Page as he reluctantly fought through a crowd to hand the child over to the Department of Children and Families in Santa Clarita.

In a disturbing video from KTLA, Lexi screamed, begging Rusty, ‘don’t let them take me away’, as she was removed from her family.

As Lexi was placed in the back of a black car with government workers, her foster mother Summer Page burst from the home screaming ‘I love you, Lexi’.

Lexi’s foster siblings screamed ‘no’ over and over, crying hysterically as their sister was taken.

Droves of protesters and reporters stood by helplessly as the family’s screams continued to echo out into the street.

The horrifying scene came days after Rusty and his wife Summer were denied an emergency stay to keep the part-Native American child.

Summer and Rusty raised Lexi for the last five years and spent the last two-and-a-half trying to adopt her with no success. 

Lexi, who has only ever know the Pages as her parents, is one-and-a-half per cent Choctaw Native American.

Because of the ‘Indian Child Welfare Act’ – a federal law passed in the 1970’s aimed to protect the best interests of Native American children – she must live with Native American parents and will be placed with her father’s relatives.

She was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her biological mother, who had a substance abuse problem.

Her biological father, who is Native American, had an extensive criminal history, according to court records cited by the Los Angeles Daily News.

She will live with a Utah couple who are not Native Americans but are related by marriage to her father.

The girl’s sister is living with the couple, and another sister will be living down the street, said Leslie Heimov of the Children’s Law Center of California, Lexi’s court-appointed legal representatives.

In a statement, the National Indian Child Welfare Association said the Pages were aware for years that the girl was an American Indian but chose to ‘drag out litigation as long as possible, creating instability for the child’.

‘Quite frankly, when Lexi is old enough to understand what happened to her, I think that would lead to resentment of her heritage, not embracing of the culture,’ Rusty told ABC 7.

Protesters spent the night wrapped up in sleeping bags and in tents outside the Page’s Santa home on Sunday.

On Monday morning, a crowd of more than 50 people holding signs and singing hymns still stood in solidarity with the Page family.

The demonstrators were trying to prevent the DCF from coming overnight to remove six-year-old Lexi from Summer and Rusty’s care.

The DCF was set to remove Lexi at 10am on Sunday, but postponed is due to the protesters.

Before Lexi was handed over, Rusty addressed the crowd to tell them the news.

‘Despite our pleas to the county, we received word the county has every intention of taking Lexi today.

‘And we will, with very heavy hearts, comply with the order and we’ll be waiting here for them to come take her,’ Rusty said.

Overcome with grief her turned from the crowd: ‘That’s all I can say.’

‘As a grandmother, it’s ripping my heart. It’s ripping me apart to see Lexi has been a part of our family for almost five years, and she’s not going to understand what’s going on.

‘The children are not going to understand the separation. This is going to destroy these children,’ Tari Kelly, Lexi’s foster grandmother, told ABC 7.

Rusty choked back tears as he pleaded with Child Welfare Service not to break up his family early Monday.

‘As a matter of simple human decency, we implore the county not to prematurely take Lexi from her home,’ Rusty said between sobs as he read from astatement.

He later told ABC 7, Lexi and his other biological children with Summer – a nine-year-old, another six-year-old and a two-year-old – have not been told what is about to happen.

‘They have no idea what’s going on. I come outside to cry and go back inside to play in the backyard with them,’ he said.

The Pages were under specific orders not to tell the children about Lexi’s removal.

‘Lexi doesn’t know another home. She finally knows what mom and dad means and they want to take that away from her. and we can’t stand idly by while that happens,’ Rusty told Fox 11.

The family took the case to court, but their most recent emergency stay was lifted.

‘This little girl, we are her home. This is her family and that can all be rocked tomorrow,’ Summer said.

The Choctaw tribe has decided to place Lexi with extended relatives in Utah, who are not Native Americans and will not be living on the reservation.

In a statement, the tribe said it wants what is best for the child.

‘The Choctaw Nation desires the best for this Choctaw child.

‘The tribe’s values of faith, family and culture are what makes our tribal identity so important to us.

‘Therefore we will continue to work to maintain these values and work toward the long-term best interest of this child,’ it said.

petition has been signed by more than 40,000 people to keep Lexi with her foster family

Though we cannot condemn an entire tribe, on a policy level, the Choctaw Nation should be absolutely ashamed of the travesty that they have furthered in the name of racial politics.

Those who made this decision cannot honestly declare that they had Lexi’s best interests at heart; they, instead, behaved as shameful bigots and in the process, have done nothing more than punish a little girl and her family for doing nothing.

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