Imagine seeing your six-year-old child ripped
away from you sobbing, “Don’t let them take me. I’m scared!" And you
could do nothing to save her! This is
precisely what Rusty and Summer Page experienced on Monday when six-year-old Lexi
was removed from their loving home in Santa Clarita, California—all because of misuse,
even abuse, of the Indian Child Welfare Act, (ICWA)—a federal law that seeks to keep American Indian children with
American Indian families.
Lexi
is 1/64th Choctaw. It doesn’t matter that the Pages and their three biological
children are the only family she has known for years, and that she was thriving
in their home. Nor does it matter that the ICWA was originally created for the
benefit of the child. Nope. None of that seems to count. Not in this case.
According
to an article in PEOPLE, Rusty spoke through streams of tears saying, "She
was screaming and she said, 'Don't let them take me.' I told her, 'We're your
mommy and daddy and we will fight for you and not give up.' Then they just
drove away."
On
Monday, with the Page children and their mother weeping in horror as they
watched, Rusty Page held his daughter Lexi as she clung to him sobbing and
crying, “I’m scared! Don’t let them take me away." Rusty told ABC 7, “At the end of
the day, if I can't understand why they would take her, I can't explain it to
my kids. We'll fight until I die."
And who can understand? Who can explain such cruelty?
Moving
Lexi from her home is, in my opinion as a mother and grandmother, the worse decision that could be made for her. It could
traumatize her for life. Most people get this. Thus it was amidst outrage and
protests from supporters that the Los Angeles County Department of Children,
Family Services officials and Lexi’s court-appointed attorney took this
precious, scared little girl from the only people who had been parents to her
since she was a toddler.
The
Pages love Lexi—so much so that when she became
attached, they decided to pursue adoption because they believed it was in her
best interests. But
that’s where it got sticky. With 1/64 Choctaw DNA, the ICWA makes it harder for
Lexi to be adopted to non-Indian parents. Harder - but not impossible. And in
this case, the Pages had every right to adopt Lexi. The judge could have
granted it—even under ICWA. After all, the ICWA was created by Congress to "protect the best
interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of
Indian tribes and families" (25 U.S.C. § 1902).
Choctaw Nation also claims to want what is the “best for this Choctaw child.”
But a look at the tragic scene as heartbroken Lexi is ripped away from her family—those who have nurtured and
loved her most of her wee life—contradicts that statement. Looks more like
child abuse than watching out for the child’s best interest.
The top ICWA attorney in the USA, Mark
Fiddler, claims that the ICWA was horribly abused in this case. It would seem
that the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Children’s
Law Center (CLC) played very large roles in creating this heartbreaking
situation.
Johnston Moore is an advocate for cases
involving ICWA abuse. He is also a foster father with seven adopted children,
two of which also have some Native-American DNA (four times more than Lexi). I
asked Johnston some questions regarding Lexi’s case.
JD—Johnston, you and your beautiful family
have seen several cases similar to Lexi’s. Have you seen success in getting them
back to their loving foster-adopt families?
JM— I’ve seen success in many ways. The
outpouring of support ensures the Pages that they are not alone in this. The
growing outrage ensures that ICWA as applied is going to be under much closer
scrutiny for some time to come. Washington has to take note. I think another
success is that the Los Angeles County child welfare system is being exposed to
a degree to be a terribly dysfunctional machine in which children’s best
interests all too often take a back seat to politics or personal agendas.
Hopefully that will lead to reform. Of course, the biggest success of all will
be when Lexi is reunited with her family in California, and that is the main
focus of my prayers through all of this.
JD—Aside of signing the petition on
Change.org, what else can we do to help get Lexi back home?
JM— People can continue to put pressure on
those that made this happen. DCFS and CLC cannot simply hide behind the court
ruling and act as if they are innocent bystanders. They played very large roles
in this saga and in my belief, worked together to orchestrate the ruling they
wanted. People can also write or call their elected officials and demand that
they take a fresh look at ICWA and the way it is being applied today. This must
be fixed before it harms any other children. And, please visit www.Goldwaterinstitute.org and
learn more about ICWA and how it is being misused to the detriment of innocent
children, many of whom were never intended to be subject to the Act in the
first place.
JD—Any more guidance or relevant tidbits of
wisdom you can share with us that might help us grab hold of hope for Lexi and
the Pages?
JM— Pray. We were told there was no way we
could adopt our two sons when we had a similar ICWA battle in Los Angeles
County back in 2001-2002. At one point, it looked like all hope was lost.
Still, we believed we were supposed to continue to speak up for our sons, who
seemingly had no voice (Proverbs 31:8). We did, people prayed, and
miraculously, we won. Our sons are 21 and 20 now, and in spite of the doom that
some ICWA proponents would argue most certainly should have come upon them,
they have turned out quite well in our home. One even traveled to Minnesota
with me last May to testify in front of the BIA in opposition to its new ICWA
guidelines. It was a proud moment for me when he said that Congress did not
have a right to dictate to him what his best interests were when it passed ICWA
in 1978.
To
help Lexi, please go to Change.org and sign the petition. And use social media
to get others to sign. You can also go to
Facebook , or
Twitter. And to help
the family with a donation, please click here. Also, visit Home Forever for more info and resources.
Here’s a tweet you can steal: URGENT. Little girl heartbroken — ripped away from home. Sign petition to keep Lexi home: https://www.lexipetition.com. @Change #keeplexihome
Here’s a tweet you can steal: URGENT. Little girl heartbroken — ripped away from home. Sign petition to keep Lexi home: https://www.lexipetition.com. @Change #keeplexihome
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for
themselves;ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor
and helpless, and see that they get justice” (Proverbs 31:8 & 9, NLT).
Your
voice counts. Please pray--and sign the petition for Lexi here.
This article also appears in Assist News.
This article also appears in Assist News.
Janey DeMeo M.A.
Copyright © March 2016
http://janey-demeo.blogspot.com
