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    accesscodeStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:52am

    I feel for the little girl, pulled apart in all this mess.

    One piece of information: The father, her biological one, still has his rights intact in this case. He has accused human services of deliberately placing constant paperwork obstacles in his path to prevent custody. As her father, he requested that she be placed with these relatives.

    In fact, Indian Country Today reports multiple complaints about Natives being separated from their children in this way.

    http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/07/24/bro...

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      DashleyinCaliaccesscode
      3/23/16 12:04pm

      It’s also important to note that this isn’t the first time the Pages have waged a custody battle over a foster child that was never supposed to be theirs permanently.

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      accesscodeDashleyinCali
      3/23/16 12:10pm

      Yes. Perhaps they should not be a foster family. That’s a tough thing to do, and the child leaving is absolutely the reason I couldn’t easily do something like that.

      The thing is, they aren’t being truthful about the situation. To me, that’s the real problem. This little girl actually knows these people she’s going to live with. One of her sisters lives with them already. She’s been in constant communication with them. Her father has never given up his rights. Fighting this decision is harmful to the little girl. The foster family also made remarks about how the father was “scary” or “intimidating” or some such thing, which ... sounds potentially racist to me.

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    randilynisFINDILYNStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 12:09pm

    I feel like their decision to release her name is telling.

    And prevent what from happening to other children? If you don’t have the ability to love and let go, don’t foster. If handled properly there might have been room for you in this little girl’s life.

    Also, oddly there seems to be some connect for me between my reading an article and it’s coverage on my in the background news noise. There is a definite bias for the foster family in what I’m hearing.

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      Jess, Queen of the RaptorsrandilynisFINDILYN
      3/23/16 12:20pm

      “But this lovely family has cared for her for her whole life and is just fighting to keep their CHILD!”

      I’d have felt for them more if they had worked out a deal with Lexi’s biological father to stay in her life somehow but allowed him to have custody. They love the girl, they wanted to adopt her, but she was never up for adoption. Yes, they system’s fucked up, but they’re using it to their own advantage and it just makes me sad for Lexi, who is thrown in the middle of all of this and probably doesn’t understand why it’s all happening.

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      Ladyheatherlee 2016 EditionrandilynisFINDILYN
      3/23/16 12:29pm

      Yes. This is why I am not a foster parent. I know I couldn't hack it. If you sign on for that, you sign on for temporary parenting. That's the gig.

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    NeoNailsStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:53am

    Yet again illustrating how anyone who uses the phrase “paid by with your tax dollars” sounds like an asshole.

    This is a shitty situation for everyone involved, but there really shouldn’t be a case for the foster parents when they were always only foster parents, & there was always blood relatives able & willing to care for her. It's just a shame it's bringing out all the worst racists (for example, a lovely woman who actually compared Incas practicing child sacrifice to this little girl being taken away from her foster family. Not joking.)

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      OvariesOfDiamondNeoNails
      3/23/16 11:58am

      Child sacrifice was an Aztec thing. Incas had roads. Complex communication via nots. And virgin priestesses. ALL SOUTH AMERICA IS NOT MEXICO.

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      Akat101NeoNails
      3/23/16 11:59am

      What the actual fuck??

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    GELLA - LLAPStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:54am

    She is not a toy, she is human.

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      Rando CalrissianGELLA - LLAP
      3/23/16 12:00pm

      That’s how the facebook statement reads to me too, as though she is property and they are exploiting the imagery of a crying little girl to get what they feel is theirs back. She belongs with her father’s relatives and they should not have obstructed that process.

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      Major Lazer Power BlazerRando Calrissian
      3/23/16 12:01pm

      i mean theyve cared for her for six years. i think it’s jumping the gun a bit to assume they just want her as an object

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    Lana del GrayStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:59am

    It really sucks that the custody exchange was such a circus, and Lexi was exposed to the foster family crying and screaming, and random strangers showing up needlessly to add to the din. A 6-year-old can’t possibly process all that in a healthy way — it must have seemed intensely frightening and confusing. I’m frustrated that the foster family didn’t protect her in that tegard.

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      MegSwanLana del Gray
      3/23/16 12:12pm

      Exactly my thoughts. If they truly cared for her welfare they would have put on a brave face and smiled and told her that she’s going to live in a super cool place with fun people and that they will try to visit her as often as possible. Instead they chose to completely traumatize her with a media circus and screaming/crying which would overwhelm me and I’m in my late 30s. I can’t imagine how terrifying that would be to a 6 year old.

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      yvanehtniojMegSwan
      3/23/16 12:15pm

      Ding ding motherfucking ding. This girl could have had a safe, happy, short experience in the foster system and be that much further toward feeling secure with her relatives if they hadn’t fought her reunification every step of the way. Part of being a parent - foster or otherwise - is putting your kids’ needs ahead of your own. I have no doubt they love this little girl, but they’re the ones who created a terrifying situation for her out of what could have been something unfamiliar but navigable.

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    HesterMofetStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:52am

    Apparently, the child is 1/64th Native American. Her mother has relinquished parental rights already, some time ago. Her biological father was incarcerated, but was recently freed. He’s since been trying to regain custody of Lexi, but has been unsuccessful because of pushback from the foster parents. The ICWA was a trump card they decided to play to get the child back with the family since other avenues had been unsuccessful. Pretty strange case.

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      HobbylobbyistHesterMofet
      3/23/16 11:56am

      With every foster case, there is always a preference for placing a child with blood relatives. They may have used an unusual law to make it happen, but this is consistent with the foster program overall.

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      Major Lazer Power BlazerHesterMofet
      3/23/16 11:59am

      1/64????? when does the law stop being applied?

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    HobbylobbyistStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:58am

    I am angry at the foster family for contributing to the spectacle of this case. They wanted to adopt her but that was not an option. They knew that. And all foster parents are repeatedly told that they should be prepared for it to be a temporary (even four year) placement.

    As parents, they should have done everything they could to help that little girl transition to live with her blood relatives. Not invite the media and protesters to watch a terrified girl cry on her way to her permanent family.

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      Akat101Hobbylobbyist
      3/23/16 12:15pm

      They made a traumatizing spectacle of it not just for Lexi but also for the other children in the home. Now those kids are going to have a memory of a “sister being stolen” while everyone cried and screamed rather than the foster parents having properly prepared everyone for the inevitable and inevitably sad separation. They knew from the beginning that they couldn't adopt her.

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      mazzieDHobbylobbyist
      3/23/16 12:25pm

      “The purpose of foster care is to provide temporary care for children while families get services and support to reunite with their children, not to fast-track the creation of new families when there is extended family available who want to care for the child.”

      Foster Care is BEYOND clear about that, and as far as I know, you can request to only have children who are up for adoption placed with you. Why are people doing into foster care and treating it like an adoption with a try out period?

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    yvanehtniojStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 12:02pm

    The Pages’ lawyer, who represented “Baby Veronica’s” birth mother, said she will file an appeal with the California Supreme Court and take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

    Of course they will. This foster family is full of shit. They created this media firestorm to try to sway uninformed public opinion (it appears to be working on my Facebook wall, at least), and this is not Alvino McGill’s first attempt to stir up outrage by framing ICWA as undeserving Indians stealing babies out of good white homes. This family was told at the outset that she was not adoptable, and she’s been in touch with her relatives throughout.

    The couple, who are non-Indian relatives of Lexi’s biological father, fall within the familial placement preferences under ICWA. They have visited the girl at their own expense every month and regularly Skype with the girl at least once a week. Additionally, she has visited them in Utah, as well, and―significantly, she considers them family, according to insiders.

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      Virginialoveshercurvesyvanehtnioj
      3/23/16 4:32pm

      That baby Veronica case PISSED me off to no end and showed how little the supreme court cares for Native sovereignty. That kid was stolen from her father effectively.

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      yvanehtniojVirginialoveshercurves
      3/23/16 4:33pm

      This lawyer wants ICWA overturned, that’s why she keeps jumping on these cases and trying to run them up to the Supremes. Thank goodness that at least one vote in her favor is currently missing.

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    LuaStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:54am

    This has got to be extremely traumatizing for this little girl. She’s been with the foster family for most of her life. They are her parents. It seems cruel to break up her family to place her with relative strangers. Also she’s 1/64 Native American. At this point it seems ridiculous any tribes “claim” this girl.

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      AbJamsLua
      3/23/16 11:59am

      Or maybe it was cruel of the foster parents to keep her for all these years fighting a custody battle they could never win because under the law they have never had any legal leg to stand on.

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      weebleswobbleLua
      3/23/16 12:01pm

      n/m I was wrong

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    Aye for an EyeStassa Edwards
    3/23/16 11:54am

    ugh. i read some on this last night. it’s just one of those things that is so sad. 5 years is a long time to be with a family. i’ve had my two oldest for 5 years, they are not biologically mine, but i’m their step mother. we don’t use the “step” prefix for any of our conversations with anyone. i’m their “mom”, they’re my kids, my youngest is their sister.
    i wonder why it took 5 (very impressionable) years.
    i wonder why summer page thought that coming completely unglued would help that little girl be less traumatized by this event.
    i guess i feel a little bit better that she isn’t being placed with strangers, but jeez-louise.

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      Susan Deyvy JonesAye for an Eye
      3/23/16 12:27pm

      It took five years because the foster family kept disobeying court orders and fighting to keep the girl away from her family.

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      scowly brow spinsterAye for an Eye
      3/23/16 12:29pm

      In CA foster care, the goal is 18 months: the parent has that amount of time to access services and fulfill requirements to be reunited with the child. They try to place children with relatives first, then resort to other options. If nothing is resolved in 18 months, they move to make the child available for adoption.

      I was involved with a foster child case where the mother lost custody and the entire case got delayed and delayed because the previously uninvolved father filed for custody, with the intention of giving the baby back to the mother. He never fulfilled what was required of him to take custody, so eventually both parents’ rights were terminated. In the meantime, the baby/toddler had been switched to a foster family that wanted to adopt her. She was adopted by them after being in the system 2+ years.

      These foster parents have dragged out the fostering process by not complying with the rules, and then want to claim the child is harmed because she has spent so much time with them. If it’s true that have done this previously, then they should not be allowed to foster again. Tax payers’ money has gone to them to support this child long beyond the intended time. It seems like their goal is more about thwarting the system than the best interests of a child.

      If anyone is interested in hearing more about this case from a Native American perspective, you can tune in to a San Francisco radio program called “Web Works” on KPOO 89.5 FM and KPOO.com. The show is on TONIGHT at 6 pm PDT. It can also be picked up using the tunein app on yr phone.

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