Image from GoFundMe page for family
Three weeks after Lexi, a 6-year-old taken from her biological parents because of their drug and criminal histories, was forcibly removed from her foster family, the only family she’s ever known, a prayer vigil was announced to keep attention focused on the case.
Set for 7 p.m. Monday night on the corner of Ron Ridge Drive and Pamplico Drive in Santa Clarita, California, supporters explained, “It has been 21 days since LA County DCFS removed 6-year-old Lexi from the Page family’s home in Santa Clarita, California. Since that time, she has not been allowed to speak with the family who raised her for the majority of her life.
“On Monday, March 21, Lexi was sent to live with extended family in Utah because of the Indian Child Welfare Act’s application in Lexi’s custody case. The case is still pending in the California Court of Appeals,” the explained.
That was after the involvement of a juvenile court judge in California, a judge who first ordered Lexi taken away from the foster parents who want to adopt her and sent a thousand miles away to a step-grandparent’s niece on the orders of an Indian tribe. The same judge also has allowed a celebration in her courtroom of the authority that tribal governments have there.
WND has reported multiple times on the case involving the child who had spent most of her live, from age 17 months on, with the California family she called her mom, dad and siblings.
But because she is 1.5 percent Native American she was ordered by the Choctaw tribe of Oklahoma to be moved away from them under the dated Indian Child Welfare Act.
Cheryl Chumley’s latest book takes on the Washington behemoth head-on. Don’t miss her guidebook for turning back the disastrous effects of Big Government: “The Devil in D.C.: Winning Back the Country from the Beast in Washington”
Just two weeks ago, WND reported that one social worker who had been assigned to Lexi’s case had warned that the Indian Unit at the Los Angeles County child protective services agency was “deceptive” regarding the girl and her case.
Lauren Axline spoke at a news conference where the foster parents, Rusty and Summer Page, and officials with the Goldwater Institute pledged to continue their fight to return Lexi to the Pages.
“I’m begging the adults in this situation to do the right thing. To Lexi’s step second cousins in Utah (to which the tribe sent the child), I beg you to please do right by her. Put aside your opinions and think [of] Lexi. Let her speak to her mommy and daddy. Let her know that she is loved! Let her know that the Page family, her friends and community NEVER gave up on her,” Axline said.
“You and I both know what has really happened. Somewhere in your heart, you have to know how wrong this is. You have to know that Lexi wants to come home. Please do the right thing for her.
“And to the county, Children’s Law Center (which advocated for removing Lexi from her home) and the tribe … how you sleep at night, no one will ever know.”
The harsh assessment and strong plea came just after the the California Supreme Court rejected requests for them to help Lexi. The case still is pending before the state Court of Appeals, but no word had been released on when that decision might be made.
But an online blog post reveals how Any Pellman, the judge who earlier in the case ordered Lexi be taken away from the Pages before her ruling was overturned, and appealed again, allowed tribal interests to hold a “blessing” ceremony in her courtroom.
“On the morning of July 25, 2014, the courtroom in which the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) cases are heard was blessed,” reported the blog, citing Tribal STAR News, a coalition set up to promote tribal authorities.
It continued, “The blessing of the court was recognized by members of the stakeholders committee that has been meeting with the Honorable Amy Pellman, the judge who presides in that court. The stakeholders committee has been meeting for nine months to develop collaborative working relationships that will further the work of the court in insuring (sic) that the requirements of ICWA are implemented.
“The blessing was coordinated by Roberta Javier who works in the Indian Unit for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. The blessing was given by Julia Bognay, a member of the Tongva Tribe of Los Angeles.
“Gifts were presented to the court including a Cradleboard, a Dream Catcher gourd and a book, ‘Called Home’ by Trace A. DeMeyer, relating the stories of Native American Adoptees. The blessing of the court is an annual event and insures (sic) that the Spirit of ICWA is present in the court when cases are being heard.”
Javier also was a social worker assigned to Lexi’s case, and both Pellman and Javier declined to respond to WND requests for comment.
But a bailiff answering the telephone number listed for Pellman acknowledged to WND that there have been “blessing” ceremonies in the courtroom.
Tribal STAR is a program of San Diego State’s School of Social Work and was funded for several years by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration of Children, Youth and Families, and Children’s Bureau.
Its goals are to “ensure that tribal foster youth are connected to culture, community and resources, throughout their stay in foster care and through their transition into adulthood.”
Cheryl Chumley’s latest book takes on the Washington behemoth head-on. Don’t miss her guidebook for turning back the disastrous effects of Big Government: “The Devil in D.C.: Winning Back the Country from the Beast in Washington”
Still pending in California is a lawsuit before the 2nd Appellate District. A report from news website Indian Country speculated the decisions in California were “effectively setting the stage for another showdown with the United States Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act.”
The last time the issue reached the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2013, the justices sent a case over custody of a young girl to the South Carolina Supreme Court, which ordered “Baby Veronica” to have her adoption by non-Indian Matt and Melanie Capobianco finalized.
The couple, like the Pages, had lost custody for a time because of the ICWA, which allows Indian tribes to dictate the placement of children in protective services cases even if the child has no connection to a tribe more than a fractional percentage of Indian heritage.
In Lexi’s case, as 1.5 percent Indian, of her 64 forbears that made up one generation many years ago, only one was Indian.
The 2013 Baby Veronica case had almost identical issues: She was part-Indian and her father, who had lost custody, tried to get her back. The courts ultimately ruled in favor of the adoptive family.
Prepared to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court
At a recent news conference, in front of the California Court of Appeals, which twice has ruled in their favor, supporters said, “This is precisely why the Page family fought so adamantly to not rip Lexi away from the only home she has ever known. The Pages can still go back to the Supreme Court. Should California’s judicial system produce no positive results for Lexi, the Pages are prepared to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.”
Rusty Page, in a prepared statement, said his family has been in complete anguish, but nothing compared to “the confusion and disorientation that Lexi is experiencing.”
“She hasn’t been able to speak with us … not because she can’t but because she’s not being allowed.”
He said Lexi is the sole concern, but, “We will never, EVER stop fighting for Lexi … EVER.
“Where does our hope come from? It comes from knowing that God is in control and that we have an uncountable number of supporters around the world praying for us all! Lexi’s supporters! We are in awe of all the support from over 116 thousand people spread throughout over 100 countries.”
He continued: “And to Lexi … our sweet Lexi … since no one has allowed you to contact us I will remind you what you told me just before they came to take you away … you told me I was your Superman, and that’s exactly what I’m going to be … for as long as it takes. I love you, Mommy loves you, and your sisters and brother love and miss you terribly. ”
The Goldwater Institute, which already was fighting in court to have the ICWA declared unconstitutional before Lexi’s case flared up, said such problems are created when a law “puts Indian children’s interests second, disregarding their best interests, and making it harder to provide them with permanent loving homes.”
“The law allows tribal authorities to intervene in child custody cases, assigns children to families against the will of their birth parents, makes it more difficult to take children from abusive families, and – as the California courts have admitted – discourages compassionate foster families and adoptive parents from taking in needy children. All of this is done solely on the basis of their race. It is disgraceful that a half-century after Brown versus Board of Education, it remains legal to subject one race of children to a separate and unequal legal system – one that makes it harder to protect them from abuse, harder for them to find permanent homes, and harder for them to realize the benefits of their U.S. citizenship.”
Lexi’s case burst into the headlines last month when social workers took the crying, resisting child away from her Santa Clarita, California, foster family.
WND reported the state government removed Lexi from her biological parents because of their drug abuse and criminal histories. Her father, who reportedly is eligible for tribal membership, later cut off attempts at reunification, and her mother reportedly lost custody of at least six other children. The girl was placed with the Pages, who have become known to her as “mommy” and “daddy.”
Social evaluators already warned the court that removing her from the Pages “would be potentially traumatic,” causing her to suffer “depression and anxiety.” But they went ahead, and the Choctaw tribe put Lexi a thousand miles away.
Cheryl Chumley’s latest book takes on the Washington behemoth head-on. Don’t miss her guidebook for turning back the disastrous effects of Big Government: “The Devil in D.C.: Winning Back the Country from the Beast in Washington”
“Even one year is an eternity in a child’s life. Resolution of ICWA’s constitutionality has been postponed for decades. During that time, countless children have been subjected to its separate and unequal legal standards. It is ‘intolerable’ that this ‘dual system’ of race-based classifications is allowed to persist,” the Goldwater Institute challenged in the dispute.
It said: “This case cries out for extraordinary relief and a full consideration of the merits. Laws that establish a separate and disadvantageous system of rules for people of a particular ancestry – rules that deny them the protections afforded to people of any other race – are ‘illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, inherently wrong, and destructive of democratic society.'”
What do YOU think? Sound off on the case of Lexi, a 6-year-old girl taken from her family
The institute continued: “Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw, and has only the remotest connection to any Indian tribe. Yet pursuant to ICWA, she has been taken away from the loving foster family with whom she has lived for 2/3rds of her life, and sent to live with non-Indian non-relatives in another state – solely as a consequence of her race.”
Lexi’s closest full-blooded Indian relative is a “great-great-great-great grandparent,” the institute explains.
That means she is subjected to the “ICWA Penalty Box,” which applies to “no child who is white, black, Hispanic, Asian” or any other race, the institute said.
She is being denied decisions based on the “best interests of the child,” the basis of child custody laws.
“In [a previous case], the U.S. Supreme Court found that it would ‘raise equal protection concerns’ if ICWA were used to ‘override … child’s best interests’ and take a child from a caring home ‘at the eleventh hour’ simply ‘because an ancestor – even a remote one – was an Indian,'” the institute has argued.
“We ended race-based discrimination 50 years ago in the country. But not for Native American children,” said Timothy Sandefur, vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute. “ICWA subjects Native American children to separate and substandard considerations in adoption and foster care cases. It is harder to remove them from abusive situations and it is harder to keep them in safe and loving homes than it is for children of any other race.”
He continued, “While it is important to protect the culture and heritage of Native American tribes, the desires of a tribe should never trump the best interests of a child.”
Cheryl Chumley’s latest book takes on the Washington behemoth head-on. Don’t miss her guidebook for turning back the disastrous effects of Big Government: “The Devil in D.C.: Winning Back the Country from the Beast in Washington”
Tribe’s ‘no comment’
Tribal officials multiple times have declined to respond to WND requests for comment, but WND recently reported that the tribe was blasting the foster family for doing “nothing but delay” the case and turning it into a political cause.
“It appears the foster family and their counsel are attempting to turn Lexi’s case into a political call to arms to dismantle ICWA,” the tribe charged in an unsigned statement posted online. “For the Choctaw Nation this case is not about politics. This case is about one of our children, one of our tribal members.”
The tribe said the ICWA “requires Lexi be given the chance to grow up with her family, with her sisters.”
“The California courts, time and again, found that Lexi should live with her family. The Pages have done nothing but delay Lexi’s reunification with her family.”
‘Traumatized’
WND previously reported on Axline’s comments.
“They took a scared 2-year-old who didn’t know a parent from a stranger and helped form this beautiful, silly, confident, loving, stable little 6 yr old by the love and nurture they provided for her in their home the last 4.5 yrs,” she wrote online about the Pages.
Then Axline expanded on her comments in an interview with the London Daily Mail.
What do YOU think? Sound off on the case of Lexi, a 6-year-old girl taken from her family
The Mail reported Axline described the Native American unit of the Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services as “deceptive” and “crooked.” Axline said she believes the agency handling Lexi’s case “hid” key facts and overlooked “damning” visitation reports.
Axline said that as a foster agency, we “report what we find in each child’s case to the county, and the county is supposed to take that information to the courts.”
“But we were reporting the different instances in Lexi’s case that were really concerning us, things that were concerning me as the social worker working the case, but they weren’t passed on. I’m talking visitations with the Utah family during which Lexi was an absolute mess. The DCFS would tell her that she would have to have a visit, and she would go ballistic and she would go crying and crying, and when she would come back from a visit it would take her days and days to get back into her normal routine and behaviors,” she said.
She told the Mail: “Instead of writing, she was ‘hysterically crying,’ as I told them, they would put, ‘Lexi had such a fun time at Disneyland when they went; she was smiling and laughing.’ It was completely deceptive.”
‘Child sacrifice’
On its website, the Goldwater Institute recounts the case of Laurynn Whiteshield and her sister, Michaela.
“Laurynn spent most of her life in a home where she was loved and protected. From the time she was nine months old, she and her twin sister, Michaela, were raised by Jeanine Kersey-Russell, a Methodist minister and third-generation foster parent in Bismarck, North Dakota. When the twins were almost three years old, the county sought to make them available for adoption. But Laurynn and Michaela were not ordinary children.
“They were Indians.
“And because they were Indians, their fates hinged on the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law passed in 1978 to prevent the breakup of Indian families and to protect tribal interests in child welfare cases.
“The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe had shown no interest in the twins while they were in foster care. But once the prospect of adoption was raised, the tribe invoked its powers under ICWA and ordered the children returned to the reservation, where they were placed in the home of their grandfather in May 2013.
“Thirty-seven days later, Laurynn was dead, thrown down an embankment by her grandfather’s wife, who had a long history of abuse, neglect, endangerment, and abandonment involving her own children,” the report says.
It quotes William Allen of the Coalition for the Protection of Indian Children and Families, who is a critic of the law.
“I would go so far as to call the legislation a policy of child sacrifice in the interests of the integrity of the Indian tribes, meaning the end has nothing to do with the children,” Allen said. “It has everything to do with the tribe. To build tribal integrity, tribal coherence, the law was passed in spite of the best interests of the children.”
Significant damage
The damage to a 6-year-old ripped from the only parents she’s known can be significant, according to Cheryl Chumley, a court-appointed special advocate and author of the new “The Devil in D.C.: Winning Back the Country from the Beast in Washington.”
“This is a perfect example of the damage that government can do when it gets involved in matters it doesn’t belong,” she said. “Tearing this little girl away from the only home she’s ever known is a travesty – and it’s a big black mark on government.
“As a CASA, a court-appointed special advocate, I help judges make the difficult decision of where abused and neglected children should ultimately live. And I can tell you, ripping children from a home where they’ve grown, where they’ve thrived and where they’ve lived with family is an upsetting process, at best – a mentally and psychologically damaging occurrence at worst. By all accounts, Lexi was thriving in her present home, but now, because of government policy, she may have to go live with strangers, in an entirely new state.
“God help us if this is what government can do, without barely blinking an eye.”
‘Devastated’ family
“Our family is so incredibly devastated,” Rusty Page said in a Facebook statement. “But nobody could possibly be more devastated than our 6-year-old daughter who found herself restrained in a car and driven away to go and live in a foreign place hundreds of miles from her family, friends, teachers, home and life.”
A measure of the public’s interest can be assessed at a GoFundMe page, where more than $45,000 has been raised for the family’s effort, and Change.org, where 119,000 people have signed a petition. At the outset, for a time, the signatures were coming in at a rate of one per second.
Follow the progress of the case on the the Save Our Lexi site, GoFundMe and change.org sites.
Concerned individuals may contact the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma or call 1-800-522-6170.