Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'children' clips

World's oldest mom age now 72

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:21:15 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

A 72-year-old woman who has two children and five grandchildren has given birth to twins, making her the world's oldest mother.

Omkari Panwar delivered twins, a boy and a girl, by Caesarean section last week.

Singh was reluctant to speak because he has received negative publicity for his wife's having children at such an advanced age.

"The desire for a male child has always been there, but God did not bless us with a male child," he said of the son who is a product of in vitro fertilization. "Now, we are very grateful to God, who has answered our prayers."

The septuagenarian couple spent their life savings and took out a loan from the bank for Panwar to undergo in vitro treatments. For the couple, the desire to have a son was most important because they wanted to carry on the family name. They know that their son may never be able to care for them in the traditional way because of the age gap.

Tags: children, elderly, pregnancy, old, woman, twins, medical, health

Obama tells black fathers to step up

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:41:49 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Barack Obama celebrated Father's Day by calling on black fathers, who he said are "missing from too many lives and too many homes," to become active in raising their children.

"They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it," the Democratic presidential candidate said Sunday at a largely black church in his hometown.

Obama often speaks about the importance of parental involvement. In Washington, he sponsored legislation to get more child support money to children by offering a tax credit for fathers who pay support, more efficient collection and penalties for fathers who don't meet their obligations.

"We can't simply write these problems off to past injustices," Obama said Sunday. "Those injustices are real. There's a reason our families are in disrepair ... but we can't keep using that as an excuse."

Obama urged black parents to demand the best from themselves and their children.

Tags: obama, parents, parenting, father, children

Polygamy Children to Be Returned to Families

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:51:25 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

The Texas Supreme Court Thursday ordered hundreds of children from a polygamist sect who have been held in state custody for the past month to be returned to their parents, agreeing with a lower court decision that the state had not proved that the children were in immediate danger of abuse.

Though the ruling technically applies to 38 mothers and their 126 children, it will likely also affect the hundreds of other children who are being held by the state -- and threatened to unravel the largest child custody case in U.S. history.

"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the court wrote in its decision today.

It was not clear when the children would be temporarily returned to their families. The court said Judge Barbara Walther, who ordered the children held in temporary state custody, could take other steps to ensure the safety of the children.

A Child Protective Services spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Tags: religion, belief, polygamy, children, child, abuse, custody

Court: Texas wrongly seized sect children

Thu, 22 May 2008 23:52:41 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's ranch last month.

It was unclear how many children were affected by the ruling. The state took 464 children into custody in April, but Thursday's ruling directly applied to the children of 48 sect mothers represented by the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aide, said Cynthia Martinez of the agency. About 200 parents are involved in the polygamy case.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the state offered "legally and factually insufficient" grounds for the "extreme" measure of removing all children from the ranch, from babies to teenagers.

The state never provided evidence that the children were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court approval, the appeals court said.

Tags: texas, religion, belief, children, flds, polygamy, legal, parents

Age of pregnant FLDS 'girls' disputed

Sat, 17 May 2008 01:59:37 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- When Texas child welfare authorities released statistics showing nearly 60 percent of the teen girls taken from a polygamist sect's ranch were pregnant or had children, they seemed to prove what was alleged all along: The sect commonly pushed girls into marriage and sex.

But in the past week, the state has twice been forced to admit "girls" who gave birth while in state custody are actually adults. One was 22 and said she showed state officials a Utah birth certificate shortly after she and more than 400 minors were seized from the West Texas ranch in an April raid.

The state has in custody two dozen other young mothers and others whose ages are in dispute. If most of them also turn out to be adults, it would be a severe blow to the state's claim of widespread sexual abuse.

Parker said the state ignored evidence the young mothers presented, including birth certificates and Social Security cards.

Tags: flds, religion, belief, marriage, children, pregnancy, teen, girls, texas, abuse

Mental health workers blast CPS for separating polygamist families

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:10:57 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.dallasnews.com

SAN ANTONIO – Removing children from a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch was unnecessary and traumatizing, several mental health workers sent to aid the families wrote.

"The mothers are incredibly loving and patient with the children. The children were well-socialized and well-behaved and interacted willingly and happily with us," one wrote.

Another wrote: "The children were sweet and well-mannered upon our arrival. They obeyed their mothers and appeared to be healthy and well-nourished. They had none of the traditional withdrawal common in abused children."

The MHMR workers helped staff large shelters in San Angelo where mothers were at first allowed to stay with the children. Only mothers of younger children were allowed to remain after the first few days.

Many of the MHMR workers described child welfare workers as high-handed, rude and uncaring toward the mothers.

Tags: flds, family, sect, social, children, polygamist

Polygamy showdown: balancing child welfare, religious freedom

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:55:43 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.firstamendmentcenter.org

Texas officials are trying hard to keep the focus on child abuse — and away from religion — in the custody battle involving 437 children seized from a polygamist religious sect this month.

If only it were so simple.

Like it or not, this conflict is about far more than the issue of older men having sex with under-age girls in violation of Texas law. It’s also about religion — specifically the religious culture of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS).

Defenders of the church argue that the raid was an overreaction to one telephone call (that may have been a hoax) and was motivated by long-standing animus toward the FLDS community. The state counters that dramatic measures are justified when evidence points to children trapped in a religious culture that promotes child abuse.

The only way to sort out the truth, and determine the fate of the children, will be to put the FLDS way of life on trial.

Tags: religion, belief, rights, children, polygamy, sect, texas, culture

CPS: Most Sect's Girls Have Been Pregnant

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:32:24 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

31 Of 53 Teen Girls Taken From FLDS Polygamist Compound Have Children Or Are Pregnant, Officials Say

A total of 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 are in state custody after a raid 3½ weeks ago at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Of those girls, 31 either have children or are pregnant, said Child Protective Services spokesman Darrell Azar. Two are pregnant now, CPS officials have said in court; it was unclear whether either of those two already have children.

"It shows you a pretty distinct pattern, that it was pretty pervasive," he said.

State officials took custody of all 463 children at the ranch controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, saying a pattern of teen girls forced into underage "spiritual" marriages and sex with much older men created an unsafe environment for the sect's children.

"I do have serious questions about how they are determining age in there," said Parker, who is trying to get a better count from FLDS families.

Tags: flds, polygamy, sect, religion, belief, children, abuse, pregnancy, teen

'House of horror' children never saw daylight

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:29:09 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Three children freed from a cellar in which their mother had been imprisoned and raped by her own father for 24 years had never seen daylight, police in Austria have confirmed.

Police spokesman Franz Polzer told CNN that 73-year-old Josef Fritzl admitted holding his daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, hostage in the windowless cell and fathering seven children by her.

Fritzl explained Elisabeth's disappearance by saying she had run away from home, a story backed up by letters he forced Elisabeth to write, including one that begged her parents not to look for her.

Elisabeth said her father began sexually abusing her at age 11. On August 8, 1984 -- weeks before she was reported missing -- her father enticed her into the basement, where he drugged her, put her in handcuffs and locked her in a room, she told police.

For the next 24 years, she was constantly raped by her father, resulting in the six surviving children, she said, according to the police statement.

Tags: family, abuse, children, austria, sex, rape

School Principal Bans Tag From Playground

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:41:38 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

The principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School in McLean told students this month that they are not allowed to play the game of chasing and yelling "You're it!" at recess after determining the playground pastime had gotten out of hand.

Principal Robyn Hooker said she noticed that tag was sending too many students to the nurse's office. She hopes to restore tag - as well as touch football, which also is on hold - after administrators review recess policies.

The issue has divided parents. Some say it's best to err on the side of caution; others say the ban on tag is an example of overaggressive rulemaking that undermines children's development.

"We are regulating the fun out of normal childhood activity," said Jan van Tol, father of a Kent Gardens sixth-grader. "In our effort to be so overprotective, we are not letting children be children."

Tags: children, games, school, policy, childhood

Scientists: Kids Have Supernatural Ability

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:04:29 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

The sight of small blonde girls watching television is guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of anyone who has watched the movie Poltergeist.

We're right to be terrified, say physicists. Children generate poltergeist activity by channelling energy into the quantum mechanical vacuum.

The researchers note that poltergeist encounters have been reported around the world and across different cultures, but tend to have one thing in common.

"Poltergeist disturbances often occur in the neighbourhood of a pubescent child or a young woman," the authors note in their paper.

So Brovetto and Maxia have come up with a mechanism to explain just how these women and children create such havoc. Like so many problems that arise in adolescence, puberty gets the blame.

Brovetto and Maxia hypothesise that the changes in the brain that occur at puberty involve fluctuations in electron activity that, in rare cases, can create disturbances up to a few metres around the outside of the brain.

Tags: psychic, children, girls, energy, brain, adolescence

Doomsday cult calls credit cards satanic

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:06:42 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

A Russian doomsday cult sheltering in a bunker say credit cards and food packaging bar codes are satanic, the official negotiating the release of children from the group said on Monday.

Around 30 followers, including four children, from across Russia and neighboring Belarus met last October and barricaded themselves into a hillside to escape an apocalypse their preacher says is looming in either April or May.

"They have burned their passports and say that all plastic (credit) cards and strip codes on food packaging are the work of Satan," he told reporters.

He said progress was slow but local authorities were negotiating with the group to leave their refuge.

Local residents said the bunker was a pre-revolutionary convent, with a well, a kitchen and areas for sleeping and praying.

Tags: religion, faith, cult, russia, satan, belief

'My Mommy Is a Boy'

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:20:36 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

Young Children More Easily Adapt to News That a Parent is Transgender

Figuring out that he was transgender and making the decision to take hormones to transition his body from female to male was difficult for Jace Martinez. But figuring out how to tell his 5-year-old daughter, he says, was "really a challenge."

So Jace, 23, decided to write a picture book, simply titled "My Mommy Is a Boy."

Written from his daughter Amaya's perspective, the self-published book, intended for an audience of one, explains Jace's feelings and his decision to change his name, wear men's clothes and begin taking testosterone to change the appearance of his body.

"Mommy told me in her heart she always felt like a boy and being a girl always made her sad," he writes in the book. "Mommy likes to wear boy's [sic] clothes and cut her hair really short," reads the text under a magic-marker drawing of a short-haired Jace in a barber's chair. "Sometimes kids ask if she is my Daddy."

Tags: sexuality, transgender, gender, medical, body, children, man, woman

Parents Don't Have Constitutional Right To Home-School Kids

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:56:42 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.firstamendmentcenter.org

California parents without teaching credentials cannot legally home-school their children, according to a recent state appellate court ruling.

“Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion for the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

Noncompliance could lead to criminal complaints against the parents, Croskey said.

The parents in the case had argued that they had a First Amendment right to home-school their children, but the appeals court rejected that argument.

To earn a five-year preliminary teaching credential in California, a person must obtain a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and complete multiple examinations.

Until now, California allowed home-schooling if parents filed paperwork to establish themselves as small, private schools; hired a credentialed tutor; or enrolled their child in an independent study program run by an established school while teaching the child at home.

Tags: homeschooling, parenting, california, constitution, teaching, legal

Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:12:53 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.

The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,"

Tags: children, school, homeschooling, family, legal, teaching, law