Keep 'Lost Boys' on the radar
 
Opinion
The Spectrum
 
Legislation that makes it a felony to exile a child under the age of 18 didn't make it past committee this general session. It is a bill sure to resurface that needs to boldly flash across the radar screen by lawmakers because it specifically deals with the lives of abandoned children.

House Majority Leader David Clark, R-Santa Clara, sponsored a sister bill, House Bill 468, after listening to the stories of teenagers who either ran away or were banished from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the twin towns of Hildale and Colorado City. It, too, didn't make it out of committee.

Clark's bill was carefully worded so as to help any child in the position of abandonment for more than 30 days. It would have provided transitional services from the Division of Child and Family Services for "abused, neglected or dependent children of bigamist families." It had a fiscal appropriation of $250,000 with no expiration date that would be paid out of the state's general fund.

As national attention is focused on FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, who is facing criminal charges in Utah and Arizona for allegedly forcing teenage girls into marriages with older men, the children caught up in the aftermath of the disintegrating FLDS communities have found themselves fending for themselves with little more than an elementary-level education. Apparently, this concentration also distracted Utah's Congress from passing the bills so necessary at the present time.

Predominantly, young males have been the victim of ostracism for reasons ranging from wearing the wrong shirt to kissing a young girl betrothed to an FLDS leader. Hundreds, called the "Lost Boys," have found refuge in makeshift huts; some getting involved in crimes and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Some of the money would have funded the purchase of transitional housing and would have paid for resources provided contractually through DCFS to assist the youth in acquiring an education, including giving child protection or reunification services for children who live in polygamy.

There is an immediate need for such services, particularly when more and more households and businesses are being evacuated by the polygamous town residents. What is happening to the children? That is a question that can't wait for a major crisis before the unthinkable happens and more children are left parentless and homeless.

Parents should be held accountable for such a bold-faced disregard to the lives of their children when they abandon them. The children deserve nothing less than the love and nurturing a family can provide. Utah's lawmakers may have missed the mark here, but they certainly have no reason to in 2008. Hopefully, it won't be too late.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published March 1, 2007
 
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