Abuse, Trafficking, Assault and Neglect in Texas Foster Care Will Only Get Worse After Abortion Bans

0:00 Trigger warning. The contents of this episode has references to subject matter that listeners may find disturbing or triggering of personal past experiences. For more information referred to the description of the episode, please proceed with caution. Hey everyone, this is Bellamers. Thanks for joining me on another episode of Big Time Fresh. This one's going to be a different one at different vibe, different topic, different everything. I try to stay away from politics, but this one is not just politics. It's also about reproductive rights. So I just wanted to give you one more time a trigger warning for this episode. Going forward, we will be back to our typical format, but this one is important to me on an important topic, so I definitely wanted to share my perspective.

0:52 Um, I will catch you next week. When children are removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect, it's because of extreme abuse and neglect, and these children have been traumatized. When we take them into our system of care, that's when we start re traumatizing them, and that's the beginning of their life and care. All of us felt like we were criminals. We're being disciplined for something that our parents did. It's like we're money to them, like you see like Mr Gary would come to work in his corvette.

1:33 Well, all of us don't even have foodges. I remember one group home and there's literally a boat lock on the fridge. That lock was always there unless we had a visitor, which meant that we went some nights without eating. So before we get too far into the into the story, there's gonna be a lot to unpack here, and I'm not going to be able to break it down. So I'm not going to really be able to break it down all the way. But I wanted to mention real quick that I'm going to have a link in the uh in the description of the episode that's going to have the link to the article that I wrote. Because of that article is where you can find a lot of the sources to where I actually got the data, but also where I got the video and or in this case the audio clips um but with the article has the links that you can watch the actual videos as well. Here's a little bit more on the foster care system in the total United States. Sex trafficking of miners is a major problem in group homes, but despite the fact that this is commonly known by both staff and case workers, underage girls and boys are able to easily leave the home at all hours of the day and night. Once gone, sexual predators are not far behind. We're the hotel across the street from the group home.

3:04 The guys would bring the girls here. They buy them alcohol, buy them marijuana, They bring them in a room, they get drunk, they get HI. Whatever they wanted to do. Our case workers weren't providing for us. The girls felt that the only way they were going to get anything is if they got it themselves. The prostitutes range from twelve to seventeen. Some girls prostitute for money, Others prostitute for food. Others prostitute for drugs. Some prostitute because they think that the person are with lovesome and being a foster kid, mostly these bill don't get a lot of love. There's a ton of foster kids in the system all over the United States, So I do want to kind of get some insight into what it looks like right now if you did want to become a foster family or or adopt the child.

3:53 Here are some of the things that I found online that we're definitely a resource to use. At the same time, was kind of uh discouraging. I guess, just the way it's set up like a sergery tool, so you can go onto the website and search for different things that you are looking for in a child, either to adopt or to to be a foster parent too. And to me, what's what's sad is is that you know again, I don't even know how. I'm sure the chain of command and pointing fingers and blame is is all over their place. But the way it's set up right now is you can say I would like a three year old who is white, that is that has no behavioral issues. There's also options to say, yes, I don't mind siblings, I don't mind special needs, I don't mind if they are they have behavioral issues. But you can also exclude those options. So any of the results that would come up in the database would show you the children that are available to be adopted or to um be uh so that either to be adopted or have an opportunity to be a for you to foster. You can pick and choose from there. So it's just hard. The pictures are up there with the kids, all of the information,

5:23 a little bit about their background, so it breaks my heart. But you know, this is why we need reform. This is this is um. This is going to get worse because with the overturn Roe v. Wade, this is just a reality that's that's going to get worse. So, um, let's get into the state of Texas specifically, a federal judge scolded the people in charge of the Texas foster care program about unsafe conditions for children. Oxford Rolling Brown joins us with the story, LORI, how they're in. One of the cases in question, a caretaker put two girls in a hotel while she went out of state. She then asked two men to go and check on them, and the men assaulted the girls. It's one of the many failures that the judge reviewed today. This has been going on for eleven years now because of how bad the foster care system is in Texas.

6:21 The state of Texas has been in litigation against Greg Abbott for not doing anything or not addressing what needs to be done. Eleven years okay, and because it's so dangerous and there's no solutions that Texas is providing. Guess who else they're shipping out of state? Oh, kids, They're shipping foster kids. Foster children are being shipped. And I say shipped because that's what they say everybody else, they're being taken out of state. Two. The example I have here from the source that I have here, uh, two point one million dollars in was put for children to move out of state into a different foster care system in another state. Oh. That sounds exactly like how much money it took for uh for the Santis to fly those Venezuelans who were not here illegally, they were seeking asylum. They did it legally and they sat, you know, let's fly him over to Martha's vineyards. That was about two million dollars right. Recently, one of these instances here a prairie harbor foster home m a prairie hard harbor foster home. So that foster home on

7:51 its own, uh, showed the structural deficiencies that violated the General Classes fourteenth the men meant right to be free from an unreasonable risk of harm. Let's go to twenty nine. Let's go to the number of suspected unconfirmed incidents of sex trafficking. Number of confirmed incidences of sex trafficking in Texas for the children for the Department of Family Protective Services. Okay, in one year, one one eight numbers of confirmed incidents of sex trafficking in for children involved with the for the Department of Family and Protective Services. Here are some examples. A woman who was sexually abused children at one facility was fired from one that facility, but then was hired by a different fastic care facility for victims of sex track picking and soliciting, selling and selling news of the girls in her care subs and this is from the ruling. Subsequent sexual aggression manifestation as child on child sexual or physical abuse is also quote typical, common and widespread throughout Texas foster care. Another former foster child name uh I'm gonna leave out the name,

9:30 testified that sexual assault between foster children was a common thing in big group homes where caregivers were simply not able to watch everyone. So the judge who's still on the case, uh, Judge Judge Janice Jack has been on this class action lawsuit for these alas for these last eleven years. In her scathing three fifty five page ruling, Judge Jack reprimanded the state for running a system where rape, abuse, psychotropic medication, and instability are the norm, where children are almost uniformly leave the state custody custody more damaged than when they entered.

10:16 Federal Judge Janis Jack told leaders with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that their actions have been shameful. She voiced her frustration with the lack of controls to keep workers accused of wrongdoing at one facility for being rehired elsewhere. One example, an employee with the refuge a care facility and bash drop for child victims of sex trafficking. The employee allegedly exploited child residents, selling nude photos of them and using the money to provide alcohol and drugs to the miners. The judge questioned why there was no state database to show that employee had previously been terminated by the juvenile justice system, and response, state leaders told Judge Jack their access to certain files is restricted under state law. Paul yet Or, the attorney who brought the case against the state's foster care system, said that needs to change. Uh, the lawsuit that was filed against the crag Abbott and it's like the fourth or this is on the eleventh year, so it was either a response or sanctions. I don't know. I'm so sorry, but um it's three hundred and fifty five pages. Right at the end of those, at the end of the on three one of civil action number two eleven CB zero zero zero eight four, he says teachers were not present in two of the classrooms during three of the days the monitoring team visited, and the school district did not provide substitutes, So students were just

11:50 chilling. Uh, they were playing cards and sleeping under death and and um and playing games. So the picture they took is of um, some of the kids that were sleeping on the floor because there was no substitute teacher. So the judge, the judge who has been on this case for the eleven years that it's been in existence, it says they planned to have plans to levy substantial finds after Texas failed to comply with court ordered fixes to its foster care system. Uh, the Abbott the Abbott's Administration's lack of competence and failed promises were all part of the Texas Supreme Court's decision to hold them in contempt of court with the three page ruling. Okay, that's what that was.

12:48 It was a ruling. And so this executive order for the Family First Prevention Services Act was signed into or this it was an executive order signed in by President Trump with bipartisan support to quote strengthen America's child welfare system by signing a historic executive order aimed at improving outcomes for children and families. This executive order focuses on three key areas of action, improving partnerships, improving resources, and improving oversight. However, the state of Texas is failing children and families in Texas. Therefore, Texas is going to lose seventeen point four million in federal support and in two and twenty five point six million in three because it's not compliant with the Family First Prevention Services Act. Yeah. So this is something Trump put into UH as an executive order, which is wonderful. Um, but his buddy Abbott is not like, oh okay, great, I don't care. So because of that, he lost, he's about to lose.

14:13 I don't know if he has ord, but the article says he was um supposedly about to lose seventeen point four million dollars and federal support in two and twenty five point six million because he's not compliant with the Family First Prevention Services at So it's his fault. He's not doing what he was supposed to do, and he's not he's not filling the requirements that needs to be filled to in order for these fundings. That makes sense. I guess how many children are staying in unlicensed foster homes in Texas? Over four hundred If you look back in ten, it was about less than fifty twenty eighteen, probably about ten right now on a legal situation that has been ongoing for about a decade accusing Texas of running an unsafe foster care system, and this week a state judge says that she's still unsatisfied despite changes that have been made even up into the last few months, so she will soon start slapping the state with some massive fine similar to what happened back in She says the system is still a dangerous system for the more than thirty thousand children in its care, so much so that she sees it as a violation of constitutional rights. How So,

15:43 well, the judge has acknowledged a few facts. There's a high rate of sexual abuse, with the court finding as many as one in four kids have been victims. There's a lack of permanent housing, with children being housed in motels and office buildings. There's a lack of background checks on foster care employees and poor follow up for foster families who are not following regulations. The judge says she's sick of hearing horror stories that she feels were preventable. And we begin tonight with the story that you'll only see here on Fox. An employee with Child Protective Services is caught on camera telling a fourteen year old girl in foster care to become a prostitute. In the video, she tells the CPS employee she wants food. The CPS worker tells her to be APPROPS. There's all of this going on, this sexual abuse, this sleeping on floors, these you know, kids coming in worse, leaving worse than they came in.

16:40 UM. In some cases, I think only sixty two of the children who come in as group sibling groups actually get placed as siblings into the same foster care, into the same foster home. That's just traumatic in itself. UM. But now, not too long ago, remember this, remember this press release investigating gender transitioning procedures as child abuse. Because the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is responsible for protecting children from Abuse. I hereby direct your agency to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of every any reported instance of instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas, says the Letter to Protect Children from Abuse DFPS and all other state agencies much followed must follow the law as explained in OG opinion number KP zero four zero one. Um, why don't you fix the problems that you already have before making it worse from people that don't even need to be UM investigated? Why would you take why would you investigate somebody like step back, take everything out of it, take all the bullish it of trams and whatever. If a child is happy in their home with warm and loving parents, why would you take them away and

18:11 put them into an overly it's over capacity? Uh, sexual abuse rampant, Uh, sleeping on the floor. Look, environment, why would you put them environment? Then you're making them worse. All of the kids are worse. Okay, So let me wrap this up because I'm just I'm just getting pissed now this one in particular. I'm just gonna read through to here's some more facts. Sixti percent of siblings and foster care were placed together at one of the foster Cares at home foster care facilities in San Antonio. Foster Care Shelter had two thirty nine citations that were documented finding of abuse, self harm, medical neglect, and sexual allegations. Texas has yet to come up with a way to track where children in foster care are placed. In one thousand, seven hundred sixty seven children and you were missing at some point during the year, within the Department of Family and Protective Services, they were one eight confirmed cases of sex trafficking. Um that I said that one earlier, So, uh, this one's sex the most and I need to do a little bit research. It was in a reputable news um from a reputable news article.

19:37 I personally want to go through the state budget because all of that's public online. So if you go through the states where they spend all the money, it's it's probably in there. It's just data I need to go through. But here's here's where it is. Uh. In Governor Abbott took thirty one million from the state's Juvenile Justice fund so that he could pay for Operation Loan Star, sending National Guard to the southern border of Texas. Governor Greg Abbott redirected five hundred million from other agencies to fund Border Security Mission, taking funding from two hundred and ten million from the state's Health and Human Services Commission over two years and about a hundred sixty million from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Operation loan Star cost Texas taxpayers two million dollars a year. Uh So this this is the way beyond, This is way beyond a problem of uh, reproductive healthcare. I wouldn't have an abortion because I don't want to have a child. This is a reality that they didn't. They need to fix on the other end, or at least addressed on the other end.

20:59 If if a child can't if a child has to have a child, uh, if a child is forced to give birth not old enough to work, the does a grandmother have to take custody? Uh? If the grandmother can't take custody and nobody else in the family can take custody, then I assume the child goes to CPS. Right, Um, so what's the plan there? And then also the minimum wage in Texas is seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour. So okay, how are you supposed to buy diapers?

21:41 Which are like I don't know I don't know, I don't remember, but they're like twenty bucks at least a month. I think they're like forty bucks a month. So how are you supposed to buy that? Um if you physically aren't able to breastfeed, which was my case formula. Uh, how are you supposed to go take care of the baby with no money if you can't pay for electricity or a place to live? Like, there's a lot of assumptions that there's gonna be people to support, but clearly not the state of Texas because Medicaid is one of the things that they decided not to um extend like the rest of this, like most of the states in the United States, So there's no there's no plan um. So what I think should happen is that every single man in the United States should be forced to have a vasectomy and when they're ready to have children, they can get it reversed.

22:42 Problem solved. Then we don't have to deal with any of this. Okay, So how old are you? Six? Team? Great? Time for you to get a vasectomy. You have no choice, no choice for you, Uh, no choice in your body. So vasectomy for you. They're reversible, So it's okay. Vasectomy sixteen, when you're ready to start a family, you come back and we'll get that vasectomy reverse. Um, And so you let, okay, it's reverse. You've had kids and now you need a viagra. Oh, we're not going to have that anymore. It's not a thing because viagra leaves to children. Viagra results in and pregnancy.

23:26 That's what it does, medication that causes pregnancy. Now, clearly i'm being sarcastic, but let's say this, Um, this, this is okay. If the solution is women can't control it, then the solution is men shouldn't be able to either. So men at sixteen years old must get a vasectomy, and when they are ready to have children, then they can go get the procedure reversed. Problem solved. Right when you're older and you can't and you can't get an erection, well that's fine. It doesn't matter.

24:07 You're not trying to have a kid, right since the only reason to have sex is to have a kid, So why do you even need it if you want to have a kid. Maybe until you get somebody pregnant and then we'll take you back off of it. So that's my solution. Um, thanks for listening. I had to rance about this one. I couldn't take it anymore. I still can't take it. And I don't understand why this isn't a this isn't this isn't in the news. What is happening after the fact. We need to look even if we look one year forward, what are the implications one year forward? And I'm gonna be talking about that and writing up about that after I do my data nerd research. Um, the cost to the taxpayers. There's no way this money is gonna come out of nowhere. Someone's gotta pay for it. We were supposed Texas with supposed to get help to pay for it from the federal government, but they didn't follow the rules. Okay, so taxpayers are going to have to fill that gap.

25:07 There's just no way around it. People need to think forward. So again my solution, this is my solution. At sixteen, all men need to get vasectomys. When they're ready to have children, they can get reversed and then um older. If they're not able to get it up, they can have their viagra, but only if they're trying to get pregnant. Otherwise, no viagra for you. And as soon as you have that child, you get off of viagra, and as soon as you're done having children in general, you get that vasectomy again. And we're on the same page anyway.

25:48 UM, please subscribe, like uh, follow me on Instagram. It's Big Time Fresh as always. I appreciate you. Thanks again, guys, this has been Bella from Big Time Fresh and I will see you next time. Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard, check out Cross the Streams Media dot com to hear more episodes of this podcast and the other shows on the Cross the Streams network. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you download your favorite shows. Visit Cross the Streams Media dot com for more information. See you next time.