A 6-year old girl has been removed from her foster home, even though she has been living with them for 5 years. The reason? She is 1.5% Native American, and her foster family are not!
The traumatised child was removed from the family in California, in the US by social workers, heartbreakingly sobbing, “Don’t let them take me away!” to her foster dad Rusty Page. Her foster mother Summer then ran out of the house shouting, “I love you”.
The moment Lexi is taken from her home. Her foster parent Rusty Page is carrying her to the vehicle. pic.twitter.com/tEGIUadQY9
— Carlos Granda (@abc7carlos) 21 March 2016
Protesters surrounding the house tried to stop child services from removing Lexi from her loving foster family, but to no avail.
According to Rusty, the family have been involved in a two-and-a-half year legal battle to adopt Lexi.
Rusty and Summer are also parents to three biological children, aged nine, six, and two, who understandably are devastated and confused by what’s happened.
So how could this happen? How could a child in need of a family be removed from parents and siblings that love her? Well due to the fact she has Choctaw blood, she can’t live with a non-Native American family due to the ‘Indian Child Welfare Act’.
And while we understand the reasons laws regarding Native Americans were enacted are complicated and sensitive, and that this particular Act was brought into legislation for a reason – to protect a vulnerable people who have been through incomprehensible hardship – surely these decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis?
“As a grandmother, it's ripping my heart. It's ripping me apart to see Lexi has been a part of our family for almost five years, and she's not going to understand what's going on. The children are not going to understand the separation. This is going to destroy these children,” Tari Kelly, Lexi’s foster grandmother, told ABC 7.
Clearly being with a family who love her, and who have raised her as their own since she was a baby, is in the best interest of the child? And really, isn’t that the most important thing?
We hope this case can be resolved and Lexi can return to her loving family soon.
