KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Officials from the National Indian Child Welfare Association, or NICWA, have responded to the case of a 6-year-old girl named Lexi after she was removed Monday from her foster home in Santa Clarita due to a stipulation by the Indian Child Welfare Act.
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The girl, who is 1.5 percent Choctaw and whose father is an enrolled Indian tribe member, has lived with Summer and Rusty Page in Saugus for the last four years.
Rusty Page carrying 6-year-old Lexi to the waiting car on Monday.
However, based on recommendations by the Department of Children and Family Services, the tribe and her father, a placement order was issued requiring that Lexi be removed from her foster home in Santa Clarita and be placed in Utah with a non-Indian couple who are extended family of her father.
While the emotionally-charged case gained national attention this week — garnering more than 63,000 online petition signatures to “Keep Lexi Home” and prompting hundreds of protesters to gather outside the Page’s residence in Saugus — NICWA officials are reminding the public that there is another side to the story.
“The CLC (Children’s Law Center) is relieved that Lexi has finally been placed with her relatives; with whom she enjoys a loving relationship,” said Leslie Heimov, executive director of the CLC of California. “The past few days have been difficult for everyone involved. Our focus now is on ensuring that our client is supported in any every way possible and that she and her family are given the privacy they need.”
Though the Pages were clearly devastated by the decision and publicly stated that Lexi was “forcibly ripped away from our family by strangers,” NICWA officials said they were “disturbed by this weekend’s flurry of negative media attention” regarding the case.
“In this contentious custody case, there have never been any surprises as far as what the law required,” NICWA officials stated in a press release. “The foster family was well aware years ago this girl is an Indian child, whose case is subject to the requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act, and who has relatives who were willing to raise her if reunification with her father was unsuccessful.”
The press release cites an Aug. 30, 2011 court finding that the ICWA applies to Lexi, who was not placed with the Pages until December 2011, nearly four months later. The ICWA was passed in the 1970s as a way of keeping Native American tribes together.
While the Pages decided they wanted to adopt Lexi after efforts to reunify her with her father failed, her social worker reportedly informed them that the tribe had already selected the Utah-based family as the planned adoptive placement, according to the press release.
“The purpose of foster care is to provide temporary care for children while families get services and support to reunite with their children, not to fast-track the creation of new families when there is extended family available who want to care for the child,” NICWA officials stated. “Reunification and placement with extended family whenever possible is best practice for all children, not just Native American.”
The NICWA reports that the family who now has custody of Lexi first visited her shortly after the court terminated her father’s reunification services, and have maintained a relationship with her since then.
Lexi has reportedly video chatted with the family about twice a week and had multiple in-person visits in Los Angeles, while her foster family has referred to them as “family from Utah,” according to the press release.
“The participants agreed on a transition plan that involved a relatively short transition, with both families meeting for breakfast or at a park, explaining to (Lexi) that she is going to (live) with the relative family, who are family who love (Lexi) very much and will take good care of her,” the press release stated, citing court documents.
Despite this agreement, NICWA officials continued that the Pages have attempted to “drag out litigation as long as possible, creating instability for the child in question” under the advice of an attorney “with a long history of trying to overturn ICWA.”
“That the foster family now argues bonding and attachment should supersede all else despite testimony of those closest to her case seems like a long-term, calculated legal strategy based on the simple fact that the law was always clear, they understood it, but just chose not to abide by it,” NICWA officials said.
Related: UPDATE: 6-Year-Old Taken From Saugus Foster Family Due To Stipulation In Indian Child Welfare Law
The Department of Children and Family Services removed Lexi from the Page’s Saugus home around 2:30 p.m. Monday amidst shouts by protesters of “We love you, Lexi” and “We fought for you.”
She was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her mother, who had substance abuse problems, and her father, who has an extensive criminal history, according to court documents.
“The tribe consented to the girl’s placement with a non-Indian foster family to facilitate efforts to reunify the girl with her father,” court documents state. “The girl lived in two foster homes before she was placed with (the Pages) at the age of two.”
The Pages made a public statement at a press conference held Monday afternoon in Santa Clarita, just hours after Lexi was taken by county officials.
“Our family is so incredibly devastated, our hearts are broken and we’re trying to make sense of everything that has happened with our three other children who witnessed their sister, Lexi, be forcibly ripped away from our family by strangers,” said Rusty Page. “But no one can 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.”
Page also made a statement directed “to the people that took our daughter.”
“You have her now,” he said. “Please search deep in your heart and soul and do what’s best for Lexi.”
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This is an outrage. This poor child knows only this family and you can see from the photos and television reports that she is very happy with these people and they all love each other very much. She is only 1 point something Indian and her foster mother is more Indian than she is.
The child is going to really suffer – not to mentiion the anguish of the parents. Why do they let these things happen???????? How do we know that the people in Utah even want her and how will they treat her??? Very, very wrong.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/07/24/broken-choctaw-father-california-thwarted-custody-battle-foster-couple-156035 Please read this from a few years ago, before making your decisions about the case. This family has barred her from her real family for years, and now when they have scenes of a crying Lexi they spread it to the media. They weren’t going to the media when they were trying to block her from going to her dad. Only family she’s known, yep, because the Pages caused that. Read the article, they tried to do this to another child. I hope Lexi gets to stay in Utah and have a relationship with her sisters and father. I also hope the Pages foster certification is revoked.
Her biological sisters live in California. You are miss informed
Please read the documents actually posted by NICWA. They clearly state that there was visitation and skyping between Lexi and the Utah family, facilitated by the foster family. Please also know that the social worker documented concerns about these visits and how Lexi was afterwards.
At this point many sides are to blame . . . right now, what should be considered is the young girl. Where does she want to be?
She is going to non-iIndian extended family. Step grandparents. Why can’t she stay where she was with court ordered visitation with her sibling/s?
Hearing the other side of the story sheds a new light on this situation. In my opinion, people got hysterical over this without being fully informed.
Regardless of the hoops everyone says they legally jumped through, the question still remains: WHAT WAS the ‘value’ in removing this child from a loving and stable home and to place her in the care of another family? ‘Value’ denotes ‘gain’…so if the NICWA believes there was ‘value’ in placing this child with another family, what IS that ‘value’? What was the ‘gain’ for this child? Do you have proof that a placement for this child with another family was more ‘valuable’ than the family she was part of in California? Were you seriously considering to reunite this child with her felon dad? If so, is this the ‘value’ in removing this child from her home? NICWA, I venture to say that the public does NOT agree that just because you’ve crossed all your T’s and doted all your I’s, it justifies removing this child from a loving home. So is this just a matter of you being right, NICWA? Forget what the books say. Let’s talk about the heart of this issue and why don’t you share with the public your rationale and VALUE in removing this child from a loving & stable home and please, leave out the ‘legalise’. Isn’t listening to one’s heart an important Native American teaching? Well NICWA?
No matter how much native American blood one has, they can receive monthly checks. I have to wonder how much of this with the Utah family is money centered.
You can bet her family receiving a lot less then the pages have. They have over 50 grand in their gfm account using this child name. They selling paraphernalia using this little girls name. The exposed her identity to the world. I am glad she went home to Utah !family!! .. her REAL family would never exploit their child like that.
The national Indian Child Welfare Assoc should have their OWN foster plan and program for tribal children if it is important to have native children kept in native family groups. The parents failed this child as well as the Indian Welfare Assoc. T
This article is not accurate. Lexi never met this ” family ” from Utah in person, only through Skype. They NEVER visited her in California. There was NEVER a transition plan carried out by social services. The only ” loving relationship’ this Utah ” family” had with her was through Skype. Social Services would not allow the Pages to tell her what was going to happen. She was UNEXPECTEDLY ripped out of the only family she’s known past the age of 2.
THIS is CHILD ABUSE!!!!!!!!!
You’re lying. Read the court documents! Quit looking like a fool. This child is with HER family. She was never available for adoption. She had family waiting. Family that visited her monthly. Get your facts straight!
The NICWA lost all my respect when “The tribe consented to the girl’s placement with a non-Indian foster family to facilitate efforts to reunify the girl with her father,” the FATHER who “has an extensive criminal history”. The NICWA didn’t have Lexi’s welfare as a priority from the get-go.
As parents who have completed training to become a Resource Family (Foster Care), we will be sure not to take in children who have any “Indian” heritage, not because we wouldn’t love them, but because we WOULD love them. Clearly, the best interest of a child is not served by our government agencies …or NICWA, for that matter. Shame, shame, shame!!!
Is it the goal of foster families to offer temporary refuge or to adopt children? No matter what, Lexi will be living with her siblings in a safe home where her biological father will be able to see her. If your goal is to steal children, perhaps you should not be foster parents at all. Life happens to everyone and no parent or family is perfect. If you truly cared about children and families, you would have compassion for them.
To concerned citizen . . . you need to read all the facts of this case before you make such a reply.
It is a far reach of the NICWA to claim a child with 1.5% Indian blood because of the standing of the father’s claim. How did he prove this, I wonder? And to who’s satisfaction and for only this purpose? If this was the only legal recourse why this child was taken away, what a shameful law. And…why is the Children’s Law Center so relieved that Lexi is placed with relatives when she seems to clearly feel the Page’s are her bonded family? I thought this Children Law Center was for the good of the children ? The NICWA if flatly wrong in assuming that ““Reunification and placement with extended family whenever possible is best practice for all children, not just Native American.”….who are they to say this? This is a stupid, barbaric law….Our state politicians need to clean house with this foster care business altogether.
Protest the Indian casinos if you want to see Lexi come home soon,
I totally agree with Chuck protest Indian Casinos — cancel reservations if you have them — bring Lexi back home to her loving foster parents. By the way how much of a stipend is the new family getting??
The value being that Lexi and her biological sisters will be raised together as is their right with extended family. The pages knew this from the beginning. It is not the first time they have tried this method of trying to adopt a child. Previously another family had to fight them in court to get their child back.
They made things difficult for the biological father when he was trying to be reunited with his daughter.
How traumatizing for Lexi and their children to witness the circus outside their home as Lexi was picked up to be taken home to her family in Utah. No one considered how traumatic that would be for this little girl…cameras flashing in her face. ..people screaming and crying…the pages screaming and crying. This should have been handled in a drama free way. This circus was created by the pages with no regard for the emotional well-being of Lexi. This couple being the second time they have tried this should have their fostering license revoked pending the outcome of a mental assessment.
She is not living with biological sisters. One sister lives in the area . . . another lives in Los Angeles. There are not being raised together. Get your ALL your facts correct not just the ones that support your view.
Yes she is! Get your facts together! ! Read the court documents.
What a disgrace! Since when does 1.5% of a certain ethnic background, make a person primarily from that background!! This is unbelievable!!! How can anyone, no matter how emotionally and mentally challenged, respect the demented, racist propaganda regurgitated by the NICWA concerning the cruel, inhuman treatment of an innocent child and a loving, emotionally healthy family. A child was taken from 2 extremely poisonous, irresponsible biological parents who were totally incapable of providing a positive family environment. The child is taken in by loving, responsible foster parents. News Flash — those loving, responsible foster parents have proven that they are the true parents of this precious child. The biological parents committed a biological act which resulted in the birth of life; however, their self-centered, destructive, unloving behavior disqualified them from being true parents. True parents are selfless and responsible. Blood has nothing to do with being a true parent. To make children does not make one a parent. To care for children makes one a parent. How dare the NICWA defend its evil action of tearing a little girl away from her true parents. I’m certain that most Native Americans are much more concerned with the actual welfare of the child rather than the obsession with the 1.5% statistic!
It seems the, child was ignored in this . My children are 1/32 Cherokee which makes them more indian than Lexi.. Lexi. Is 98% caucasian seems, to me she belongs in santa clarita. Consider the child