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04/20/93
Cult kids in state custody unaware of events, officials say
By Terrence Stutz / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN-Children who were released earlier from the Branch Davidian compound were not told of the tragic events at the compound Monday, state officials said.
Instead, the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services is preparing a treatment team to explain to the children what happened and to answer their questions.
"They have not been told anything yet,' said Stewart Davis, a spokesman for the agency.
"We have highly trained psychiatrists and psychologists who are working regularly with these children, and it would be up to their professional judgment and guidance as to when these kids need to know and the manner in which they will be told,' he said.
"You can imagine that the older children might be told at a different time and in different words than a younger child. It has got to fit the child's individual needs.'
The staff will also need time to recover from the tragedy.
"It's very difficult to stand and watch on televsion children
going up in flames,' said Joyce Sparks, a supervisor of the Children's Protective Services, the state agency that has handled the released children. "I don't know if there's any words that can really describe that.'
Ms. Sparks said that several staff members who had worked with the released children gathered in a small office to watch the inferno on television.
"The room was very silent,' Ms. Sparks said. "There were some teary eyes. But we were standing by the phones hoping we were going to get a call that someone had survived.'
"Having held some of those children in my arms, it's just very difficult to really accept that this has happened,' she said.
Of the 21 children released by the cult, about a dozen are living in "home-like' quarters with foster parents in the Waco area.
It has been the practice of the agency and the foster parents to not discuss events at the Branch Davidian compound, just east of Waco, said Mr. Davis. And the living arrangements for the children have shielded them from hearing about those events.
"It leaves it up to the therapists to decide when they should learn,' he said.
"Agency caseworkers and the treatment team are trying to help them deal with the emotional trauma they already have been through . . . and we don't want to add further pressure to that.'
Seven children have been turned over to relatives for temporary custody, including three who were released to their father.
The children were pawns in the game of strategy between cult leader David Koresh and federal authorities.
Although Mr. Koresh said his own 2-year-old daughter was killed in the raid, agents said they never found evidence to confirm that.
Meanwhile, fear over the fate of the children limited law officers' options for dealing with the standoff, the FBI said.
Almost all the children who left the compound were released in the first week of the standoff. Some were released with parcels of favorite belongings. Once they were released, judges determined temporary custody in hearings. Many were given to the state and lived in a group home.
At one point in the negotiations, FBI agents prepared videotapes of those children to prove to Mr. Koresh and his followers that the children were well-cared for. According to state officials, the released children tended to be voracious readers and worked well together.
Although an investigation of the cult by the Waco Tribune-Herald reported instances of physical and sexual abuse, medical exams of the children after their release showed no evidence of physical abuse.
Gov. Ann Richards on Monday voiced sadness for the children whose parents may have died in the fire and for the children who remained in the compound and perished.
"I feel very sad about the children losing their lives because they had no choice in the matter,' she said.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said conditions faced by the children who were still in the compound was one of the reasons that authorities stepped up their efforts to end the standoff.
Ms. Reno said the situation appeared to be reaching a crisis, citing reports that Mr. Koresh was beating babies inside the compound and that children had been sexually molested.
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