Lexi is now with her extended family and her biological sister in Utah. "They are not strangers in any way, shape or form. They also agreed that the Pages did not prove with clear and convincing evidence that Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. "While the past 10 days have been complete anguish for our family, there's no way our pain can compare to the confusion and disorientation that Lexi is experiencing," Rusty Page said. They do not get the same best-interest-of-the-child standard that applies to all other children. All children, not just Native children, do better with caring relatives. Often there are no easy solutions, but when a court makes an order, we must follow it, said the departments director, Philip Browning. Lexi, who is 1/64 Choctaw, was taken from her foster home north of Los Angeles in a tearful parting in March and placed with extended family in Utah under a decades-old federal law designed to. The Pages argued that Lexi has lived with them since the age of 2 and considers them her family. LOS ANGELES -- A California family appealed Tuesday to the state's highest court in their fight to keep a 6-year-old foster child who was removed from their home after a lower court said her 1/64th Native American bloodline requires that she live with relatives. Distraught and weeping, Page shared his foster daughter's parting words with CBS Los Angeles: "Don't let them take me. Rusty Page carries Lexi while Summer Page, in the background, cries as members of family services, left, arrive to take Lexi away from her foster family in Santa Clarita, Calif., on March 21. Like many of her teammates, Lexi had left Navarro College by the time Daytona 2021 took place. In an official statement (via TVLine), Leigh shared she made the decision that season 8 was going to be her last, and along with Rhimes, they worked to "give Lexie's story appropriate . Maddie cant fathom it, and she asks us why, and the fact of the matter is that I cant tell her why, because I cant fathom it.. "How is it that a screaming child, saying, 'I want to stay, I'm scared,' how is it in her best interest to pull her from the girl she was before that doorbell rang?" On March 21, Los Angeles County social workers came to Rusty and Summer Pages home to take Lexi away. In the meantime, our clients hope that the family in Utah will follow through on their promise to keep Lexi in contact with her family in Los Angeles. The expansion of Anglo-American settlement into the Trans-Appalachian west led to the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, forcing all eastern tribal nations to move to new homelands west of the Mississippi River in the Indian Territory. Oak Lawn police officer charged after teen's violent arrest, ABC7 Chicago says farewell to Meteorologist Phil Schwarz, Kitchen Possible empowers kids in Chicago. Tribes also have a say in foster care placements. Although foster care is supposed to be temporary, the Pages wanted to adopt Lexi and for years fought efforts under the federal act to place the girl with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. Santa Clarita, Calif., March 21, 2016, PEZ Cancels Easter Egg Hunt After Parents Cause Huge 'Mess', How We Can Learn to Live with COVID-19 After Vaccinations. Images of the girl being carried away from her foster home drew widespread attention. Opinion. What happened to Lexie Grey? Theyre using this to attack tribal sovereignty, attack Indian people, and attack the Indian Child Welfare act, he says. The girl's sister is living with the couple, and another sister will be living down the street, said Leslie Heimov of the Children's Law Center of California, Lexi's court-appointed legal representatives. "It was important to halt that removal, to correct state behavior, to put in minimum standards," she said. The case was decided in the California court system three separate times, with three different trial court judges ruling in favor of Lexi's relatives in Utah. Dozens of cases involving foster families have gone to court around the country after the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the late 1970s. Read More Her father, who had a criminal history, never lived on a Choctaw reservation and didnt have any social, political, or cultural ties to the tribe, according to the court documents. However, Lexi also had extended family members who sought to adopt her once it was clear that a reunion with her birth father was not possible. We believe that following the Choctaw Nations values is in Lexis best interest.". The bottom line is that children subject to ICWA are second-class citizens, by law. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, Lexi and her extended family have had monthly visits and Skyped at least once a week prior to her relocation. "The law is very clear that siblings should be kept together whenever they can be, and they should be placed together even if they were not initially together," Heimov told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pYtXlg ). Last month, her kindergarten class gave her an award for being the most caring student. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative legal organization, brought a proposed class-action lawsuit challenging ICWA directly in 2015. . 2019 The Associated Press. Rusty and Summer Page of Santa Clarita, California, have long fought to gain custody of Lexi, 6, who is 1.56 percent Choctaw Native American. In a statement, they said this case is not about politics. Fiona Morgan. The Pages were always aware of this goal. However, a court found that the Pages have not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. The Pages were always aware of this goal. Wenona Singel, a law professor at Michigan State University, said membership requirements vary among tribes, with some being more restrictive than others. A crowd of friends and neighbors wept, prayed or sang hymns. Please respect the privacy of Lexi and her family. Circuit Court of Appeals. But thats not an absolute. They have maintained a relationship with her, visiting her in California, making regular SKYPE calls, and Lexi has also been on extended visits to Utah. The Pages said they will keep fighting for changes to the law 'and the rights of other children unnecessarily hurt by the Indian Child Welfare Act.'. The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a foster familys challenge to the adoption of their former foster daughter under the Indian Child Welfare Act. The law has led to some emotional, high-profile cases, including one in 2016 in which a court ordered that a young Choctaw girl named Lexi be removed from a California foster family and placed with her father's extended family in Utah. Earlier this week I shared the story of a California family that risked losing their six-year-old foster daughter Lexi simply because the girl is 1/64 Choctaw. Thousandsnearly one-third of the Choctaw Nationdie of starvation, exposure, and disease on the more than 500-mile journey. But 6-year-old Lexi's foster family says the application of the law in . Their attorney argued the lower court made an error by failing to take into account Lexi's bond with her foster parents and siblings. The legal fight has gone on for years. February 28, 2023. McGill also requested that custody of the child named Lexi be returned to Rusty and Summer Page until the appeal is decided. On Thursday, in a statement to ABC7, the Choctaw Nation said, "We are pleased with the state Supreme Court's decision, but what is most important is that Lexi is settling into her new, loving home with her family. Her . After leaving the boat, Lexi decided to completely leave the yachting industry. She has woken up in their home every Christmas morning she can remember, and she has grown up over the past four years with three siblings who are her best friends and playmates. These relatives have been a part of Lexi's life for almost five years. ", Page said he responded: "I have to because the county of L.A. said I have to.". ABC's Kayna Whitworth has the details from Los Angeles. The California Court of Appeals originally ruled in August of 2014 that Lexi could stay with the Pages and they could continue to fight the Utah family for custody of the child. Hernandez is a plaintiff in the case. The Pages said they plan to take the case to the California Supreme Court. Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, U.S. officials clashed over asylum restriction before Biden proposed it, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Transcript: CIA director William Burns on "Face the Nation," Feb. 26, 2023. Since then, Lexi has celebrated four birthdays with the Page family. Don't let me go. However, a court found that the Pages have not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. Under the transfer, Lexi will live with a Utah couple who are not Native Americans but are related by marriage to her father. She said Lexi and the Utah family had traded messages and had monthly visits during the past three years. The foster family filed appeals three times to keep Lexi, delaying the reuniting of Lexi with her relatives. May 21, 2022 . "It would be fairly extraordinary for an appeals court to reverse that," he said. Lexi is a 6-year-old girl from California who has spent the the majority of her life in a loving home a home that she wanted to be her forever home. The California court appointed a marriage and family therapist to perform a child custody evaluation to assess the mental health and parenting practices of both parties. When the grandmother died, Maldonado's mother was sent to live in Indiana with a Mennonite family who put bleach on her skin to lighten it, told her to say she was Armenian and kept her from communicating with her family, she said. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. ICWA is the subject of other legal challenges, as the ABA Journal noted last October. A king among men, he. A Santa Clarita family appealed to California's highest court to keep a 6-year-old foster child who was removed from their home and sent to live with relatives in Utah. Lexi loves horses and art. One of her biological sisters lives with the family in Utah, and another lives down the street. We, as a tribe, are required to follow federal law. Although foster care is supposed to be temporary, the Pages want to adopt Lexi and for years have fought efforts under the federal act to place the girl with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. Lexi, who is 1.5 percent, or 1/64 Choctaw, was six years old when she was taken from her foster home near Los Angeles in a tearful parting last March. First published on July 8, 2016 / 10:41 PM. Lexi, who is part Choctaw, was 17 months old when she was removed from custody of her mother. The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. "Early this morning, we learned that the U.S. Supreme Court will not hear our case," the Pages wrote in a statement on the SaveOurLexi Facebook page. The comments below have not been moderated, By I sat them all down on our couch, and said Daddy needs to tell you something, and Lexi turned pale white and started hysterically crying, and our older daughter started screaming at the top of her lungs, he said. "The law is very clear that siblings should be kept together whenever they can be, and they should be placed together even if they were not initially together," Heimov told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pYtXlg ). The child ultimately was placed with her maternal grandmother, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. A similar case, National Council for Adoption v. Jewell, is on appeal to the 4th U.S. Group that started #KeepLexiHome is still outside praying/singing. Even if they were the best family in the world, he says, its not who Lexi views as family.. The boy is now 3, and the couple is seeking to adopt his younger half-sister. Because Lexi is 1.5% Native American, the Choctaw Tribe was able to completely tear apart Lexis life due to an egregious misapplication of the Indian Child Welfare Act. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. That figure means that Lexi's home placement is dictated by the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. Relatives are relatives.. I'm scared. Her father has a criminal history, according to court records. and 0 . The Pages also argued that ICWA singles out Native children for disparate treatment based on race, in violation of the 14th Amendments equal protection clause. All Rights Reserved. Like many six-year-olds, shes obsessed with the animated super-dog Bolt, and she spends her weekends playing with her three foster siblings in the backyard of her foster parents home in Santa Clarita, CA. Lexi is a 6-year-old girl from California who has spent the the majority of her life in a loving home - a home that she wanted to be her forever home. "The Pages were always aware that the goal was to place Lexi with her family, and her permanent placement has been delayed due to the Pages opposition to the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Choctaw Nation echoed in a statement. Her family will provide her a safe, stable and nurturing home to grow up with her sisters and to have contact with her extensive extended family. What happened yesterday should never happen . It was enacted in 1978 because of the high removal rate of Indian children from their traditional homes and essentially from Indian culture as a whole. Lawmakers found that Native American families were broken up at disproportionately high rates, and that cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system were largely to blame. They do not get the same best-interest-of-the-child standard that applies to all other children. Fletcher contends the Pages lawyers are using Lexis case as a legal weapon to challenge ICWA. The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES. The Supreme Court ruled that portions of the ICWA did not apply to non-custodial biological fathers, and Veronica was returned to the family that had adopted her. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Still, Lexis story is reigniting tensions over the purpose of the ICWA and thorny questions over its role in determining the best interests of Indian children. A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower court's decision to remove the girl. Summer Page runs out of her home after social workers took her foster child way. The law has led to some emotional, high-profile cases, including one in 2016 in which a court ordered that a young Choctaw girl named Lexi be removed from a California foster family and placed with her father's extended family in Utah. But placement with family is always our priority. ###. Live footage on our Facebook page. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. "How is it that a screaming child, saying, 'I want to stay, I'm scared,' how is it in her best interest to pull her from the girl she was before that doorbell rang?" Garland testifies before Senate panel amid ongoing special counsel probes, Colon cancer rates rising in younger age group, study finds, Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother, What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads, Closing arguments underway in double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, Ex-Georgia star Jalen Carter was racing in deadly crash, arrest warrants allege, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. Her relatives said in a statement they hope the ruling brings closure and "Lexi is at last allowed to live a peaceful childhood in our home with her sister.". Her former foster parents, Rusty and Summer Page, asked the appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling that ordered them to surrender Lexi. The girl with Native American ancestry was reunited with relatives in Utah under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted in the 1970s to help protect the interests of Native American children. Our clients have been the only consistent source of love, nurturing, parenting, and protection she has received her entire life. Removal 1830-1862. The Five Tribes purchased new lands in present-day Oklahoma, but some relocated . However, a three-judge panel in Los Angeles found the lower court made the right decision and correctly considered the bond Lexi developed with the Pages as well as other factors related to her best interests. The Choctaw Nation has advocated for Lexi to live with her family since 2011. The problem that is that there are so many variables, says Adam Pertman, president of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency, a nonprofit devoted to issues of adoption and child welfare that has not taken a public position on Lexis case. "She has a loving relationship with them," Heimov said. Officials with the Choctaw Nation have said previously they desire "the best for this Choctaw child. Congress did not intend ICWA's placement preferences to be used to remove a child from a loving home in these circumstances. The result here is all the more senseless because placing Lexi with her non-Indian extended family members does nothing to further ICWA's purpose of keeping children connected to their tribes. The Page family spoke out during a news conference a day after the California Supreme Court refused to intervene in their custody battle over Lexi. This existing Indian family doctrine is a subject of conflict in the lower courts, the Pages petition said, and warrants review. You have reached your limit of free articles. The Utah family had never met Lexi at that time; and the tribe agreed there was good cause to depart from ICWA's placement preferences. She was taken by the Department of Children and Families in Santa Clarita and placed with relatives of her father in Utah. In the days since Lexi was removed from the Southern California home, her foster parents have continued to fight the decision. The foster family understood this. Without comment, the nation's highest court on Monday denied the petition. Sleep is overrated. Tribes and tribal advocates say Native American children are still separated from their families at rates higher than the general population, and the law helps them stay connected to their tribes, relatives and culture. 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