Rembis Fam: 11 kids, CPS, antivax, homeschool, CPS

[Howl]

Just came across the Rembis family: 11 kids 

CPS currently has their 11 kids, age 16 months to 17, homeschoolers, antivax-ers.  They have been reported to CPS in at least 3 different states with CPS taking various kids at various times.  They had just skipped town in Lubbock, TX and moved to Colorado, apparently to try and stay one step ahead of CPS.  When I googled them, the Medical Kidnap site was all over these people like stink on poop because of the homeschool angle. 

Here's the "official report" at http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/couple-investigated-states-facing-neglect-case-texas-42159281 with highlights (or lowlights) below: 

Quote

 

Child welfare investigator Kristin Stecklein said some of the children didn't have beds when she visited the home earlier this year, including a 5-year-old girl who another child told her slept in a box in a closet. The couple homeschooled their children, but Stecklein said she didn't "see any signs" of school material — a point William Rembis disputed on Friday.

Texas Tech University students who lived next door to the family testified that children were in the alley scavenging in trash bins six days a week. One student, Madison Burnham, said she saw a child eating food from a box she'd recently thrown out.

"I don't think children should be allowed to do that," Burnham told the judge.

Other neighbors testified that after screaming began inside the house, loud heavy-metal music was played to cover the sounds.

Claire Rembis denied the noise allegation. She also said her children wear hand-me-down clothing and doesn't mind them going barefoot.

"It's just being natural," she said. "To us, it's just normal."

Stecklein said the family's home had a "strong foul odor" and not enough food to feed 11 children and two adults when she visited. William Rembis also disputed that allegation in testimony, noting his family received about $1,100 a month in food stamps.

 

Reading the Medical Kidnap site, it says they are "devout", just wonderful, the kids are fine but traumatized by CPS.  One could overlook the foraging (maybe) but not the loud music drowning out terrified screams, as referenced in the article above. 

The Medical Kidnap version here: 

http://medicalkidnap.com/2015/08/04/cps-kidnaps-11-children-from-texas-homeschool-family/

[Anonymousguest]

I  remember this family. Are all the girls named after Disney princesses? Pocahontas,Cinderella, Aurora, etc? They have a Facebook page devoted to stories about CPS abuse, cases the disagree with, etc.

[Howl]

The Rembis family facebook is here: https://www.facebook.com/rembisfamily/?fref=ts  Quotes are from this fb page. 

Something isn't adding up here.  They move often, the dad has lost two jobs in Lubbock. They left Lubbock (on "vacation") and went to Larimer, Colorado.  CPS Tracked them down in Larimer. This is from the current facebook post: 

Quote

 

We did what any loving & protective parent would do. We went somewhere safe to rest, pray & to seek legal advice so that we could return home to a safer environment, free of CPS harassment. If that couldn't be achieved, well, we would have to start anew. Starting anew wouldn't be easy. Yet we were willing to...

Leave a good paying, management job...

Drop the homeschool co-op classes that the kids were so looking forward to...

Walk away from the Texas Tech School of Law where Mr. Rembis would be earning his law degree...

Leave my home, Texas, where my family has its' roots...

 

 

I'm not quite understanding the Texas Tech law school deal.  The fall semester has already begun (he's not currently enrolled) and Oct. 1 is the earliest one can apply for Fall 2017.  

Earlier this fall Ms. Rembis had a little meltdown because the kids in foster care are being put in public shool, not a Christian school as she had requested. 

Quote

"Please share. Pray for my babies, for their safety. Pray that they are not with kids that have been abused. Please pray that our religious convictions will be honored as they are enrolling them in public school today, going against what Gods' wishes are for their education. We told them that if they had to enroll them in a school it needed to be a Christian school, NOT a public school. They told us that our government cannot afford to do that!

One thing that was creepy is that (if accurate), she had to hand over her infant to a CPS worker who smokes. 

[Lizzybet]

33 minutes ago, Howl said:

One thing that was creepy is that (if accurate), she had to hand over her infant to a CPS worker who smokes. 

Unless I missed, or misunderstood, something, how is handing over an at risk child to a CPS worker who smokes, creepy? Unless the person was smoking while the child was in their custody, in the child's presence, I'm not seeing the problem.

[MakeitSew]

I will never understand how some parents who come under the investigation of CPS think it is somehow a better idea to flee. It seems that following basic, humane guidelines in the provision for and care of your children should be a priority to parents. Why not just comply? It's so much easier and less traumatic for the children. If you have to buy a few beds, buy a few beds. If you have over 1000 dollars a month in food stamps, at least stock your pantry with some basic stuff that the kids can eat so they don't have to forage in trash bins. Clean your house. A messy house I can understand. 11 kids? Sure. But a foul smelling house? Where are those smells coming from?

What blows my mind is that CPS has taken these kids (for what appears to be good reason) yet the Nauglers in Kentucky, whose kids do not have beds, safely stored or prepared food, or even running water are free to run wild and barefoot through their trashy "wilderness" and CPS doesn't seem to bat an eye. 

[RosaLuxcyborg]

God, I live like 30 minutes from Larimer Co, where they fled to. Hope they don't get it in their heads to relocate the family to Wyoming on their next adventure. The Department of Family Services is stunningly clawless out here in the Land of  Libertarian Cowpoke.

On their Facebook from  Terri LaPoint

Quote

They are a crunchy homeschool family, and they actually make their own homemade deodorant or use the Tom's of Maine brand.

What's the deal with trying to make these neglectful parents out to be hippies? Nicole N. is the same way.

I know crunchy. I am crunchy. My friends are mostly all crunchy parents. CPS doesn't go after you because your baby smells like patchouli. CPS doesn't go after you because you make your own clothes, and grow your own food.

It's not your crunchiness that's being investigated. It's your inadequate child rearing. 

Stop trying to spin bullshit into hemp.

[alexandracabot]

Interestingly, given the allegation of children's cries being heard and music playing to cover it up, the family's Facebook page does have an anti-spanking meme encouraging parents to "try gentle discipline."

 

 

 

[DaisyD]

59 minutes ago, RosaLuxcyborg said:

Stop trying to spin bullshit into hemp.

All of what you said! This, especially, though made me giggle. 

Going barefoot is one thing. Not having shoes is something else entirely. I doubt CPS would take issue unless a) they didn't have shoes or they were allowed to walk barefoot in dangerous situations. 

[Howl]

After reading through one of the medical kidnap articles, it's seems these parents are shooting themselves in the foot (feet), but being extremely uncooperative with CPS. They are obviously coaching the kids to say absolutely nothing in interviews with CPS.  

Someone on facebook was saying the reason the kids never go to the doctor is because the parents don't allow vaccinations, and regular doctor visits are only about vaccinations, so why bother?  

[EmmieJ]

6 hours ago, MakeitSew said:

I will never understand how some parents who come under the investigation of CPS think it is somehow a better idea to flee. It seems that following basic, humane guidelines in the provision for and care of your children should be a priority to parents. Why not just comply? It's so much easier and less traumatic for the children. If you have to buy a few beds, buy a few beds. If you have over 1000 dollars a month in food stamps, at least stock your pantry with some basic stuff that the kids can eat so they don't have to forage in trash bins. Clean your house. A messy house I can understand. 11 kids? Sure. But a foul smelling house? Where are those smells coming from?

What blows my mind is that CPS has taken these kids (for what appears to be good reason) yet the Nauglers in Kentucky, whose kids do not have beds, safely stored or prepared food, or even running water are free to run wild and barefoot through their trashy "wilderness" and CPS doesn't seem to bat an eye. 

While I too am very puzzled as to why the Naugler children were returned to a home that has no running water and until recently, had no appropriate toilet facility until the parents were forced to rent a port-a-potty --- I think perhaps there were no allegations that either parent was actively physically abusing the children.  So maybe that's why they are considered less than "urgent" in terms of removing them from the parents?  The Naugler children appear to get fed regularly (the Rodrigues children are much skinnier looking than the Naugler kids), are clothed and have shoes and/or rain boots to wear.  Not saying that all is well - only that with limited resources, I know CPS has to prioritize and seems like they can only afford to remove kids when they are in imminent danger.

But hearing that loud heavy metal music would suddenly be turned on when screaming started at this home - makes me physically ill.  I hope none of the children are ever returned.

[Childless]

I don't feel sorry for these parents at all.  I also call bullshit on medical kidnapping.  CPS didn't take the kids because they were unvaccinated (or because they were homeschooled in case any rabid "the government hates homeschooling because they can't indoctrinate kids" crazies suggest it).  They took them because they were digging around in garbage for food and were being beaten.  Feed your kids and stop abusing them and you wouldn't have to worry about CPS.  That's what I do and, funny enough, I've never had CPS visit my house.

Also, as a tax payer, I'm not going to pay for your kids to go to a religious school.  You don't want them in public school, then you should have adequately cared for them and not beaten the crap out of them.  I'm thinking public school might be the best thing for the kids.  Maybe there they will learn how kids are supposed to be treated.  Be honest Rembis parents, that's the real reason you don't want them there.

[December]

11 minutes ago, Childless said:

Also, as a tax payer, I'm not going to pay for your kids to go to a religious school.

Seriously, why would someone think they had the right to impose that financial burden on other people? It'd be one thing if the kids were already in a religious school, and some private individual or organization offered to cover the cost. 

It sounds like a horrible situation all around, hopefully the kids will be better off with CPS' involvement. The frequent moving seems like a red flag, as the ABC News article suggests. 

[Mercer]

It's quite audacious of the parents to demand that a private school education be provided for their children at taxpayer expense due to their own failure to parent adequately. If they want a say in directing their children's education, they need to focus on keeping the children safe so they aren't removed from the home, not on trying to get the state to shell out more money for religious school. Their children are entitled to a public education like everyone else; a private school education on someone else's dime, however, is not a right, and parents who do not have custody do not have the ability to insist on having their way about schooling.

I also find it pretty disgusting that the parents are asking that people pray that the family's children don't have to go to school with abuse survivors. Aside from the irony that their own children have been removed from them due to abuse and neglect allegations - and that irony is substantial - children who have been abused are innocent victims of adult cruelty, and should not be treated as second class citizens who don't even deserve to be in the same schoolroom as these precious little snowflakes. If the parents want to pray about abused children, they should be praying that those children have been rescued and are healing in a supportive environment for their recovery, not praying that their own children can avoid them,

[feministxtian]

Something somewhere doesn't add up. The whole thing smells bad...I'm not going to give CPS a free pass either...Some CPS agencies like to jump WAY too fast on bullshit and others will drag their feet. There's some fucked up shit going on all around there...

[Childless]

1 hour ago, feministxtian said:

Something somewhere doesn't add up. The whole thing smells bad...I'm not going to give CPS a free pass either...Some CPS agencies like to jump WAY too fast on bullshit and others will drag their feet. There's some fucked up shit going on all around there...

I don't get why you would think CPS was in the wrong here.  There were multiple phone calls to the agency complaining about children eating out of the trash and terrified screams being covered up with heavy metal music.  CPS investigated and found the children living in a filthy home without enough food to eat (despite the fact that the family was receiving food stamps).  They decided to open a formal investigation, at which point the parents took the children and fled the state.  Why would they flee if they were innocent?  CPS in Texas then finds out they've been on CPS radar in two other states before fleeing those states also.  At that point, the kids were taken from the parents (and rightfully so) until a court hearing.  The parents are still getting visitation with the kids.  It's not like they've been put up for adoption or anything.  This entire situation is the fault of the parents.  Running from investigations, beating your children, and not feeding them to the point they're so desperate for food that they're eating garbage  facilitated the removal of the children.  If the parents would get their act together, they'd get their kids back.  My guess is that they have more children then they are capable of caring for.  They obviously need help.  Hopefully, parenting classes will be mandated and they'll get the help they need so the family can be reunited.

[feministxtian]

what I said was that BOTH sides smelled bad. I got caught in a bullshit CPS case long ago...all because my neighbors were pissed that my kids were outside being noisy. It happens. 

If you go back and re-read what I said, I said that something doesn't add up and I wasn't going to give CPS a free pass on it. I also stated that there was some FUCKED UP SHIT GOING ON ALL AROUND. 

I never said I thought CPS was in the wrong. Now...I'm going to stop before I get really ugly. Its 2am and i've been studying for a final exam since 8pm. 

 

[Childless]

5 minutes ago, feministxtian said:

what I said was that BOTH sides smelled bad. I got caught in a bullshit CPS case long ago...all because my neighbors were pissed that my kids were outside being noisy. It happens. 

If you go back and re-read what I said, I said that something doesn't add up and I wasn't going to give CPS a free pass on it. I also stated that there was some FUCKED UP SHIT GOING ON ALL AROUND. 

I never said I thought CPS was in the wrong. Now...I'm going to stop before I get really ugly. Its 2am and i've been studying for a final exam since 8pm. 

 

"Both sides smelled bad" certainly sounds like you think CPS was partly in the wrong here.  This isn't a case of a neighbour being pissed off and calling in a bogus complaint to CPS.  There were multiple calls.  Usually when several people call in, there's an issue.  CPS is required by state law to investigate every complaint, but rarely pulls kids from a home without reason.  The kids were not even pulled from this home initially.  It wasn't until the parents fled that things escalated.  If they had cooperated with CPS, the kids probably would have stayed put while they got the help they so obviously needed.  There's nothing here that makes CPS smell bad.

My sister has gotten a CPS visit.  There was nothing wrong, but a complaint had been made due to an overheard comment by her teenager.  They cooperated fully, CPS investigated and found nothing wrong and it was case closed.  No big deal.  She was even glad they came.  It was an hour of wasted time, but she was happy that they took calls seriously, because while there was nothing to investigate at her house, the next call may save a child's life.  She thought that was worth an hour of her time.

[feministxtian]

I don't give CPS a free pass...

Now...I'm going to drop this before I say something I'll regret. 

 

[Childless]

I don't give them a free pass when they don't do their job, but in this case they actually did do their job adequately by investigating and pulling the kids from an unsafe home.  Hopefully, the parents will get help, change their ways, get their kids back, and the family will be better off in the future.

[DaisyD]

Pissed off neighbors would not explain complaints in 3 states. What is more likely is that after calls of screaming in the house in one state they started playing music to try to cover it up and fled.

A CPS investigation is a scary thing, and I would encourage everyone to learn what their rights are in such a situation (really in any situation). Fleeing the state is not the proper response. 

[PopRox]

6 hours ago, feministxtian said:

I never said I thought CPS was in the wrong. Now...I'm going to stop before I get really ugly. Its 2am and i've been studying for a final exam since 8pm. 

 

Get some rest, and best of luck on your final!

[bea]

There is something very wrong going on in that family. I noticed that the father did not try to tell anyone that they had food in the house, or that they were adequately feeding the children. He stated how much money they get per month in food stamps. He didn't say they are using that money to feed their children, and those are some really skinny kids.

You will have to excuse my skepticism that somebody who names their daughter Cinderella should be home schooling, and passing on their wisdom to the next generation. Cinderella? Pocahontas? You have got to be kidding me.

The medical kidnap site is nuts. Here in Chicago, we had an issue where a child who had a rare disease was taken to the children's hospital. He was undergoing treatment, when his mother decided that she didn't want him to receive the treatment and attempted to remove him from the hospital. Since he would die without the treatment, the hospital filed for emergency custody. You would not believe the amount of hysteria surrounding the evil hospital, kidnapping this child to keep him alive so that his mother didn't kill him. As with any other bureaucratic organization, I am sure that CPS and child welfare have made tons of mistakes. But when CPS in three separate states is after you for what sounds like the same issues, you might want to rethink your parenting style, take a trip to Payless for shoes, buy some beds, and get some food.

As someone pointed out, it is really strange that so many of these parents will persist with the behavior that resulted in losing custody, rather than change and get the children back. I would think that your "hill to die on" would NOT be doing something that actively kept you from getting custody of your kids. Even after courts have laid out simple stepsso that parents can regain custody, it seems like some parents are just not capable of changing, or they feel that changing any part of their lifestyle would be admitting they have been doing something wrong, or incorrectly, and they simply will not do that. There's also the patriarchal mindset that the kids are owned by their father and parents are the highest authority next to God.

[Terrie]

I don't doubt there are bogus CPS cases out there and I agree that it's not bad to be skeptical of any one case. But it strikes me that the likelihood of a case being bogus goes down with each CPS department that the family gets entangled with. Most familes go their whole lives without a CPS case and while it's certainly possible that a family could end up with multiple different CPS departments in different states coming after them for bogus or frivolous reasons, the odds of it are pretty slim.

[FundieFarmer]

Here's Medical Kidnap's perspective on Will Rembis, Sr.'s arrest:

http://medicalkidnap.com/2016/08/29/colorado-police-help-texas-cps-kidnap-rembis-children-and-bring-back-to-texas-father-jailed/

It's a mountain of sensationalizing. Even if some of it is true, there's so much over exaggerating and whatnot that I'm not sure what to take as truth without throwing it all out with the bathwater. 

[imokit]

8 hours ago, Childless said:

My sister has gotten a CPS visit.  There was nothing wrong, but a complaint had been made due to an overheard comment by her teenager.  They cooperated fully, CPS investigated and found nothing wrong and it was case closed.  No big deal.  She was even glad they came.  It was an hour of wasted time, but she was happy that they took calls seriously, because while there was nothing to investigate at her house, the next call may save a child's life.  She thought that was worth an hour of her time.

I wish I could give this more likes.  CPS needs to investigate everything, and if you're polite and non defensive you'll appreciate that in order to catch the abuse & neglect they need to ask questions of good parents too.  If you're innocent and care about kids, you'll appreciate the fact that these investigations save lives.

 

Also with regards to allegations that CPS is more likely to remove homeschooled kids & kids who don't see conventional medical practitioners from families.  There's a reason for that.  A kid attending school/regular doctors appointment has people keeping an eye on him/her.  Changes to weight, poor clothing & hygiene, big bruises, hunger, behaviour changes will be noted by schools and flagged up to social services.  Likewise if the child misses/stops attending school it gets noted.  Thus there is a safety net which allows the child to stay in the home longer especially in borderline cases.  A homeschool kid has no one noticing these things, and could theoretically die without anyone knowing.