Seven homeschooled kids remain in state custody after being seized from their home earlier this month.
Police raided the Stanley home in Hot Springs, Arkansas, after an anonymous caller told police the Stanley children were running barefoot in the snow, according to Yahoo! News. When police arrived, they reportedly discovered a mineral supplement not approved by the FDA and then “stole” the children.
“The DHS has come and stolen our kids from us under the guise of ‘protecting our children,'” Mother Michelle Stanley wrote in an email posted at Health Impact News.
Now hearings will determine if the Stanley children may be returned to their parents. Until a decision is reached in mid-February, children will remain in foster care.
“Our whole lives have been turned upside down,” Hal Stanley told the Washington Post. “Our children are traumatized.”
The family attorney told KATV the judge had probable cause to keep the children in custody.
Department of Human Services Public Information Coordinator Kate Luck expanded upon it a bit further.
“If the judge determines that the children cannot remain safely in the home, he has 30 days to set up an adjudication hearing. At that point both sides will bring all of the evidence that they have and we will make a further determination on what we will do with the children,” Luck said told KATV.
The reason given in court is the mineral substance—Miracle Mineral Solution/Master Mineral Solution, or MMS. According to the Post, it’s not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but it’s readily available on online health sites. The FDA did issue a warning in 2010, advising consumers to throw the supplement away immediately, as it can turn into “potent bleach.”
KATV says DHS wouldn’t seize the children based solely on the presence of MMS.
“(The children’s removal) could mean that the home is unfit, it could mean that the environment is not a good environment, that there’s dirt everywhere, it could mean that. It could also mean the children cannot safely remain there. It may be that the parents have done something to make the environment unsafe,” Luck told KATV.
