FLDS parents ask Texas governor for help getting children back

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(KSL News and AP) Members from the FLDS church are pleading with the Governor of Texas for help in getting their children back.

They sent a message to the Governor's office today asking for the release of the 462 children that were removed from their YFZ Ranch.

The letter, written by Willie Jessop, claims the children have been left in a critical situation, physically and psychologically. It also claims Texas Child Protective Services has misrepresented the conditions of the ranch and made false allegations of finding abuse against teenage girls.

Meanwhile, the last of the nearly 500 children have been bused from the San Angelo Coliseum to foster homes. Texas Child Protective Services say the homes are the safest place for the children during the investigation.

The FLDS mothers will be able to visit their children in foster care.

As the children taken to foster care settle into new surroundings, caretakers are getting cultural pointers on how to deal with them -- such as no television, no movies, no radio and nothing red.

Utah officials say members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe red is reserved for Jesus Christ. So workers at the children's shelter in San Antonio spent part of the week taking anything red off the walls and floors.

Another memo from state officials to caretakers describes the children's dietary and clothing needs.

The last busloads of children from the group left the San Angelo Coliseum yesterday, headed for shelters and group homes around the state. One bus had to stop several times on the way to Brazoria County, south of Houston, because some of the children got motion sickness.