This Family Should Not be the Poster Child for CPS "Overstepping"

Child Protective Services errs on both ends of the spectrum: they yank kids from homes who shouldn’t have been by overstepping and they leave kids in abusive homes too long. There are so many stories that could highlight these known issues, but this story, this family should NOT be the poster child for CPS overstepping.

If you only read the New York Times story about Gary and Melissa Gates’ ongoing efforts to remove themselves from the Child Abuse Registry , you might sympathize that a large, Christian family was wrongly investigated and are wrongly forever blocked from having any more foster children in their home as a result.

Well, the article gives some hints about the treatment of the children. A previous failed lawsuit and the Houston Press article that is hyperlinked to in the first sentence of the  New York Times piece spell out all the details of the allegations. The context of this week’s article about CPS fairness is lost without knowing the quantity and specifics of these allegations. We would like our readers to have the full story so you can decide whether the extent of their discipline  is abusive . We also would like to point out how this family fits our Child Collector criteria.

The story begins as a fairytale. The Houston Press article from October 2000 explains:  “Gary Gates, whose retired Air Force pilot of a father was shot to death by a second wife, is an intensely focused man who believes in improvement, a practical man who likes to make bad things better, a studied man not prone to the waverings of doubt

In Oklahoma, where he attended college, he bought his first house at age 19, a year after his father’s death, and soon bought more, fixing them up and selling them for a profit. When he discovered there were better profits to be had in multifamily housing, he brought his wife, Melissa — Gary was 17 when they married; Missy was 18 — to Houston in the middle of the oil bust, and with a partner’s money, began buying distressed apartment complexes and improving these too. Eventually he bought out his partners and snapped up even more units, starting his own management company, Gatesco, which has launched his income into the solid six figures and accumulated assets counted in the tens of millions.

Gary and Melissa believe also in sin, and they have strived to become better servants to their Christian God with good works and a long-followed regimen of twice-weekly churchgoing and Sunday school. Physically too, Gary buffed himself into shape, a college wrestler-turned-ultramarathoner-turned-iron man. He has raced roughly three triathlons a year over the past decade, testing himself in competitions from Italy to Korea to Canada, steadily bumping his rankings up to where he’s now counted among the top 50 competitors nationwide in his age bracket.

Then there is the matter of family. Gary and Melissa have two kids of their own: Sarah, age 17, who is severely retarded, and Will, 14, an overachieving honor student. And as if that spectrum of responsibility weren’t enough, in 1992, after a wrenching miscarriage, Gary and Melissa decided that they had been “led” to a new challenge, which soon became a mission: to adopt more children. First came Cassie, T.J. and Andy. A year later the Gateses adopted Cynthia and George. In 1995 Marcus joined the family. Gary and Melissa then decided to quit adopting babies — infants were more likely to find a home elsewhere — and went looking for the hard-to-adopts: older children and family blocs and the troubled. They found the sibling group of Raquel, Travis, Derodrick and Scott. Alexis, finally, brought the number of Gates minors to 13. Some of the kids are white. Some are black. Some are brown. Most have been in and out of foster care, and some have been categorized as “special needs.” They may function a grade level below par, or struggle with the fallout of abusive histories. They may be gifted.

All 11 adoptees entered the Gates family through the bureaucratic channels of Fort Bend County. Judge Thomas Stansbury’s 328th District Court is said to have erupted in applause the day the last five were adopted, by which time Gary and Melissa had moved to the outskirts of county seat Richmond, purchasing a large early-century farmhouse at the end of a cul de sac in a neighborhood so high on the scale it needed no gates. They bought 500 acres of nearby land too, on which Melissa began keeping horses and overseeing a small cattle operation, and then another big plot down the road, with a creek, for which the Gateses began designing a new home. The house will be, Gary says, a terrible investment, designed around the circumstance of 13 kids, and he’ll never be able to resell it. But they have the resources.

The Gateses would use those resources to make the kids better, to improve them, with attention and discipline and a color-blind ability to love other people’s children as well as their own that they consider a gift. Their neighbors and fellow parishioners saw it happen and called it a miracle, what Gary and Melissa were doing for those kids, the way they seemed to blossom under the care. The kids attended church with their parents. They learned to follow rules, to be accountable for their actions, to be polite, and they swam and ran races with Gary. Sometimes they won, which was not something they had been used to doing.

The Houston Chronicle, on page one, Christmas Day, 1997, headlined a profile of seasonal uplift thus: “Parents of 11 adopted kids give gift of love.” The Gates family was so well rounded it rolled, and Gary described the linchpins of his family’s success as church, exercise and discipline. He sometimes found it useful to combine the latter two. When punishment was called for, Patti Muck’s article related, Gary might have the kids do push-ups, or carry lumber or bricks from the rear of the house to the front and back again. It was a technique that made its point just as well as spanking, and it was healthy.

The weakness of too many parents, Gary said, was that they didn’t consistently follow through with threats of punishment. A kid has to have some stability. A kid has to know where the line is.”

Child Collector Check 1: They adopted 6 children from foster care between 1992-1995. Yep, that fulfills “Adopts several unrelated children at the same time or within a short period of time.”

Child Collector Check 2: Their faith called them to adopt many special needs kids. Yep, that fulfills “Has a martyr/savior complex. This means that the adoptive parent feels that they can handle any number of children with any amount of issues because they are “saving” the children. The idea of “saving” is put ahead of the actual responsibility to the child.”

Child Collector Check 3: They adopt a sibling group of 4 , many with special needs shortly after the 6 children. Yep, that fulfills “Has a martyr/savior complex. This means that the adoptive parent feels that they can handle any number of children with any amount of issues because they are “saving” the children. The idea of “saving” is put ahead of the actual responsibility to the child.” AND “Does not concern themselves with adopting out of birth order.”

Child Collector Check 4: “The Gateses would use those resources to make the kids better, to improve them, with attention and discipline and a color-blind ability to love other people’s children as well as their own that they consider a gift.” Yep, that fulfills “Does not seek to understand or deal with racial issues because she is focused on her feelings about being a large “rainbow” family rather than how the child feels in a large “rainbow” family.”

Child Collector Check 5: “Gary and Melissa had moved to the outskirts of county seat Richmond, purchasing a large early-century farmhouse at the end of a cul de sac in a neighborhood so high on the scale it needed no gates. They bought 500 acres of nearby land too, on which Melissa began keeping horses and overseeing a small cattle operation, and then another big plot down the road, with a creek, for which the Gateses began designing a new home.” Yep, fulfills “Living in a rural or isolated area.”

Child Collector Check 6: Photos from the October 2000 Houston Press article show that at least 4 girls share a bedroom and at least 3 boys share a bedroom. Yep, fulfills “Allows children with known traumatic and abusive backgrounds or those at risk of having traumatic and abusive backgrounds to share bedrooms with other children.”

With these six points, the risks are there for trouble. Fast-forward to early 2000 and the trouble begins…

The CPS Incidents

Incident 1: February 2000. This is the background and allegations as told to CPS and written in the lawsuit:

Background: “Travis had a severe attachment disorder and an eating disorder that caused him to steal and gorge on food. Travis’s teachers at his school in the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District   (“LCISD”) were aware of this problem and had to monitor Travis closely, as he would frequently steal food from students and teachers. Indeed, Travis’s school files contain documentation of dozens of instances of food theft by Travis. In addition to that, Gary and LCISD disagreed about how to best educate Travis overall, and the dispute culminated in a “heated” Admission, Review, and Dismissal meeting between Gary and LCISD personnel on February 10, 2000.”

“Also on February 10, Gary and Melissa discovered that Travis, who was ten years old at the time, had stolen food from the kitchen, including two boxes of fig bars that he ate in the attic. He had also played with matches while in the attic. In an attempt to make Travis understand the seriousness of his conduct, Gary put the fig bar wrappers in a baggie and pinned it to Travis’s shirt. Gary said it was the first time Travis had shown genuine remorse for his actions, so Gary decided to make Travis wear the baggie filled with wrappers to school on February 11. Gary included a note in the baggie that explained his reason for the punishment and invited LCISD to contact him if it had any questions.”

Allegations:

• “Travis was in a strict setting at school because Gary would not treat him medically.
• Gary was “very religious and very controlling” and weighed Travis each day, forcing him to work off any extra pounds.
• Gary once punished Travis for stealing food by requiring him to move bricks from one pile to another.
• One year ago, Gary punished Travis for stealing food by handcuffing him to his bed for a day”

Additionally, “Travis was interviewed by CAC worker Bonnie Martin (“Martin”). Travis told her that, following Gary’s discovery that Travis had been stealing food, Gary pushed and kicked Travis, made Travis sit in the “chair position” with his back against the wall, and run up and down stairs until his legs hurt. Travis further stated that Gary’s punishments in the past included drinking “throw up” medicine, running, and moving bricks. Travis also said he had been spanked with a board before.”

Corroboration from the other children: “According to Will, George, and Scott, Gary was the disciplinarian in the family. His punishments included requiring the children to sit in the chair position against a wall (sometimes with weights in their laps), move boards and bricks around the driveway, and run (both for punishment and for exercise). The smaller children were spanked with a belt. Will and Scott stated that Gary had handcuffed Travis to his bed in the past to keep him from stealing food. Scott also stated that Gary pushed Travis down when he found out about Travis stealing the fig bars.”

“”During the interviews with the children, TDPRS learned that Gary’s punishments included sitting against the wall in the chair position, running, moving bricks and boards across the driveway, doing push-ups, and being spanked with a hand, belt, or board. Travis and Alexis had been given “throw-up” medicine (ipecac) for eating food they should not have eaten, and children were required to skip their next meal if they stole food. On occasion, Gary taped newspaper around a child’s hands to keep him or her from stealing food.

Timothy stated that Gary threw the older children against the wall and that “dad hurts Travis and the big kids.” Timothy also stated that he was afraid of his father because “he hurts them.” Cynthia stated that after Gary found out about Travis stealing food, he kicked out Travis’s chair while Travis was sitting on it, causing Travis to hit his head on the floor; Gary then hit Travis, kicked him in the stomach, and pushed him into a wall. Marcus corroborated this story. Cynthia also stated that Gary had hit Cassandra and Andrew the previous day and that she is scared to live at home because her dad gets so mad. Andy confirmed that he had been spanked the previous day and had a bruise on his
leg as a result.”

“Further, according to a TDPRS employee, when Gary arrived home that day, he told his children, “These people want to talk to you, they think mom and dad are bad people.” Timothy then responded, “Well dad you are bad, you slammed them [sic] up against the wall and made his head bleed.” Alexis and Marcus agreed with Timothy.”

“Based on the reports and interviews, 4 Polasek and Defendant-Appellee Sandra Russell (“Russell”), who were TDPRSsupervisors operating offsite, made the decision to remove the children from the home that evening”

The Houston Press article adds Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to Travis’ diagnoses  “Travis, who has an eating disorder that leads him to compulsively steal, hoard and binge on food, presumably related to “attachment” issues born of early neglect and fetal alcohol syndrome, had sneaked out of a window at home and back in another window into the kitchen, which is habitually locked at night to control the children’s access. He took a bulk box of Fig Newtons back to his room and stuffed himself. A nanny discovered the wrappers hidden in the attic and told Gary.”  and

“Travis had a bandaged blister on his palm that he said came from falling, and a cut near his eyebrow that he couldn’t explain.” during the interview by CPS.” and

“The battle lines were well drawn the following Monday morning in Judge Stansbury’s courtroom. Stansbury, who had signed the adoption papers on all 11 of the Gates adoptees, looked out over the bench and saw a standing-room-only sea of moral support for the Gates family, largely composed of their fellows at Grace Community Bible Church, most of whom had prepared character affidavits in support of Gary and Melissa. He also would have seen Gary Gates’s $20,000 worth of lawyers, including former Harris and Fort Bend County District Attorney Frank Briscoe. Stansbury’s purpose at this hearing was to determine whether the Gates children should return home or remain in the state’s custody, and Gary Gates would spare no resource in fighting for his kids.

CPS’s purpose at this hearing was to sue for termination of Gary and Melissa Gates’s parental rights to all 13 children, and in support of this cause, the agency had prepared its own affidavit, based on interviews with the kids, much of which was read aloud to the assembled, all of whom were unprepared for the family portrait that its allegations sketched.

The Gates children had told stories — not entirely consistent in detail, but compellingly similar in gist — of a household run by a disciplinarian who may have crossed the line. There were stories of ipecac syrup, “throw-up medicine,” given to several children, and meals dosed with cayenne pepper as punishment. There were stories not just of hauling two-by-fours and bricks as discipline, but of spankings with a board. The children recounted having to do “wall sits” as punishment, sometimes with a 25-pound or 50-pound weight in their laps, sometimes for hours at a time. It was learned that several of the Gates children wet their beds, and that Gary and Melissa keep a chart downstairs on which these children must note in the mornings whether their diapers are dry. Children caught stealing food would have to miss the next meal. Several children spoke of Gary taping newspaper around their hands, or handcuffing them, to keep them from stealing food.

About the incident with Travis, the children described a dad who flew off the handle, kicking a chair out from under the boy, knocking him to the ground and throwing him up against a wall, kicking him in the stomach and hitting him in the face. According to the affidavit, five CPS agents, three sheriff’s deputies and Associate Pastor Brent Burckart witnessed Gary Gates tell his children, by way of explaining CPS’s presence that Friday, “These people want to talk to you, they think mom and dad are bad people.” T.J. responded, “Well dad, you are bad, you slammed them up against the wall and made his head bleed.” Alexis and Marcus said, “Yeah, you made him bleed.”

CPS Gives Up (From Houston Press): “In August, the attorney for Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, which oversees CPS, filed her own motion to withdraw, and later that month the children’s court-appointed attorney ad litem did the same, complaining that “Movants are unable to perform their duties to protect the children in the face of the total lack of cooperation from the children’s parents.”

Gary Gates Defense (From Houston Press): “he has administered ipecac syrup to two of his 13 children on, he thinks, four occasions over the years. Little Lexie sometimes eats whole pecans off the ground on the Gates property, and Travis once ate a whole loaf of moldy bread out of a garbage can. That’s what ipecac syrup is for.

Yes, he once put a pair of T.J.’s plastic toy handcuffs on Travis, for about 30 minutes, after a family discussion of a newspaper account of a California man who received a mandatory 20-year sentence for stealing a pizza. Gary says he wanted to show Travis something of what it might feel like to have his freedom taken away if he kept stealing food. The spanking “board” is a paddle. Travis is not weighed every day, only when he appears bloated from gorging, and he is weighed on a bathroom scale that doesn’t even register ounces. Yes, Gary kicked Travis, with the side of his foot on the rump, to get him moving. Yes, he kicked a chair out from under him and pushed him to the wall. “I meant to seem very angry and threatening to him, which I believe I achieved.” When Gary suggested the wrappers-stapled-to-shirt punishment, Travis cried, and this was encouraging to his parents, who had struggled to break through Travis’s lack of remorse, and Melissa approved the tactic.

Other accusations, he says, are simply mischaracterized or were suggested to the children by CPS agents. When his lawyers asked for documentation of the children’s interviews, Gary learned that, aside from the videotape of Travis, which says very little, CPS had shredded its notes.

As to the original reporter’s comments that Travis was in a “strict setting at school because Mr. Gates refuses to treat the child medically,” the strict setting is a structured classroom environment approved by Gates, Travis’s psychologist and the school district’s director of Special Programs and Projects. Then there is a raft of doctor’s studies, letters and meetings between Gates and the district that add up to something substantially other than a parent’s unwillingness to seek help for his child.

Much of this material was on file at the school. Reams more were stored at the CPS office, through which four of the Gates children were adopted, along with three attendant CPS-commissioned social studies of the parents that discussed at length, and approvingly, the Gateses’ disciplinary techniques. The Houston Chronicle profile on the Gates family, in fact, hung on a wall in CPS’s office.”

Incident 2:  January 25, 2001

From the Lawsuit : “On January 25, 2001, an individual from LCISD anonymously reported to TDPRS that Alexis, who was in kindergarten at the time, had a one-inch bruise on her face. The individual further stated that Alexis told her teacher that Gary had given her the bruise but told the school nurse that her brother Derodrick gave her the bruise when he pushed her into a bed During the interview, Alexis stated that she received the bruise while wrestling with her brother Marcus. Alexis was then returned to her parents.

TDPRS asked Gary for permission to interview other members of the family, and Gary refused.”

The case was closed shortly thereafter.

Incident 3: April 25, 2003

From the Lawsuit : “Ten days earlier, on April 15, 2003, the Richmond YMCA reported to TDPRS that Alexis had suspicious marks on her body. Specifically, the report indicated that over the past several weeks, Alexis was observed with bruises on her arms, legs, and face, and a belt-shaped slash on her back. When asked about the bruises, Alexis told YMCA personnel that she got them from falling off of her bed”

Two of the kids were interviewed  by cops at the YMCA and the case was closed.

The New York Times says “In years of news media reports, the Gateses have never denied being strict, or taking an aggressive, physical approach to disciplining their children. But they say the average parent’s gentle scolding has no effect on the most troubled children — and argue that any suggestions of violence are preposterous.”

Lawsuit Against State and Local Officials Dismissed

The Houston Chronicle 2008 article says “A federal appeals court agreed to dismiss a lawsuit claiming state and local officials violated a Fort Bend County family’s constitutional rights when officials removed the children from their home during a child abuse investigation.

While the ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supports a lower court’s finding against the Gary Gates family, the court said child welfare and police should involve state courts as early as possible in the investigative process”

The Houston Press article from 2000 also indicates why they want to be off the child abuse registry: “They hoped they might be able to adopt more children in the future.

At least Gary Gates did. Melissa said she wasn’t so sure, but then she had wanted to stop adopting a while ago, before Gary convinced her to keep going.“[Emphasis Rally]

“Gary Gates’s insistence that Fort Bend County CPS has no right to interview his kids without his permission, and no right to continue investigating allegations of abuse, speaks of a man insistent on everyone’s accountability but his own.” Hmmm… that sounds about right…

For Accused, Long Waits to Appeal Child Abuse Allegations
[New York Times 4/28/11 by Emily Ramshaw]

A Father’s Retribution Children’s Protective Services thinks Gary Gates abuses his kids. Gary Gates thinks CPS abused his family. Who’s abusing who?
[Houston Press 10/5/00 by Brad Tyer]

Court dismisses family’s lawsuit against officials
[The Houston Chronicle 7/28/08 by Eric Hanson]

Lawsuit Gates vs TX CPS 5th court of appeals

REFORM Puzzle Piece