The 3 Bethel Baptist Church Children - Cleveland (NE of Houston) TX

Cleveland TX ---- Child Protective Services has taken custody of three brothers
after one, who is 8, allegedly was forced to stay alone in a small,
country church and use a paint can for a toilet.
The boy's mother is under investigation.
Bethel Baptist Church is in Cleveland, about 40 miles northeast
of Houston. The woman and her sons lived with
the pastor and his wife and the families apparently are related.
An affidavit says the boy told an employee at a nearby business
that his mother forced him to stay alone in the building for several
days. The employee called police, who last week discovered the boy "dirty,
bare-footed and emaciated."
The affidavit says the mother purportedly put her son in the
church, which has limited water services, for being mean and not doing
his homework.

An 8-year-old Liberty County boy and his two brothers, ages 11 and 1, have been taken
into custody after the middle child told authorities he had been locked
by his mother in an abandoned church for hours as punishment, left only
with a paint can and a roll of toilet paper.

“He revealed he was being isolated as punishment by his mother,” a Texas Child Protective
Services caseworker wrote in documents filed with a Liberty County court
after they talked to the boy on May 12.

“The punishment consisted of being forced to go to the abandoned church building and remain.”

CPS spokeswoman Gwen Carter said on Tuesday that no charges have been filed against the boy's mother.

“The investigation is ongoing,” Carter said. “We're trying to find out what happened.”

CPS was contacted by police after neighbors told them the woman often left the 8-year-old at
the Bethel Baptist Church off of Texas 321.

When the boy was found by the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, the only signs of comfort
were two empty water bottles and a small fan besides him, along with the paint can.

According to CPS, the boy said his mother would escort him to the church, while striking
him with a yardstick. “He felt the household was shunning him and he was not told by his
mother why he was being punished.”

The woman told CPS investigators that she was home-schooling the children.

The three children have different fathers. One father has been incarcerated in Colorado for
sexual assault of a minor, Carter said.

CPS has investigated the care of the woman's children at least four previous times since 2001.

In 2005, investigators determined an “uncle” had pinned down the oldest child,
then 5, and forced him to watch a pornographic video. He soon began
acting out sexually with other children at school, telling social
workers he couldn't get the images out of his head. The children were
not removed because the woman, who had recently taken over her
children's care, assured social workers she could care for them.

OMG! I see CPS is waiting for a body before they do anything. It's a travesty that this mother is not behind bars and, that the people they live with aren't right there with her!! 4 visits already and nothing had been done, this is a crime in itself.
God help these children.

8-year-old: Mom forced me to live in church with no running water

by SHERN-MIN CHOW & MICHELLE HOMER
KHOU-TV
Posted on May 26, 2010 at 9:33 AM

CLEVELAND, Texas – Three children have been taken away from their mother in Liberty County after an 8-year-old boy told neighbors he’d been forced to live in a church by himself.

More:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/8-year-old-Mom-forced-me-to-live-in-church-with-no-running-water--94921984.html