Children removed from group home
The Baton Rouge Advocate/AP
LUCEDALE, Miss. (AP) -- Thirteen children were removed from a fundamentalist Christian home Friday after the school's minister refused to comply with a new law requiring juvenile residential facilities to register with the state.
"I hope there's not any violence," said the Rev. Herman Fountain, who runs the Bethel Home for Children. "If there is, it will be provoked by disrespect or grabbing hold of somebody's kids. I'll try to conduct myself as a man if they'll conduct themselves as professionals."
The 1989 state statute was prompted by the controversy surrounding the Bethel Home. A court ordered the former state Department of Welfare, now the Department of Human Resources, to remove 72 youths from the independent Baptist facility on June 10, 1988, after reports of abuse and neglect. The home has since been cited for child labor law violations.
"We are mistreated. We are abused," Fountain said repeatedly in court Friday.
Fountain said he won't comply with the Child Residential Home Notification Act and will continue to take in children at the home.
"I do obey the higher powers," he said. "It's the lower powers that are killing me. I am not going to submit to something that I believe is wrong."
Fountain has said he answers only to God, and it violates his constitutional right to freedom of religion to comply with the registration law. The law asks for the juvenile residents' names and ages, and the names and addresses of their parents or legal guardians.
When the 72 children were removed from the home in 1988, locating many of the parents and legal guardians was difficult because Fountain refused to provide the information. Officials had estimated about 50 children lived illegally at the home, some of them among the 72 removed earlier.
Most of the children removed in 1988 were released to parents or guardians. The state took custody of 17.
No Bethel home staff members have been charged with abuse, although the judge ruled in 1988 that abuse had occurred. However, Fountain and some followers were arrested after they scuffled with law officers the day of the 1988 raid.
On Friday, Chancery Judge Robert Oswald in Lucedale enjoined Fountain from operating a child-care facility until he complies with state law. There are no penalties in the law for failing to comply -- it merely allows the children to be removed.
The judge also told state officials they could search the home for records on the children. But he said they couldn't question the children about their religious beliefs or practices.
State troopers had to break into the Bethel church in 1988 to get the children, who were barricaded in with staff members.
However, the 13 children were removed without incident Friday from the church as about 50 Bethel staff members, supporters and their families looked on, witnesses said.