Petition update
Here is a statement from our attorney...
Mar 20, 2016 — Response to Statements of court-appointed attorney Jennifer McCartney and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma:
Ms. McCartney’s callous remark blaming the Pages for fighting for their foster daughter in the courts just shows how little people are thinking of this child and how devastating it will be for her to lose her entire family. To be clear, Los Angeles county officials placed Lexi with the Pages, with the tribe’s consent. And Lexi’s first court-appointed attorney, unlike Ms. McCartney, was initially in favor of her staying with the Pages once it was clear she viewed them as her mommy and daddy.
The court granted the Pages the right to fight for Lexi after they had already raised Lexi in their home for a year, and already had bonded to them as her mommy and daddy. There was no family member who stepped up as a potential adoptive placement during the first three years of Lexi’s life. The Utah family are distant extended relatives by marriage, and they had never even met Lexi when they started fighting to pull her out of her home in Los Angeles. They could have considered Lexi’s life here in Los Angeles, and relented in their pursuit to uproot her from her de facto family, at any time. But they refused. The Pages even offered them significant visitation over holidays and summertime, and they never responded to offers of compromise. They are not interested in anything except full custody, and they are not thinking about this little girl’s best interests.
Finally, contrary to some reports, the Utah family is not a tribal family. In fact, as the court records show, they have no Indian heritage. Lexi’s foster mom, Summer Page, however, has American Indian heritage, but is not formally enrolled in a tribe. So the tribe’s statement suggesting that Lexi will be raised in “Indian culture” in Utah is preposterous. Lexi is exposed to Indian culture on a regular basis right here in Los Angeles.
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