Texas Official Sees ‘Cause for Concern’ in Broken Bones of 41 Sect Boys
A Texas official told a legislative committee yesterday that at least 41 boys removed from a polygamous sect had broken bones.
Carey Cockerell, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said very young children were among the boys who had bone fractures, the New York Times reports. Cockerell said it is too early to draw conclusions about the fractures, but it is “cause for concern,” the Austin American-Statesman reports.
Cockerell also said his agency was looking into the possibility that young boys at the sect’s ranch had been sexually abused.
Dr. David Teuscher, a Beaumont orthopedic surgeon, told the American-Statesman that 41 out of 464 children with bone fractures is not a high number. “We see children who all the time who do crazy things and break their bones,” he said.
Dr. Ari Brown told the newspaper that one red flag for child abuse is fractures in children under the age of 3.
