Dispute on Treatment of Children After Raid

Dispute on Treatment of Children After Raid

A spokesman for the State Department of Family and Protective Services said Wednesday that the children, most of whom are now at the San Angelo Coliseum, a midsize multipurpose arena, were doing well, eating good food and happily playing ball on a local football field under adult supervision.

Some mothers, however, painted a different picture. Separated from their offspring on Monday so that the older children could be questioned about abuse that may have occurred at the compound, the mothers said their children, who had previously been held inside an old military facility called Fort Concho, had wanted only to go home. Colds and a wave of chickenpox had swept through the fort’s close quarters, they said.

“Life at Fort Concho was very much like a concentration camp,” said one mother, a woman who gave only a first name, Amy, in speaking with a reporter.