Texas Baptist Home Failed to Protect Foster Kids from Sexual Abuse

Texas Baptist Home for Children says it has a mission to protect abused and neglected children. Tell that to Bryan and Austin Cook of Cleburne. They say they were molested by the same 13-year-old boy in one of the Waxahachie foster homes run by the Baptist agency. They say their cries for help were repeatedly ignored and discounted. "We told our caseworkers about it," said Austin, now 13. "We tried to tell Texas Baptist Home manager people, and they wouldn't listen to us." A News 8 investigation has uncovered troubling new information appearing to back up their claims. For more than a year, their mother, Angel Cook, has repeatedly claimed Austin, Bryan, and her oldest son, Justin, were sexually abused by other foster children while in foster care at Texas Baptist Home for Children. An Ellis County grand jury will soon hear a case against the teenager accused of sexually assaulting Justin in another of Texas Baptist's foster homes in Waxahachie. "Nobody listened, and two girls are now rape victims," Angel Cook said. "They will forever have to live with this. You can never erase sexual assault."

Cook Family vs. CPS Case in Texas Heads to Grand Jury

In this interview with Angel Cook, she explains how a Texas CPS worker came into their home after the death of one of their adopted children, and misrepresented herself as a police detective, and then accused her of murdering her child, a charge that was later dismissed in a court of law. CPS removed their other 7 children from the home, and they were subsequently mistreated and sexually abused while in Texas foster care. Today, the Cooks have their children back, but they continue to fight against the abuses of Texas CPS and the foster care system. Angel Cook and two of her sons have testified twice before legislative committees about the failings of CPS and the foster care system. Although all charges were dropped against the parents for the death of their adopted son, who was allegedly abused and mistreated prior to coming into the Cook Family's care, Angel Cook is now listed as a Child Abuser and can no longer get a job or visit her children in school. The social workers who knew about the mistreatment and sexual abuse of their children while in foster care remain on their jobs as social workers, and the foster parents who allegedly abused their children are still fostering other children.