In the middle of the night on January 12, 2015, police raided the Arkansas home of Hal and Michelle Stanley and removed their seven children – all because they had a mineral supplement in their home that was not approved by the federal government. Thus far, the children still have not been returned and families across America are crying foul.

World Net Daily is reporting on the incident which began with a complaint from an anonymous neighbor alleging that the children were seen running barefoot in the snow and that the family used an unapproved and dangerously toxic supplement known as Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS).

The solution, which is said to cure cancer, AIDS, malaria and other diseases, is 28 percent sodium chlorite in distilled water. This mixture is then added to an acid such as orange juice to produce chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and in industrial water treatment. When imbibed in the recommended doses, it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and symptoms of severe dehydration such as dangerously low blood pressure.

Purveyors of the supplement claim it is used by the Red Cross in Africa to treat malaria, but the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies adamantly denies this claim. Several countries have issued stern warnings against the product, such as the U.S., Canada and Belgium.

However, the Stanley’s insist that only Hal was taking the supplement, which they also used to water the garden. And the reason their children were seen walking barefoot in the snow is because of a family tradition which involved the children briefly running through the snow and taking pictures of their footprints.

But instead of discussing this with the Stanleys, authorities came to the couple’s home in the middle of the night with a search warrant.

“ . . . (T)hey desired us to step outside in order to speak privately with Hal and I and not in front of the kids,” Michelle told WND. “I tried to tell them it was much warmer inside and that it was nothing for the kids to go to the back of the house for us to have privacy talking. They refused and insisted on us stepping outside.”

She continued: “After stepping outside they issued us a search warrant and said we could not enter our house or talk to our kids until the search and the investigation was through. … They said the charge was that we had a poisonous substance in our house and that the kids were being exposed to it and it endangered their welfare.”

Michelle said she told the authorities that “Never has it been used in any way to ‘poison’ our kids or even expose them in such a way as to endanger their lives.”

When she was questioned about the children running barefoot in the snow, she showed them the roughly 200 pairs of shoes owned by the family to prove that running barefoot in the snow was not the norm.

Her explanations fell on deaf ears and all seven children were removed from the home. It was supposed to be only for 72 hours, but they have been in custody for well over a week now.

According to the family’s Facebook page, a very well-known local lawyer has agreed to represent the family. Money is being raised on GoFundMe to help pay the family’s legal bills.

“This family is a Christian family, who homeschools their children,” the GoFundMe page organizer wrote. “They live a peaceful, [quiet] life and are wonderful parents. I have know[n] them for over 20 years, my children have grown up with theirs. Hal is my former pastor. If this can happen to this family [it] can happen to mine, it can happen to yours.”

Meanwhile, whoever started this family’s nightmare still has not come forward. “We asked who made the charge and if anyone could just make any accusation and they have to act on the call regardless of its validity," Michelle said. "They said it could be a hateful neighbor, a prank caller, someone with malicious intent and they still would have to act on the call. The call was anonymous and therefore the caller was protected while all our rights were taken away.”

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