OR: Edvalson says Pendleton Academies is appealing the proposed decertification.

By Peter Korn
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=122894661547436600

Given the shortage of psychiatric facilities for treating children and adolescents, the state Department of Human Services is reluctant to close one down.

But three weeks ago that’s exactly what the department proposed, when Human Services sent a notice of intent to revoke the certification of the Pendleton Academies.

The list of accusations against Pendleton Academies reads like a “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” for the younger set. The facility first caught the attention of Human Services and the nonprofit advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon for its alleged inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion on children.

Jim Wrigley, staff attorney for Disability Rights, says that restraint led to a client being arrested by Pendleton police.

Police, Wrigley says, should only be called to a psychiatric facility as a last resort.

But apparently police were called to Pendleton Academies frequently. According to Bill Bouska, child and adolescent mental health manager for the Department of Human Services, the Pendleton police chief identified the facility as Pendleton’s hottest spot for police activity — with more than 100 police calls in a six-month period.

“It wasn’t the local bar, it was this program,” Bouska says.

Pendleton Academies was not reporting its restraints and seclusions to Human Services as state law requires, Bouska says.

In August, the Human Services department told Pendleton Academies it had found numerous problems that needed fixing. The department shut down new admissions to the facility, which normally has about 40 residents. But that didn’t seem to have the desired effect, Bouska says.

Two major incidents were alleged to have taken place since. In one, a 17-year-old boy resident coerced a 13-year-old girl resident to have sex. The facility’s lack of supervision, according to the Human Services notice, allowed the event to occur.

According to the notice, on Nov. 19 the department received a report of a Pendleton Academies proctor parent “dragging a child by his arm, on the ground, from his car to the program’s residential unit.” Proctor families, part of the Pendleton Academies program, board children who attend day treatment at the facility.

Terry Edvalson, who took over as interim executive director in August, says Pendleton Academies reported both incidents immediately to state officials.

Edvalson says he was told by authorities that the dragging incident did not “rise to the level of abuse.” And, Edvalson says he is making sure that the children are being removed from the proctor family. Staff members who were responsible for oversight when the sexual incident occurred have been fired, Edvalson says.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=122894661547436600

“We operate on complete transparency,” Edvalson says. “I think we’re being judged by the actions of previous administrators who were dismissed by the board of directors.”

Bouska says that if Pendleton Academies had addressed Human Services’ original concerns, the proposed decertification, which would essentially close down the facility, would never have been sent out.

In response to accusations that Human Services is reluctant to close facilities it desperately needs for children who are wards of the state, Bouska says, “I think our actions with Pendleton Academies show we won’t sacrifice children’s safety for maintaining a resource.”