TX: State Abuse - Despite reforms, abuse in state institutions remains high.

Excerpt from The Texas Observer:

http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/state-abuse#txlege

April 19, 2010

By Dave Mann

Despite reforms by state lawmakers, abuse and neglect of Texans with mental retardation in state-run institutions has increased the past three years, according to anObserver analysis of state data. Reforms enacted in response to a high-profile abuse scandal have left the facilities with fewer residents and more staff, yet confirmed allegations of abuse rose 57 percent between 2007 and 2009. However, the number of abuse cases has dropped slightly so far in 2010, indicating that perhaps the latest reforms are having some effect.

For the past four years, Texas’ 13 sprawling, state-run institutions for the mentally retarded—formerly known as State Schools and which the Legislature recently renamed State Supported Living Centers—have been the source of horrific tales of abuse. Since 2005, investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and numerous media outlets, including the Observer (see “Systemic Neglect,” May 1, 2008), have documented hundreds of instances in which Texans with mental retardation were beaten, neglected and, in some instances, killed by the staff charged with caring for them. In the most famous incident, workers at the Corpus Christi State School recorded a “fight club” video in which mentally disabled residents were forced to beat each other.

The abuse scandal was rooted in years of under-funding by the Legislature. Low pay and astronomical staff turnover, which ran as high as 70 percent in some facilities, led the institutions to hire low-grade employees—and in a few instances convicted felons—who never should have been caring for vulnerable, and often volatile, residents.

Despite reforms passed in the past two legislative sessions—including a 12-percent funding increase and nearly 3,000 additional caregivers—the number of abuse and neglect cases remains high.

Confirmed cases of abuse in State Supported Living Centers rose 57 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to an Observer analysis of state data, from 458 incidents in 2007 to 719 last year.

In the first six months of fiscal year 2010, which began in September, confirmed cases of abuse and neglect have dipped by 19 percent. State Supported Living Centers are on pace to report 580 cases of abuse in 2010, which while lower than 2007’s peak, is still historically high.

For the full article, please click on the following link: http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/state-abuse#txlege

TX: Lubbock State School worker turns himself in

09:15 AM CST on Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Associated Press
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-stateschool_07met.ART.State.Edition1.4badeb0.html

LUBBOCK – The fired Lubbock State School worker accused in the death of a resident has turned himself in.

Thirty-eight-year-old Doneil Smith was indicted on a manslaughter charge last month.

He remains in Lubbock County Jail with bail set at $50,000.

A woman at the office of his attorney, Frederick Stangl, said Stangl was unavailable to comment Friday.

A coroner ruled that the death in June of Michael Nicholson, 45, was caused by suffocation during a struggle.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports that agency documents indicate Smith allegedly restrained Nicholson by sitting on him.

Six state school workers, including Smith, were fired after the incident. Laura Albrecht, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, says the firings were tied to the "physical abuse and neglect" of a resident.

The school is now called the Lubbock State Supported Living Center.

TX: State schools get $112 million

Web Posted: 06/08/2009 12:00 CDT By Terri Langford- Houston Chronicle http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/State_schools_get_112_million_for_upgrades.html

It's been a tough several months for the $500 million state school system for the mentally disabled.

First, the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS), the operator of the residential facilities, found itself a federal target when it was named in December in a scathing U.S. Department of Justice report on the condition of state schools.

Investigators found that 53 of the 114 deaths of state school residents over a one-year period could have been prevented. They also determined that restraints were used too often — 10,143 times on 751 residents during the first nine months of 2008 alone.

Also documented: Some 200 staff members were fired in one 12-month period. And, despite plans to move more residents out of the state schools, only 164 residents were placed in a community-based care facility in a 12-month period.

But just as Texas officials began dealing with the Justice fallout, they were hit in March with disturbing video images that showed Corpus Christi State School staff members forcing mentally disabled residents into fights for their own entertainment.

Finally some good news out of the 81st Texas Legislature: a $112 million plan to improve conditions at the 11 schools and two centers.

“It allows DADS to continue with a clear action plan,” explained Cecilia Fedorov, a DADS spokeswoman.

The pact adds 1,160 new positions, most of whom will be direct care workers, and calls for people who will monitor conditions at the facilities.

“I hope it works,” said State Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, who sits on the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee. “Obviously, I think we can do more outside of the settlement.”

For Uresti, the most important component of the plan is the monitors.

“If things don't improve, those monitors will recognize that,” he said.

But critics, who claim the state school system is outmoded, say the Justice agreement is deja vu.

“We're back,” complained Beth Mitchell, managing attorney for Advocacy Inc., a nonprofit group that works to protect the legal rights of disabled Texans. “It's all the same stuff.”

Mitchell was referring to a series of pacts that ended a decades-old lawsuit that charged — like the recent Justice Department report did — that conditions within the system were not acceptable.

Monitors were called, and better reporting of abuse was requested, she said. And now, it seems the state is right back where it was in the 1990s, when the 1974 lawsuit filed on behalf of John Lelsz Jr., a severely disabled state school resident, was settled for the third time.

Mitchell said this federal-state pact is too vague when it comes to pinpointing exact timetables and plans to move residents into the community. Also, while there is a provision for more monitors, the settlement is a little light on what type of qualifications those people should possess.

“There are no benchmarks or standards for what the monitors are supposed to follow to make sure the state schools have adequate treatment,” Mitchell said.

DADS officials still were not sure how the new settlement will be different from the series of reforms made in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the landmark Lelsz lawsuit.

“I'm not familiar with that particular lawsuit,” Fedorov said.

Mitchell also pointed to the fact that it does nothing to remedy the retention problems state schools have with the direct care staff, who escort and guide residents in their daily activities.

In the past two years, 376 state school workers were fired for abuse and neglect; and 70 percent of those workers were entry-level aides, whose starting salary is about $20,000 a year.

Lawmakers did not approve a proposed pay raise for these staffers. About half of all state school employees turn over each year.

But parents of state school residents, like Nancy Ward, who live in fear that the institutions will be closed, support the new pact.

“I am hoping that will help,” said Ward, who helps run the Parent Association for the Retarded of Texas and has watched the legal machinations for decades. Her 47-year-old daughter Dianne Ward, entered the state school system when she was 10 years old. Today Diane lives at Denton State School.

“For one thing, the work won't be as hard,” she said, if more workers are added. “A lot of them work two jobs.”

GA: State Child Advocate Investigates Autism Abuse Case

Updated June 9, 2009
Posted by: Jane Watson

http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=131233

ATLANTA -- Georgia's Child Advocate is getting involved after 11Alive's investigation in an autism abuse case.

Tom Rawlings says his office has launched an investigation after a judge ruled that 11-year-old Stefan Ferrari was abused by an adult at his school.

Stefan is non-verbal and attended a facility run by the state funded agency Metro RESA. Stefan attended the school at the recommendation of Atlanta Public Schools. He is an APS student.

Rawlings says his office will look at how DFACS, Atlanta Schools, Atlanta Police and MRESA handled the family's accusations of abuse. Rawlings said the possible recommendations to Gov. Sonny Perdue could include legislation or clarification of how abuse concerns should be handled within the educational system.

Atlanta Public School officials say they have also launched their own internal investigation into how the Ferrari's case was handled. School officials have admitted that the family was treated badly.

Stefan's teacher, Sherri Jones, is out of the classroom, however it's not known if she is still employed. Jones was employed by MRESA and the organization will not comment at the advice of its attorneys.

TX: Advocates pleased with disability services gains in Legislature

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, June 4, 2009
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
eramshaw@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-stateschools_04tex.ART0.State.Edition2.51080dd.html

AUSTIN – Faced with dangerous conditions inside Texas' institutions for the mentally disabled and a massive waiting list for community-based care, lawmakers didn't pick sides – they improved both.

They did it under pressure: from the U.S. Justice Department, from Gov. Rick Perry's office, from the national news media. And they owe much of their success to behind-the-scenes maneuvers by the Senate's key budget writer.

But in the session that ended this week, the Legislature made landmark progress without playing favorites, gingerly balancing the competing interests of state school parents and advocates for independent living.

"The state has recognized that we need to provide resources for both types of care," said Rep. Drew Darby, a San Angelo Republican who started the session fearing that some of his colleagues might try to shutter the state school in his district. "We've had a blending of those needs this session – and a system we can all be proud of."

Advocates for the disabled say the progress made this session is staggering.

Lawmakers passed an emergency safety bill that creates an independent ombudsman to investigate injuries and deaths at state schools; requires fingerprinting, background checks and random drug testing of all state school employees; and installs security cameras in all facilities.

They agreed to a five-year, $112 million settlement with the Justice Department to hire more than 1,000 new state school workers, dramatically improve health care, and install independent monitors to oversee conditions at the facilities.

They gave approval for the family of a young man who was nearly beaten to death by a state school employee to sue the state; his mother had been trying for years.

And they provided an extra $200 million in state funds to provide community-based care for nearly 8,000 people stuck on long waiting lists – an unprecedented expenditure.

"It's a historic, monumental investment in the system," said Amy Mizcles, director of governmental affairs for the Arc of Texas. "They really worked on the entire system."


Investigation

The improvements follow a four-year federal investigation that found widespread civil rights violations across Texas' 13 state institutions for the mentally disabled, and years of media reports about abuse and neglect in the facilities. One of the most staggering came even as lawmakers were meeting – video of late-night "fight clubs" that employees at the Corpus Christi State School forced upon residents. The footage aired on Good Morning America and other national news programs.

The changes are largely the work of six key players.

Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, served as the clearinghouses for reform ideas, refereeing the bitter debate over whether the state schools were even worth saving. Advocates for community-based care argued that the state schools were dangerous and inefficient; state school families said community care was inadequate and under-regulated.

Meanwhile, Perry chief of staff Jay Kimbrough used his experience reforming the Texas Youth Commission to devise a safety plan for the state schools. Sens. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, filed individual bills on almost every state school and community care problem – ensuring something would get through. And Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, the Senate's key budget writer, pulled the trigger, allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to improve care in the state schools and the community.

"I knew the state schools were in trouble, and I just started thinking, 'There has to be a solution to this,' " Ogden said. "I consider it to be one of the more significant things this budget has accomplished."


Schools stay open

The legislation doesn't close or consolidate any of the state schools. It's a relief to state school parents, who feared that's where lawmakers were headed and lobbied vigorously to keep all of them open.

That's a disappointment to many disability rights advocates, who testified on horrific abuse inside the facilities with the knowledge that their efforts to close the facilities – not reform them – might backfire.

"It's not some sort of philosophical turf battle; it's proven that what's best for people with disabilities is to live in the community," said Robert Stack, president and CEO of Community Options Inc., which operates group homes and foster care placements in Texas and other states. "The state schools really can't be fixed."

Nor do the measures provide a vision for the future of disability services in Texas. Efforts to create a strategic plan for Texas' state schools, which have watched their census decline as community care has expanded, passed the Senate but fell short in the House.

Any hard numbers capping the state school population were stripped out, over objections from lawmakers who fear the loss of jobs if facilities in their districts close.

"There's still so much fragmentation and confusion, so many significant problems, in the system," said Colleen Horton, public policy director for the University of Texas' Center for Disability Studies. "We're not stepping back to look at where we want to be in the future."

TX: Agency overseeing state schools to hire more than 1,000 new workers

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, May 23, 2009

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
eramshaw@dallasnews.com

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-stateschools_23tex.ART.State.Edition1.5109733.html

AUSTIN – The agency that oversees the state schools for the mentally disabled will hire more than 1,000 new workers and drastically improve living conditions at the facilities under a five-year, $112 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The agreement, approved by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this week, follows a four-year federal investigation that found widespread civil rights violations across Texas' 13 state schools.

It's a response to years of media reports about abuse and neglect in the facilities, culminating with news this winter that employees orchestrated a "fight club" at the Corpus Christi State School.

"The abuse that has taken place is inexcusable," said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. "We are all ready for a new beginning in our efforts to take care of and protect Texans with disabilities."

But critics of the state schools question whether pouring money and more employees into them will fix a system they say is fundamentally broken. They argue lawmakers have hiked funding and approved new hires in previous years, only to see the problems continue.

"What did we get for our money? Fight clubs, suicides, deaths that could've been prevented," said Jeff Garrison-Tate, who runs the nonprofit Community Now!

In a legislative hearing on the agreement Friday, officials with the Department of Aging and Disability Services stressed that they have not been waiting for the sign-off to improve conditions at the state schools.

"We've reduced the use of restraints, strengthened training of direct care workers and added hundreds of staff across the state," agency commissioner Addie Horn said.

And lawmakers have already passed a bill and agreed to spend millions to improve safety at the state schools through emergency legislation ordered by Gov. Rick Perry.

Under the federal settlement agreement, the agency and the Justice Department must hire more than 1,000 workers and appoint several independent monitors to oversee the state schools as they implement the changes.

But the hiring goal may be difficult to meet. Two years ago, lawmakers authorized the state schools to hire nearly 1,700 new employees, and 300 of these positions remain unfilled. State officials say they expect to have them filled by the end of August.

Lawmakers must pass a resolution approving the agreement by the end of the legislative session. As of Friday, the roughly $45 million that lawmakers would have to spend in the next two years to comply with the agreement was not included in the state budget, but lawmakers said they are hopeful it will be included in a supplemental spending bil

GA: Mother Records Autistic Child's Alleged Abuse

From 11 Alive - NOTE: A judge has ruled the bruises on this young boy were caused by "an adult at school"...but did not find ANYONE specifically responsible despite an audio recording of an educator asking him if he wanted a "be quiet hit," which was then followed by thumps and sounds of pain.

Click here for the full story: http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=130355

See Related:

Ferrari family's attorney seeks sit-down meeting with Atlanta Public Schools -- CLICK HERE to read the memo.

Judge John Gatto's ruling in Stefan's case

GA: Bernie Marcus Speaks Out on Autism and Autism Case

PART ONE

ATLANTA -- Stefan is an 11-year-old boy with Autism. A judge ruled he was physically and verbally abused at school.

11Alive has learned from the Deputy Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools that the teacher involved in this story is "no longer in the classroom."

Atlanta Public School representatives sent a letter to the Georgia Department of Education and Metropolitan Regional Education Services demanding answers.

Stefan is an Atlanta Public School student but because of his special needs, he goes to schools run by a state agency called Metro North.

They line the outside of each leg -- bruises from knee to hip. A judge has ruled a school employee caused these injuries to 11-year-old Stefan Ferrari the day before pictures were taken.

Stefan cannot speak. He has Autism, and is non-verbal.

He could not tell his parents -- couldn't tell anyone -- what happened to him. But he had a mother who believed, before this happened, that something was terribly wrong at his school.

Stefan went to Margaret Mitchell Elementary School in Buckhead, where he was doing well, but he was transferred to the Marshall School in DeKalb County in August 2008, due to renovations.
That's when the Ferraris say things started to fall apart.

"I knew something was really wrong for the first time on September 8th," said Stefan's mother, Carolyn Ferrari.

That's when she said Stefan came home with bloody scratches, bruises and ripped shorts. His behavior over the next month deteriorated.

"It was getting worse and worse," Carolyn said.

Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari say they repeatedly told school officials they were concerned. So the mother of a boy without a voice found a way to give him one.

"It's about the size of a quarter," Carolyn said about a microphone she sewed into Stefan's shirt. She sent him to school with it on October 21.

It would be his last day at Marshall.

"As soon as he took his boxers off to get in the shower, I noticed it," said Stefan's father, Marcelo Ferrari. "And I was like, 'oh my God'."

Marcelo was shocked by the severe bruising covering his son's legs. He and his wife went straight to the tape.

"Sit down stupid," was one of the things they heard on the tape.

"It was horrifying," Carolyn said. "I was visibly sick. I felt like I was going to vomit."

Carolyn and Marcelo stayed up all night listening to hour after hour of what they say was the neglect, ridicule and abuse of their son.

With the microphone hidden at the base of Stefan's neck, picking up the sounds around him, the Ferraris listened to the adults in the room talk about the size of a boyfriend's genitals.

"The man I'm dating is intelligent. But he has a small penis. You can't throw a pebble into the ocean. Does it matter? Does size matter? Yes it does."

The adults talked about drinking.

"Russian vodka with olive juice. That's a dirty martini?"

At one point in the day, Stefan ate some pizza out of the trash can. The adults joked about it.

"I mean he was chill. Finger lickin' good. He was chillin' with that."

But what the Ferraris heard that horrified them was this:

"You want a be-quiet hit?" (followed by the sound of a thump) "There you go. Get it now, go on."

And two minutes later, listen as an adult tells others to leave.

"Please make him be quiet. Go away. Go. Take a minute. Go. Go on."

And 15 seconds later, there were 18 seconds of thumps and the sounds of Stefan making noises.

"It was numbing, and yet at the same time, you can't stop listening to it, because you're thinking, 'oh my God, if my child went through this, I need to hear what happened to my child'," Carolyn said.

The Ferraris called DFACS and Atlanta police. Both investigations went nowhere. They sued the Atlanta Public Schools -- which recommended the program to the family. What was done to Stefan Ferrari and who did it would be decided in a small state administrative courtroom.

First up, Marshall's principal, Gail Healy.

"At no time after interviewing my teachers, talking to them do I feel he was abused at my program," Healy said.

Attorneys for Atlanta Public Schools said maybe Stefan cause the injuries to himself, but the Ferraris said Stefan was never self-injurious -- and the judge agreed.

Stefan's pediatrician, Dr. Alison Koenig testified.

"It seems to me something like that, he could not have done to himself but somebody had done it to him," she said.

The school's attorneys suggested maybe Stefan's father did it.

In his ruling, Judge John Gatto found, "Stefan was not injured at home...(He) was injured at school...His injuries were caused by multiple infliction of trauma. They were caused by his being struck by a hand or an object by an adult."

The week-long hearing was filled with experts -- educational, psychological, criminal. But the most anticipated witness took the stand on the final day of the hearing: teacher Sherri Jones. And the Ferrari's attorney, John Zimring, got right to it, asking her if she was the one talking about a man's gentials.

"I can't recall if I said it or not," Jones said.

If she was the one talking about drinking.

"I may have," she said.

If she was one of the people joking about Stefan eating out of the trash.

"I don't recall saying that," Jones said.

But after Sherri Jones is made again and again to listen to the audio, her answers changed.

"And that was your voice?" Zimring asked.

"Yes, it was," Jones answered.

"So you did say that?" Zimring asked.

"It came out of my mouth, yes," Jones replied.

"You said that did you not?" Zimring asked.

"Most likely, yeah," said Jones.

"It was you wasn't it?" Zimring asked.

"Umm, that could have been what I said, yeah," Jones admitted.

Jones denies ever hitting or threatening to hit Stefan -- and the judge did not find that she did. His decision stated only that Stefan was injured at school by an adult.

"That is your voice is it not?" Zimring asked when the voice on the tape referred to striking Stefan.

"No, it's not," Jones said.

"Whose was it?" Zimring pressed on.

"I don't know," Jones said.

"You are under testimony to his honor!" Zimring said.

"I do not know whose voice is on that tape," Jones said. "It is not me."

"So you felt empowered to take advantage of these children with disabilities?" Zimring asked.

"No," Jones replied.

Atlanta school attorneys gave Sherri Jones a chance to explain herself.

"I understand how it may come across," Jones said. "But I love what I do, and this will not stop me from continuing to do what I do for the rest of my life."

In his ruling, Judge Gatto used the word appalling -- given that Stefan is non-verbal, and did not have the ability to inform his parents of his mistreatment by employees on October 21. The school's failure to take the steps to discipline the adult educators involved leads the court to conclude that the schools can only promise more of the same.

"He's a different child," Carolyn Ferrari said.

Seven months after he was injured, Stefan Ferrari has made tremendous strides, and is excelling at his new private school. Failed by those who were supposed to support and protect her son, a determined mother did something no one thought could be done -- she gave him a voice.

GA: Outrage and Action Over Autistic Child's Alleged Abuse

See Related:

GA: Mother Records Autistic Child's Alleged Abuse

Ferrari family's attorney seeks sit-down meeting with Atlanta Public Schools -- CLICK HERE to read the memo.

Judge John Gatto's ruling in Stefan's case

GA: Bernie Marcus Speaks Out on Autism and Autism Case

(PART TWO)ATLANTA -- There's outrage over 11Alive's investigation of the story of an 11-year-old boy with Autism -- a judge said the boy was injured at school by an adult. The reaction received in the 11Alive Newsroom after the story aired Monday night has been unprecedented -- and people are demanding answers from the system that educated 11-year-old Stefan Ferrari.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Metro North officials announced they had removed Stefan Ferrari's teacher from the classroom. Sherri Jones admitted in a courtroom to talking about sex and drinking in front of the children.

Judge John Gatto, a judge with the Office of State Administrative Hearings, found that Stefan was physically abused by an adult at his school last October.

* CLICK HERE to read Judge Gatto's ruling.

Stefan, an Atlanta Public Schools student, attended the facility in DeKalb County that is run by Metro North, a state agency. After coming home with unexplained injuries, Stefan's mother sewed a microphone into his shirt and sent him to school on October 21. On the same day that Jones was removed, Atlanta school officials -- who refused to comment on the story for almost two months -- were ready to talk.

* CLICK HERE to read the full text of the letter to executive director of Metropolitan Regional Educational Services, Dr. Fran Davis Perkins* CLICK HERE to read the full text of the letter to the state deputy superintendent of standards, instruction and assessment, Dr. Martha Reichrath

"I'm angry, horrified and disgusted about what happened to the young man at North Metro," said Atlanta Public School deputy superintendent Kathy Augustine in an interview with 11Alive's Jaye Watson. "I know he and his family have been treated badly."

FL: Former reform school student, administrator face off

'I stand here saying he hurt me,' man says of beatings 50 years ago
By Jim Schoettler
Story updated at 6:28 AM on Friday, May. 22, 2009
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/florida/2009-05-21/story/former_reform_school_student_administrator_face_off

MARIANNA – Bryant Middleton spent four hours Thursday sitting within arms reach of a frail elderly man he accuses of tormenting him nearly 50 years ago.

Their eyes never met, Middleton said. They exchanged no words.

And when it was over, Middleton said he bore no animosity toward Troy Tidwell. He said he also felt no forgiveness for the man he accuses of repeatedly beating him at a reform school designed to help troubled teens.

Middleton is one of about 200 former students of the Florida Industrial School for Boys who are involved in a class-action lawsuit against four state agencies and Tidwell. The students, including several from the Jacksonville area, said they were abused mostly in the 1950s and '60s in the school west of Tallahassee.

The two men faced off Thursday during a deposition of Tidwell, who is among several school administrators identified by former students as having beaten them with a strap or paddle for violating school rules.

The corporal punishment occurred in a building known as the White House and the plaintiffs are known as the White House Boys. A number of their stories have appeared in the Times-Union in a continuing series about the school, which housed thousands of youths.

Middleton, of Fort Walton Beach, was about 13 when he spent nearly a year at the school about 1960. He said he was beaten six separate times in the White House, and Tidwell was among his tormentors.

Middleton, 64, said he didn’t recognize Tidwell sitting at the end of a table filled with lawyers for both sides. He said Tidwell admitted to spanking students, as he did in a newspaper interview last year, but also insisted he didn’t injure anyone.

“For him to say he never hurt anybody, I stand here saying he hurt me,” Bryant said after the proceedings.

Tidwell, 85, of Marianna, declined to comment as he walked gingerly to an awaiting car. His attorney, H. Matthew Fuqua, said he felt Tidwell “did fine.” The deposition will resume at an undisclosed date.

Middleton’s role was to consult with his attorneys as they questioned Tidwell. It was the most significant event in the case since it was filed in Pinellas County in December.

The allegations of abuse are part of a criminal investigation being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The FDLE last week concluded that there was no evidence of abuse among 29 students whose bodies the agency said are in unmarked graves in a school cemetery.

The punishment in the White House was administered after students were forced to lie on a filthy cot, grab onto a headboard and bite into a pillow. Middleton said the most lashes he remembered receiving before passing out was 57. He said facing Tidwell Thursday brought back bad memories of the man and the school.

“I honestly believe in my heart he thinks he was doing what the state of Florida told him to do,” Middleton said. “It’s not my place to forgive him.”

Middleton eventually joined the Army and spent 22 years in the service before retiring. He also married and has four children.

He said he never forgot being punished at the reform school and hopes the civil case will help him find some closure. He also advocates the state forming a blue-ribbon committee to study current conditions at state-run reform schools.

“I hope people stop denying and lying about what happened at Marianna,” Middleton said. “It would do all of us good.”

TX: Agency agrees to $112 million settlement to improve schools for disabled

01:14 PM CDT on Friday, May 22, 2009
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News eramshaw@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052309dntexsettlement.64b17e6.html

AUSTIN – The agency that oversees the state schools for the disabled must hire more than 1,000 new direct care workers and drastically improve living conditions at the facilities, under a $112-million, 5-year settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The agreement, approved by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this week, follows a four-year federal investigation that found widespread civil rights violations across Texas' 13 state schools for people with disabilities.

It's a response to years of media reports about abuse and neglect in the facilities, culminating this winter with news of an employee-orchestrated "fight club" at the Corpus Christi State School.

"The abuse that has taken place is inexcusable," said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. "We are all ready for a new beginning in our efforts to take care of and protect Texans with disabilities."

In a legislative hearing on the agreement on Friday, officials with the Department of Aging and Disability Services stressed that they have not been waiting for the sign-off to improve
conditions at the state schools.

"We've reduced the use of restraints, strengthened training of direct care workers and added hundreds of staff across the state," agency commissioner Addie Horn said. "Care for those in state schools is continually improving."

And lawmakers have already passed a bill and agreed to spend millions to improve safety at the state schools, emergency legislation ordered by Gov. Rick Perry. The state budget also includes a provision that would move some people out of the state schools into community-based care – and consider such a move for others.

Under the federal settlement agreement – which was nearly complete back in October, but held over for several months because of the new presidential administration – the agency and the Justice Department must make more than 1,000 direct care hires and appoint several independent monitors to oversee the state schools as they implement the changes. Depending on how effective the state schools are at instituting reform, they could be eligible for release from oversight in as little as a year.

Other terms of the agreement include:

• Hiring dozens of new investigators to more quickly review abuse and neglect allegations.
• Improving the quality of medical, dental and psychological care for residents, and providing more preventative care.
• Toughening penalties for failing to report abuse, or engaging in retaliation, and increasing training for identifying mistreatment.
• Ensuring residents are receiving individualized care, and are moved to the most integrated living setting.
• Curbing the use of physical restraints in state schools.
• Getting informed consent before administering psychotropic drugs to state school residents.

Lawmakers must pass a resolution approving the agreement by the end of the legislative session. As of Friday, the $45 million lawmakers would have to spend in the next two years to comply with the agreement was not included in the state appropriations bill, but lawmakers said they are hopeful it will be included in a supplemental budget.

"It's important that we move quickly," Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, said.
Added Nelson: "I fear what will happen if we don't."

But some lawmakers said it shouldn't have taken a settlement agreement – or even widespread reports of abuse – to get to this point. They acknowledged they should've set aside funding for improvements earlier.

"I want the people of Texas to know we have to do more as a state to protect the people that we are entrusted to care for," said Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Corpus Christi.

TX: Trial starts for man accused of state school abuse

Updated: May 20, 2009 01:55 PM EDT
By Holley Nees - bio email
http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=10396388&nav=menu118_1

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - The trial of a man accused of abusing a Lufkin State School resident began Wednesday.

The prosecutor, Dale Summa, argued that Toby Falcon choked and punched the resident of following protocol that the State School has in place to calm residents down.

Summa said the resident got loud when he thought he had not been served his snack. The defense argued Falcon is not guilty of abuse of any kind. The defense pointed out the resident is self-abusive when he gets angry, but said there was a struggle when the resident became disruptive.

Falcon's attorney claimed workers stood by and watched the incident happen rather than helping Falcon. The first witness on the stand was a former state school employee that saw falcon's hands around the clients neck.

The trial is not expected to last longer than two days.

TX: Texas nearing deal with feds on state school fixes

By JEFF CARLTON Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press

May 14, 2009, 1:02PM

http://www.kpho.com/news/19455761/detail.html

DALLAS — Texas officials said Thursday they are near an agreement with federal investigators on fixing problems in the state's 13 large residential facilities for the mentally disabled, where dozens of people have died under questionable circumstances and hundreds of employees have been disciplined for mistreating residents.

The tentative plan calls for more direct care workers and medical staff, such as psychiatrists, pharmacists and dentists, state officials said. The plan also establishes independent monitors to report back to state and federal officials about conditions at the facilities.

"It's a comprehensive action plan to improve the care at all of the state schools," said Laura Albrecht, a spokeswoman with the Department of Aging and Disability Services, the state agency overseeing the facilities.

The plan requires formal approval from the Department of Justice and the Texas Legislature, said Michael Jones, a state spokesman. It must then be filed in federal court.

The Justice Department could sue if there's no settlement.

The agreement won't close any state schools, which can be done only by the Legislature. That possibility was sought by advocates who say large facilities are not the proper venue for treating the mentally disabled. But it was abandoned last month by lawmakers who said state school reform would never pass with such a contentious provision.

Texas has more mentally disabled residents living in institutions than any other state. The 13 facilities in Texas house nearly 5,000 residents — more than six times the national average. On a per-capita basis, Texas has 20.4 people per 100,000 in large institutions. The national average is 12.2 people.

"The plan does dictate the state will continue to make aggressive efforts to provide opportunities to people who want to be served in the community," Jones said.

Waiting lists for those wishing to move into smaller group or community homes have thousands of names on them and take years for approval, said Dennis Borel, the executive director of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.

Borel said any agreement on reforming state schools should emphasize community treatment and work on changing the culture of workers. Many of them, he said, "seem to be viewing the residents as somehow not as human, not as equal as they are."

"I do believe we need to ensure the safety of the residents in state schools," Borel said. "We also need to come to grips with the will of the people who want to be served in the community, not institutions."

Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman with the Justice Department, declined to comment "because this matter is open and ongoing."

The agreement developed from a series of Justice Department investigations that revealed widespread mistreatment of mentally disabled residents in the state schools. A federal report released in December said the Texas facilities violate the federal civil rights of mentally disabled residents in the schools by failing to provide adequate mental health services or treating them in settings integrated into local communities.

From September 2007 to September 2008, at least 114 residents died. Although many were considered medically fragile, 53 deaths were attributed to preventable conditions that indicate lapses in proper care, according to the report.

In a three-month period in 2008, the state investigated at least 500 allegations of abuse, neglect and other mistreatment of residents and at least eight facilities were in danger of losing Medicaid funding because of "significant care and safety deficiencies."

The report also noted that in a four-year period ending in 2007, more than 800 employees from the 13 facilities were suspended or fired for mistreating patients.

Since 2007, state schools have hired about 1,300 workers to address staff shortages. Texas is also considering raising the pay of state school workers, including a 10 percent bump for direct care workers and up to a 15 percent raise for medical professionals.

TX: Burden of proof - State School Abuse

Victims’ disabilities, staff make it difficult to prosecute state school abuse complaints
By TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
May 17, 2009, 3:11PM

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6427594.html

Since 2004, 800 state school employees have been suspended or fired for abusing residents.

Hundreds of abuse complaints involving the mentally disabled residents of Texas state schools are made to local police each year but rarely do they result in criminal charges, largely because the cases are too difficult to prove, according to a three-year snapshot of data obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Two months after cell phone images revealed how staffers at Corpus Christi State School organized fights between residents, records show only 4 percent of 2,814 state school abuse cases flagged by Texas Adult Protective Services to local police as possible crimes between fiscal years 2005 and 2008 are eventually proven or “confirmed” by APS as abuse.

For the past two years, conditions within Texas state schools have been the focus of federal investigators who have criticized the system’s deadly lapses in health care and civil rights abuses. Since 2004, 800 state school employees have been suspended or fired for abusing residents. Last week, a tentative agreement was reached between Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice to boost staffing and improve medical care at 11 state schools and two residential centers for the mentally disabled.

By law, APS workers must investigate every bruise or abnormality found on a resident if a state school staffer or family member suspects abuse or neglect. The state will not release the names of state school abuse victims, making it impossible to track exactly how many of the 2,814 APS abuse referrals to police actually make it into a courtroom.

But Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson, whose office investigates cases referred from Mexia State School, which has the most abuse referrals in the state, said his officers often face the same hurdles that APS workers do. Victims with limited mental abilities are tough to interview.

“We get a ton of referrals that don’t end up in the criminal courts because there is not enough to go with, or are unfounded,” Wilson said. During the three-year period that ended last Aug. 31, Wilson’s office was notified of 857 abuse cases at Mexia State School.

Of those, only 12 percent were later confirmed by APS workers as abuse.

‘Mental issues’ a barrier
Considering the much lower standard used by APS workers, where only a “preponderance of evidence” is needed, few of the 105 Mexia cases likely resulted in criminal charges, which must be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“It’s almost impossible to prosecute because of their mental issues,” Wilson said. Those mental issues include short-term memory problems and even a total lack of communication skills.

“Hopefully, your alleged victim is able to speak to you,” said Sharon Thetford, an APS investigator in Central Texas. Many victims she faces can talk, she said, but others must rely on picture boards or blinking “once for yes, twice for no” during interviews.

Complaint data varies widely between schools.

Officials say they believe the residents’ age and health are one reason. The experience of a state school staff is another.

Mexia, San Angelo and Corpus Christi, the three state facilities with the largest number of abuse complaints referred to police, also house the majority of mentally disabled individuals who are also accused of criminal offenses.

At Mexia, residents are younger, most are in their 20s and more active, and more likely to get hurt even by accident. There are also 66 children housed there, many of whom are teens accused of committing a crime.

“While all of those are facts, there is no excuse for ever abusing, neglecting or exploiting any of the residents we serve,” said Cecilia Fedorov, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the 11 state schools.

But Fedorov does concede that the age and health of Mexia’s population, along with the fact that a state school has a higher turnover of staff, does appear to explain why the school has so many complaints.

One facility praised
Richmond State School, like Mexia, has just under 500 residents but had the lowest abuse referrals to police: 21. Of those, none were confirmed.

One reason: 83 percent of the residents are severely or profoundly mentally disabled. And of Richmond’s 460 residents, 93 are considered “medically fragile.”

“The population that Mexia State Schools serves is very different than the population Richmond State School serves,” Fedorov said.

Richmond Superintendent Al Barrera also credits his staff; many have spent their entire career at the school.

“We have the most tenured staff in the system,” he said.

Lillian Randle, 45, has spent 29 years working for the state, the last 10 at Richmond. “And I’m loving every minute if it,” she said. “It’s a job where you can always be happy.”

terri.langford@chron.com

TX: 'Fight club' probed at home for disabled

March 10, 2009

Seven employees suspended at state-run school in Texas; charges expected
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29618496/?GT1=43001

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Seven employees at a state-run home for the mentally disabled have been suspended for allegedly staging a "fight club" among residents.

Corpus Christi Police Captain Tim Wilson says the fight clubs were uncovered when someone gave an off-duty police officer a cell phone containing videos of fights at the Corpus Christi State School.

Wilson says the videos show mentally disabled adult clients punching, shoving, and striking each other while the employees watch.

Wilson calls the abuse "appalling." He says police expect to file charges against several employees by the end of the week.

The school opened in 1970 and is home to about 360 people, according to the Web site of the state Department of Aging and Disability Services.

TX: Perry makes schools for mentally disabled priority

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
Feb. 3, 2009, 8:46PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6245331.html

AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday declared protecting residents of Texas institutions for the mentally disabled an emergency issue for lawmakers, a move that comes after a federal report found negligent and abusive care and conditions that contributed to dozens of deaths.

The state has "a duty to ensure the safety" of those living in those facilities, Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, working with Perry's office, filed a bill that would create a governor-appointed ombudsman to investigate injuries and deaths and oversee the institutions known as state schools.

Other proposed changes include better background checks for staff, audits of the schools twice a year and other safety measures.

The bill does not call for a moratorium on enrollment or closing schools that some advocates for the disabled have demanded.

Texas houses nearly 5,000 residents in 13 state schools. Critics of the system say the state is stuck in an era when the mentally disabled were hidden away in large, impersonal facilities far from relatives and communities.

Nelson said while lawmakers will debate those issues, she intentionally left them out of the bill to help pass these changes.

"There are people who feel we should eliminate them, there are people who strongly believe they should continue to exist," Nelson said. "Emotions fly on that issue. We'll look at all that."

A Justice Department report released in December found at least 53 patients in Texas' large residential facilities died in 2007 from preventable conditions that were often the result of lapses in care.

It concluded that the Texas facilities violate residents' rights and called the number of injuries to patients "disturbingly high."

The report also noted hundreds of state investigations of allegations of abuse and mistreatment of residents, the danger of more than half of state facilities losing Medicaid funding because of care and safety problems and more than 800 workers fired or suspended for mistreating patients since 2004.

"We must never tolerate the abuse or neglect of our most vulnerable citizens," Nelson said. "These special Texans deserve to be protected and treated with dignity and respect."

Other changes proposed by Perry's office and Nelson's bill include moving residents charged with crimes to a special facility away from the rest of the population, creation of an abuse-and-neglect hotline and surveillance cameras in common areas.

Nelson also said the state should spend more on salaries and training for institution workers.

Some of the changes are modeled after sweeping reform made in the state juvenile prison system in 2007 when the Texas Youth Commission was wracked by allegations of staff abuse of inmates and a coverup.

Perry's chief of staff Jay Kimbrough, who was a central figure in the TYC reforms, is now tackling the state schools issue for the governor's office.

Susan Payne of College Station is the vice president of the Parent Association for the Retarded of Texas and a defender of keeping the state schools open. Payne's 47-year-old sister lives in the Denton school.

Payne applauded some of the proposed changes, saying they will help ensure residents get quality care.

"There will be a need for these state schools for the severely and profoundly retarded. That's just common sense," Payne said.

Richard LaVallo, interim legal director for Advocacy Inc., which has called for a moratorium on admissions, said his group supports the changes in the bill.

But Advocacy Inc. also wants a ban on use of mechanical restraints and straight jackets and restrictions on the use of psychiatric drugs on residents.

It also wants advocacy groups to be allowed better access to state schools to act as watchdogs.

"The more open and transparent they are could help enhance safety in those facilities," LaVallo said.

TX: Troubled state schools under information blackout

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6246139.html

AUSTIN — The agency in charge of Texas institutions for the mentally disabled has imposed a near blackout on information about the troubled facilities, which Gov. Rick Perry this week declared an emergency issue for lawmakers.

Facing federal pressure to correct widespread abuse and neglect in the facilities known as state schools, the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services has quashed more than a dozen requests for information in the past two years, the San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday.

The agency clamped down in response to a Justice Department investigation that found at least 53 state schools residents died in 2007 from preventable conditions that were often the result of lapses in care.

Open records requests ranged from statistics on abuse and neglect to staffing vacancies. A review of Texas attorney general's opinions showed DADS invoked the threat of possible litigation from the Justice Department in order to withhold information, the newspaper reported.

"People have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, as well as how our most vulnerable citizens are being treated," said Jeff Garrison-Tate, president of the group Community Now! that advocates for the mentally disabled.

On Tuesday, Perry's office said the state has "a duty to ensure the safety" of those living in those facilities.

DADS releases reports that assess how well facilities follow a wide sweep of regulatory rules. Cecilia Federov, an agency spokeswoman, said family members can use those reports and other tools to gauge the risk of state schools.

For example, the agency posts online lists of state regulations that facilities have violated in recent years. But the Web site doesn't include any specifics about the allegations or incidents the agency investigated.

Government agencies must publicly disclose information after giving it to the opposing party in the anticipated litigation. But agencies aren't requested to let the person who requested the information know what happens.

Tom Kelley, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said he thinks there is limited potential for state agencies to abuse the litigation exception because the records can only be withheld temporarily.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, working with Perry's office, has filed a bill that would create a governor-appointed ombudsman to investigate injuries and deaths and oversee the institutions known as state schools.

MO: Fight over care at Mapaville state school moves into court

NOTE: A nurse admitted that she knew some loud noises will induce a seizure in a child wih epilepsy - and was recorded as DELIBERATELY and repeatedly ringing a bell, telling others, "Watch me as I thrown him into a seizure."

Other abuses were recorded. Yet the school is claiming they've done no wrong...

By Robert Patrick
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
01/29/2009
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/60D0FCC9EF75F2008625754D000F9054?OpenDocument

Mapaville — Sheila Scott's severely disabled son Chandler cannot tell her what he learned at his state-run school in this Jefferson County town. Although he is 12, he cannot communicate how he is treated. So the mother started hiding a tape recorder in his wheelchair.

What she didn't hear disturbed her: no distinctive pop from the opening of a can of his PediaSure lunch, none of the familiar sounds of him eating.

What she did hear was disturbing, too. In one case, it was the sound of a school nurse ringing a bell and saying, "Watch me throw him into a seizure," and then ringing it about 30 times more.

The nurse later admitted to an inquiry panel for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, that she knew loud noises might trigger seizures in epileptic children such as Chandler.

In a 2-1 decision last month, that panel sustained Scott's complaints of abuse and neglect. But neither side is satisfied.

DESE says the panel went too far, and is seeking an order in federal court in St. Louis to overturn the finding as unfounded.

Scott and parents of eight other students are suing too, saying the panel did not go far enough. They're asking a federal judge to close all 35 state schools for the severely disabled because of a "continued and persistent failure" to properly educate the disabled as required by law.

They ask that the state be forced to fire offending Mapaville staffers and install Web cameras there and at similar schools, so parents and officials can monitor what goes on.

"These kids are shoveled into these state schools to be forgotten about — not to be educated and not to be treated with respect," said Scott, of rural Jefferson County. "It seems like nobody cares how they were treated."

Jonathan Beck, the lawyer representing her and other parents, said the secret recordings she and two other mothers made were just a snapshot. "These are just the things we know," Beck said. "What about all the days and all of the classrooms we didn't tape? What did we miss?"

The suit claims the Mapaville school has chronically inadequate supervision and undertrained employees, and failed Chandler "through a persistent pattern of profound incompetence, willful neglect, gross misjudgment and reckless indifference to his rights."

State education officials say in their suit that Chandler got an appropriate education, and that the panel's decision was "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable." The Missouri attorney general's office, which represents the school, declined to comment.

Responding to questions by e-mail, Charlie Taylor, superintendent of the Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled, a part of DESE, said that complaints about Mapaville were met with "a thorough investigation" and that "corrective actions were taken" as needed.

He declined to comment on personnel matters, or specifics of the state's appeal.

"We believe that all the state schools provide a safe and caring environment for the students entrusted to our care," Taylor wrote this week.

AN AIDE'S EYE VIEW

Chandler's host of medical problems, including cerebral palsy and epilepsy, put him at the developmental level of a 3- to 9-month-old. He must eat liquid or pureed food, doesn't cry and doesn't sweat, leaving him vulnerable to heat.

Scott said she became concerned when she worked as an aide in Mapaville in 2007. She said she saw students left in their wheelchairs all day instead of being engaged in therapy or education. She also said other workers came to her with concerns about her son's being left in a hot classroom.

After a day when she picked up Chandler soaking in his own urine, Scott quit the job, saying she couldn't work there and advocate for her son at the same time.

She bought a digital recorder at a Radio Shack, cut a small slit in the fabric covering the bottom of his wheelchair and secured it inside with Velcro. At night, she downloaded the recordings to a computer and spent hours reviewing them. She said she pulled Chandler out for good after spending one long night listening in vain for the sounds of him being fed.

Two other parents also made recordings.

One of them, Jamie Harvell, 39, of Festus, said that her 17-year-old son Joshua, who has a genetic disorder, once had an excellent teacher at Mapaville. But in recent years with different staff members, she said, Joshua did not get the exercise he needed. Her recording was unusable, and her family's complaint was rejected by a different state panel.

Harvell now home-schools Joshua.

The remaining parent, Melissa Conner, of Pevely, also lost her case on behalf of son Colten, who she claimed was not being properly educated.

On Dec. 8, the panel reviewing Scott's case ruled 2-1 that Chandler had not received a fair and adequate education from the first day of the 2007-08 school year, as required by law.

"It makes us feel like we can win one of these," said Beck, the lawyer, who is paid by a Crystal City advocacy group, the Disability Resource Association.

PANEL FINDS ABUSE

The panel members said that the manner in which staff talked to students in Chandler's classroom "seemed emotionally abusive," and suggested that if overheard by them, "it would at least be appropriate to report the person for abuse and neglect to the appropriate authorities."

The ruling said the "derogatory behavior" on the tapes seemed "at least fairly routine."

Scott "did not believe, for justifiable reasons, that it was safe for her child to attend" Mapaville, the opinion says, and "had no other choice" than to pull her son out of school.

Witnesses during the four-day administrative hearing in September testified that they had spotted staffers doing puzzles or reading books or magazines instead of interacting with the children — even getting a exercise workout during school hours.

One volunteer said she saw an aide in Chandler's classroom discipline a child with squirts of water in the face.

The panel noted that Chandler appeared to make "remarkable progress" once he was at home, working with a state-provided teacher and therapists under his mother's close supervision.

The ruling said Chandler should get a personal aide and extra therapy as compensation for his treatment at school.

The dissenting hearing officer, George Wilson, wrote that the school system was denied due process because it didn't even know what was at issue before the hearing. He said that Scott did not meet their burden of proof, and that the panel allowed hearsay testimony and audio recordings of "highly questionable evidentiary value."

Wilson declined to be interviewed about the case, as did the chief hearing officer, Samara N. Klein.

Chandler's teacher, a long-term substitute, did not have a college degree and had no education classes among the 60 credit hours she had accumulated toward an associate degree, the panel report said. She is now an aide in another classroom.

Sheila Scott said that she would educate Chandler herself if the state stopped paying for schooling at home, and that he would not return to Mapaville. "It's never going to happen."

rpatrick@post-dispatch.com 314-621-5154

Texas House panel doesn't recommend closing state schools for disabled

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
eramshaw@dallasnews.com
December 16, 2008

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-stateschools_16tex.ART.State.Edition1.4a849c8.html

AUSTIN – A House panel charged with reviewing Texas' care for the disabled has not recommended closing any of the state's 12 public institutions.

But it has called for the creation of a legislative committee to consider the future of these large "state schools," which juvenile justice advocates are working to close in favor of more community-based care.

And it is asking that the state schools be maintained only for the state's most medically fragile people – and that others be given more options to be served in the community or in smaller, more intimate care facilities.

The panel, made up of nine House members appointed by Speaker Tom Craddick, has also recommended that some money allocated to increase the number of state school employees instead be used to pay current employees higher salaries, and to better train them. State school employees have very high turnover rates, a result of their low wages and tough working conditions.

The work of such legislative panels serves as a starting point for drafting legislation when lawmakers meet next month. Not everyone on the panel seems to agree with all of the recommendations. Rep. Myra Crownover, a Republican whose district includes the Denton State School, attached her own statement to the final report, saying she saw an institutional bias against state schools, and wants to halt removal of residents from them without the approval of a parent or guardian.

"Some of them felt like it didn't go far enough, others felt like went too far," said Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, who chaired the panel. "We had differing views. ... You're going to see different members carry portions of this in the Legislature."

Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez, D-Weslaco, argues that Texas should consider expanding state schools or starting new ones.

And Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, is sponsoring his own legislation to start the process of downsizing state schools in favor of more community-based options.

Mr. Rose's proposal follows a recent U.S. Department of Justice report that found pervasive abuse and neglect and widespread civil rights violations at Texas' state schools. State budget advisers have also recommended downsizing the state school system, calling the current structure overly expensive and inefficient.

Texas lambasted over care of mentally disabled

Justice Department accuses state of violating patients’ constitutional rights

updated 3:32 p.m. ET, Wed., Dec. 3, 2008
DENTON, Texas - For more than a century, thousands of mentally disabled Americans were isolated from society, sometimes for life, by being confined to huge public hospitals.

In at least one place, they still are.

Texas has more mentally disabled patients in institutions than any other state, and the federal government has concluded that the state’s care system is stubbornly out of step with modern mental health practices.

Critics allege that Texas remains stuck in an era when the mentally disabled were hidden away in large, impersonal facilities far from relatives and communities.

“In Texas, it’s like a time warp,” said Jeff Garrison-Tate, an advocate who wants to close the 13 hospitals called “state schools” and move patients into group homes.

For the third time in three years, the criticism has attracted the attention of the Justice Department, which on Tuesday accused Texas of violating residents’ constitutional rights to proper care.

Investigators found that dozens of patients died in the last year from preventable conditions, and officials declared that the number of injuries was “disturbingly high.”

In addition, hundreds of documents reviewed by The Associated Press show that some patients have been neglected, beaten, sexually abused or even killed by caretakers. Inspection reports also describe filthy rooms and unsanitary kitchens.

‘Institution capital of America’

Many of the nation’s mental hospitals were first built in the 1800s, when they were often called insane asylums. But by the 1960s, most experts concluded that patients fared better in smaller, community-based settings.

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities says large care facilities — usually those with at least 16 residents — “enforce an unnatural, isolated, and regimented lifestyle that is not appropriate or necessary.”

Because of those concerns, eight states have abolished large institutions for the mentally disabled. Another 13 states closed most of their largest facilities, leaving just one open in each state.

But Texas has remained “the institution capital of America,” said Charlie Lakin, director of the Research and Training Center on Community Living at the University of Minnesota.

The 13 facilities in Texas house nearly 5,000 residents — more than six times the national average.

On a per-capita basis, Texas has 20.4 people per 100,000 in large institutions, Lakin said. The national average is 12.2 people.

Other states with large populations such as New York and California — which have rates of 11.2 and 7.5 people, respectively — rely far less on large institutions.

‘Warehousing’ patients

Federal law requires the mentally disabled to be treated in “the most integrated setting” possible — a factor that led to the Justice Department rebuke of Texas.

Laura Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, said the agency is expanding community-based services. Texas officials say keeping the facilities open is a matter of preserving as many treatment options as possible.

But critics allege that “warehousing” patients in large institutions invites abuse. Patients are isolated from their families and communities, making regular contact with loved ones more difficult. And caretakers often get overwhelmed by the large numbers of patients, Garrison-Tate said.

In Texas, officials verified 465 incidents of abuse or neglect against mentally disabled people in state care in fiscal year 2007. Over a three-month period this summer, the state opened at least 500 new cases with similar allegations, according to federal investigators.

An AP investigation earlier this year revealed that more than 800 state employees have been fired or suspended since the summer of 2003 because they abused, neglected or exploited mentally disabled residents.

And in the one-year period ending in September, as many as 53 deaths in the facilities were due to potentially avoidable conditions such as pneumonia, bowel obstructions or sepsis, the Justice Department said. Some families tell horror stories of their loved ones in the state facilities. For instance, Michelle Dooley said her son spent three months in the Austin State School, which she described as a place of “dingy yellow floors and patients running around without any clothes on.”

During his time there, he refused to leave his bed and often languished in his own excrement, she said.

Dooley eventually moved her son into a group home in Denton where treatment costs average about $50,000 per year — roughly half as much as the costs at state schools, Garrison-Tate said. Medicaid often picks up most of those costs.

“It was just horrible,” Dooley said. “If he goes back to a state facility, he will shut down and die.”

At the San Angelo State School, inspection reports from 2007 took note of scuffed walls pocked with holes, rotting food, dirty kitchens, broken furniture and missing shower curtains.

More seriously, two employees were fired after throwing a resident into a pool while he was wearing a restraint jacket. The employees had made a bet with the resident that he would be unable to dunk another resident under water. When he lost the bet, the employees restrained him and threw him in the water, according to the reports.

Other families say they are happy with the state care.

Neil Davidson said his daughter Susan, who has cerebral palsy and is mentally retarded, has flourished during her 10 years at the Lubbock State School.

“I’m very impressed with the level of care she has received,” Davidson said. “As far as I am concerned, it’s Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Everybody is looking out for everybody else.”

‘Happy, homelike atmosphere’

A visit to the Denton State School, the largest in Texas, reveals a sprawling campus spread across well-kept lawns. Superintendent Randy Spence described the place as a “happy, homelike atmosphere.”

“The vast majority of our employees love the people they work with,” said Cecilia Fedorov, another spokeswoman for the Department of Aging and Disability Services. “They think of them as extended family.”

But Denton is also the site of Texas’ most notorious case of state school abuse.

In 2002, a care worker repeatedly kicked and punched a resident in the stomach and groin. Haseeb Chishty nearly died after that beating. He is now confined to a wheelchair and unable to feed himself or use the bathroom.

“It got to the point where it was fun beating him, torturing him,” said former care worker Kevin Miller, who is now serving 15 years for aggravated assault.

In a statement videotaped by Chishty’s lawyer, Miller said he and many of his fellow care workers used methamphetamines, cocaine and Oxycontin on the job.

Chishty’s mother filed a lawsuit against the facility, but it went nowhere. In Texas, government entities are all but immune from lawsuits.

Trouble in closing schools

Some critics want to close the state schools. But because the Texas Legislature created each one, only lawmakers can close them.

Many of the institutions are large employers in small towns, and they often pay more than other jobs in rural areas. Lawmakers fear taking action that would lead to layoffs, Garrison-Tate said.

“Even if we said we wanted to close all state schools, the community resources aren’t there at this time,” said state Rep. Larry Phillips, chairman of a legislative committee studying the facilities.

Kelly Reddell, the lawyer whose client’s son was beaten nearly to death, said the state is not doing right by its mentally disabled.

“The very nature of the institutional setting, I think, creates the environment for the abuse to take place,” she said. “How in the world can you think this system is the best and it makes sense?”