I've seen this on the news a few times lately, I thought I would post the story:
Wilderness camp may be closed after assaults alleged
State moves to revoke license; director cites Strayhorn 'vendetta'
09:00 PM CDT on Thursday, August 26, 2004
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN ? The state has moved to shut down and revoke the license of a Bastrop County wilderness camp where two male employees have been accused of sexually assaulting teenage boys.
"Your operation is an immediate threat to the health and safety of children, therefore, you are not to operate," Charlane Bateman, the state's director of residential child-care licensing, wrote to an officer of the Woodside Trails Therapeutic Camp.
Camp director Bebe Gaines, who has attributed its problems to a "political vendetta" by state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, said Thursday that the facility will fight the Department of Family and Protective Services' attempt to strip it of a license.
"We ... will ask for an administrative review," Ms. Gaines said in a statement. "Regardless of the outcome, I am proud of all the good that we have done for the most difficult of Texas's children."
Jackie Dewayne Reynolds Jr. 36, is accused in the indictments of waking a 13-year-old resident one night last spring and forcing the youth to engage in oral sex.
Robert Carl Meuth, 26, of San Marcos is accused of fondling and performing oral sex on a 15-year-old resident in late 2001.
Both men have posted $50,000 bail.
Woodside Trails, a primitive camp where the state has placed foster boys for two decades, has received numerous citations. In April, Ms. Strayhorn criticized it for mixing foster children with juvenile offenders.
Geoff Wool, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said the state didn't act sooner to close the camp because it wasn't until the last three months that tipsters informed a state child-abuse hotline of the assault allegations.
"Basically, it was mounting evidence in a situation that needed to be addressed," Mr. Wool said.
"We had those four allegations that were all serious in nature that came up within a 10-week period."
Mr. Wool said he was referring to, in addition to the allegations of sexual abuse by staff members, two other incidents that a state inspector confirmed July 1 ? a beating by two boys of a third boy, causing head injuries; and a boy's obtaining marijuana from a female staff member's daughter.
Mr. Wool said child-care licensing authorities had to investigate and confirm the allegations before they decided Wednesday to move to revoke Woodside Trails' permit and order that all children be removed by this evening.
E-mail
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com.
