Linda Harris, 14, Death at Chad Youth Enhancement Center

[Deborah]

Questions abound after Amityville teen's death at troubled youth home
Teen?s collapse is latest incident involving treatment at youth facilities out of state
 
BY LAUREN TERRAZZANO
STAFF WRITER
September 20, 2005

A 14-year-old Amityville girl died under unexplained circumstances Sunday at a Tennessee home for troubled children, leaving her father dazed less than a week after Suffolk County placed her there for a range of emotional problems.

Linda Harris' death has left her father, Purcell, a retired custodian, grief-stricken. It has also left Suffolk officials and Tennessee law enforcement questioning the details leading to her collapse Sunday night.

 "I don't know what to make of all of this," said Harris, staring yesterday from an armchair in his Amityville home at Linda's green and purple bike, propped against a wall. Linda's mother died 12 years ago after complications from carrying twins. He raised her alone since, even as her emotional state deteriorated.

"I raised her from the time she was born, but I needed help," he said, noting that trouble began around fifth grade.

Suffolk probation officials said they are concerned because they have received conflicting accounts from the Montgomery County, Tenn., sheriff's department and the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Ashland City on the incident.

Harris, who arrived less than a week ago from Suffolk after Family Court Judge Joan Genchi placed her there, was being escorted to a "time out" room after an emotional outburst when workers said she collapsed. But sheriffs are investigating whether the girl was being restrained physically -- and possibly illegally -- by a worker at the time of the incident, according to Suffolk sources and Tennessee law enforcement officials.

"There was an incident involving the escort of this young lady and that's what's being investigated," said Ted Denny, a sheriff's spokesman.

She was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m. Sunday. An autopsy was being conducted yesterday by the Nashville medical examiner's office, but results were not available as of last night.

"We're very concerned we received conflicting information from the residential facility and the Montgomery County sheriff's department," said John Desmond, Suffolk's director of probation, which oversees out-of-state placements by Family Court. "We're sending a team to the facility to investigate."

The death comes a little more than a month after Gov. George Pataki signed legislation known as Billy's Law, designed to better protect children in out-of-state treatment centers, following myriad accounts of abuse, neglect and deaths of New York children. In July, Long Island officials pulled its children out of Berkshire Farm Center, a home for troubled boys in upstate Canaan, after allegations of sexual and physical abuse. And a New Jersey treatment center, Bancroft Neurohealth Center, which accepts some Long Island children, agreed to sweeping reforms after the death of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy there.

For years, Long Island Family Court judges have relied on out-of-state centers for their most severely troubled children, because there are few options locally.

According to records and her family's accounts, Linda Harris was a girl hopelessly adrift. Her 77-year-old father was having a hard time controlling her emotional outbursts. Her rage was so explosive at times that she once stabbed a wall and sliced up the furniture in his house, he said. Linda, at 5 feet 7 inches and at more than 300 pounds, ran away from local treatment centers where she was placed by the Family Court at the request of her father. She refused to take her anti-psychotic medication.

Yet in other ways, she seemed like an average teenage girl. She loved talking on the phone. She loved romance novels and movies like "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Brown Sugar." She loved hip hop. Her diploma from a recent Drug Abuse Resistance Education program hung proudly on the living room wall.

The center released a statement yesterday saying it was cooperating fully with the sheriff's inquiry and that the staff aide who escorted Harris to the "time out" room has been temporarily suspended, according to Buddy Turner, the center's regional vice president. But they declined to comment further on whether she was restrained.

The Tennessee center now houses 75 children. Suffolk has paid it $790,000 since 2002.

Harris' father, who was unaware of the conflicting accounts until told by a reporter, said he was shocked and looking for clues about his daughter's death.

"I talked to her on Wednesday when she got there and she said she liked it and was happy and that she would call back," said Purcell Harris. "But she never did."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longi ... mailedlink

[Deborah]

"My son almost died there at Chad," she said. "His appendix ruptured and the staff kept telling him he was making up the pain. By the time he finally arrived at Gateway ER, his whole body was full of infection, and he almost lost his life because Chad put it off so long and made him wait to get any medical help for it."
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pb ... 10321/1002

[RN on Board]

This is awful. Another reason why all observation rooms and living areas need to have video surveilance - staff often lie and cover things up. Hopefully we'll know more of the truth as this unfolds. It's hard to immagine that a 14 year old (even though she was morbidly obese at 300 lbs) would just collapse and die while being escorted to an observation room at 10 pm at night. Sounds like there's much more to this story.

[Anonymous]

Has there been any update on this? I heard that a 12 year old died recently as well.

[tommyfromhyde1]

Could this be a forced exercise death?

But this is far from demonstrating that the authorities must interpose to suppress these vices by commercial prohibitions, nor is it by any means evident that such intervention on the part of the government is really capable of suppressing them or that, even if this end could be attained, it might not therewith open up a Pandora's box of other dangers, no less mischievous than alcoholism and morphinism.
http://www.mises.org/liberal/ch1sec11.asp' target='_new'>Ludwig Von Mises

[Anonymous]

Has there been any more information on this? Just one article? :question:

[Deborah]

A second death at Chad.
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... 563#265563

What happened in Linda Harris's case

A new account of death surfaces
LI teen who died at troubled home was in restraints and hurt when she arrived at hospital, woman says
BY LAUREN TERRAZZANO
Newsday
September 24, 2005

Linda Harris  
A Tennessee woman has told Suffolk authorities that the 14-year-old Amityville girl who died Sunday at a home there for troubled children was found by paramedics with scraped elbows, blood in her mouth, and in physical restraints when they arrived to try to resuscitate her.

Her story contradicts what the home's officials have said about the girl's death as a probe continues to determine the cause.

Suffolk probation officials, who placed Linda Harris in the Chad Youth Enhancement Center two weeks ago for treatment at the urging of the county Family Court and the girl's father, Purcell Harris, said they are taking the woman's account seriously.

They have asked Tennessee law enforcement and child welfare agencies, as well as New York State child welfare officials, to investigate. "I'm very concerned and believe it opens up additional questions that need to be addressed," said John Desmond, the county's probation director.

The woman, Donna Hodges, said she was appalled by the scene Sunday night in the Tennessee hospital emergency room where Harris was taken. "If that poor girl was hurt in any way, people need to know," said Hodges, of Clarksville.

She added that she was at the Gateway Medical Center getting her 17-year-old son treated when she said she overheard paramedics updating doctors on Harris, who was in the next bay. She said the only thing separating them was a curtain.

The story conflicts with what officials at the home have said about Harris' death, the cause of which still remains a mystery.

They said the teenager, who had a history of emotional problems, was being escorted to a "time out" room when she collapsed. Officials for Chad did not return phone calls Friday.

In Tennessee, Capt. Scott Marshall, of the Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services, which responded to the home to treat Linda, said the department couldn't comment pending the outcome of the investigation.

A spokesman for New York Office of Children and Family Services, which oversees placements, has recommended that counties suspend sending children to the center until the completion of the investigation. New York now has no children there.

"We always take a fatality review extremely seriously," said Brian Marchetti, an agency spokesman.

Tennessee child welfare officials have now stopped placements there.
 

Heart woe killed girl, officials say
BY LAUREN TERRAZZANO
STAFF WRITER
November 2, 2005

The 14-year-old Amityville girl who died while being escorted to a "time out" room at a Tennessee home for troubled children in September apparently died of cardiac arrest, according to law enforcement officials and attorneys familiar with the autopsy findings.

But despite the autopsy results, the family of Linda Harris has filed a notice of claim in a wrongful death lawsuit against Suffolk County, which placed her at the Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Ashland City, Tenn., and the State of New York, which oversees the placements. They said unanswered questions remain about what led to the death. The suit will allege negligence and seeks damages for pain and suffering, said Harris family attorney, Stephen Siben of Bay Shore.

"It's hard to move on until we find some real answers," said her brother, Reggie Harris of Amityville, questioning what exactly happened in the moments leading up to his sister's death. Harris weighed more than 300 pounds at the time, and the autopsy cited obesity as a contributing factor in her death. But her family said she was very active, rode her bike and would often run around without getting winded, and questioned how she could have had cardiac arrest.

At the time of her death, Linda Harris was having an emotional outburst at the center where she had resided less than a week, according to workers.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," said Siben, adding that he has yet to get a copy of the official report from the Nashville medical examiner, nor an official death certificate. The medical examiner's office did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Tennessee law enforcement officials would say only that "It appears to have been a terrible accident," said Ted Denny, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department in Tennessee.  :roll:

His agency had been investigating whether Harris, who, according to family members and records, had a history of emotional problems, had been improperly restrained by workers during her outburst. He declined to comment further on whether any charges would be brought.

Suffolk County officials declined to comment on the notice of claim. The county's probation department, which places children at the center at the order of Family Court, has since removed all other children. The county has paid the center nearly $800,000 since 2002.

Brian Marchetti, a spokesman for the New York State Office of Children of Family Services, said he was unaware of any lawsuit but emphasized that the office takes child fatalities "extremely seriously."

Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.