http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... /301230022Joke sours as worker who poked fun at kids resignsA slide show made by administrators poked fun at the staff and students.
6:00 AM, Jan. 23, 2012 |
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Former Iowa Juvenile Home administrator Joan Gerbo is seen in what was meant to be a comedic slide show. / SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Written by
CLARK KAUFFMAN
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News
Powerpoint slide from Christmas program at Iowa home for troubled youth
http://desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/D2184220123.PDFAdministrators at the state-run Iowa Juvenile Home for troubled youth last month produced a slide show in which they jokingly referred to the children there as Fruit Loops and nuts.
Now, the administrator who helped compile the slide show has resigned amid a state investigation into the matter.
The PowerPoint presentation was part of a Dec. 14 Christmas program for the 57 children who live and attend school at the Toledo home. Many of those children have emotional problems and psychiatric needs that require a high degree of individualized treatment.
The slide show consisted of staged photos of the staff and children, accompanied by captions that were intended to be humorous. Although the staff was the butt of the joke in most of the slides, the children were the target of certain barbs.
One set of slides depicted two staffers looking over a list that consisted of Fruit Loops, nuts, bananas, Ding Dongs and fruit cake. One of the workers was shown asking, “Grocery list?” The other responded, “No …. Caseload.”
Another slide showed a staffer smiling and pretending to kick a bent-over child, with the caption, “Kicking @$$.”
View the entire Christmas program presentation from the Iowa Juvenile Home for Troubled Youth (large PDF file, may take a while to load)
http://desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/D2184220123.PDFRoger Munns, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services, which runs the home, said, “The intent of the slide show was to convey messages in a good-natured and off-beat fashion, but the result did not rise to the level of professionalism that we expect.”
Carol Thompson, president of the Iowa Juvenile Home Foundation, said she attended the Christmas program and was “startled” by the jokes about the children.
“It’s uncharacteristic of the institution, which has excellent programming,” she said. “I was surprised. I would not have expected that.”
The superintendent of the Iowa Juvenile Home, Deborah Hanus, said she didn’t see the slide show until it was shown to the staff and students during the Christmas program.
“It was one piece of a series of presentations and activities on the program,” she said.
The slide show was compiled by the education department, which was headed by Joan Gerbo, Munns said.
Gerbo said no one questioned her about the slide show immediately after the Christmas program ended, or in the two weeks that followed. But on Dec. 29, The Des Moines Register asked the Department of Human Services for a copy of the presentation. A few days later, Gerbo said, she was summoned to Hanus’ office.
“All hell broke loose,” Gerbo told the Register. “She called me in and said, ‘We’ve got this request from (a Register reporter).’ She said, ‘I could lose my job over this.’ She was very, very angry with me and my staff and she said, ‘From now on, we may just have to have you just tell me in advance of everything you’re going to do.’
“Then they launched an investigation. ... I said, ‘You know what? I am done. You are not going to make me a scapegoat.’ ”
Munns said Gerbo’s last day of employment at the home was Jan. 6. On Jan. 18, the Department of Human Services gave the Register a copy of the slide show, part of which shows Gerbo in a small room next to a skeleton that represents a child she “forgot” to check on. Gerbo appears dejected and is saying, “How am I going to explain this to the Department of Ed?”
The last of the 52 slides in the presentation read, “No staff or state equipment were harmed in the making of this power point. (only students).”
Thompson said that although she was surprised by the slide show, most of the children in the Iowa Juvenile Home come from difficult backgrounds and the inclusive nature of the slide show — with both the staff and the children serving as the focus of some jokes — might have been beneficial in some ways.
“Believe me, most of these kids have been called a lot worse than Fruit Loops,” she said. “These are kids that never before got invited to be in a Christmas show. So for them to be able to do this here, and have people who like them make fun of them, I don’t think most of the kids thought of that as belittling.”
Many of Iowa’s privately run health care facilities have been fined or cited by state inspectors for staffers’ comments about patients that were mocking, degrading or disrespectful.
Even well-intentioned comments can violate federal standards if they are perceived as condescending or belittling.
At least one Iowa nursing home was cited by the state years ago because a worker repeatedly referred to an elderly patient as “sweetie.”
State records show Gerbo was paid $77,699 annually.
