Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Lacey on January 29, 2007, 11:16:32 AM
-
Witnesses Say Teen Was 'Held Down' In School Death
(AP) CARROLL COUNTY, Md. At least four youths at a private residential school for juvenile offenders have independently told their lawyers that they watched as Isaiah Simmons suffered an excruciating death at the Carroll County facility, Maryland's chief public defender said.
Simmons, 17, died Tuesday during a struggle with staff at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School.
According to chief public defender Nancy Forster, youths at Bowling Brook watched as staffers sat on Simmons for three hours until he passed out and died. One youth, Ronnell Williams, confirmed that account to The (Baltimore) Sun Friday evening.
"Four or five guys" held Simmons to the ground for more than two hours, and Simmons cried out several times that he couldn't breathe, Williams told The Sun. "We watched a guy die."
Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward R.K. Hargadon ordered Williams released into his mother's custody late Friday. Two other youths were also ordered removed from Bowling Brook in response to an emergency request by public defenders.
The emergency hearings will continue next week across the state, said Foster, who wants all of her office's clients at the school to have their cases reviewed in juvenile court. "We want our children out of there," she said.
The death of Simmons, 17, remains under investigation by the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. According to the office, staff at Bowling Brook said Simmons collapsed Tuesday evening while being restrained after an outburst. It was the first death of a youth in the custody of juvenile services since 2001.
Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services has a contract with Bowling Brook to educate juveniles in trouble with the law. Of the 170 students at the school on Tuesday, 74 were sent there by the department, said Edward Hopkins, a juvenile services spokesman.
Department of Juvenile Services staffers are providing indefinite 24-hour supervision inside the school, Hopkins said.
Simmons was in the department's custody after a juvenile court effectively found him guilty of armed robbery. He had entered Bowling Brook two weeks before his death.
Williams told The Sun that Simmons was having a hard time adjusting to the program. On Tuesday afternoon, Simmons said, "I'm going to spaz out," and had a disobedient outburst before school counselors, according to Williams. "He couldn't deal with the pressure," Williams said.
Bowling Brook has been in operation for decades and has drawn few complaints from youth advocates, who expressed surprise at Simmons' death. "My experience with Bowling Brook had always been that it's a great program," said Susan B. Leviton, who directs the juvenile law clinic at the University of Maryland. "When you (visited) Bowling Brook, every kid was involved in sports, they were going to school, they were keeping facilities clean. It was a very active and engaged place."
http://wjz.com/local/local_story_027105328.html (http://wjz.com/local/local_story_027105328.html)
Looked up on Bowling Brook's website about the school. Says it "provides care, education, behavior modification and supervision in a structured staff-secure environment. Services are designed to develop a positive learning image within each student, providing opportunities for competency development and holds students accountable through reparative activities with victims and the community."
I live about 15 minutes from this school. I didn't even know there were any kid of BM schools in the area...
I'm so tired of seeing this happen to kids in treatment. Its inexcusable.
-
Don't worry. TheWho will be by shortly to let you know that this facility helps kids and that if this were a real problem, we'd have heard about this much sooner.
"Some kids just can't be reached." Even by helpful professionals like these staff who volunteered over three hours of their time each to help this kid "learn and grow." He didn't want to be helped. They did their best.
-
Waa waa waa.. I acted up as a teen and now I am dead because I couldnt follow the rules.. waa waa waa. I make up stories and do bad things and get locked away in bad places and dont learn my lesson and still act up and now look i am dead.. waa waa waa.
-
Waa waa waa.. I acted up as a teen and now I am dead because I couldnt follow the rules.. waa waa waa. I make up stories and do bad things and get locked away in bad places and dont learn my lesson and still act up and now look i am dead.. waa waa waa.
Easy for ~you to say!
-
Another death, sad
Pray for his family.....
-
One hundred and twenty two...
-
Nurse reported school's methods
LPN at Bowling Brook says she was scolded for sending teen to ER
By Gadi Dechter and Greg Garland
Sun reporters
Originally published March 1, 2007
Five months before a student at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School collapsed and died while being restrained by staff, the school's nurse told the Department of Juvenile Services that she was concerned about the safety of youths held there, according to documents obtained by The Sun.
Janis Miller complained in August to the state about the staff's handling of several youths - including one who was badly bruised and scraped while being restrained. Bowling Brook director Michael Sunday later rebuked her for sending the teenager to a hospital emergency room, her written report said.
"My only concern is for the students. ... I could not live with myself if something happened to one of them that could permanently disable them or cost them their life," Miller wrote state officials Aug. 26. "Right now, I feel I am their only advocate."
In an interview, Miller said no state authorities responded to her complaint until the death of Isaiah Simmons, 17, in January.
A spokesman for the Department of Juvenile Services said yesterday that officials at the time regarded Miller's complaints as a "medical management issue," and they concluded the matter was best handled internally by Bowling Brook.
"In hindsight, this should have been given a lot more attention than it was given," said Edward Hopkins, the spokesman.
Steven Heisler, an attorney representing Simmons' family, said they were outraged to learn from a reporter of Miller's unsuccessful efforts to get the state's attention.
"If this is in fact true that the state was warned and failed to take action to investigate and stop these practices, it is reprehensible," Heisler said. "Had they taken action, Isaiah might be alive today."
Sunday and other officials at Bowling Brook did not respond yesterday to requests for comment.
The methods allegedly used to restrain Simmons at Bowling Brook, a privately run residential program for juvenile offenders, have provoked criticism from medical experts.
Witnesses have said they saw staff members sit on the struggling teen until he passed out during a restraint that lasted three hours. In a written statement, Bowling Brook officials denied any improper conduct.
The cause and manner of Simmons' death have not yet been established. The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is handling the investigation
Students and former Bowling Brook employees have said it was not unusual for youths to be held to the ground by staff, sometimes for hours, as a way of controlling disruptive behavior or punishing disobedience.
In an interview yesterday, a former Bowling Brook administrator, Maile Barrett, described an incident last year in which she saw a senior counselor sitting atop a prone student and "singing" while other counselors stood around and watched.
Putting pressure on someone's back while holding him facedown can restrict breathing and lead to death by "positional asphyxia," experts say. Bowling Brook officials have "categorically" denied their workers ever sat on students and said counselors use proper restraint techniques.
The Department of Juvenile Services placed Simmons at Bowling Brook two weeks before his death, after a juvenile court found him responsible for a robbery. In February 2006, he used a box cutter to rob another juvenile of a cell phone near the Inner Harbor.
Miller's written complaint offers insight into the management and culture of the once well-regarded residential school in Carroll County.
A licensed practical nurse who has worked at Bowling Brook for four years, Miller said she reported her concerns last summer after consulting with the state's nursing licensing board.
She said she noticed a change in the school's culture in March, after returning from eight weeks off to recuperate from surgery. Staff were more aggressive in confronting youths, she said, and "cursing" at students became commonplace.
Lack of treatment
Her complaint to the state details allegations of improper medical treatment, such as students going without prescribed medications for conditions such as diabetes, depression and seizures. But she decided she had to register her concerns with state officials after she saw the injuries a student sustained while being restrained by staff July 16.
"I've been working with restraints for five years before this job, and I never saw a kid look like that before," said Miller, who previously worked at Hoffman Homes for Youth, a psychiatric residential treatment program for children in Pennsylvania. "He looked like he'd been hit by a car."
She said the student, identified in records as Raymond Aur, 17, had "a large abrasion" and yellowish bruise on his face and other bruises on his torso. His body appeared "contorted," with his neck twisted toward one shoulder, according to her report to the state.
The Baltimore teenager has told The Sun that Bowling Brook workers took him outside and, during a lengthy restraint, pressed his face into fresh-cut grass as punishment for talking during a meal. At one point he urinated on himself, he said.
After talking with Maile Barrett, who was her supervisor, Miller said, she called the school's consulting physician. He recommended the youth be taken to the emergency room.
Physicians at Carroll County General Hospital "did not find any facial, cranial or shoulder fracturing of any kind," said Bowling Brook's incident report, written by Barrett.
About two weeks later, Bowling Brook director Sunday called Miller and Barrett into the school's conference room, according to Miller's written complaint to the state. Also present was Brian Hayden, who is listed in tax returns as the treasurer of the nonprofit school's board of directors.
Not 'team player'
During the meeting, Miller said, Sunday chastised her and Barrett for insubordination, saying the women had disregarded the consensus of counselors that Aur did not require a hospital visit.
"The team decided that Raymond Aur wasn't going to the ER," Sunday said, according to Miller's report, yet they "sidestepped" other staff and called the doctor.
"We were yelled at for not being team players," Barrett said in an interview.
Barrett was a 10-year veteran of Bowling Brook and the school's compliance officer since 1998 when she quit one week before Simmons' death. She said she left, in part, because Sunday made it clear after the Aur incident that she would not be promoted.
"Once you're labeled not a team player, you might as well kiss your butt goodbye," Barrett said. "I felt like I was being pressured out of the door."
Meanwhile, Miller said, she was haunted by Aur's treatment. "There were sleepless nights," she said, "just worrying about another kid getting hurt."
Miller said she eventually decided to approach authorities with her concerns. On Aug. 22, she called Anne Fox, a manager with the Department of Juvenile Services' medical division, who put nurse manager Kay Schoo on the phone as well.
In the phone call, Miller said, she told Schoo and Fox about the severity of Aur's restraint, about Sunday's reaction and other concerns. Fox instructed Miller to send a report to Schoo's attention documenting her allegations.
Miller did that on Aug. 26, records show. She did not hear back from the state. "Not a single word," Miller said. "I didn't hear from them again until Isaiah Simmons died. Anne Fox called me the next day and asked me how I was doing."
When she asked Fox why no one had responded to her report, Fox said she was not at liberty to discuss it, Miller said. Juvenile Services officials declined to make Fox or Schoo available for interviews yesterday.
Since Simmons' death, Miller said, she has been interviewed several times by Jeff Kessler, an investigator with the department's internal investigations unit. When she told Kessler about her complaints against Bowling Brook five months earlier, he said he had not been aware of them, she said.
Miller said she regrets she didn't do more to alert authorities about practices at the school, but she had believed the state would investigate her claims. "I don't know what else I could have done," she said. "I thought they were taking care of it. They're the ones who were supposed to take care of it."
The state's new Juvenile Services secretary, Donald W. DeVore, agreed the agency should have done more.
"Clearly, this department should be following up and taking action on warnings from health professionals and to fail to do so is unacceptable," De-Vore, who was appointed to the post by Gov. Martin O'Malley last month, said in a statement. "We will not let warnings about the safety of children in our care just slip through the cracks." :roll:
[email protected] (http://mailto:[email protected])
-
Youth facility will be closed
Teen died in restraint at Bowling Brook school
By Greg Garland and Gadi Dechter
Sun Reporters
Originally published March 2, 2007, 10:12 PM EST
Under pressure from the state, officials at Bowling Brook Preparatory School have agreed to close the 50-year-old reformatory where a student died five weeks ago while being restrained by staff.
The privately run residential program in Carroll County issued a statement that it will shut down Friday even as construction crews kept working on an addition funded in part by the state. :question:
In Annapolis, Maryland's new juvenile services secretary, Donald W. DeVore, said his agency probably would have acted to revoke Bowling Brook's license if the once highly regarded program for juvenile offenders hadn't decided on its own to close.
"I want to tell you that it's with a heavy heart that I make this announcement," DeVore said. "Bowling Brook has a large constituency throughout the state and it is a very sad time for many people."
But he said he felt had "no option" but to remove all Maryland youths from the facility, given concerns about its practices.
Word of the closing came as authorities continued to investigate the death Jan. 23 of Isaiah Simmons, 17, of East Baltimore. Witnesses have said they saw Bowling Brook counselors sit on the struggling teen until he passed out during a restraint that lasted three hours. Bowling Brook officials have denied any improper conduct.
The Sun reported Thursday that five months before Simmons' death, Bowling Brook's nurse notified the Department of Juvenile Services that she was concerned for the safety of youths at the school, but state officials never responded.
In her written complaint, she said a youth had been badly bruised and scraped while being restrained by staff and that Bowling Brook's director chastised her for sending the student to the hospital.
The Simmons family expressed relief at the news the school will close.
"We're happy because this ensures that no other juveniles will be injured while under the care of Bowling Brook. Apparently it was not a very safe environment for children," said Danielle Carter, Simmons' sister.
DeVore, who was sworn in as juvenile services secretary this week, said he is implementing several reform measures in response to the Bowling Brook controversy. :roll:
He said his agency will within 30 days issue guidelines for both state and privately run programs for juveniles on the proper use of restraint. Under those rules, staff at all facilities that handle youths in state custody will have to be trained by state-approved instructors. The state has exercised virtually no oversight of staff training at private facilities. :roll: [A little behind the times. Restraint in teen warehouses has been an issue for over a decade.]
Students and former Bowling Brook employees have said it was not unusual for youths to be held to the ground by staff, sometimes for hours, as a way of controlling disruptive behavior or punishing disobedience. Experts say that putting pressure on a person's back while he is face down can lead to death.
DeVore said his department also will conduct an "inspection sweep" of all private juvenile facilities with the next 90 days to make sure they are operating in a safe manner.
And officials will begin interviewing youths after they leave both state and private facilities so they can speak more freely about any problems or concerns about their experience, he said. :tup:
DeVore acknowledged that Bowling Brook's closure compounds the state's already critical shortage of "residential beds" for juvenile offenders among state- run and privately run facilities. The Ehrlich administration closed most of the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County in 2005 and cut the number of beds at other state programs. Some students have been sent to programs in other states as a result.
DeVore said he will soon announce plans to expand the state's capacity to treat children, and he said it was a priority of his department to keep juvenile offenders in Maryland when possible.
[reopening Bowling Brook?]
At the time of Simmons' death, Bowling Brook was housing 170 juvenile offenders -- 74 from Maryland and most of the rest from Pennsylvania.
Only eight juvenile offenders placed by Maryland were there as of Friday, along with 41 from Pennsylvania. All will be removed by Friday, when the school will be shut, officials said.
State Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin, a longtime critic of Maryland's juvenile justice programs, said he has been pleased with DeVore's handling of the crisis.
"I think we will very quickly see the new secretary opening up at least one new facility," said Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat.
He said he thinks the state should re-open the Victor Cullen Academy in Frederick County, which closed in 2002. State officials have talked about re-opening the school as a 48-bed residential program.
The state's chief public defender said Friday that the closure of Bowling Brook would throw the state into a "crisis" unless the Department of Juvenile Services opens additional programs to house youth offenders.
"If they don't open some new facilities close to where the families of these kids live," said Nancy Forster, "then they most certainly are in a crisis."
The future plans for Bowling Brook were unclear Friday.
Although the school announced it would close next week, its written statement seemed to suggest that it could reopen later.
The statement said the school, in Keymar, "remains committed to serving its mission of helping young men make positive changes in their lives and becoming productive citizens" and that it is "proud of its 50-year history of fulfilling that mission."
A school spokesman declined to say whether that meant Bowling Brook hoped to reopen.
DeVore said that an institution's license automatically becomes invalid when it decides to close. He said he was "not prepared at the moment to talk about the future" possibility of Bowling Brook reopening.
In their written statement, Bowling Brook officials expressed sympathy to Simmons' family. "Since the death of Isaiah Simmons, Bowling Brook has cooperated fully with the Department of Juvenile Services and other investigators, and Bowling Brook will continue its cooperation," the statement said.
The school's closure comes amid an expansion that began in 2001 and that has been funded in part with grants from the state of Maryland.
"Please excuse our mess while we expand," reads a sign near the entrance. The current construction work is for a vocational training school on the campus.
Legislative analysts said the school has received about $2.3 million in state grants, funded through bond issues, since 2001 to build new dorms and other facilities and equip them. The school housed 39 youths the first year it received state funds and grew rapidly until it was housing 170 this year. The school began operations in 1957 at a home situated on a 264-acre farm.
It was funded with money from the will of Raymond I. Richardson, who established a foundation to run a "charitable institution for orphan boys, indigent boys and other boys who may be in need of the assistance of this foundation."
[email protected] (http://mailto:[email protected])
Sun reporter Laura McCandlish contributed to this article.
-
Another one down......
-
Another one down......
Only a few thousand more to go. Problem is, they're like cockroaches -- hard to kill, and new ones keep appearing out of nowhere.
-
Notice how these parents want the state punished for sending their kid there?
So why when a pare sends a kid away, is it just dismissed as them being duped. Why the disconnect?
-
Exactly!
Ex-program parents on fornits: A bunch of fucking whiny hypocrites!!!
-
:P :lol: :( :-? :o :flame: :evil: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :cry2: :cry2: :exclaim: :wink: :oops: ::argue:: :nworthy: :nworthy: :tup: :tup:
-
Thank ya, thank ya..
-ganja
-
Bump.
-
WESTMINSTER, Md. - A grand jury indicted six former staff members at a school for juvenile offenders on charges of reckless endangerment in the death of a 17-year-old student, officials announced Tuesday.
Isaiah Simmons died Jan. 23 while being restrained by staff at Bowling Brook Preparatory School.
State’s Attorney Jerry F. Barnes said the charges stemmed from a 41-minute period during which Simmons was unresponsive but staff at didn’t call 911.
“They thought he was faking,” Barnes said.
Medical examiners ruled his death a homicide, and the FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the case. The school has since closed.
The grand jury declined to indict the six employees on the more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter. Steven Heisler, an attorney for Simmons’ family, said he disagreed with that decision and that he has asked Barnes to file manslaughter charges against the six employees.
The six named in the indictment are Michael P. Corradi of Middletown, Pa.; Dennis Harding of Baltimore; Brian G. Kanavy of Mechanicsburg; Jason W. Robinson of Westminster; Shadi Sabbagh of Keymar; and Mark R. Sainato of Keymar. Barnes did not release names for any attorneys representing the men.
If convicted of the misdemeanor charge, each could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Bowling Brook administrator Brian Hayden said the school, a long-standing non-profit group, fully supports its former employees.
“Hopefully, the truth will bear out through the criminal proceedings and these gentlemen will be found innocent of all charges,” he said in the statement.
Bowling Brook was under contract with the state of Maryland to educate boys in trouble with the law. Youths there, including some from Pennsylvania, were relocated to other schools after it closed.
The Maryland Department of Juvenile Services placed Simmons at the school following a 2006 conviction for robbery with a deadly weapon.
Simmons’ death prompted the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services to reform its crisis intervention policies.
Staff at state-owned and private juvenile facilities have been advised that youths should only be restrained if there is an immediate risk of harm, that restraints should last a maximum of 30 minutes, in 15-minute intervals, and that they must be videotaped. Simmons was restrained over a period of several hours.
Medical staff also will have to be consulted in the event of a restraint that lasts 15 minutes, Donald DeVore, Maryland’s secretary of juvenile services, said Tuesday.
“These are things that, based on my experience, if they had been in place at the time that Isaiah died, might have saved his life,” DeVore said.
DeVore also said that he would not allow staff to use compliance techniques that caused pain.
“There are methods for juveniles that are safe methods of dealing with kids that don’t cause pain,” he said.
-
Faking death for 41 minutes? Is this place a drama school?
5 years....5 years for murdering a child, oh........my..........God :flame: