Foster youngster dying linked to state-contracted residence prompts prison investigation

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The state has shut down a residential therapy heart in northeast Texas, three months after one in all its fees — an 11-year-old boy — died in an incident that foster care officers and native legislation enforcement are investigating.

The boy died in a Greenville movie show throughout an outing the day earlier than Thanksgiving, in keeping with three people who find themselves accustomed to the investigations. Different boys who lived on the heart advised Joe Sterner, the Lone Oak college district’s police chief, that the boy had complained a couple of abdomen ache and had sustained a head wound in current days.

“I guess when they were about to head out to go to the movies, he was in the bathroom, crying real bad that he was hurting real bad and they still told him to get on the van,” Sterner mentioned.

It isn’t identified if the kid died from an underlying sickness associated to abdomen ache or from a wound that he had on his head earlier than he entered the Greenville movie show.

The boy and his fellow housemates watched the film and by the point it ended, the kid was useless, one of many individuals accustomed to the case mentioned.

“The lights came up and the child had blood coming down his nose and he was deceased,” mentioned one supply, who spoke given that their title not be used as a result of they don’t wish to harm their skilled relationship with the Texas Division of Household and Protecting Providers, which oversees the state’s foster care system operations.

It isn’t clear if Thompson’s employees members who accompanied the youngsters to the movie show, sought medical therapy for the kid. The Texas Well being and Human Providers Fee, which oversees licensing of foster care amenities, mentioned Thursday that Thompson’s Residential Remedy Middle license has been revoked.

“HHSC determined Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center posed an immediate threat to the health or safety of children,” Jennifer Ruffcorn, fee spokesperson mentioned in an e mail.

DFPS moved rapidly to terminate its contract with Thompson’s Residential Remedy Middle, however the motion was additionally made quietly following dozens of earlier deficiencies alleged in state information and by close by residents. The residential therapy facility, or RTC, the place the boy was staying is one in all dozens contracted with the state to accommodate and deal with essentially the most traumatized and mentally sick foster care youngsters.

Information of the kid’s dying surfaced publicly for the primary time Monday at a Senate Finance Committee listening to centered on the state finances. DFPS and the Hunt County Sheriff’s Division are every investigating the boys’ dying. Each companies declined to publicly talk about their separate inquiries.

A DFPS spokesperson confirmed that the boy, whose title has not been launched, died on Nov. 27. The dying occurred six weeks after the state received a authorized battle in federal court docket that eliminated the decide presiding over a 14-year lawsuit in opposition to Texas’ youngster welfare system.

The Tribune made a number of unsuccessful makes an attempt to succeed in the ability. Public information counsel it’s owned by Chaun Thompson, who spent seven years within the NFL enjoying first for the Cleveland Browns, then the Houston Texans till he was sidelined by an harm in 2009. He additionally couldn’t be reached.

The Tribune was in a position to attain Julie Fox, who in keeping with LinkedIn, was Thompson’s therapy director from November 2009 by way of December 2024, however she declined to remark.

The Tribune discovered of the kid’s dying from a passing remark made by state Sen. Angela Paxton greater than two hours into Monday’s Senate Finance Committee listening to. Senators and Texas Well being Commissioner Cecile Younger and her chief monetary officer, Trey Wooden, have been discussing a finances proposal that may add regulatory employees for inspections of long run care suppliers.

“Tragically, in my district, there was an 11-year-old boy who passed away this past November while he was under the care of a licensed residential treatment center which has since had its license revoked and children placed in other centers,” Paxton mentioned on the 2:23 mark of that listening to.

“The investigation is ongoing so I will not speak to particulars of the case but I would like to just chime in on this issue as it is something very tangible and concrete in my district,” she mentioned.

Paxton declined to remark additional to the Tribune.

A historical past of issues

All 20 youngsters who have been residing at Thompson’s have been eliminated inside every week of the dying and positioned elsewhere, in keeping with the company.

Interviews and a search of public information and information accounts present the ability has had issues of various severity over the past a number of years. Youngsters have been injured and there have been a number of requires service made to the ability, which consists of two giant homes side-by-side alongside Farm to Market Street 1564, southeast of Greenville in Hunt County. One native legislation enforcement officer, who requested to not be named, mentioned it was often known as “the runaway center” due to how typically police are requested to find its residents who’ve run away from the ability.

The state maintains a database that lists deficiencies at residential therapy facilities over a 5-year interval. Thompson’s had 84 reported deficiencies with greater than a 3rd of them reported previously 12 months and 12 of them have been thought-about essentially the most extreme. There have been 117 experiences, 1 evaluation, 10 self-reported incidents and 69 inspections.

Notably, the state visited the ability someday earlier than the boy’s dying and discovered no deficiencies, in keeping with the state database.

Among the many extra critical deficiencies at Thompson’s listed within the state’s database embrace:

• On Aug. 4, 2023, a baby was in a position to depart the ability as a result of he was not correctly supervised.
• On Aug 14, 2023, a caregiver grabbed a 14-year-old by the neck.
• On Nov. 1, 2023, a staffer “engaged in a physical altercation with a 17 year old child in care. The staff actions placed the child at risk for significant harm.”
• On April 22, two youngsters have been concerned in a struggle leaving one with a black eye.
• On June 16, the ability didn’t observe a baby’s therapy plan. The day earlier than it was reported that employees didn’t intervene in an altercation that resulted in a baby being harm.
• On July 26 and July 2, it was reported a baby obtained a reduce underneath his eye on account of an altercation with one other youngster.
• On Aug. 2, the ability didn’t limit duties for provisional workers and supervision guidelines have been violated.
• On Sept. 19, two unsupervised residents bought right into a struggle on the facility.

Thompson’s file can also be stuffed with a number of experiences of holes left unrepaired within the partitions and uncovered wiring, damaged home windows and damaged blinds.

Protection from the native newspaper, Herald Banner, additionally chronicled critical issues through the years. In February 2020, two boys ran away from Thompson’s and have been on their very own for weeks earlier than being positioned, in keeping with the paper’s reporting. On April 18, 2015, Hunt County sheriff’s division despatched deputies to research an alleged sexual assault of a kid by a employees member there, the paper mentioned. On March 22, 2011, the information outlet reported deputies investigating an assault on employees by a number of of the boys residing there.

The Tribune has filed a request for all calls to the sheriff’s workplace.

Systemic challenges

Residential therapy facilities are inspected, licensed and monitored by the Texas Well being and Human Providers Fee. Relying on the extent of care wanted, the state pays residential therapy amenities between $52.71 to $480.86 per youngster per day. The company didn’t launch on Thursday how a lot it paid Thompson to run the middle.

It isn’t uncommon for foster care youngsters to run away from residential therapy facilities or interact in bodily altercations with one another and employees. The power points discovered on the greater than 80 residential therapy facilities statewide are sometimes topics of the 14-year lawsuit in opposition to the Texas’ foster care system.

Since 2019, the state foster care system has been present in contempt of the court docket 3 times for failing to observe U.S. District Choose Janis Jack’s orders to repair deficiencies. On the heart of the battle are the roughly 9,000 youngsters in everlasting state custody, faraway from their properties attributable to abuse at residence, complicated well being wants that folks are unable to handle, or the lack of their household caregivers, amongst different circumstances.

Lots of the most susceptible youngsters have been left in harmful placements together with residential facilities with poor supervision, the court docket has discovered. The final time a baby positioned in a residential therapy heart died was in 2021.

The explanation amenities are likely to find in rural areas, former long-time Hunt County commissioner Phillip Martin mentioned, is as a result of there are much less stringent rules in unincorporated areas than finding inside a metropolis.

Martin mentioned rural communities want to think about how a lot stress such a facility — one which homes youngsters with habits points — places on native assets, significantly its public college system and its legislation enforcement.

“Yet again, the state is shutting down a dangerous facility after another tragedy. Innocent children are still dying in state care,” mentioned Paul Yetter, the lawyer for the plaintiffs within the 14-year foster care lawsuit in opposition to DFPS. “This is not a safe system.”