State lawmakers today visited Corpus Christi State School, an institution for Texans with mental disabilities, less than a week after Gov. Rick Perry suspended admissions there following police allegations that employees encouraged residents to fight each other.
State Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, said that he and other lawmakers went to the dorm-style home where police say that the late-night fights occurred. The fights were filmed on a cell phone that was obtained by authorities. State officials last week ordered video surveillance for common areas at all 13 state schools.
“I saw today how the presence of security cameras in the public spaces could potentially have benefit on the safety of residents in the private spaces,” Rose said.
Rose gave what he called “a sad and tragic example.” Staff members at Corpus Christi State School are supposed to patrol private living spaces every 15 minutes, he said. But in 2007, a 28-year-old woman hanged herself with shoelaces — and Rose said it was clear that the staff did not do the required patrols because the woman was not discovered until “well after” she died.
Rose, chairman of the House Committee on Human Services, said he was joined at the state school by Nueces County lawmakers, State Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo, Perry chief of staff Jay Kimbrough, law enforcement officials and commissioner Addie Horn of the Department of Aging and Disability Services.
Rose’s committee is working on a House version of Perry’s emergency state school legislation, which the Senate has passed. He said he’d like to see improvements in the way abuse, neglect and exploitation are reported and investigated.
“We shouldn’t depend on the fluke of finding a cell phone,” Rose said.
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