Another story about the atrocities at Lubbock SS

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082209 LOCAL NEWS 1 AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
The mother of a man who died at the Lubbock State School this summer said reports show her son, whose death was ruled a homicide Friday, was "body slammed" against a wall and "choked until he turned blue."
State school death a homicide
By Sarah Nightingale and Robin Pyle AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Saturday, August 22, 2009Story last updated at 8/22/2009 - 1:52 am
The mother of a man who died at the Lubbock State School this summer said reports show her son, whose death was ruled a homicide Friday, was "body slammed" against a wall and "choked until he turned blue."
Lilly Nicholson also said the report indicated an employee restrained her son by "sitting on him."
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Lubbock County Medical Examiner Sridhar Natarajan ruled Michael Ray Nicholson's death a homicide Friday morning, noting his cause of death as physical altercation with asphyxia.
Nicholson, 45, died at the state school on June 6 while in the care of six employees, who have since been fired.
"Since the death occurred during a physical altercation between individuals the manner of death is classified as a homicide," the autopsy report reads.
Charges have not yet been filed in the homicide. Capt. Greg Stevens said police officials presented on Friday morning a manslaughter case to the Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney's Office. Employees of the office will decide if any charges will be filed.
No suspects have been named.
The mother said she hoped authorities would prosecute those involved.
"This was a senseless thing," Nicholson said. "There was nothing else wrong with Michael. He was murdered."
Just before death
Lilly Nicholson said state reports show her son died while staff struggled to undress him.
The family has received numerous reports they requested from the Lubbock State School - now officially named the Lubbock State Supported Living Center - and the state agencies that oversee the school.
An Avalanche-Journal request to view the documents was recently declined by the Lubbock Department of Disability and Aging Services (DADS) and is awaiting a final decision from the Attorney General's office.
Nicholson said her son - who suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in relation to the clothes he wore - refused to dress on June 6 while "his one set of clothes" was being washed. Because of the condition, he was "allowed to be naked in his room," she said.
"They did dress him, but they killed him in the process," she said.
Michael Nicholson had a history of psychiatric and behavioral problems with episodes of combative behavior, according to the medical examiner's report.
Nicholson described her son Friday as someone who "did not know how to fight and never seriously injured anyone in his entire life."
"He could be obstinate, contrary, and frustrating when he could not communicate his needs and desires," she said.
Nicholson, who kept her son at home for 15 years, said he "had no physical problems (but) required constant care to keep him safe and healthy."
"He was in special ed classes from the time he was 5 years old, but never was able to advance. He was non-verbal," she said, adding, "he was a joy to us. He was truly innocent and loved the beautiful things in life. He loved to dance, sing and watch cowboy movies."
Nicholson said staff at the school "got carried away."
"If they hadn't done what they did, Michael would be alive today," she said.
According to the medical examiner report, Nicholson was partially on a bed and positioned for a period of time during which his head and neck were abnormally stretched. He was on a mattress with an individual lying over a portion of his upper torso.
He then became unresponsive, the report reads.
Natarajan said there were multiple areas of bruising, abrasions and lacerations on Nicholson's body, though none of those injuries were fatal. The medical examiner also found multiple areas of old bruising on the body.
Most concerning to Nicholson was evidence in the state reports that now dismissed school employee Donnell Smith restrained her son by "laying on him six or seven times."
A-J attempts to reach Smith were unsuccessful. His number is not listed in the phone book, and other numbers The A-J obtained for him were disconnected or went unanswered.
Nicholson said neurosurgeon Dr. Patrick Cindrich had told staff Nicholson was "not to be restrained, period," because of the potential it would cause detriment to a healed broken neck he suffered earlier. The man's neck was broken at the school, his mother said.
A 2006 Department of Justice report investigating practices at the school prohibited the use of manual restraints on school residents.
A report from a division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services noted Smith didn't believe he had restrained him because he laid on him, rather than restraining his arms, Nicholson said.
The report, Nicholson said, documents Smith stating he "wasn't going to put up with any of Mike's nonsense."
She said Smith was "agitating" Nicholson by "mocking him and making fun of him" and that after realizing her son was not breathing it was "too long before CPR was performed."
Three other staff, she said, were present in the room while Smith restrained Nicholson, causing him to "turn blue and stop breathing."
"No-one came to his aid," she said.
Investigations
Six state school employees - Smith, Jessica Santos, Abrisha Henderson, Amiya Harper, Craig Stevenson and Omar Jordan - were fired from the school after the incident.
The firings were made when a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services investigation confirmed their involvement in the physical abuse and neglect of Nicholson.
"The department has a zero tolerance policy regarding abuse and neglect of the residents in our care," said Laura Albrecht, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability.
"We believe we took swift actions when we received those confirmations (of abuse and neglect) from adult protective services."
The employees had been with the Lubbock State School from about six months to three years, Albrecht said.
None of them were listed in the Lubbock phone book, and The A-J wasn't able to reach Santos, Henderson or Stevenson through numbers obtained elsewhere.
The Lubbock State School houses approximately 300 people with the diagnosis of mental retardation. The 24-hour residential facility, located at 3401 N. University Ave., sits on a 226-acres site about three miles north of the city.
The school and others in the state have been under scrutiny by legislators and government officials for years.
In 2008, nearly 270 employees were fired or suspended for abusing or neglecting residents in the state schools, records published earlier this year show.
In June, just days before Nicholson's death, Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation aimed at improving security and oversight at the facilities.
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Advocates pleased with disability services gains in Legislature

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06:56 AM CDT on Thursday, June 4, 2009
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News eramshaw@dallasnews.com
AUSTIN – Faced with dangerous conditions inside Texas' institutions for the mentally disabled and a massive waiting list for community-based care, lawmakers didn't pick sides – they improved both.
They did it under pressure: from the U.S. Justice Department, from Gov. Rick Perry's office, from the national news media. And they owe much of their success to behind-the-scenes maneuvers by the Senate's key budget writer. But in the session that ended this week, the Legislature made landmark progress without playing favorites, gingerly balancing the competing interests of state school parents and advocates for independent living.
"The state has recognized that we need to provide resources for both types of care," said Rep. Drew Darby, a San Angelo Republican who started the session fearing that some of his colleagues might try to shutter the state school in his district. "We've had a blending of those needs this session – and a system we can all be proud of."
Advocates for the disabled say the progress made this session is staggering.
Lawmakers passed an emergency safety bill that creates an independent ombudsman to investigate injuries and deaths at state schools; requires fingerprinting, background checks and random drug testing of all state school employees; and installs security cameras in all facilities.
They agreed to a five-year, $112 million settlement with the Justice Department to hire more than 1,000 new state school workers, dramatically improve health care, and install independent monitors to oversee conditions at the facilities.
They gave approval for the family of a young man who was nearly beaten to death by a state school employee to sue the state; his mother had been trying for years.
And they provided an extra $200 million in state funds to provide community-based care for nearly 8,000 people stuck on long waiting lists – an unprecedented expenditure.
"It's a historic, monumental investment in the system," said Amy Mizcles, director of governmental affairs for the Arc of Texas. "They really worked on the entire system."
Investigation
The improvements follow a four-year federal investigation that found widespread civil rights violations across Texas' 13 state institutions for the mentally disabled, and years of media reports about abuse and neglect in the facilities. One of the most staggering came even as lawmakers were meeting – video of late-night "fight clubs" that employees at the Corpus Christi State School forced upon residents. The footage aired on Good Morning America and other national news programs.
The changes are largely the work of six key players.
Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, served as the clearinghouses for reform ideas, refereeing the bitter debate over whether the state schools were even worth saving. Advocates for community-based care argued that the state schools were dangerous and inefficient; state school families said community care was inadequate and under-regulated.
Meanwhile, Perry chief of staff Jay Kimbrough used his experience reforming the Texas Youth Commission to devise a safety plan for the state schools. Sens. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, filed individual bills on almost every state school and community care problem – ensuring something would get through. And Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, the Senate's key budget writer, pulled the trigger, allocating hundreds of millions of dollars to improve care in the state schools and the community.
"I knew the state schools were in trouble, and I just started thinking, 'There has to be a solution to this,' " Ogden said. "I consider it to be one of the more significant things this budget has accomplished."
Schools stay open
The legislation doesn't close or consolidate any of the state schools. It's a relief to state school parents, who feared that's where lawmakers were headed and lobbied vigorously to keep all of them open.
That's a disappointment to many disability rights advocates, who testified on horrific abuse inside the facilities with the knowledge that their efforts to close the facilities – not reform them – might backfire.
"It's not some sort of philosophical turf battle; it's proven that what's best for people with disabilities is to live in the community," said Robert Stack, president and CEO of Community Options Inc., which operates group homes and foster care placements in Texas and other states. "The state schools really can't be fixed."
Nor do the measures provide a vision for the future of disability services in Texas. Efforts to create a strategic plan for Texas' state schools, which have watched their census decline as community care has expanded, passed the Senate but fell short in the House.
Any hard numbers capping the state school population were stripped out, over objections from lawmakers who fear the loss of jobs if facilities in their districts close.
"There's still so much fragmentation and confusion, so many significant problems, in the system," said Colleen Horton, public policy director for the University of Texas' Center for Disability Studies. "We're not stepping back to look at where we want to be in the future."

Texas Senate Sends State Schools Reforms To Perry

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Shortly after Texas lawmakers voted to boost security and oversight of institutions for the mentally disabled, an advocacy group said the state schools are beyond repair. Jeff Garrison-Tate of the advocacy group Community Now! says the facilities have created an environment and culture that breeds abuse and neglect. He says Texas should develop a plan to get people out of the facilities. The state facilities have been hit with allegations of widespread abuse and neglect, including fights between residents staged by workers. The unanimous vote in the state Senate today sends the bill to Gov. Rick Perry. If signed into law, the state will install video surveillance in common areas and give new powers to the state Office of Inspector General to help local prosecutors pursue cases of abuse, neglect or exploitation. Staff would be subject to drug tests and criminal background checks. The bill also renames the institutions as "state schools" as "state supported living centers." The homes will no longer be allowed to investigate claims of abuse and neglect at their facilities. That job now reverts to the state. Texas has nearly 5,000 residents at the state's 13 state schools. (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

What happens tomorrow... The DOJ's settlement

Tomorrow the Senate and House Committees on Human Services will meet jointly at 8:00am in Room E!.030.  The settlement between Texas and the Dept. of Justice will be presented to the Joint Committee and the public.  We know that the DOJ sited many violations regarding the conditions in state institutions.  I am sure that the settlement will have to address these condition issues.  Although Community Now! has held that people need to be safe wherever they live, we also know that history tells us that congregate care facilities breed violence.  Throwing more money at these problems is not the answer.  Our legislators have a short memory.  Last Legislative Session, 120 million of state and fed money was allocated on top of the huge amount state institutions already received to improve conditions. Look at what we bought:  Fight Clubs, Suicides, Massive Physical Abuse, Deaths that could have been avoided...on and on.  We will need to continue to remind our legislators of how they decided to spend our money when the session rolls around again.  History is doomed to repeat itself.  I hope and pray that the violence ends.  I fear it will not.

Those families on the other side of this issue have done a good job of presenting these institutions as beautiful communities that are safe and wonderful places to live to legislators.  Many poorly educated legislators have bought into this along with the highly educated legislators who use these families as a smoke screen to keep their institution kingdoms fat and sassy with tons of money and huge state employee voting blocks. Sadly, those inside get left behind again.  Sadly these families hang onto a belief that these places are just fine for their loved ones.  But I wonder in the deep dark, in the middle of the night after they have been by for their bi-monthly visit with their state institution family member...do they shutter at what might have happened to their loved one?  Do they wonder what happens in the dark night to their loved one?  Do they really believe their loved one is safe and cozy in bed?  Do they go to the vortex and darkness of wondering if they did the right thing.  No. Too dark and scary.  They had to do the right thing and by God, they will hold onto that belief until they die.  But the darkness and wonder must be deeply buried somewhere.  To go there is not acceptable.  It is better to hold onto the Disneyland they believe their loved one lives in.  And Federal law ensures their right to. So, out of respect for the law...these folks should have their happy, happy institutionalize communities. ..but not at the expense of the innocents who beg for freedom.

I will be on the edge of my seat to hear what the DOJ will do to respond to the violation of federal law as it pertains to most integrated setting.  I sincerely hope that the DOJ pounds this issue with the same fervor as they do to improve conditions.  

Choose Freedom,

Jeff

Agreement reached to improve state schools for mentally disabled

07:46 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 20, 2009

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN — The state has reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to improve conditions inside Texas’ state schools for the mentally disabled. Under the agreement, Texas must spend $112 million more over five years to improve standards of care, increase monitoring and oversight, and enhance staffing ratios at the facilities.

Lawmakers will reveal the details in a Friday morning hearing with the commissioner of the agency that oversees the schools and the state’s lead negotiator in the deal. Both the House and Senate must pass resolutions concurring with the deal before their session ends June 1.

The agreement calls for spending nearly $45 million in the next two years. If the money is spent and conditions improve, the oversight would be lifted in five years.

“Whether or not the Department of Justice told us this, we needed to be doing these things,” said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. “We are hoping and expecting these facilities will very quickly get up to standard.”

Nelson leads the Senate committee overseeing the state Health and Human services Commission. Her panel will hold a joint hearing with its House counterpart, led by Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, Friday to outline the deal.

The agreement follows a federal investigation last year that found widespread civil-rights violations across all 13 state institutions and years of media reports about abuse and neglect inside the facilities.

Let's vote with a show of hands: Who thinks the abuse is isolated??

'Fight club' only one facet of abuse at Corpus Christi state school for disabled

12:51 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News 
eramshaw@dallasnews .com

AUSTIN – During the same two-year period that workers at the Corpus Christi State School forced mentally disabled residents into late-night "fight clubs," dozens of other employees were fired for serious abuse and neglect, including whipping a resident on the face with a belt and not trying to revive a resident who hanged herself, state records show.

State officials have said the Corpus Christi fight club abuse was isolated – that it was perpetuated by a handful of bad apples who worked on undersupervised night shifts.

But a Dallas Morning News review of state termination records shows at least 40 Corpus Christi State School employees were fired or forced to resign for abusing or neglecting residents in the last four years – most of them for incidents that occurred during day shifts. Twenty-two more were suspended without pay for their offenses.

The revelations are the latest in a string of problems at the state schoolsstretching back years and prompting a federal investigation.

Lawmakers took a step toward addressing those troubles Monday, as the House tentatively approved a measure to overhaul safety at the institutions and other care facilities for people with disabilities. The measure, designed to prevent abuse and neglect in the state schools, community group homes, private institutions and independent living, awaits a final House vote as early as today before heading back to the Senate.

"The state needs to be proactive in making sure that we take care of our state's most vulnerable population," said Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Corpus Christi. "This bill should be the beginning of the state finally meeting its legal, ethical and moral obligation."

Gov. Rick Perry designated the issue an emergency after a U.S. Justice Department investigation uncovered widespread civil-rights violations across Texas' 13 institutions for the disabled. Not long after, the Corpus Christi fight club allegations surfaced, prompting several arrests.

State school officials say they've responded to the Corpus Christi abuse, assigning additional supervisors to after-hours shifts and installing security cameras in common areas.

And they say firings and suspensions are a sign that they have taken abuse and neglect allegations seriously, ridding their facilities of people who pose a risk.

"We demand staff show compassion and treat all residents with respect. The vast majority of staff meet those standards," said Laura Albrecht, spokeswoman with the Department of Aging and Disability Services. "Abuse and neglect is not tolerated and appropriate action, which includes firing, will be taken."

The Corpus Christi school's number of employee firings is comparable to other institutions of its size. Since 2004, 800 direct care state school employees have been terminated or suspended systemwide – an average of about 60 per facility.

They constitute just 2 percent of all state school employees, officials say.

But the Corpus Christi facility does appear to have higher-than- average rates of abuse. In 2008, the facility averaged one case of confirmed abuse, neglect or exploitation for every six residents – one of the highest rates among Texas' 13 institutions for the disabled.

Among the confirmed Corpus Christi cases:

•In July 2007, an employee found a female resident hanged in her bedroom and did not try to help her, "potentially reducing her chance of survival," according to a letter outlining findings in the case. It's the only known case in which abuse or neglect contributed to a patient's death.

•A worker transporting a resident in a passenger van in March 2008 fell asleep at the wheel. The van rolled over.

•In August, a worker used a belt to whip a resident on the face and mouth.

•A female employee was fired last May for beating a resident with a walking cane.

•In November 2007, a worker flipped over a resident's wheelchair as a means of restraint, trapping the resident against the floor.

•Last July, a female direct care worker purposely closed an office door on the arm and torso of a resident.

•A resident choked on a marker cap in March 2008 after a staffer failed to monitor the resident.

Because of privacy rules, it's unclear how badly the residents were harmed in those incidents.

Lawmakers say the state school safety legislation they've crafted will target such abuse. The Senate already passed its version, which calls for posting surveillance cameras in all state schools, increasing staff training, and performing background checks, fingerprinting and random drug tests on all employees. The measure also creates a toll-free abuse hotline and installs an ombudsman to oversee abuse allegations.

"A key provision in this bill, the use of surveillance cameras in common areas of state schools, is paramount to preventing, deterring and detecting abuse and neglect of state school residents," Perry said in a written statement.

The bill passed Monday includes those changes and would also require annual inspections of group homes and ensure state officials investigate abuse allegations in private care facilities, not just state schools. It would strengthen the role of the inspector general in investigating abuse and neglect. And it would call for a review of all deaths in private care facilities and group homes.

"This population is uniquely susceptible to abuse and neglect. The state has done a poor job of putting the right systems in place," said the House sponsor of the bill, Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs. The measure "takes us a long way forward."

Staff writer John Jordan contributed to this report.

Throw 'em all into Mexia

What horrors await these people merely accused of crimes?  Isn't Presumption of Innocence a legal right?  

House bill would move all state school residents accused of a crime to Mexia State School

By Cindy V. Culp Tribune-Herald staff writer

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Mexia State School and its relationship with the surrounding community soon would undergo decisive change if a bill adopted by the Texas House of Representatives on Monday becomes law.

The legislation would designate the facility — a home for people with mental retardation — as the state’s forensic institution for people with developmental disabilities. That means all state school residents accused of a crime would be sent to Mexia, at least initially, instead of being scattered throughout Texas’ 13 state schools.

That virtually eliminates the chance the Mexia State School ever would close, officials said.

The move also would affect the Mexia Independent School District, the town’s public school system.

The district has been locked in a dispute with the state over the education of students from the institution who have been accused of a crime. The Mexia facility already houses the majority of forensic juveniles in the state school system, with the district serving about 90 such students this year.

Mexia ISD has contended that the state is responsible for providing extra personnel to make sure those students do not endanger other students and staff. The state, however, has said the district is responsible for them during the school day.

The bill would end that tension by giving the district $5,100 per alleged offender student each year. The district would be required to use that money to hire “behavior support specialists” who would attend to the students’ noneducational needs.

That part of the bill was added by Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, who represents Limestone County. Other key parts of the legislation call for an independent ombudsmen to monitor the 13 state schools, for video cameras to be installed in common areas for security purposes and for staff training to be improved.

“Countless hours and hard work were spent to pass legislation that significantly improves the system of care for individuals with disabilities living in state schools as well as in the community,” Cook said Monday in a written statement.

The future of state schools has been uncertain for months. Some advocates for people with disabilities have urged lawmakers to close or consolidate the institutions. Those efforts failed this session, but the issue is sure to resurface.

In Mexia, the unfolding drama has had another layer due to the tension between the state school and the school district. The problems started at the beginning of the school year, when the state school stopped sending staff along with alleged offender students who attend class on district property.

That alarmed district personnel, who said many of the students have been accused of serious crimes such as sexual assault and aggravated assault. The charges have not been prosecuted or dropped because a judge ruled the youth’s mental retardation makes them incapable of adequately assisting in their own defense. The same is true for adult state school residents who have been accused of a crime.

As a short-term fix, the district hired a police officer to help watch the forensic students. It also filed a lawsuit against the state, asking that the state school either be required to send staff with students or provide enough classroom space at the institution so all forensic students can attend classes there.

District Superintendent Jason Ceyanes was attending a school board meeting Monday evening and could not be reached for comment about the House bill. However, it appears to address the district’s most pressing concerns. Ceyanes has said in the past that the district would be satisfied if the state gave it extra money to hire extra personnel to supervise alleged offender students.

Laura Albrecht, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, which oversees state schools, said she had not seen Cook’s amendment to the bill and could not comment on it.

A version of the legislation already has been passed by the Senate. The bill as amended now will go back to the Senate for consideration.

If Mexia becomes the designated state school for forensic residents, it would continue to house regular residents, but in separate facilities. However, those regular residents could ask to move to another state school campus.

Forensic residents would undergo an evaluation at the Mexia campus to determine whether they are at a “high risk” of causing substantial physical harm to someone else. Alleged offenders determined not to be high-risk could petition to be moved to another state school.

The number of forensic residents living at other state schools was unclear Monday.

Cox News Service contributed to this story.

cculp@wacotrib.com

757-5744

Abuse At Texas Institutions Is Beyond 'Fight Club'

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Todd Yates

Staff members at Corpus Christi State School in Texas have been charged with staging a late-night "fight club," using residents with mental retardation. AP/The Caller-Times

by Joseph Shapiro

Morning Edition, March 18, 2009 · At a state institution for people with mental retardation in Texas, six staff members have been charged with taking part in staging what have been called human cockfights, using residents with mental retardation. The accusations have raised questions about how workers trained and hired to care for some of the most vulnerable people in society could instead treat them with cruelty.

The fights became known only because one of the workers lost his cell phone. It was found and turned over to an off-duty police officer. The phone had videos of more than a year of staged late-night fights, some as recent as this past January.

Cell Phone Evidence

Corpus Christi Police Capt. Tim Wilson says the videos showed a "lot of pushing, shoving and (in) several of the videos, there were punches thrown, and in one video we have a worker kicking one of the clients."

Wilson says one staffer narrated the fights, and those involved can be seen clearly on the videos.

"I'm pretty appalled. I mean, these workers are supposed to be caring for these people, and here they are exploiting them for their own entertainment," Wilson says.

He says the youngest residents with disabilities appeared to be in their late teens or early 20s, and the oldest in their 40s. "These are severely mentally challenged adults," says Wilson. Several were hurt or bruised, although none apparently required hospitalization.

In response, Texas state officials announced steps last week to prevent more abuse, including adding supervisors to evening shifts and installing security cameras in public areas at all 13 state institutions for people with intellectual disabilities. "We will continue to take swift and immediate action when abuse and neglect is reported," Addie Horn, who runs the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, pledged in a letter to the public last week.

Four of the workers accused of abuse at Corpus Christi were fired. The other two had already quit. Attempts by NPR to contact them were unsuccessful.

A History Of Abuse

Still, there's been a long, recent history of abuse at Texas institutions. Just last Friday, a 53-year-old woman died of a head injury after being hit by another resident in a hallway collision at a facility in Denton. State officials say it was an accident. A county coroner ruled it a homicide.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated abuse at Texas institutions. Now, it's negotiating with the state to increase staff and make other changes. The Justice Department found there had been 450 cases of abuse over just the previous year. And in four years, more than 800 state employees had been suspended or fired.

Beth Mitchell, an attorney at Advocacy Inc., a state legal group set up by Congress to protect people with disabilities, says one problem is that staffers get little training and often work in isolated areas. "These are large institutions that are in rural areas. The staff only need a GED or high school education. They get paid extremely minimum wages — $22,000 a year — and they don't get much training," she says.

Mitchell's law center has been pressuring Texas officials to move residents out of the institutions and into smaller group homes.

She thinks there's something about the impersonal nature of large institutions that breeds abuse.

Researcher Dick Sobsey, who studies violence against people with disabilities at the University of Alberta in Canada, agrees. "There's really sometimes peer pressure for people to engage in abuse," says Sobsey. Although many good, caring people come to work at institutions, he says some cruel ones come, too. And they can sort of infect other workers.

"Where some employees are abusive and others are not, the ones who are not abusive, there's always a danger that they're going to report the ones who are. If everybody's abusive, then everybody's hands are dirty, and so they're safe with each other," Sobsey says.

Sobsey says this is more likely to go on at facilities that are in out-of-the-way places or out of the public eye. In Corpus Christi, the alleged abuse was on the late-night shift, when staff levels were low.

Sobsey says one way to reduce abuse is to make institutions smaller and link them to communities such as families and churches. That way, they're less isolated and more people are watching.

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• March 12, 2009
  'Fight Club' For Disabled Causes Firestorm In Texas
• March 7, 2008
  Remembering An Infamous New York Institution
• Sep. 16, 2007
  Program Preps Disabled Youth For Life On Their Own

Formal Complaint to the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights

March 15, 2009 

 

Robinsue Frohboese

Health and Human Services

Office of Civil Rights

400 Independence Ave.

Washington DC

 

Dear Ms. Frohboese, 

 

Please accept this letter as a formal complaint to the Office of Civil Rights regarding the following violations of the American with Disabilities Act, Title II by the state of Texas.  I am making this complaint to your office on behalf of Community Now! a statewide non-profit organization in Texas with a mission to ensure inclusive communities for people with disabilities. 

 

The contents of the complaints are as follows: 

 

1. The state of Texas has more state institutions for people with intellectual disabilities than any other state with more people residing in these restrictive settings. In 2006 and again in 2008, the Department of Justice sent formal letters to Governor Perry outlining numerous Civil Rights Violations.  These violations included the right be free from abuse and neglect and the right of institutionalized individuals to choose to live in a community setting. 

 

Last week, it was reported that several individuals residing at the Corpus Christi state institution were forced to engage in what amounted to a “Fight Club”.  These individuals were compelled by state institution employees to fight one another for the entertainment of the staff.  Physical and emotional abuse was apparent through videos taken by one of the staff members over a year’s period of time. Arrests have been made with charges of a Class 3 Felony.

 

Other reports include the facilitation of these so called “Fight Clubs” in Mexia and San Angelo state operated institutions.  Clearly, Texas continues to put their most vulnerable citizens at risk despite ongoing scrutiny of the Department of Justice. 

 

We ask that these incidents be carefully investigated and that the Corpus Christi state institution be closed with all haste.  Residents must have every opportunity to move to a setting of their choice.  We also ask that a Conservator be assigned with complete oversight authority at all 13 facilities to ensure the safety of individuals residing at these institutions.  Finally, we request that the Office of Civil Rights do whatever else is in their authority to remedy this horrific situation including Federal Hate Crime charges for those state institution employees involved in the abusive “Fight Clubs”.

 

2. Texas currently has 88,000 people with disabilities waiting for community services offered through numerous waiver programs.  The number of individuals on this list continues to grow at an alarming rate.  We ask that the Office of Civil Rights investigate what appears to be an Olmstead Violation by the failure of the state of Texas to reduce the waiting lists at a reasonable pace.

 

3. Texas currently provides the lowest wages and benefits for community direct care workers which continues to inhibit the development of a solid community services infrastructure for people with disabilities.  We ask that the Office of Civil Rights investigate this issue as well.

 

 

We respectively request that an investigation begin with all haste regarding the above mentioned complaints and that the Office of Civil Rights ensure accountability utilizing every authority allowed.  The very safety of our most vulnerable citizens is at risk with the continued inability of the state of Texas to provide safe conditions at state operated institutions and comply with the Olmstead Decision.   

 

Thank you for your time and consideration of these complaints. 

 

Sincerely, 
 

Jeff Garrison-Tate

Senior Legislative Advocate 
 

CC. Mary Gilber

       Ralph Rouse