268 Punished For Abusing Disabled In Texas

DALLAS — Nearly 270 employees were fired or suspended for abusing or neglecting residents of large, state-run institutions for the mentally disabled in Texas during the last fiscal year, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

The revelations Friday come a day after Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation aimed at improving security and oversight at the 13 institutions, known as state schools. They are home to about 4,600 residents and more than 12,000 full-time employees.

Documents obtained by the AP through an open records request show that 11 of the 268 firings or suspensions were considered serious because they involved physical or sexual abuse that caused or may have caused serious physical injury. Employees may also be fired for a violation as mild as neglecting to protect a resident with mobility problems from stumbling into a wall.

"I think what the number of firings and suspensions say is we do not tolerate abuse or neglect in our state schools," said Cecilia Fedorov, a spokeswoman with the Department of Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the schools.

It was not clear Friday whether any of those fired were prosecuted.

The Department of Family and Protective Services, which investigates allegations of abuse, notifies law enforcement officials about any deaths, alleged sexual assaults, serious physical injuries or incidents involving children. But the agency does not track what happens once police or sheriff's deputies get involved, spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.

The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities said Perry's legislation doesn't go far enough to protect state school residents.

"Why is it that residents in state schools are somehow valued less than other citizens?" asked Dennis Borel, the coalition's executive director. "This speaks to me of a widespread, systemic problem, and personally I don't believe this can be fixed."

Defenders of the state schools include the Parent Association for the Retarded of Texas. Susan Payne, the organization's vice president, said her 47-year-old sister, Dianne, has been well served in the 37 years she has lived in state schools.

"The medical care is unbelievable. She is alive because of the schools," Payne said. "These numbers and these reports make the places sound like hellholes, and that is just not what we see."

Perry declared state school reform a legislative emergency during the most recent session. State lawmakers reached a five-year, $112 million settlement with the Justice Department that documented widespread mistreatment of residents and alleged their civil rights were violated. The state will spend $24 million in each of the next two fiscal years to meet the terms of the settlement, which call for each school to have an independent monitor.

Lawmakers also have provided funding for hiring nearly 3,000 additional employees.

The agreement resulted from a series of federal investigations that found that at least 53 deaths from September 2007 to September 2008 were from conditions the Department of Justice considered preventable, such as pneumonia, bowel obstructions or sepsis, indicating lapses in proper care.

Nearly 1,100 employees have been suspended or fired in the last five fiscal years for mistreating, neglecting or abusing residents, according to state records. The fiscal 2008 figures are the most in any of those five years.

Comments

[ywcachieve]

Firing is not enough, there needs to be some criminal charges brought against these monsters.

[PhillyQuaker]

Our neighbor was taking care of her profoundly mentally ill son until she became elderly. She had to put her son in an institution as she was just becoming too frail to take care of a large adult male child by herself. Within a month the son suffered a detached retina from a severe beating at the hands of the staff. We cannot warehouse the mentally ill this way, it's terrible. We need to be able to pay the staff enough to care about their jobs and the human beings supposedly under their protection.

[shespeaks]

If you're helpless or infirm, don't mess with Texas.

[nycwerewolf]

Unacceptable.

[brandnewstuff]

Yes Texas is whackanut! I want to see criminal prosecution.

[radicalcapitalist]

Perhaps the state shouldn't run such institutions.

[LaurieAnn]

I disagree. This is what the state is supposed to do; protect and care for our most vulnerable citizens. Private facilities run for profit might be fine for some but most parents who have raised developmentally disabled children to adulthood have very little funds left to pay for private care. I know as I'm raising an autistic child. What we need is better pay for employees, higher standards for employees and much better oversight of the facilities and those running them.

[LeAnn Cammack]

Speaking as a Texan, I know from stories in the papers out here that have interviewed some families in that situation, that many profoundly mentally challenged people and their families need these facilities.

That's why they increased funding to the state schools, to pay more for qualified personnel, background checks, and video cameras.

And, many state schools house severely mentally challenged people, or including those who are elderly and have outlived their parents and/or their siblings, or their parents are too elderly to care for their handicapped children anymore.

There is also community living housing for those who prefer that.

Give Texas some credit for trying to do the right thing and finding the funding to do it.

[delvis]

it takes a special kind of person to wok in a place taking care of people that can' take are of themselves As A handicapped person who has spent time in a nursing facility rehabbing these places are high turnover and understaffed. Mostly it is the place that people are put to die.

[4 Real]

I doubt this is isolated to just TX but somehow it doesn't surprise me.

[PlaceboStudman]

Someone needs to encourage HHS or state governments to do similiar reviews of all the hospitals and nursing facilites across the country

[bradsmom09]

It is not isolated to Tx. This is not a "school" it is an institution. As such, the abuse and neglect is certainly systemic and cannot be changed. This place should be shut down.