Hurricane Ike was by far one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit the Texas Gulf Coast.  After reeking havoc on Galveston, Ike made his way inland to Houston downing trees, shattering windows, blowing off roof tops, and generally making a mess of things.  After the storm subsided, the true devastation was known.  For days, Galveston and Houston suffered through post-Ike clean up.

Galveston by far took the brunt of Ike’s fury.  The storm surge, one of the highest in Galveston’s history, tore homes from their pilings and left the city crippled with no electricity, water, or gas.  With most of city’s residents evacuated and the public utility system in shambles, the city was deemed uninhabitable.  The slow road to recovery crept to a halt.  Thousands of children were kept from home and school, while parents tried to determine their next move.  Galveston and its surrounding counties canceled school almost immediately after the storm hit.  Schools that survived Ike’s powerful storm surge lacked the power and water necessary to begin educational instruction.  Plus, with the uncertainty looming over the city, Galveston had more important things to worry about than tardy bells and school books at it tried to put the city back together.  

Houston was spared the storm surge that crippled Galveston but fared just as badly in getting its public utilities back on-line after the hurricane.  The Houston Independent School district, the largest district in the county and state, decided to close school after school officials realized that the majority of its campuses lacked electricity.  Many of the school districts in surrounding counties followed suit.  For weeks after the storm, students who just recently started the school year had an unexpected break.  Parents, many of whom lacked electricity themselves, were left to amuse their children and keep them occupied. 

Normalcy is what everyone craves after the stress of a hurricane.  Getting back to the regular routine provides familiarity and a sense of hope.  Everyone now compares every Gulf Coast hurricane to Katrina.  The Texas Gulf Coast will now compare every other gulf hurricane to Ike.  But most assuredly, the true effect on children will not be known until sometime in the future.  For sure, the children in this area have seen a disruption to their daily lives.  Children, in Houston, who weathered the storm, lived through weeks without cell phones, IPODs, T.V. and cable.  Children living in Galveston faced the uncertainty of whether school buildings would be up and running, or whether school would resume at all.  Every Texas Gulf Coast school district is in the process of determining how to deal all the days missed due to the storm.  Getting children back in school is the parent’s and school’s number one priority.  Because, it gives children a safe haven and a sense of security that will help them survive the days ahead.

In the wake of Hurricane Ike, government officials will have to determine what lessons were learned by this disaster.  The lessons learned from Katrina were put to good use in coping with Ike’s fury but the more things change, in some ways the more they stay the same.  Generally, some of the issues faced after Katrina were felt throughout the Texas Gulf Coast:

·       Children were displaced from their homes.  During Hurricane Katrina, many children were separated from parents for weeks and months, which hampered efforts to get children back on track.  Most of the folks in New Orleans and surrounding areas had no homes to go to once the storm had passed.  However, that same scenario was not repeated post-Ike.  For sure, homes in Galveston were crushed.  But unlike in New Orleans, many of the homes in the area were second homes and vacation homes for the many tourists that visit.  Though the storm surge swept through many homes, many remained standing, ready for repair in the hurricane’s aftermath.  In Houston, homes were without power but not destroyed.  So the children in Ike’s path were possibly better able to handle the storm without having to deal with the stress of changing schools and looking for permanent shelter.

·       Schools were unprepared for how to deal with the aftermath of the disaster. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many students were sent to school districts far away from their home state of Louisiana.  Texas saw the greatest increase in students who made many Texas cities their home after the devastating hurricane.  Many of the children from Louisiana were horribly behind in many areas and struggled to keep up with the rigorous curriculum presented.  School districts also were unprepared to take on the responsibility of educating tens of thousands of displaced children.  The same scenario again was not replayed post-Ike.  Most students were out of school for a little while but able to return to their home districts and schools once school resumed.  In Galveston, children were moved from their home district to other school districts in the surrounding area.  However, these districts were under the same curriculum and standards set out by the Texas Department of Education.  So even though students changed school buildings, they were tracked through the same curriculum they would have been learning in their home district.

·       Recovery and Rebuilding-Galveston and Houston set about the immediate task of recovery and rebuilding immediately after the hurricane Ike made land with the support of federal, state, and local government.  The same cannot be said for the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans which is still bogged down in bureaucratic red-tape and has really never gotten off the ground.

 Ike devastated this area for sure.  As more data comes in, we will be able to know the true effects of the IKE on Texas children. 

      Please take a look at the following articles and blogs detailing the days and nights after Ike hit and what effect it had on children:

Students Return to School

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hurricane/ike/6016769.html

HISD Out Because of the Power Outages

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hurricane/6002751.html

Blog about school openings and closings

http://blogs.chron.com/hurricanes/schools/

Families Return to Galveston

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hurricane/ike/6017310.html

Keeping Kids Happy Without Power

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/moms/6003445.html

Child Support Payments

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2008_4639183

Children’s Injuries in the Aftermath of Ike

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2008_4638276

School Closings Due to Hurricane Ike

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2008_4637958

Crime In General and Crime Against Children During Ike

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/morenews/6016778.html

Since I’ve argued against continued steroid testing of high school athletes, maintaining that steroid abuse by police officers empirically poses a more significant threat, I wanted to point readers to a column by Donald Hooton, father of a steroid using teen who committed suicide for whom Texas’ steroid testing law is named. Writes Hooton in the July 14 Dallas News:

Out of the preliminary findings, two positive tests resulted from more than 10,000 tests conducted by the National Center for Drug Free Sports and the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory. But the law’s primary purpose is to prevent our children from turning to steroids by providing a deterrent – the risk of getting caught gives our kids a solid reason to say no.

Consider speed traps on highways. Many adults and teens drive the speed limit not because they know that doing such is safer and saves fuel, but because they know someone is watching – the fear of getting caught is greater than the desire to disobey the law. What happens when you take away the speed traps? People start breaking the law.

Whether the program yielded two positives, 400 positives or 1,000 positives, no one should be drawing conclusions about the extent of steroid use based on these preliminary lab results. The program was never designed to measure steroid use among high school athletes.

According to the statistics from the 2007 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, recognized as the premier organization in this field, 3.9 percent of high school students are abusing anabolic steroids nationally. Given that 10,407 students were tested in Texas in the past year, the results should have yielded at least 400 positive tests. Based on the preliminary results that we’ve read about, what we do know is:

• The random testing preliminary results of Texas students identified that 99.98 percent of the sampled student-athletes tested clean for performance-enhancing drugs.

• At least two kids are going to get help before something tragic happens. (I can only wish that my son had been “caught” and been able to receive help.)

• Ten thousand kids know firsthand that we are taking this issue seriously here in Texas.

• Millions of Texas families now know about the dangers of anabolic steroids.

Those results are, to me, an excellent definition of success.

The speed trap analogy is a particularly poor one. If officers only gave tickets at 2 out of every 10,000 traffic stops, there’d be scarce incentive to continue them. Speed traps make money because traffic violations are a lot more common than that.

Also, even if the “program was never designed to measure steroid use among high school athletes,” the results are more directly probative than a survey that merely asks verbally about steroid use. The size of the sample is quite large and Texas specific. I don’t think we can rely on that 3.9% figure based on these results - certainly not if next year’s round of steroid testing duplicates the lower number.

I’ll agree with Hooton the program served a short-term public relations benefit, but that has already been realized. Now the public relations message is actually being undermined by extremely de minimus results.

To the extent steroid abuse is a widespread problem, these data show the main nexus of its use does not lie with high school athletes. That means education and prevention resources are likely adequate for that population and enforcement spending (the 10,000 tests cost $3 million) should be reserved for groups where testing gets more bang for its buck.

Texas already is appealing a $4 million fine for insufficient caseworker visits stemming from a 2002 review. Preliminary results released last month from a 2008 review again found the state deficient.

The federal standard calls for 95 percent of children in state care to be seen monthly by a caseworker.

In the fiscal year that ended last Aug. 31, only 75 percent of children were visited each month.

The latest Child and Family Services Review also faulted Texas for having too many children in long-term foster care and placing children on waiting lists for mental-health and substance-abuse services.

The state did not meet six of seven national standards designed to ensure that quality services are provided to the 30,000 children and their families in the child welfare system.

The state did meet targets for serving children’s educational needs.

“It’s obviously very alarming,” said state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio. “The system is bleeding itself if we don’t address this (staff turnover) issue and address it as a crisis.”

In June, conservatorship workers, who are supposed to check on the children every month, each were responsible for 34.4 children — twice as many as national experts suggest. That is an improvement from two years ago when each worker handled 44.6 cases.

The turnover rate for those workers in the three-month period that ended June 30 was 21 percent statewide. However, vacancies traditionally spike in late summer when some caseworkers leave for higher pay as schoolteachers.

Parent visits also low

Madeline McClure, executive director of the Texas Association for the Protection of Children, said teachers get paid 15 percent to 40 percent higher than state social workers.

A nationwide salary survey done by McClure’s group ranked Texas 48th among the states in 2005-2006. She said the average salary for a caseworker at the time was about $31,000 a year.

When the state boosted pay for workers who investigate child abuse by $5,000 a few years ago, many conservatorship workers switched jobs.

That has contributed to internal staffing instability, including supervisors with an average of two years’ experience, said Jodie Smith, public policy director of the nonprofit group Texans Care for Children.

The federal reviewers noted the lack of mentors for new caseworkers.

“The front-line caseworkers don’t have the type of supervisory support they need to do this incredibly stressful work,” Smith said.

Texas also fell short in caseworkers’ monthly visits with parents, an essential component for family reunification.

Irene Clements, who coordinates foster care for an agency that contracts with the state, said private providers would like more authority from the state to work with parents. She said it makes sense for foster families who are caring for children to have regular contact with the parents.

“In many other states, the child-placing agency and their foster parents work very closely with the child’s biological family,” Clements said.

Clements was interviewed by federal reviewers who came to Texas in March. She said the preliminary findings are “especially disconcerting, given the amount of resources, money and staff the Legislature has put” into the system.

System strained

Since 2005, the Department of Family and Protective Services has received $299 million in additional funding from the Legislature and 3,500 new Child Protective Services staff positions, which acted to stem child abuse deaths.

But while the money improved the ability of the agency to investigate and remove children who are in danger of abuse and neglect, it strained the state’s ability to serve those children.

At the same time, tougher licensing standards for foster homes drove some long-time foster parents away. As a result, the state has fewer net homes, particularly for children with higher needs and older children, the federal review found.

Since last year, dozens of children have spent nights in state offices because emergency placements could not be found for them.

Findings not surprising

The federal review process arose out of the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act. No state met the standards during the initial review in 2002.

During the second round this year, federal officials looked at 65 cases in Harris, Dallas and El Paso counties.

Twenty-five cases involved families receiving in-home services, and 40 cases involved children in foster care. They also met with foster care providers as well as children and parents in the system.

The final report is expected in September, and the state will have 90 days to complete a plan for improvement. At the end of the process, Texas could face another fine.

Liz Hughes Kromrei, who coordinates the review process for Texas CPS, said the agency was not surprised by the federal findings because it had noted many of the issues in a self-assessment it was required to do.

Some of the case files reviewed date back to 2006, so the impact of legislative reforms wasn’t always evident, Kromrei said.

The agency says it has increased monthly visits with children from 21 percent in fiscal year 2005 to 75 percent in fiscal year 2007.

Kromrei said the agency is working to intervene early and keep children in their homes when it is safe to do so. The number of children removed from their homes decreased from 17,428 in fiscal year 2005 to 15,920 in fiscal year 2007.

In addition, more children are being placed with relatives and adoptions are up.

Funding problems

A task force formed by the Texas Supreme Court is working to improve the legal system for children.

The federal review said children, youth and foster parents are not routinely participating in judicial reviews and judges are granting the state permanent custody before there is a permanent home for the children.

For Smith, the problems boil down to money.

“The leadership is reluctant to ask aggressively for the resources needed to reduce caseloads, retain staff and really serve the needs of children in care,” she said.

Patrick Crimmins, a CPS spokesman, said that is a “ridiculous assertion if you look at what the agency has asked for and what the Legislature has appropriated for us.”

Sen. Uresti said the extra money that has been budgeted in the last four years doesn’t make up for a chronically underfunded system.

“It’s got to be a top priority until we finally fix the problem,” he said.

The Houston Chronicle Article:

Female members of the polygamist sect are refusing to answer questions before a grand jury in West Texas meeting this morning to consider criminal child abuse charges against the group.

About nine women have been subpoenaed and about half have made it into the meeting room on the Schleicher County courthouse square, but all come out quickly after telling the grand jury nothing, said a 25-year-old member of the sect who would only identify himself as “Ben.”

“They are all taking the fifth,” he said as he and another member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were snapping photos of government officials from inside their SUV in the courthouse parking lot.

Those called to testify have the right to invoke their Fifth Amendment privilege if the information they give could be used against them. Only one male member of the sect has been subpoenaed: Willie Jessop, the former bodyguard of jailed president and sect prophet, Warren Jeffs.

“It’ll all come out,” Willie Jessop said as he waited in the Schleicher County Courthouse to be called before grand jurors.

Asked if he expected members of his church to be indicted, he said. “I don’t know. I hope not.”

Jessop was stopped early today in Eldorado by law enforcement and handed a subpoena.

When asked how FLDS members were doing, he said: “Hopefully, they can answer that for themselves.”

One of the women who was called before the grand jury today was a 16-year-old at the center of a civil battle over which attorney represents her. The teen was married at 15 to 34-year-old Raymond Jessop, the son of Jeffs’ chief deputy, Merrill Jessop. She was the third girl from the Jeffs family to marry Raymond Jessop.

Two of her sisters were also married to Jessop. Also called before the grand jury were:

* Leann Jeffs, 17, who has a 1-year-old daughter.

* Veda Keate, 19, who was forced to give a third DNA sample to the Texas Attorney General’s Office earlier this month. It is not clear why another was needed. She has a 2-year-old daughter.

* Sarah Barlow Draper, 37, registered nurse and mother of four. She now works at an Abilene hospital where she lives with her children. She was once misclassified as an underage teen-ager by Texas Child Protective Services but proved to a court she was not. She is the former wife of ousted FLDS member Daniel Barlow, who was once mayor of Colorado City, Ariz., where the FLDS is mostly based.

* Annette Jeffs, Warren Jeffs first wife and the mother of the 16-year-old who was also called to testify.

Grand jurors filed into their meeting room shortly before 9 a.m. There, they will listen as lawyers from the Texas Attorney General’s Office present evidence that could result in indictments against members of the nation’s largest polygamist group for their role in arranging underage marriages.

The state of Texas in April raided the FLDS-owned Yearning For Zion Ranch north of Eldorado after receiving information that girls under age 18 were being placed in “spiritual marriages” with men.

Attorney General Greg Abbott entered the grand jury room at about 9 a.m. He is expected to oversee the presentation of evidence by his staff attorneys, Angela Goodwin and prosecution chief Eric Nichols.

Abbott’s presence at the proceeding is interpreted by those close to the investigation as an indication that indictments are imminent. However, a key issue today will be whether the state’s reliance on members of the FLDS, including several young girls, will stymie the pursuit of criminal charges.

During the grand jury’s first meeting on this matter in June, sources familiar with the proceedings have said, the girls took advantage of their Fifth Amendment rights to not answer questions on the basis that the information they gave could incriminate them.

Grand jury proceedings are closed to the public. A grand jury is made of local residents who consider the prosecution’s evidence and determine whether it is sufficient to charge defendants.

Even if indictments are returned, it is likely that the names of those indicted will be kept secret until after arrests have been made.

Since the April raid at the FLDS’s Yearning For Zion Ranch, church members have given different names and information to authorities, slowing the investigation process.

More than 400 children were removed from the ranch by Texas Child Protective Services after the raid, but they were returned a month later after the Texas Supreme Court said the agency did not prove that the children were so in danger that removal was the only option.

The FLDS began moving hundreds of its members to the 1,700-acre Yearning For Zion Ranch in 2004, about the time their president and prophet, Warren Jeffs, became wanted by police for his role in forcing young girls to marry in Utah.

The FLDS claims the twin border cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., as home with satellite settlements in South Dakota and other states and in Canada.

Jeffs was convicted last year on two counts of being an accomplice to rape for his role in forcing a 14-year-old sect member to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

Since the raid on the ranch, the FLDS has announced it will no longer allow the marriage of girls younger than 18.

The FLDS is not affiliated with mainstream Mormonism, which denounced polygamy more than 100 years ago.

The New York Times Magazine also wrote an interesting article that discusses what some of the FLDS women have been going through.

The conservator of the Texas Youth Commission has told Gov. Rick Perry that the embattled state juvenile prison system is almost done with changes needed to operate on its own again.

Richard Nedelkoff has recommended that the agency be removed from a conservatorship by July 31, almost 16 months after the TYC was put into forced management amid an inmate sex-abuse scandal and revelations of possible cover-ups.

TYC spokesman Jim Hurley said the recommendation to legislative leaders was “based on completing those things that need to be done” to ensure that the agency is repaired.

“If those are not completed (by July 31), then that pushes that date back,” Hurley told the Austin American-Statesman.

Perry spokeswoman Krista Piferrer said the governor had not made a decision.

“Obviously, the governor would like to end the conservatorship when the time is right, but that decision is one we’ll need to work out with the legislative leadership,” she said.

News of Nedelkoff’s recommendation drew silence from legislative leaders, some of whom said the agency was still lagging on several key initiatives.

Those include implementing new rehabilitation programs and a new classification system, ramping up the training of correctional officers, removing youths serving time for misdemeanor crimes and installing new security cameras at lockups.

A court case would be quite interesting if it visits the two broader issue potentially at stake: the appropriate place of religious expression of students in public schools and the balance between students’ individual rights and the need for schools to ensure an ordered environment for education. Two previous Supreme Court cases come to mind that somewhat address both of these issues respectively: West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette and Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.

West Virginia (1943) is one of the so-called “Jehovah’s Witnesses Cases” from the 1930s and 1940s that helped to define more clearly which rights the First Amendment protects. This case was brought by Jehovah’s Witnesses who objected to the compulsory pledge of allegiance recitation in public schools. The Supreme Court agreed with the plaintiffs, stating that forcing public school students to recite the pledge of allegiance violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

Probably more on point, Tinker (1969) dealt with public school students who were suspended for wearing black armbands with the peace sign on them to school in protest of the ongoing Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students, stating that the school could not punish the students for wearing the armbands without evidence that this action was required to ensure order in the school.

Does this particular rule of restricting the length of boys’ hair pass the “Tinker Test?” That will (potentially) be for the courts to decide.

The most recent Huston Chronicle article:

The school board of this rural Fort Bend County school district denied a request to let a 5-year-old boy with long hair attend kindergarten this fall.

The parents of Adriel Arocha want the boy to wear his hair long for religious reasons, but his shoulder-length locks are in conflict with the district’s hair code.

The board voted unanimously to uphold an earlier decision made by district administrators who said the child must cut his hair if he wants to attend school in Needville.

The parents of the child, Michelle Betenbaugh and Kenney Arocha, decided to appeal that ruling to the board, which heard the case Wednesday night.

Betenbaugh told the school board that Native American religions have no books or Bibles to consult but said the practice of boys and men not cutting their hair is well-known.

Kenney Arocha said he was proud of his heritage and asking him to cut his son’s hair would be like asking him to give up his constitutional rights.

“Which rights would you take next?” he said.

But Needville Superintendent Curtis Rhodes said the child is not actually a student in the district, and it was premature to present the issue to the school board Wednesday night.

Nevertheless, Rhodes urged the board to deny the parents’ appeal of the administration’s earlier decision.

The family owns land in Needville and is in the process of moving to the city. They plan to register the child at the elementary school.

The attorney for the boy and his parents, Hal Hale, said he will discuss the matter with his clients before deciding what legal action to take. Hale said he might seek a temporary injunction asking a judge to force the district to let the child attend school. Or, Hale said, legal action might be delayed until the child actually enrolls in the district and tries to attend class with long hair.

Needville has strict rules about long hair on boys.

Betenbaugh is in the process of moving from Meadows Place to Needville and told school officials in May she planned to register her son for kindergarten and that he had long hair.

According to legal experts, courts have repeatedly backed educators in numerous lawsuits brought by students and parents regarding dress codes. But the same courts have granted students and parents some rights when it comes to hairstyles tied to religion.

Legal rulings regarding challenges to hair codes on religious grounds give school districts the ability to grant exceptions.

Betenbaugh said she has consulted lawyers about the issue and plans to take the matter to court.

Differences in opinion between the federal government and the state exist with regards to the federal government’s rule that undocumented children must pass a “mental health stability assessment” in order to obtain residency in the United States. Unfortunately, many children taken by CPS fail these assessments since they often suffer from emotional trauma due to abuse. Texas and the federal government also argue over the placement of undocumented immigrants in federal detention centers where the state lacks authority. The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Texas became the focus of litigation last year regarding the poor living conditions there; children are treated like prisoners and forced to wear prison clothing.

If CPS decides that a juvenile should not be reunified with his or her family and should remain in the United States, CPS must apply to the federal government to designate the child as a Special Immigrant Juvenile. Unfortunately, states have little incentive to do this since they must cover all the costs of foster care for the child and for filing the paper work with the federal government.

“Children of the State: The feds and Texas quarrel over custody of undocumented kids” (May 16, 2008). Texas Observer. Available at: http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2759

Major efforts have been made to reform TYC. Below is a timeline of TYC events and an update on where TYC is today:
A Timeline

February 2005 – Texas Ranger sergeant began investigating allegations of sexual abuse at Pyote Facility involving Ray Brookins, former assistant superintendent, and John Paul Hernandez, former principal. (DMN 2/18/07)

February 2005 - Ray Brookins and John Paul Hernandez both resigned (DMN)

February 18, 2007 – News Media Reports about the sexual and physical abuses occurring at TYC (DMN)

March 2, 2007 – Allegations of sexual abuse at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Brownwood are reported in the media indicating that this was not an isolated incident (DMN)

March 2007 – State Auditor’s Office report identifies several issues (state auditor report)(PDF)

March 15, 2007 – DOJ reports findings from an investigation of the Evins facility. Finds the conditions unconstitutional because of the harm the inmates are experiencing. (DOJ report)(PDF)

March 15, 2007 – Between January 2000 and March 15, 2007 there were 16,310 allegations of incidents involving juveniles at TYC. 4,454 of those allegations were confirmed by TYC. (DMN)

March 29, 2007 – Texas Senate confirmed Governor Rick Perry’s appointment of Jay Kimbrough as Conservator of TYC. (press release)

April 9, 2007 – Brookins and Hernandez are indicted and arrested for “charges that they “sexually abused teenage inmates at the state juvenile prison in Pyote.” (DMN)

June 8, 2007 – SB 103 and companion bill HB 2807 were signed into law. The bills provide for reform efforts at the agency. (SB 103)

June 8, 2007 – Governor Perry appoints Ed Owens to replace Jay Kimbrough as TYC conservator. (Governor’s Website)

June 2007 – Dimitria Pope appointed as acting executive Director after spending most of her career working at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (DMN)

August 2007 – TYC announces new Pepper Spray policy. The new policy permits guards to use pepper spray more often than in the past. (DMN)

October 2007 – TYC ends contract with GEO Inc. for the Coke County facility. The 197 male inmates are immediately moved to the TYC facility in Mart, TX. (DMN)

November 2007 – TYC reverses its pepper spray policy (Texas Appleseed/Chronicle) (PDF)

December 19, 2007 – Governor Perry appoints Richard Nedelkoff to replace Ed Owens as conservator. (Governor’s Website)

February 12, 2008 – Dimitria Pope, the TYC acting executive director, announces her resignation (DMN)

May 6, 2008 – 70 inmates at TYC’s facility in Giddings broke out of their cells and started running around the campus and climbing into trees and onto the rooftops of the facility. (DMN)

June 12, 2008 - ACLU sues TYC for mistreatment of girls at the Brownwood facility (Statesman)

An Update on Reform

The Texas Observer Blog has had several posts recently describing how those involved with TYC reforms are feeling about the progress the agency has made.

Rehabilitating TYC

Perhaps the agency has been so hard to rehabilitate because its problems extend beyond a handful of troubled facilities or a flawed approach to juvenile justice. Mental health advocates blame public officials’ failure to recognize the importance of early intervention programs within the mental health system statewide as a key culprit.

Mission Redefinition for TYC

There was much talk of transitioning from large, rural TYC detention centers to smaller, urban facilities, which would keep youth offenders closer to their families, increase community involvement and allow for specialized treatment.

Trickle Down Reform

Despite the ACLU’s TYC lawsuit, many juvenile justice advocates assert that, while it’s slow-moving, there is progress at TYC — trickling down from the top.

What are you’re thought? Is TYC headed in the right direction? What should be done next?

The full article:

Pct. 6 Justice of the Peace Gustavo “Gus” Garza will not be able to allow spanking as an option for disciplining children in his courtroom, according to a court ruling Wednesday.

State District Judge Abel C. Limas, who asserted jurisdiction in the case, halted spanking as a form of punishment in Garza’s courtroom on Wednesday. Limas pointed to the protection, safety and emotional well-being of children as his reason for approving the temporary injunction.

“I am encouraged that Judge Limas acted to protect the interests of the children of Los Fresnos,” said Mark Sossi, the attorney who on behalf of three families requested that courtroom spankings be stopped.

The ruling came after the filing of a lawsuit by Mary Vasquez and Daniel Zurita against Garza last week. The lawsuit alleges that Zurita had felt compelled to spank his stepdaughter in lieu of a $500 fine and criminal conviction for truancy.

“Obviously, we had one judge acting outside his authority when forcing parents to spank their children in his courtroom,” Sossi said. “It doesn’t help the children with anything, and it contributes to a circus-like atmosphere in the courtroom.”

Cameron County Chief Counsel Richard Burst said he didn’t know whether the county would attempt an appeal.

“I think it’s best to sit on it and make a decision tomorrow,” said Burst, who with co-counsel Bruce Hodge, defended Garza at Wednesday’s hearing.

With the county’s legal represenation at his side, Garza took the stand early in the hearing to defend the spankings.

“I think that discipline works,” Garza said of paddling, which he said parents select in lieu of paying fines by choice. “It’s effective. It’s efficient. It’s immediate. There are no questions.”

Garza said that he did not compel or coerce parents to paddle children. However, he also testified that he does not provide other alternatives to fines, such as counseling or community service, because he does not believe these are effective.

He estimated that fewer than 100 children have been paddled in his courtroom since he took office in January 2007.

During the hearing, Sossi directed Garza to demonstrate how children are positioned for the paddling. Stepping down, Garza placed his arms on the armrests of a chair and bent down with his buttocks facing Limas.

“I find your approach trying to embarrass me,” Garza told the attorney. Sossi rebutted by asking whether Garza thinks 13- and 14-year-old girls and boys would find it humiliating.

Limas also found that there had been no criminal intent on Garza’s part and that the spankings had not been illegal. The judge ordered Garza to refrain from this form of disciplinary action in the courtroom.

Vasquez and Zurita also took the stand, noting that they do not believe in corporal punishment. Zurita said he felt he had no choice but to paddle his stepdaughter because he did not have the money for the $500 fine.

“There were no other options,” Zurita testified.

Limas indicated agreement in his comments from the bench, noting that he at times would not have been able to pay $500 either and that he had heard no testimony that the fines had been less than $500. “There needs to be a clear option,” Limas said.

Limas indicated that the Texas Legislature would be the body that could address the issue of corporal punishment in the courts.

“We are not here to make law,” Limas said.

Source: Perez-Trevino, Emma. Without a Paddle. The Brownsville Herald. June 11, 2008.