Abuse, Neglect Plague State Schools For Mentally Retarded
[Update: The buzz is growing on this story. Kuff and Eye On Williamson have both covered it, and done great jobs. We also have this x-posted at DailyKOS, ePluribus Media, and MyDD and would appreciate any recommends. Plus, you can 'buzz' the story via BuzzFlash here, and Digg the story using the buttons within this post.]
The troubles at Texas’ facilities for the mentally retarded were starting to bubble to the surface during the 80th session of the Texas Legislature. Now, thanks to this report from the Dallas Morning News, we have a full-blown scandal on our hands (yet again):
Hundreds of residents at Texas’ state schools for the mentally retarded have suffered serious abuse and neglect at the hands of those paid to watch over them, a Dallas Morning News review shows.
Documents released by all but three of the 12 state schools operated by the state Department of Aging and Disability Services outline everything from horrific physical violence and neglect to frightening verbal threats, derogatory slurs and pranks.
You’ve got to be kidding me. We knew about the problems at the Lubbock State School. So did Governor Rick Perry. Yet, like the Texas Youth Commission scandal that has all but vanished from the headlines, Perry was evidently asleep at the wheel while nurses were beating the living hell out of patients, patients sat around for hours naked in trash bins, had sex with each other and worse—at a wide range of Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services facilities:
In one 2006 case at the Brenham State School, a nurse assistant kicked and punched a mentally retarded resident on the bathroom floor, fracturing three ribs and puncturing the resident’s liver. In a 2000 incident at the Abilene State School, an aide ignored a resident who was found hours later in a trash bin, naked.
Other employees have left residents covered in feces and urine for hours, made them eat off plates where they had vomited, and fallen asleep on the job, waking only after residents engaged in sexual acts.
This is horrible. I’d like to say this is as bad as (or worse than) the TYC scandal, but it’s hard to compare the two. In both instances, though, it involved systematic, institutional abuse while officials did nothing. It will likely be only a matter of time before we see illuminating e-mails from Governor Perry’s where complaints were, time and again, ignored.
Of course, the sate says they’re fixing it:
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