The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Ohio moves to shut juvenile homes in 2 counties

Dayton gets boost from committee for UAV testing
5/24/12
Patrol searches Springfield dealership for stolen cards
5/24/12
Police headlines: Two accused of child endangering
5/24/12
Ad calls Brown career politician
5/24/12
Local Focus: Clark County for May 25
5/24/12
> More headlines

The Associated Press Updated 12:11 PM Friday, February 3, 2012

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio is moving to shut down 19 homes for troubled juveniles in two counties where investigators said they found signs of serious problems, such as youths left alone and children and employees who had been bitten by fleas from a dead raccoon, officials said.

"There were enough problems at enough locations that our recommendation is to terminate their license and close them all," said Benjamin Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The homes, all operated by the Columbus area company ViaQuest, are in Franklin and Lake counties and house 46 children in the custody of courts in seven counties. The state received the first major complaint about ViaQuest in 2004 when a 13-year-old boy drowned in the bathtub of a Columbus home, Johnson told The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/xZSUcO). That facility was closed, but the company was allowed to remain in operation.

However, when ViaQuest came up for recertification from the state, officials received 17 complaints, and a subsequent investigation found 62 separate issues, the newspaper reported.

Besides the flea bites, other findings included that: children were unsupervised inside one home during a walk-through and outside other homes where they had been dropped off and had to wait because doors were locked or no employees were around; a girl's leg was run over when she fell off the hood of a car; children taken to an offsite cookout against company policy were drinking, and one got drunk and smoked pot; and homes were in disrepair, with one leaking water and urine from an upstairs bathroom into the kitchen below.

ViaQuest President Richard Johnson said the company would try to keep the homes open by appealing the state's decision.

He acknowledged that there were problems but said state budget cuts have left the facilities dealing with children with more complex needs who might previously have been locked away in more secure centers.

"There is a general lack of understanding from the Department of Job and Family Services about the types of kids we serve," he said. "It's really changed. It used to be we had a child with a lower IQ and we would provide therapy to help them be productive and good citizens."

"We do need to improve, but the system as a whole needs to improve, too," Johnson said.

___

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

___

February 03, 2012 05:08 PM EST

Share this article