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DIONNE'S
SON,
10 My name is Dionne and my husband was a pediatrician in Lubbock, Texas. My 10-year-old son (now 11 and STILL not investigated, tried for, or convicted of any crime) was falsely accused of " indecency with a child" and held for 10 days at the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center. What happened, basically, is the police called my husband and said my son had to be brought to the police station for mugshots, fingerprinting and then transfer to the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center (LCJJC) until a judge heard his case. We hired an attorney immediately. Three days after my son was detained, at his "detention hearing", he was brought into court wearing standard prison garb, including the shackles and handcuffs. When my son's case was called It was apparent that the judge wanted to let him go but the probation officer told the judge we had another boy who my 10 yr. old could possibly be molesting (this was never even a cause for his being taken in) and that we lived across the street from the school (despite it being June and no one in class, apparently this was still a danger to society). After that, the judge ordered a psych eval to be done and remanded him back to the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center until it was completed. While this is not a TYC facility, it is a state-administered facility nonetheless. While being detained there, my son faced some of the same kinds of abuses suffered by those held at TYC. He was locked in his room for 3 hours at a time for "not shutting a door correctly." On yet another occasion, they turned off his electricity and water, stripped his bed and took all the letters and pictures off of his wall. My son, who is very small, was hazed repeatedly by the detention officers and was threatened and told not to tell anyone. One guard told my son to go to his room, lean against his wall and get ready for a cavity search; He didn't even know what that was. He was also placed in the middle of their pod by a guard who pulled out electric clippers and told my son they were shaving his head. He wasn't even allowed his weekly phone call home. When he didn't eat all of his food they threatened to make him wear a dress.Upon being admitted they insisted he receive a shot but we were never notified or asked our permission. These are just a few of the things that we know about. After a little research I found out that in the past 2 years there have been 2 suicides and at least one allegation of rape. When I complained to the Director, Les Brown, about how my son was treated he had me banned from the building as an attempt to muzzle me. I reported the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center to the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission but it took them almost a year to investigate and file a report. The report agreed that my son's rights were violated, but not all of these violations rose to a "significant level." Gov. Perry also agreed that these violations and abuse did rise to a level requiring action and he would be contacting the DOJ, we never heard from either again. Sadly, only one individual was ever disciplined (one detention officer received a three-day suspension), with no other consequences to anyone else. Ironically, my husband did many of the physicals for kids entering the S.T.A.R. program here (a long term boot camp for juveniles) so he has heard from other parents about how their kids were mistreated at the juvenile justice center and whose parents, like myself, were "banned" from the premises when they complained. Apparently, the leaders of the Juvenile Justice Centers - charged with helping and supervising our kids - would rather ignore problems at their sites or, sadder still, disregard the victimization our kids might be going through. While he was in the detention center, we hired a private psychologist to do our son's psychological evaluation. His opinion was that it was very unlikely that our son had committed the acts he was accused of and that was not remotely a danger to either himself or others. On his release, he was ordered to attend regular counseling. Our son was released from LCJJC (after 10 days) on the condition that he see a PO and a counselor weekly (as well as 12 other "conditions of Release"). The psychologist that he began seeing (actually one of the psychologists who frequently did evaluations for the D.A.'s office and could hardly be seen as biased in his favor) also agreed that there was no way he committed the "crime" he was charged with. When school began, the accusing mom told the Principal our son had molested her children and was a danger to the kids in our neighborhood. Instead of taking the professional opinion of 3 psychologists, 2 pediatricians and character reference letters from several teachers at his previous school, the school district just decided he should be placed in the "alternative school" for delinquent kids for THE WHOLE YEAR! We appealed the decision as far as we were legally allowed to in the state of Texas and were repeatedly denied, usually with the reasoning that "We have no choice." (Incidentally, my husband thoroughly studied the Texas Education Code regarding this and, prior to each appeal, detailed exactly how and why they could, and should, reverse the earlier decision). When I asked for the DAEP curriculum, they didn't let me have one. They only did actual class work 3 hours a day, while the rest of the time he had to do "boot camp" activities such as marching, exercises, etcetera (plus clean dumpsters, weed the grass, and other menial tasks). I recorded much of this on tape and took pics of my son "working" alongside kids from all grades (despite the legal issue that he was too young to be with anyone older than 11). I was on their ass daily but, if I hadn't been no telling how many other laws they would have broken. By the end of the year, he had been made to teach the class of kids aged 6-11 when there was a substitute teacher. I blew a friggin fuse. Eventually, the DA wrote a letter to the school saying they didn't plan on prosecuting my son, however the elementary school still denied him access . Basically, he lost a full year of education and socialization. He lost any semblance of innocence and normalcy that he had prior to this. He was basically unable to have any meaningful interaction with other kids. He spent a whole year with no friends, and nothing but constant scrutiny. Then, when the mother of the "victim" told our neighbors they began a harassment campaign ultimately resulted in animal control killing my son's dogs. The mom who had accused my son went on the local news station and told the whole town that she "stopped a child molester from being allowed in school"and that he was now enrolled in DAEP. While his name was not mentioned, he was the only 10 year old in the school district who was in DAEP at that time and the interview was filmed in front of the elementary school, which is directly across from what was then our home. They showed this tape at both 6:00 and 10:00. My son couldn't even have his birthday in Lubbock (he had no friends), so we took him to my parents house over 300 miles away and picked up some of his friends from his old town on the way. I hope the investigation into TYC will lead to other investigations of the institutions that our children are locked in but I'm not holding my breath. The Texas House and Senate members serving on the Juvenile Justice & Family Issues and Criminal Justice committees, respectively, can not claim ignorance on these issues because we have sent each of them a packet detailing the abuses that occurred in Lubbock. I sent all of these via certified mail and received all tags back. The only interest I ever received was from my Texas State House member, Carl Isett. Representative Isett does not even serve on these committees but offered his assistance nevertheless. We were fortunate to have the means to hire attorneys and experts but most held there are poor minorities forced into a system stacked against them with court appointed lawyers who are so overburdened they don't even know their clients or the cases until court. It was the absolute worst time of my life, not to mention my family's. I'm sorry, I am beginning to cry just repeating it, but people need to know. I just hope our experience can help someone else. I have written almost every news agency and station about this and have, unfortunately, gotten very few responses. Doing nothing and "letting it go" are NOT acceptable! People need to care, or we will lose a whole generation of our kids. We owe our children something better than this; They need us to use our conscience. Its amazing! These are our children! It is mind-boggling! People don't seem to think (or want to believe) that this is possible, or that it could ever happen to their kids. Well, it can! Dionne and Steve McNutt Lubbock, TX Submitted Aug. 8, 2007
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