COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE
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DANGEROUS AND DEADLY RESTRAINTS
by Barbara White Stack

Giovanni "Joey" Aletriz - died after being restrained
List of children who have died, many after being restrained

IN THE NEWS

In Harm's Way: Use of physical force on troublesome kids unchecked; By Barbara White Stack; Pittsburg Post-Gazette; September 20, 2005; Larrel Dallas' arms already were broken when the breath began to be pressed out of him ... Two workers ... holding him face down in the dirt, one on his legs, the other pinning the 14-year-old's arms behind his back. Dallas heard the bones snap as one worker yanked his hands toward his head. His arms went numb. He feared for his life. "Can't breathe, can't breathe," he choked out. An asthma sufferer, he knew the panic of breathlessness. Unmoved by his pleas, the workers remained on top of him for 20 minutes. "I just closed my eyes," Dallas recounted. "I thought I was going to die."

In Harm's Way: Restraints applied even when unneeded; Some group home workers often respond too quickly to unruly behavior; By Barbara White; Pittsburg Post-Gazette; Tuesday, September 20, 2005.

In Harm's Way: Hands-off policies ward off abuse; by Barbara White Stack; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Tuesday, September 20, 2005; Restraints in group homes and treatment facilities too often are provoked by two words: Power and control.

   

About the series and author; Barbara White Stack has covered issues regarding abused, neglected and delinquent children for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for 12 years; Sunday, September 18, 2005.

Incident summaries - 1998 - 2005; The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; the following table summarizes records that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette received by filing requests under the provisions of the state Right to Know law with the state Department of Public Welfare. These records deal with violations of state regulations and laws by Allegheny County institutions housing abused, neglected, delinquent and mentally ill children. These are the only institutions that DPW determined violated regulations or laws during the period from 1998 to July of 2005.
 

 
This photo of Eric Trapolsi's forehead brush burns and broken blood vessels under his eyes was taken by Children's Hospital hours after he was restrained by staff members at Auberle Education Center.

In Harm's Way: Inside the complaint process; The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Monday, September 19, 2005; When children are hurt at group homes, residential treatment facilities and other institutions, the agency directors must report to the state Department of Public Welfare.

In Harm's Way / Who's telling the truth?By Barbara White Stack, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Monday, September 19, 2005; Often, youngsters who are being abused are not believed. Second in a series.

 


In Harm's Way: One boy's history of broken bones; By Barbara White Stack; Sunday, September 18, 2005; "I immediately grabbed the same forearm I was using to hold him before and kind of swung him around and we kind of fell to the floor together," Herrle said. That broke the boys's clavicle, his third major injury at Southwood in five days.

 


In Harm's Way: Drug convictions no bar to working with abused and neglected kids; Two drug offenders worked in recent years at group homes for abused and neglected children in Allegheny County; September 18, 2005. Pennsylvania lawmakers have decided that people who want to work in such homes will be disqualified only if they've been convicted of certain felonies, such as murder and rape, or of a couple of misdemeanors, such as stalking, but not if they have pleaded to misdemeanor drug offenses.

In Harm's Way: Juvenile home incident-report flow rapped; Sunday, September 18, 2005; The two Allegheny County men responsible for placing delinquent and abused children in group homes knew when a Bradley worker was charged in July with molesting a 16-year-old girl at the Mt. Lebanon treatment facility.

 

 

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