Attacks on Kids By Kids Increase
August 31, 2003
By Colin Poitras, The Hartford Courant     

When Joan Ford gave up her 10-year-old grandson to the state, it was one of the most agonizing decisions she ever had to make. At the very least, she thought, he would be safe.

He wasn't.

Much to her horror, Ford learned that her grandson was repeatedly sexually abused by his older roommate at The Children's Home of Cromwell, a state-licensed treatment facility, days after he arrived.

"I just want to get him out of there," said Ford, 55, of Canton. "I just want to get him home."

Cases like that of Ford's grandson, in which children in state care and custody are being sexually assaulted by other children, have prompted State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein to investigate why it is happening.

"It's an issue I'm deeply concerned about," Milstein said. "We've seen a significant increase in reports of child-on-child sexual assaults in state facilities. Much of it is anecdotal. We don't want to cause a panic, but we want to insure the children are safe."

Statistics about the number of such cases remain elusive. But Milstein and other child welfare officials have begun to notice, in part because of the seriousness of some of the incidents and because it points to yet another aspect of the state's burgeoning crisis in children's mental health.

The reports of assaults are occurring as the state and private providers struggle to find adequate resources to care for an increasing number of seriously disturbed children. Many of these children have a history of sexual abuse or other mistreatment.

"We have a responsibility to keep these children safe," Milstein said. "We put these children in for treatment and what do we do? Sometimes we victimize them more."

Some of the other incidents reported over the past year include:

A 9-year-old East Haddam girl attending school at The Children's Home was sexually assaulted by an older boy when their teacher stepped out of the room. The pair removed their clothes and rubbed their genitals together after another student dared them to have "sex."

In Windham, an 8-year-old boy was transferred to a psychiatric hospital after he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an 11-year-old boy in a Department of Children and Families group home.

An 18-year-old former DCF foster child was arrested and accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a younger female foster child while the pair shared a DCF-licensed foster home in Guilford.

Officials with the Department of Children and Families say the number of children sexually abused by other children is small, considering more than 6,000 children are in state custody or care.

"While this happens very rarely, if it happens to even one child, that is unacceptable," said Gary Kleeblatt, a DCF spokesman.

State-licensed facilities must report every incident of sexual abuse immediately to DCF, Kleeblatt said. Instances where the children involved are older - or when force is used - are reported to police. But when both the victim and perpetrator are very young - in some cases the children can be as young as 5 - it becomes more of a treatment issue, DCF officials said.

DCF Chief of Staff James Carr said the agency is working with private providers to make sure staff members are properly trained, children are supervised and kids' behavioral or mental health issues are properly assessed.

"The success of our work is based on our capacity to assess a child," Carr said. "We are constantly trying to do better assessments so we can get a holistic picture of the needs of the children and their families."

Milstein said proper assessments are key, since children with serious problems are doubled and sometimes tripled up in rooms to receive treatment.

"So many programs are doing a really great job with kids but inadequate and incomplete assessments continue to be a problem," Milstein said. "When there is a poor assessment and when a child's placement is incorrect, then there is a possibility of another child being inappropriately placed with them. It's a recipe for disaster."

Ford said her grandson's mental health problems worsened after he was abused at The Children's Home.

"I'm very upset that it wasn't handled right," Ford said.

The mother of the East Haddam girl sexually assaulted at The Children's Home sued the school last month seeking damages.

According to a lawsuit at Superior Court in Hartford, the woman accuses staff at the facility of failing to properly supervise her daughter, safeguard her and intervene to prevent the assault. The lawsuit says the assault "aggravated and exacerbated" the girl's underlying psychological problems causing her "severe and permanent" physical and mental injuries.

The family has since moved their daughter into a public school, where she is reportedly doing better, according to her family. The girl has a full-time aide shadowing her during the school day.

"The public school is actually doing a better job of protecting her," the mother said in a recent phone interview.

Associate Child Advocate Mickey Kramer, a registered nurse, said the state must do more to make sure treatment facilities and foster homes are safe.

"It's a matter of knowing who you're caring for and having the capacity to do on-going assessments and good supervision," Kramer said. "It's the responsibility of the agency that is treating the kid and ultimately the responsibility of the agency that contracts with that provider."

Private providers are doing the best they can to protect and treat children who are coming into their facilities with increasingly serious emotional problems, said Alan Deckman, a spokesman for the Children's League of Connecticut. The Hartford-based association represents more than a half dozen juvenile treatment providers, including The Children's Home.

Deckman said many providers would like to keep children in single rooms, but a shortage of treatment beds statewide, coupled with pressure by the state to accept as many children as possible, makes that nearly impossible.

Children who should be alone in a room are sometimes placed with one, two or even three roommates.

The problem of children sexually abusing other children is not limited to state-run or licensed facilities. The Governor's Task Force on Justice for Abused Children formed a study group last year to investigate trends involving children with problem sexual behaviors.

An analysis by The Courant last spring revealed that 294 children under age 13 were charged with sex crimes from 1997 to 2001, according to available records provided by the judicial branch.

But child advocates suspect there are many other incidents that go unreported or which do not involve police.

A discussion of this story with Courant Staff Writer Colin Poitras is scheduled to be shown on New England Cable News each half-hour Tuesday between 9 a.m. and noon.