Just in Time for Orangewood’s Children : Home’s Directors Change Some Procedures for Controlling the Troubled Youngsters

The decision by directors of the Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange to change some procedures used by counselors to control the shelter’s children was as timely as could be.

The Orange County Juvenile Justice Commission has been investigating reports that youngsters at the facility for abused, neglected and abandoned children have been mistreated. Those are serious accusations, but Orangewood--a 5-year-old shelter opened to ease overcrowding at the previous county home for dependent children--has had a good reputation despite its own well-publicized problems with overcrowding, which have plagued the facility almost from the beginning.

But one inevitable problem for such a place dealing with troubled youngsters is that there is inevitably going to be a fine line between the need for special rules and regulations and disciplinary action that goes too far.

Orangewood director Robert Theemling says the changes are intended to make the shelter’s rules understandable and are not intended as reactions to criticism that the system is too strict. However, there can be little doubt that the attention focused on the disciplinary situation at the facility offers a strong incentive to clarify the ground rules, for the benefit of everyone associated with Orangewood.

Meanwhile, the commission’s findings are scheduled to be submitted soon to Presiding Juvenile Court Judge C. Robert Jameson. Orangewood officials have denied the allegations, which are being reviewed by the Orange County Grand Jury.

Whatever the commission report concludes about allegations of verbal, physical and mental abuse, and whatever the timing of the effort to improve procedures, the commitment of the facility to ensure that its procedures makes sense--and are perceived by staff members and children as fair--has to be viewed as a positive step.

In particular, there have been complaints asserting that a rule book for adolescent girls is harsh, even cruel.

The facility’s rules have some prestigious defenders, but it will not hurt to review existing procedures to make them clearer and unquestionably fair.

Experts are quick to point out that children in a facility such as Orangewood need a highly structured environment. What the institution’s experience points up is how fine is the tightrope that staff members must walk between providing predictable boundaries, which might be good, and overly rigid rules.

Orangewood has taken a step to strike a fair balance.