County Children’s Shelter Plagued by Mounting Woes

The visitors will arrive in their shiny new cars. The gym will be decked in red and green streamers. Banquet tables will bristle with tiny, living Christmas trees. And the residents of the county’s only emergency shelter for abused and neglected children will receive hand-delivered gifts from Santa Claus--from winter parkas to Sony Walkman radios.

Today’s annual Christmas Eve celebration at MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte will offer a brief holiday respite, an island of calm and even hope, at a facility that is the home of last resort for about 250 of the county’s most troubled children.

But when the last strains of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church choir fade away and the celebrity guests depart into the night, those who run MacLaren will again be grappling with its sad, stressful and occasionally dangerous norm:

The facility’s population has more than doubled during this past tumultuous year, hitting a plateau this month with 60% more residents than the operators prefer. More and more children and teenagers are behaving erratically, provoking serious and violent incidents, according to many employees. And social workers have been criticized by an outside consultant for perpetuating what was described as a coercive and abusive “counterculture” that mistreats children.

In recent weeks, six teenage boys were arrested and removed from MacLaren for allegedly attacking another child who, like them, was supposed to be at the facility for his own protection. Earlier this month, five social workers were transferred out of “Mac,” as it is known, for allegedly being too confrontational with children and for resisting a reform program designed to build a more positive relationship with them, administrators said.

The recent controversy and struggle at MacLaren echo problems that have long plagued the institution. In the mid-1980s, the population sometimes exceeded 300, and dozens of employees were dismissed after allegations that children had been physically, sexually and psychologically abused. A decade later, overcrowding is again approaching that level and there is renewed debate over how to remake the facility’s employee culture, making 1996 one of MacLaren’s most tumultuous years.

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“At what point in time does the county say, ‘This isn’t working, this just isn’t working, we need more [dormitory-style] cottages at MacLaren, or we need to add a second shelter facility somewhere else?’ ” said Patricia Curry, a member of the county Commission for Children and Families and chairwoman of a committee on MacLaren Hall. “We need to expand our thinking and at least talk about other solutions.”

After working as a volunteer advocate for children at the shelter for nearly a decade, Curry said, she has seen some improvements--including removal of some combative staff members and establishment of a stronger program to teach teenagers how to leave foster care and live on their own.

But societal perils such as poverty, drug abuse and domestic violence continue to drive up the population of MacLaren, which recently reached nearly 270. Some employees and outside observers say the facility is understaffed and ill-equipped to respond. With dorm rooms overflowing, children are often forced to sleep on cots in cramped common spaces.

Half a dozen MacLaren teenagers were interviewed this month by The Times. Their distant, tired eyes seemed to reflect sadness, cynicism and endurance in the face of just another round of questions from just another stranger.

Most said they had been screamed at by staff. One girl said she had been kicked and another said she had been shoved for no reason by counselors. But two girls said they understood the employees’ aggressive stance--they had seen social workers attacked. One boy said that he missed some of the five employees who had been transferred out.

MacLaren social workers said kids sometimes concoct stories of abuse to get rid of workers they don’t like. Administrators for the Department of Children and Family Services said that cases of staff using excessive force on children are unusual and that they are dealt with swiftly.

MacLaren Hall opened two decades ago in a quiet residential section of El Monte, as a way station for children taken from their families who are on the way to more permanent placements with relatives, foster families or group homes. The facility handles children of all ages, but the bulk of the population is 10 or older. Stays at MacLaren are supposed to be limited to 30 days, although some children stay for months as the staff struggles to find more permanent homes for them. The more they have trouble in other homes, the more often they come back to Mac, making it the home of last resort for problem children.

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In the cinder-block “cottages” where they live, one can find a volatile mix of emotionally disturbed youngsters, adolescents destined for psychiatric hospitals, teenage mothers with nursing infants and violent teenage boys, MacLaren administrators said. Many are on medication that leaves them sleepy and droopy-eyed, according to some of the children’s lawyers and other frequent visitors.

The campus of low-slung brick and cinder-block buildings, which resembles a high school, was designed to shelter 160 children, said Director Jerry Watkins. When the number of children rises, so does the stress on the staff and clientele. On that point, MacLaren’s administration, social workers and children all agree.

Police are normally called to MacLaren about 400 times a year, but they have been ordered to the facility 347 times in just the last eight months.

A particularly nasty flare-up occurred Dec. 8, when six 14- and 15-year-olds beat a teenager suspected of being a snitch. The perpetrators then barricaded the doors to a dormitory, overturned beds and ran around campus and over rooftops before they were corralled by El Monte police and taken to Juvenile Hall.

Just weeks before, veteran counselors said, they expelled a Latino gang member who threatened to start a race riot and said he had hidden weapons on the dormitory roof, a claim that proved false.

Another burst of trouble came when a large Van Nuys group home, called Pride House, was closed in October and some of its difficult clientele were shipped to MacLaren. According to staff members, one of the youths said: “We closed down Pride House and now we are going to close you down.”

Said Puran Singh Khalsa, a social worker for 18 years: “When you have a tough kid with emotional problems, who is slow to learn and the size of a Raiders linebacker, any little thing can set them off. . . . It’s a serious situation.”

Although it is generally agreed that MacLaren needs improvement, changes have provoked controversy.

Some veteran employees objected earlier this year, for instance, when administrators banned the use of so-called “R&R;” rooms, dormitory spaces where problem children were left in isolation after acting up. The staffers felt the isolation helped calm “hyper” teenagers, but administrators called the rooms overly punitive.

More recently, some employees blamed their bosses for not hiring enough workers and for imposing a new discipline-and-reward regimen, recommended by an outside consultant, that they said is too time-consuming for workers and too lax on children.

Administrators say that the facility is fully staffed and that a small but vocal minority of employees is poisoning efforts to remake a culture that was heavy on shouting and even strong-arm tactics.

The animosity deepened earlier this year when the county instituted a three-year, $150,000 contract with Boys Town USA of Omaha, Neb. The agency has tried to convert MacLaren to a gentler, more activist form of group care. The Boys Town approach--made famous in a 1938 movie with Spencer Tracy in the role of the loving Father Flanagan--stresses the need for keeping children and teenagers constantly active with schoolwork, projects and athletics. It includes a point system in which they earn privileges such as extra time outdoors and field trips.

“These kids are supposed to carry around these cards to track their performance,” said one veteran social worker, who opposes the concept. “You might have only two or three staff to deal with 34 or 35 kids and you don’t have the time to fill out cards and give them the consequences.”

But that veteran counselor and four others were transferred out of MacLaren earlier this month because supervisors said they were frequently accused of verbal or physical abuse and resisted the Boys Town regimen.

In a letter last month to Curry, the children’s commission member, Boys Town administrator Roger Peterson said: “I don’t think there is a possibility that staff are mistreating kids--I think it’s a reality. Just how often and how serious are the real questions.”

“My staff have witnessed MacLaren staff swearing and yelling at kids, restraining kids and the inappropriate handling (grabbing) of kids. This occurs when staff are probably on their best behavior because we are there. Imagine what may take place in our absence, or, worse, at night.”

Peterson also wrote that cooperation in implementing the Boys Town program was nothing more than “lip service.” Peterson did not return phone calls.

But Sylvester Wilson, who took over the Boys Town training program this month, said the situation has improved. The staff members he has worked with “are very positive. . . . I don’t see a lot of resistance.” He conceded that Boys Town has more staff at its own facilities.

Leaders of Service Employees International Union Local 535 said removal of the five veteran workers was particularly damaging at a time of heavy crowding. One MacLaren teenager interviewed this month said four staff members typically handle about 30 boys in his unit. “They got no control because if there is one fight, usually there will be another fight, and they can’t stop it,” said the boy, as his attorney stood by. “Sometimes on weekends there is nothing to do and the kids just go crazy.”

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Watkins, the facility director, insisted that union members are wrong about understaffing and said the facility meets its minimum work force requirements, which are set by county policy. When the population surges, part-time help is brought in.

Peter Digre, director of the county Department of Children and Family Services, said that a few employees disgruntled over the transfers are drumming up the bad feelings.

“The vast majority of staff out there is very committed to this process of change. We do have a minority culture of backlash and entrenchment,” said Digre. “These changes are a ‘go,’ and nothing is going to get in the way of that.”

Digre said his department is taking emergency steps in an effort to reduce the MacLaren population to about 170 by early in the new year. Extra efforts are being made to place new arrivals from broken homes in group homes. And an increased rate of $1,000 a month, about triple the standard, will be paid to foster families that can take children with special medical needs, Digre said.

This Christmas season, volunteer groups such as United Friends of the Children are taking great pains to make the institution homey and to bring a measure of peace to the overcrowded facility. Some say that because the group has done such a good job in the past, troubled, “system-savvy” kids have run away from their foster homes to be at MacLaren for the annual flurry of celebrities and gifts.

But on one recent day, the denizens of the county children’s home of last resort were mostly hoping they would be released from MacLaren to be with friends or relatives for Christmas.

One freckle-faced teenager, sleepy-eyed with medication, said she would make do if she remained at Mac. The girl had fashioned a halo from silver ribbon decorated with stars--a holiday accessory she said helped transport her to another place.

“I believe we are all capable of being angels, in our own special way,” she said hopefully, looking past her visitors. “I believe that all of us will be angels automatically, when we go to heaven.”