YMCA Program on Probation

The death of an 8-year-old boy participating in a YMCA holiday outing comes just weeks before the organization’s program at a Laguna Niguel elementary school is scheduled to come off a two-year state probation imposed for violations involving the supervision of children.

State regulators said Tuesday they will now open an investigation into the death of Anthony Ferris, though there is no indication now that the YMCA was at fault in the tragedy.

The Laguna Niguel third-grader was crushed by a heavy concrete bench that fell on him during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at a city park. The bench was not secured to the ground, as the manufacturer suggests, and city officials are trying to determine what caused it to topple.

The boy was one of 74 children at the holiday event, sponsored by the YMCA’s Hidden Hills Elementary School after-school program.

The Hidden Hills program has been under scrutiny from regulators for several years, reaching a peak in 1996 when officials at the state Department of Social Services moved to revoke the program’s operating license.

In a settlement reached with the state agency, Arthur Wannlund, president of the Orange County YMCA, acknowledged some violations in the way children were supervised at the program and agreed to a two-year probation.

At issue were three incidents of “inappropriate sexual contact” between children in the care of the facility in 1995. Questions were also raised about the center’s failure to provide a safe environment for children after a child was injured on the playground in May 1996.

Of the nearly 600 child-care programs licensed in Orange County that are not based in homes, about two dozen are on probation, state regulators said.

Under the probation guidelines, the YMCA promised “substantial compliance” including “visual observation of children in care by teacher at all times.”

“The YMCA programs had a number of serious complaints,” said Dana Williamson, program supervisor for the community care licensing-child care division. “We had serious concerns, and that’s why we took the action we took.”

In the state’s file are half a dozen reports of children in the program being injured, ranging from cuts on the forehead to a rock-throwing fight to an incident in 1997 when an unsecured wooden storage unit was pulled over by two children on top of themselves. Some of these problems occurred while the program was under probation.

Williamson said no steps were taken to revoke the license because the violations weren’t serious enough. “There is no such thing as an absolutely perfect program,” he said.

He added that the Hidden Hills program has improved in recent months and received a good inspection in December.

Wannlund said past problems between state regulators and the YMCA had been resolved.

“What happened at those sites in the past had no relation to what happened” Monday, he said. “What happened [Monday] happened with staff right there on the site. Our staff-to-child ratio was four children to every one staff member.”

State officials said it is too soon to say if any action will be taken as a result of Monday’s deadly accident.

“We don’t know all that happened,” Williamson said. “I believe we have to have the facts and determine how much of what occurred could have been prevented.”