Monday, May 30, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

8-YEAR-OLD'S ARREST: Attorney: System failed girl

Confluence of events led to foster child's detention at juvenile facility

She's known to the public only as an anonymous ward of the county -- a troubled 8-year-old arrested for battery by school police at Weiner Elementary after she had a behavioral meltdown and ran away from the campus.

The girl, a second-grader, was taken to Clark County's juvenile detention facility, where she was incarcerated overnight though prosecutors chose not to pursue charges.

Attorney Kevin Leik, who represents the child through a program that is part of Clark County Legal Services, said the failure to quickly find a more appropriate placement for the girl shocked him. A parent who doesn't claim a child from the detention facility in a timely fashion probably would face charges of abandonment.

"This would never have happened if this had not been a foster child," said Leik, who works with the Children's Attorney Project.

Leik and his co-workers, who provide legal representation to the area's abused and neglected children, said it wasn't just one part of the system that failed to protect his client. Like all disasters, Leik said, the circumstance was created by a confluence of events.

Staff at the school did not follow the child's behavior management plan, which is created in the cases of emotionally disturbed children, Leik said.

The girl's foster parent, who was at the school, refused to take the child home.

Child Haven, which shelters children taken into custody by Clark County Family Services, was at capacity and refused to accept her. And after Child Haven declined to take her, the girl's caseworker did not find an alternative placement.

The only good thing to come of the situation, Leik said, is that the girl is being reunited with her birth mother. That wasn't likely to happen before the girl's incarceration.

"The situation dealt me a strong hand, and I played all the cards," Leik said.

The home will be supervised, he said, and intensive home-based services will be provided to the family.

District Attorney David Roger became involved in the girl's case when he directed his staff to help find alternative placement for the child after he learned of the matter the morning after her arrest. She then was sent to a mental health treatment facility, where she remained as of Thursday.

Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of Clark County Family Services, said her department and Juvenile Justice Services would meet in the near future to discuss ways to improve communication and prevent such incidents from happening again.

Staff at the detention facility could not immediately reach the child's caseworker after the arrest took place, Leik said. The increasing shortage of places to shelter children in county custody exacerbated the situation.

"It bothers me knowing that we don't have the best placement for every child who needs it," Klein-Rothschild said Friday. "We need more options for children that are best for them."

In Clark County, about 1,900 children are in foster care, and that number is growing, she said. Between 2003 and 2004, there was a 29 percent increase in the number of children who required emergency care from Family Services.

When asked why placement of the girl in a mental health facility couldn't have been arranged on the day of her arrest instead of the next morning, Klein-Rothschild said she didn't know. A placement might have been unavailable at that time.

Lisa Magee, spokeswoman for Clark County Juvenile Justice Services, said the detention center is designed as a temporary holding facility for children ages 8 to 18.

"We have no control over who is brought to us," Magee said. "If the police are bringing in an 8-year-old, we have to take them."

Typically, Magee said, children are held in a booking area until the parents arrive to take custody. And although 8 is young, she said the detention center handled 31 referrals involving 8-year-olds in 2004.

The children must be released into the custody of an adult; they can't be turned out into the street, she said.

"It's important for people to understand that we don't have the option of declining to take these children," Magee said.

Daniel Ebihara, also with the Children's Attorney Project, said the matter involving the 8-year-old could have been prevented at the school if staff members had followed the steps of the girl's behavior management plan.

The child, a victim of abuse and neglect, is prone to rages and tantrums. Before she was arrested, she struck three teachers and bit an administrator.

"This was not an out-of-control situation in the beginning," said Ebihara, who handles special-education issues for the project. "I think the district needs to provide better training for teachers on how to deal with emotionally disturbed kids."

The child, who is black, was called a racial epithet by another student that day, which upset her, Ebihara said. While in the classroom, she was throwing an eraser into the air and catching it, a kind of repetitive, soothing behavior that is sometimes seen in children who are emotionally disturbed.

The teacher told her to stop. She didn't. An administrator was called in to help. When the girl still refused to stop, the administrator took away the eraser, which set off the child, Ebihara said. At various points, Ebihara said, the teacher grabbed the child's arm, and the administrator tried to restrain the girl, which was when she bit his arm.

"Nothing in the file shows that they implemented her behavior plan," Ebihara said. "She did have a behavior plan, and none of the steps included handcuffing or detention."

Scott Reynolds, executive director of student support services for the Clark County School District, said he couldn't speak to the particulars of the girl's case. Training teachers to handle children with special needs is a priority for the district.

"We continually have professional development in that area," Reynolds said. Typically, teachers are aware of behavior plans and implement them accordingly, she said.