Physical altercation breaks out at Santa Clara County foster group home

Days after finally obtaining a state license that it had been operating without for months, a Santa Clara County-run group home for foster teens was the scene of a physical altercation between staff and at least one teenage girl – an incident that raises new worrying questions. on the county’s care for abused and neglected children.

A staff member who works at the home asked county supervisors for help last week, calling the system “dysfunctional.” San Jose state senator demands House shutdown. And neighbors who witnessed the altercation and offered shelter to two foster girls who fled barefoot to one of their homes are calling it child abuse.

“If it was a mom and dad doing this to a child, someone would call CPS,” said neighbor Estrella Ojeda, who witnessed the incident last Sunday from across the street. , referring to child protective services. “I really don’t understand why the county lets these places be run.”

The county avoided responding to emailed questions about the altercation, instead issuing a statement saying that most children placed in group homes have suffered “significant trauma or abuse, leading to emotional health problems and mental health and associated behaviors. Social workers are trained in “therapeutic crisis intervention” and de-escalation techniques, he says.

The incident is the latest black eye for Santa Clara County’s troubled Department of Family and Children Services, which has faced sharp questions over its care for vulnerable abused children and teens and neglected, including an infant and a 6-year-old child who died within the last two years in the homes of their caregivers monitored by the department. The agency has been the subject of two damning state reports, investigations by the Bay Area News Group and a social worker revolt.

For the past four years, state authorities have threatened the county department with criminal charges for operating a series of “scatter sites” — unlicensed group homes for teens in foster care — that have experienced hundreds of runs away, mental breakdowns and attacks. This news agency also detailed the chaos in the homes, recounted by two teenagers.

The scene of Sunday’s incident occurred at an East San Jose group home, which received a provisional license from the state on September 27. Neighbors have been complaining about the two-story house since February, saying sirens sounded on their street when one of the first foster homes placed teens there overdosed on fentanyl. They recorded police calls and vandalism, and worried about strange cars picking up foster girls at all hours. Along the way, they became sympathetic to the foster children living there.

At least twice before, one of the girls involved in Sunday’s incident had run in tears to the nearby home of George and Patty Kohler, begging for somewhere else to live.

“Every child has a lawyer, a social worker, an advocate — and they run to my house,” said Patty, 70, who took in the distraught 17-year-old. “If all these people are helping you, why do you need me? »

George Kohler, who lives near one of Santa Clara County’s controversial group homes for foster teens, shared video footage he captured Wednesday showing first responders attending one of the numerous incidents have occurred since its opening in February in San Jose, California. October 9, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Patty Kohler and her husband, George Kohler, who live around one of Santa Clara County’s so-called “scattered sites,” a series of group homes for foster children where a physical altercation between a staff member and a teenage girl took place in early October. ., Wednesday, October 9, 2024, in San Jose, California (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

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George Kohler, who lives near one of Santa Clara County’s controversial group homes for foster teens, shared video footage he captured Wednesday showing first responders attending one of the numerous incidents have occurred since its opening in February in San Jose, California. October 9, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

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The altercation began Sunday evening, when Ojeda, the neighbor, was walking her dogs and heard a noise.

“F-bombs were flying,” she said.

From the top of his driveway, on a hill in the road, Ojeda looked down at the group home, through the French doors of the second-story balcony and into a well-lit room. Two staff members, at least one of them male, each grabbed the arms of the same 17-year-old girl the Kohlers and other neighbors had gotten to know.

“They were pushing her against the wall, while trying to get her to fall to the ground,” Ojeda said. “I just thought it was a bit crazy because I was told the staff couldn’t touch these girls or these children. If I saw him in the street, I would cry foul.

State law prohibits workers from using corporal punishment or restricting foster children in any way, as part of their “bill of rights.” During one of the first inspections of the group home by the state, it was cited for failing to post these rights. In its statement, the county said staff respected those rights.

A few minutes later, police cars arrived and the two adopted daughters rushed to the Kohler house. Neighbor Stephanie Carles brought snacks: packets of cookies, beef sticks and bottled water. Ojeda and the other neighbors said the girls showed them new bruises on their forearms and a bloody scratch on one of their torsos.

In her story to neighbors and in a telephone interview Wednesday with this news organization, the 17-year-old girl recounted how the conflict began when she and the other teen threw shampoo on the floor for “slipping and sliding » on their bare feet. . She was upset when a female staff member started videotaping them, so the teenager took out the camera from her own phone. Attempts to grab and shove took place between them, she said, and the confrontation with several staff members then escalated. The teenager said she had never assaulted anyone and was instead trying to “get rid of me” by the female staff member.

The girl was relieved, Ojeda said, when she told him she had witnessed it.

“I hope now someone will believe us,” the girl said.

With encouragement from sheriff’s deputies and neighbors, who didn’t know what else to recommend, the two girls reluctantly returned to the group home that evening and closed the doors to their rooms.

At the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting last Tuesday, social worker Brice Weber stood in front of the microphone during the public comment period and said he works at the scattered site. Wringing his hands, he said, “I’m here this morning just to, with the intention of saying, you know, help.”

It was one of his colleagues, he said, who was attacked on Sunday, and senior management was not listening to concerns about his own safety.

“I’ve only been here nine months,” he said, “and it’s not long before I realize the dysfunction we feel. » It was not clear if he was involved in the incident or if he was working that day.

State Sen. Dave Cortese, former Santa Clara County Supervisor, says scattered sites should close and he’s working with County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas to pave the way for more treatment options for troubled teens .

The county says it is operating “in compliance with licensing standards.” But that (itq comment=”appears to violate one of” ) is approved only as a “transitional” establishment, which allows children placed in foster care to stay no more than three days, 10 with exemption. One of the teenagers involved in Sunday’s altercation has already lived there for about two months and said in an interview that she plans to live there for another month or two. Nonetheless, the county says it remains within appropriate limits, provided it provides the state with proof that it has made efforts to find a longer-term placement for the foster child. welcome. It’s unclear what that alternative might be when the county calls these scattered sites “last resort” homes.

Cortese, meanwhile, says he’s still going to “demand that the state agency hold them accountable.” The state can start to make things very painful for the county by continuing to operate in rogue ways like this.

Neighbor Mark Santanocito, who with his wife raised and adopted two adopted sons, said that after Sunday’s altercation, “the county is allowing child abuse.” He created a Change.org petition calling for the closure of the two scattered sites and the ouster of the county’s Department of Human Services Director, Daniel Little, and the Department of Family and Children Services Director, Damion Wright.

As neighbor Carles says, “You can’t just drop a revolving door of very troubled foster teens into a rental house in a residential neighborhood and expect anything other than the problems we’re having.” This will wreak havoc on our neighborhood and it will never be suitable for children.