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Lawsuit filed on behalf of children who were subjected to “unspeakable acts of sexual abuse “

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Illinois

A lawsuit claims the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Chicago Lakeshore Hospital “turned a blind eye” to sexual and physical abuse inflicted upon children at the psychiatric hospital.

The 16-count suit, filed in federal court Tuesday by Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, lists DCFS overseers as well as former Lakeshore administrators and nurses among its defendants. Lakeshore’s parent company, Signature Healthcare Services, LLC, is also included as a defendant. […]

In the 40-page lawsuit, Golbert testifies on behalf of several minors who were “subjected to or witnessed unspeakable acts of sexual abuse by staff and peers” in 2017 and 2018.

One example that Golbert sets forth details an alleged incident in which a nurse showed lesbian pornography to a 14-year-old girl before repeatedly sexually assaulting her. The nurse allegedly allowed the girl and others to fill out their own medical paperwork and the “confidential and highly-sensitive paperwork of other patients,”as well as use her vaping device. […]

The 14-year-old eventually “escaped” from the hospital, along with a number of other juveniles. The children were missing for months, according to the lawsuit, because the Lakeshore staff and administration attempted to cover it up rather than report it. […]

According to Golbert’s suit, DCFS ignored the rampant abuse going on at Lakeshore because it was the only psychiatric hospital in the area that would accept their wards. Many of the children who were abused had already completed their treatment, but remained at the hospital because they had nowhere else to go.

And, according to the lawsuit, it was the only psychiatric hospital in the area willing to accept those kids because the state has been such a deadbeat in paying its bills.

Go read the whole thing. Disgusting.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 10:58 am

Comments

The feds already came down hard on Lakeshore too. They aren’t certified by Medicare anymore.

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/Downloads/Termination-Notice-Illinois-Aurora-Chicago-Lakeshore-Hospital-08-01-2019.pdf

Comment by Perrid Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:10 am
So if the state had been better about paying its bills, there would have been more treatment options and fewer kids would have been abused?

Budgets are so important.

Comment by DIstant watcher Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:16 am
DIstant, probably more accurate to say THESE kids wouldn’t have been abused. The abusers had access to kids, increasing bed turnover wouldn’t have stopped them from abusing, just changed who they abused.

Comment by Perrid Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:19 am
== To this end, when Lakeshore employees refused or failed to provide DCFS investigators with video footage that could have been used as corroboration, the investigators allegedly “treated the missing videos as evidence that the complained of incident did not happen because there was no corroborating evidence.”==
So hide the evidence and there is no crime. And so it goes.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:22 am
Bruce Rauner. This is on your head.

Comment by Soccermom Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:39 am
== Bruce Rauner. This is on your head. ==

Would say the legislature that didn’t even try to extend the previous tax increase owns part of this too. But yes a lot of this is on Bruce.

The facility also owns a fair chunk of this.

Comment by OneMan Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 12:04 pm
This is no defense of Bruce Rauner, but these things have been going on for years. I personally know of a young woman who experienced this during the Quinn administration, but at a different facility. DHS just ignored it, and moved her to a different facility. She is still suffering the affects of this.

Comment by wondering wendy Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 12:34 pm
I agree. Periodically, over the decades, scandals have erupted over the care of children in institutional settings. No doubt the state does something in response, but apparently it’s not enough because after a while scandals erupt again.
Is there something about these settings that is inherently toxic for kids? Hope the plaintiffs
can get a more fundamental response than just Rauner’s gone, problem over. Because I’m sure it isn’t. And the many entities who oversee DCFS certainly know better than that.

Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 1:13 pm
One of the issues in the past has been that these hospitals are emergency room kind of places. Kids are only supposed to be there for a few days to stabilize and then get discharged. The hospital staff testified to the GA about this as was reported by ProPublica last year. The kids end up languishing long term in a short-term facility and it has disastrous effects. These kids will do anything to get out, including running away. Closing down another hospital doesn’t seem like a good way to provide better services though, there’s already a huge lack in providers, especially for this very challenging population.

Comment by Norbert Macuga Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 2:13 pm