NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Police officers charged with caring for Tennessee’s most vulnerable children are now facing new allegations that they caused emotional and physical harm to those same children.
The Tennessee Disability Rights Association and young people with disabilities who were held in Department of Child Welfare custody have filed a class action lawsuit against the agency and its commissioner.
The group alleges that DCS abused and neglected children with disabilities in the juvenile justice system.
“Let’s just say that the young people who are the subject of this lawsuit are being held in these prisons, and that’s exactly what prisons are – juvenile prisons,” said Shelley Wiles, assistant legal director for the Tennessee Disability Rights Coalition. “Less restrictive detention facilities, such as home or community detention, would be more appropriate for most use needs.”
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The lawsuits include a wide range of allegations, including that staff pepper-sprayed an autistic child who was panicking, promised a bipolar child ramen in exchange for beating him, and put a depressed boy in solitary confinement for six months.
“I see this as a step towards making a difference. It’s not just an attempt. But it’s a start,” Wilde said.
Before filing the lawsuit, Wilde said, the Tennessee Disability Rights Association had attempted to alert DCS to the problems they had observed and release three reports with recommendations for improvements.
But Wilde said nothing has changed: “Litigation is a last resort that we take when other advocacy strategies have failed. But it is a resort that sometimes must be taken. And it should not and should not be a surprise to anyone that something like this might happen.”
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Asked if other allegations of abuse within DCS were also being investigated, Wilde did not go into detail: “There have been a number of issues within DCS, but I cannot address those at this time. I stand by the substance of this complaint and our serious concerns about it.”
With the lawsuit filed, Wiles said her team is waiting for responses from the state and DCS and for class action certification.
“Then we go into discovery and find out what we need to know for the litigation, what they need to tell us, and they in turn find out from us what information we have that they need to share with us. So discovery is a big part of the litigation process,” she said.
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When we contacted the Governor’s Office, DCS and the Attorney General, DCS and the Attorney General’s Office would only say they were aware of the incident.