Listen to thisOne teen died after a worker charged with her care
sat on her back. Another lost his life due to a lack of proper medical
treatment. And a third hanged herself while in a detention centre “one
of several cries for help during her young life.
These troubled, sick children are among the six young people who died in
Ontario-run institutions since 1996. A report released yesterday by
Defence for Children International charges they would still be alive had
the province not severely restricted the powers of the Office of Child
and Family Service Advocacy.
Yesterday in the Legislature, Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty attacked
the government's record, asking, “Why have you failed to protect
children in care in the province of Ontario?" Brenda Elliott, the
minister of community, family and children's services, replied that the
Conservatives have enhanced child protection and responded to coroners'
inquests calling for more powers for those overseeing children in care.
Inquests into five of the six deaths issued a total of 298
recommendations. The following are snapshots of those five children
whose lives and deaths became part of the public record.
In 1996, James Lonnee became the first young offender to die in an
Ontario jail.
According to a coroner's report, Lonnee “got into trouble with the law
at an early age" and spent much of his youth in secure-custody
facilities. He moved between 13 different residential and detention
centres between 1995 and 1996 alone.
In early September, 1996, Lonnee, described as highly impulsive,
restless and immature for his age, was transferred from the Brookside
Youth Centre in Cobourg to the Wellington Detention Centre in Guelph.
While waiting to appear in court, the 16-year-old was placed in a cell,
where he was severely beaten by his cellmate.
A nurse discovered Lonnee after she peered through the cell's food slot
and saw him lying on the floor, bleeding from the top of his nose and
his mouth. He was taken to hospital in Guelph and later transferred to
Hamilton General Hospital, where he succumbed to a head injury on Sept.
7.
Among 120 recommendations, a coroner's jury called for the abolition of
segregation cells for young offenders.
An inquest found that Stephanie Jobin died from severe brain damage
shortly after a staff worker at a Brampton group home sat on her back
with a beanbag chair for 20 minutes.
The 13-year-old autistic girl stopped breathing while two female workers
were restraining her on June 17, 1998. The second employee held the
teen's legs while helping force her to lie face down on the living room
floor of Digs for Kids on Vodden St.
Three days later, Stephanie was pronounced dead.
In the months leading up to her death, workers were increasingly forced
to restrain Stephanie for biting, head butting and pulling out the hair
of her caregivers. She was also pulling out her own hair and slamming
her own head against the wall.
The jury at an inquest into her death last December heard Stephanie was
placed in the group home and supervised by $10-an-hour caregivers when
she should have been at a specialized-care facility with access to
health-care professionals. Only one such facility exists in Ontario, the
jury was told, and it had no room for Stephanie, a ward of the Peel
Children's Aid Society.
Less than one year after Stephanie's death, 13-year-old William Edgar, a
ward of the Toronto Children's Aid Society, died after being restrained
by a staff member at a group home east of Peterborough in a similar
incident.
A child prone to “uncontrollable acts of rage," his outbursts of
impulsive, aggressive and destructive behaviour escalated when he
learned of his birth father's sudden death in 1996.
After bouncing in and out of foster homes and care facilities in the
Toronto area, William was placed at the Keene Residence of the Cavan
Youth Services outside of Peterborough in 1997. There, he was frequently
restrained by staff members working to calm his destructive behaviour.
On March 29, 1999, when he began to swear and stomp his feet, he was
restrained by a 250-pound worker, who held him face down on the floor,
according to an inquest into his death. William died later that night.
The inquest jury called for the province to outlaw the face-down
restraint method.
On the day Joshua Durnford, 18, died, the nurse assigned to check his
condition at Maplehurst Detention Centre in Milton didn't even open his
cell.
An inquest into the Feb. 15, 2000, death of the teen, who had been under
the care of the children's aid society since the age of 10, revealed his
life could have been saved had he been given proper medical treatment.
A diagnosed “homosexual pedophiliac," Durnford lived in 16 different
residential and custodial facilities while growing up. Following several
assaults in various group homes, he was sent to Maplehurst, where his
condition slowly deteriorated.
In the four days leading up to his death, Durnford complained to staff
members of headaches and had difficulty speaking. He had problems
dressing himself, was sweating profusely and was found on Feb. 14 lying
face down on his mattress, shaking uncontrollably. Staff noted him to be “weak and sweaty" with failing motor skills and slurred speech.
The inquest jury heard that on the morning of his death, a nurse doing
medication rounds was asked to see the teen, who could no longer stand.
The nurse on duty looked through the door hatch but did not enter the
cell.
At 10 a.m., Durnford was transferred to Milton Hospital after Maplehurst
staff found him unresponsive, lying in a pool of urine on his mattress.
He was pronounced dead at 12:02 p.m.
Durnford, who had a history of “extreme behaviour and interpersonal
disturbances," according to a coroner's report, died of neuroleptic
malignant syndrome, a side effect of two neuroleptic medications used to
treat psychotic illnesses. Staff at Maplehurst failed to review the side
effects of the medications or take his temperature, the inquest found.
A teenaged girl who battled depression and bounced from foster home to
youth detention centre had her first encounter with the Toronto
Children's Aid Society after a suicide attempt in February, 2001.
Suffering from issues of abandonment and isolation, the girl was placed
in a Brampton foster home after spending two weeks in the adolescent
psychiatric unit at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Following an assault charge for an incident with another child at the
foster home, her behaviour declined steadily. She began skipping school
and eventually ran away from her foster home. In late June, 2001, she
was placed at MacMillan Youth Centre, a detention facility in Milton “the eventual site of her death.
The teen, who had made two previous attempts on her life, was sent to
her room for misbehaviour three days after arriving at MacMillan. She
constructed a noose from curtains hanging on her bedroom window and
hanged herself, an inquest into her death determined. She was pronounced
brain-dead on July 3. She was only 14.
Jurors at the inquest were told no one at MacMillan was informed that
the girl was a suicide risk.
At the end of the five-week hearing, jurors made 32 recommendations, including better training for those who work with children.
This feature: Jessica Leeder, with files from Caroline Mallan. Reproduced courtesy of Torstar Syndication Services.
