TEXAS-- This week, a jury found Jesse Salazar, age 25 of intentionally causing injury to person with disability for hi role in a “Fight Club” formed at a Corpus Christi, Texas state school. Salazar and others forced State school residents to fight each other while recording the fights on their cell phones. The “Fight Club” continued unreported for a year.
A total of six state school employees, all of whom have since been fired, are charged in the case. Two former employees, Vincent Johnson and D'Angelo Riley pled guilty to causing injury to persons with disabilities, and another employee goes on trial next week for failing to intervene.
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) is responsible for overseeing the Corpus Christi State School and other state run schools. DADS has been under fire and under investigation are number of instances of abuse and neglect in the state school system. Laura Albrecht, spokesperson DADS says, "We have taken the appropriate action to send a message to Corpus Christi and the other facilities that abuse and neglect of residents will not be tolerated."
SOURCES:
'Fight Club' Perpetrator Convicted of Injuring Mentally Disabled State Residents http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8323288&page=1
1st trial to start in Texas `fight club' case
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hIewycyiHqBgHGCbHc-amSumwQfwD9A03TKO1
11 comments:
I am truly i dissapointed to hear something like this can happen in our times. I hope that the individuals directly and indirectly are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is no room for mercy for individuals to violate not only rights of individuals ,but also violate themselves for being involved in such an act. Also, i hope all the the people overseeing these schools can be replaced with individuals who will protect other people's rights.
EDDIE REYES
It is a sad day when the people that are hired to protect others do the most harm to them. In this day and age there should be more humility to those with special needs. They need to be helped and protected not put at additional risk and harm.
What a horrible and inhumane thing to do! Those people are disturbed…I am just curious of what kind of background check (if any) they do…and where were the supervisors during all this? To have gone on “unreported for over a year” is appalling.
I personally do not know how DADS oversees a facility, but it is good to know that they are now taking “appropriate action.” I’m happy to see those people found guilty--even the one who failed to intervene.
If they were at all bored…they should have fought each other! What cowards they are to abuse those who were placed in a position where they could not defend themselves…
At first, it may appear that Zalazar and his five co-workers are the only ones to blame for the “fight club.”
However, this had been going on for months. How could the supervisors and the other co-workers not know what was happening?
After all, according to the DADS, more than 1,000 people work in the Corpus Christi facility.
In the end, Zalazar was sentenced to only three years and the school’s director got to keep his job.
Rick Perry also signed new legislature that improves the oversight of the 13 state facilities that house more than 5,000 people.
There will also be a $112 million settlement for the mistreatment found in the 13 residential state facilities.
According to the Fiscal 2008 Regulatory Services Annual Report, DADS is aware that neglect and abuse are issues at the state facilities and it promises to do more visits.
It is interesting that both Governor
Perry and DADS stress the need for more “oversight.” Yet, there was no specific mention of more training, better background checks, or accountability.
Most importantly, there was no mention of how the school intends to make amends with the students who were forced to participate in the "fight club."
REHS 6300
B. Ramirez
I think it is a very sad ordeal when it comes to this “fight club” situation. How could supervisors not have known this was happening? Don’t they have high expectations for their employees of DAD? Although most of it is to blame on the employees themselves for letting this go on for a year, I do not put the full blame on them. The participants are just as guilty as they are and I agree with an earlier post about them not saying what they were going to do with the rest of the participants. It was the employee’s job to keep these individuals safe and I do think they should be fired and never hired in such employment ever again because if they did this right now, then they are liable to do it again and then I could say it is their entire fault for what has happened.
Elizabeth G (REHS 6345)
I swear I remember commenting on this when Karla did, but oh well... anyway, I really hoped that the Hate crime legislation came into effect this early on so that they could have prosecuted this horrible crime even more. We all know how the system can work.. How can these adults have the heart to do something like that. On top of that they recorded it with their cell phones. It is truly disgusting... All employees or non employees that were involved should be charged with manslaughter along with the injury to person with a disability. It simplly isn't enough for that sort of crime. Crimes like these need to stop, and in order to do that, there needs to be serious consequences for their actions. I hope they do serious and continuous investigation with that state agency. They should be ashamed to call themselves advocates for anything if they're not only putting people at risk of getting killed, but making it even more harmful for people with disabilities to have a healthy life.
It is so sad to read this because you wouldnt think that state school employees would do such a thing. I just hope that everyone that was involved in this is prosecuted and i also hope that they replace them with people who will care and respect people with disabilities. I just hope that something like this doesnt happen again and when they hire people to take care of PWD i hope that they really take the time to actually do a background check and all the necessary details so that when they hire someone the can be professional, caring and have respect for PWD which is the most important thing.
Blanca Perez
It was disturbing to me to watch the videos of these state school's residents fighting. It is not only irresponsible but cruel to allow this to happen in an institution where these PWDs are being taken care of. I am not only disappointed but disgusted to know that this happens anywhere.
I have many questions after knowing about this case. How do they perform background checks on this employees? How often does an outside supervisor visit these places? and how many of the families of these residents were aware of the situation and did not say anything because of fear?
I imagine that it was hard for parents to find out about the situation their children endured. The employees deserve to be punished seriously for what they did. They not only provoked the residents to fight with others for no valid reason, but they made fun of them while taking video. That is horrible and deserves to be punished. I do not know what the outcome of this case was, but I hope things changed for the residents and they are now being cared for by the appropriately trained staff, who cares for them and their well being.
-Leila Flores
I was researching the story to write about it, I went into the link and saw the video. The sensation of listening to these men laughing, shouting, and encouraging the two gays to fight was really disgusting and shocking. When the poor gays were in the floor, they even kick them. This was outrageous. I thing 10 years is not enough time for these people. They should have to spend a lot more time in prison. How could this be on for more than a year without anyone doing anything?
I could think that maybe one person is sick and could develop this kind of behavior. But, six people? Did they have a background check before being hired? Where were the other employees when this happened?
L.M.Lastra
What kind of individual do you have to be to start a fight club among individuals with disabilities at the school. Jesse Salazar is a sick individual to have perpetrated this crime against humanity, I find it saddening that this one on for a whole year before it was caught and that’s six other state employees participated in this crime or knew about it to some extent. The fact that individuals with disabilities are still being targeted for abuse and exploitation is a travesty. Why must individuals with disabilities suffer the stupidity of fools who abuse our state systems that is closely protecting our citizens but instead of being protected by the state employees they are violating our trust and the individuals’ trust by using them for fun and entertainment like some type of animal, to treat an individual like an animal or like a product that does not mean more than a dollar sign garners no sympathy from me when it comes to their jail sentence.
"Fight Club"? Are you serious? This sounds so like junior high, you would think people at that age and in the position they have would do more caring than hurting others. Unfortunately, we can't assume that everyone who enters service careers are really qualified to care and serve others. That is why screening and ongoing workshops and training should be a priority in such agencies and schools. I hope that state schools' administration around Texas and other states will be aware of the possible unfortunate events and take precaution. -Eliana M.
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