Senate Puts TYC on Path to Conservatorship
February 28th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
This is truly startling. Houston Democratic Senator John Whitmire, the Dean of the Senate, said that in his 34 years in the Senate he had never seen the legislative body move so quickly. Tonight, a little less than two weeks after the Observer broke the story on sexual abuse at the West Texas State School in Pyote, the Senate reversed its adjournment of this afternoon to return to session with one purpose — to call for the immediate convening of a Legislative Audit Committee to begin the process of putting the Texas Youth Commission under conservatorship.
The grounds for putting a state agency under conservatorship is “gross fiscal mismanagement.” On the floor, Whitmire highlighted the allegations of abuse and the internal cover-up that followed once they started to come to light, detailed in Nate Blakeslee’s Observer article. “A reasonable person would agree that this was gross fiscal mismanagement,” Whitmire said.
The audit committee will forward its recommendation to the governor. If the governor puts the agency under conservatorship, the leadership of the agency will be fired and replaced.
Whitmire’s resolution, SR 384, was adopted unanimously.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I think it is reasonable to believe that there are people in the TYC that have did not respond appropriately in the situations that have been identified and that is sickening. I believe those individuals should be dealt with and those who have covered for them or who have failed to deal with them should be dealt with but I find it extremely unreasonable to categorize an entire agency on the wrongdoings of a small portion. There are a lot of good people who work for TYC and care for the kids on a daily basis but this goes unrecognized. You have hundreds upon hundreds of employees who give their heart and soul to these kids and you categorize them as “child molestors” and “rapists” based on the behaviors again of a small portion. I have read the comments made by ex-TYC staff about how they know TYC was corrupt and should be investigated. Were they part of the problem or part of the solution? You have to start somewhere. Things can only improve one step and one person at a time. You do not let things go and then try to be the the tuff guy later about how you know things are bad. You need to be a stand up person now.
The article about doing away with the management and hiring new is disturbing. There have been new people moved in to Central Office who had nothing to do with some of the things going on and it would not be fair to take them all out. Perhaps you should look at who the real players are and leave those who really do a great job.
Perhaps the Senate and House should visit the TYC facilities and meet with the youth. You may find out that 95% of the staff do a heck of a job.
May God bless you in your hunt for glory.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:33 am
Unfortunately, the staff that are following policy, that are there to help the youth and are positive role models are gravely over-shadowed by the corruptive staff. It is those staff members that manipulate, over-run and undermine the mission of the agency. It will be those staff members that should be and will be held accountable because while they are busy tooting their own horns, no one will hear music but them. Senator Whitmere is right when he said that the agency is still corrupt.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
[…] abuse scandal and coverup at the West Texas State School in Pyote. As we reported last night, the Senate voted unanimously to move the agency toward conservatorship, which means an outside convservator would be appointed […]