By Andy Sheehan | November 14, 2016 at 7:16 pm
ZELIENOPLE (KDKA) — State investigators say lax oversight at a Butler County residential treatment facility for children with autism and other developmental disabilities continues to jeopardize the safety of those who live there.
On Monday, the state Department of Human Services once again revoked Glade Run Lutheran Services license to operate.
Glade Run, in Zelienople, was already on notice, operating on a provisional license after the state found that lax supervision allowed sexual abuse among residents.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of a 13-year-old boy alleges he was repeatedly raped there by residents in their later teens while the overnight staff slept or watched television.
“He came to us and said one thing, he wants this place shut down,” said Kartik Suvramany, of the Pisanchyn Law Firm.
But Glade Run was given a second chance under a plan for correction from the state Department of Human Services, requiring the hiring of additional staff and the retraining of the existing one.
However, the state has now moved to close the facility, citing two more cases where the supervision had not improved.
In one, a staff member failed to check on a suicidal resident who was eventually discovered hanging from his or her bathroom door by a bedsheet. The other incident involved a heroin overdose.
Glade Run did not return phone calls seeking a statement, but it will have 10 days to file an appeal. The facility can show cause at hearing why it should not be shut down.
But it seems clear that the facility is now on very shaky ground as state regulators continue to find major faults in its operation when it is clearly demanding significant improvement.
