Evening star., 1953-03-03
Training School
Girls 10 Move
To b|ue.P|ains
City Heads Approve
Welfare Boards
Consolidation Step


The National Training School
for Girls, torn by riots and pub
lie controversy for years, goes
out Of existence as a separate
institution April /.
Its buildings in the 5000 block
Of Loughboro road NV. will be
taken over by an expanded
Junior Village, the institution
for younger dependent children
which has shared the reserva-
ton for the last few years.
The Board of Public Welfare
announced today that the Com
missioners have approved the
plan to move the colored train
ing school girls to the Industrial
Home School for Colored Boys
at Blue Plains within the month.
Called Emergency Step.
The move was described as an
emergency and intermediary
STEP"
The board said the action was
consistent with it's long-range
plans to consolidate the inStitu-
ton for colored girls and the one
for colored boys in one institu-
ton at the Children's Center in
Laurel, Md.
A budget request of 81 million
to start building the new institu-
tion for colored children at
Laurel has been approved by the
Commissioners and is expected
to go to the Budget Bureau this
week as part of the fiscal 1854
estimates.
Setup Of Program.
Here is how the emergency
plan is set up:
The girls at the training school
will occupy a cottage with a
capacity of so at the Blue Plains
institution.
Wendell Tucker, superintend-
ent of the boys industrial home,
will become superintendent for
the combined institution, with
Mrs. Margaret McKane, now
head of the girls institution,
as assistant superintendent in
charge of the girls.
To make room for the girls at
the already overcrowded Blue
Plains institution, so of the
younger boys will be shifted to
the Junior Village.
To house these boys, the Junior
Village will take over the build
ings now occupied by the Ma
tional Training School for Girls.
Main reason given for the
change was the need to give
the girls some training, which is
available at the Blue Plains in
stitution but not at the Lough-
boro road home.
Two Alternatives Offered.
The shift was recommended
by a welfare board subcommit-
tee composed of the Rev. May
nard L. Catchings, chairman,
and Mrs. Radford Moses and
Mrs. Alpha B. Jones.
This group proposed the con-
solidation at Blue Plains as one
alternative. AS the second al
tentative, the group proposed
shifting the training school to
the Industrial Home School for
white children on Wisconsin
avenue, which is to be vacated
this fall when the white children
move to the Children's Center.
The entire board chose the
first alternative since the Wis
consin avenue institution is near
collapse.
The board, in today's an
nouncement, emphasized it's
need for the proposed new in
stitution for colored boys and
girls at the Children's Center.
This would take care of 200 girls.
The board reported that ap-
proximately so per cent of the
colored girls now supervised by
two welfare department social
workers in the community should
be in an institution. In addi-
ton. the board said, there are
approximately 40 chronic run
awayS in need for further pro-
tective institutional care.
Girls Will Be Trained.
The board said it had decided
that the present training facili-
ties at the National Training
School for Girls could not be
geared to provide the maximum
chance for rehabilitation of
these girls.
At the cottage at Blue Plains,
the board said, the girls will be
able to join in the academic
and pre-vocational school pro-
gram, will be trained in cook
ing. sewing and laundry work
and will have considerable op-
portunities in applied assign
mentS which will enable them to
prepare realistically for a return
to society"
The Blue Plains institution, it
was pointed out, has a recrea-
ton director and ample outdoor
and indoor play space.
The boys to go from Blue
Plains to the Junior Village, the
board said, will be carefully
screened and as far as possible
they will all be IL years old or
younger. The Junior Village will
use the six buildings on the res
ervation to assign the children
by their background and the way
they get along in the institution.
Personnel to Be Kept.
All employees now at the train
ing school either will go to Blue
Plains or join the staff of the
Junior Village.
Acting Welfare Supt. Donald
Brewer said no riots were an
ticipated at the Blue Plains in
ctif11tinrn hono11Sn Ii has mora