Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-16
By Frank sortweII. Jr.

pected:
"It's extremely depressing and
deplorable. We're Just sweeping
our neglected children under the
rug" Mrs. David L. Bazelon said.
The group, made up Of menu
bers Of the executive committee
of the United Community Serv-
ices Family and Child Welfare
Section, of which Mrs. Bazelon
Is chairman, saw:
Ninety-one children damned
into space designed for 43.
An attractive brown-haired
girl of Is, charged with no Of
tense other than running away,
kept In q room 10 feet by i've
with two other girls all day with
nothing to do. (This room
represents an advance" in
treatment, the Welfare Depart
ment feels. Welfare Director
Gerard M. Shea said it is all
that is available for an admit
lance. section, and earlier the
home didn't even have that.)
Knives Taken From Children
A box full Of knives-switch-
blades, sheath and pocket-taken
from children as they were adj
mitted to the home.
Nearly so girls. some pregnant.
some feeble minded and some
both, packed into a room about
is by 80 feet for recreation"
The window broken in a
riot among the girls Sunday.
previously lnreported. That
riot started with a calling
between two girls. progressed into
blows and exploded in the close
quarters into general trouble.
The Receiving Home has been
called by a Senate subcommittee
"a national disgrace"
Institutions Crowded
The reason these things are
true-and no one denies them
is that the home Is used to keep
any child tie District feels it
should be holding. or caring for.
that can't get into any Of the
specialized institutions. All those
institutions are overcrowded.
There were q children, pos
sibly more, in the Receiving
Home yesterday who had nc
business there. These children
are kept in the home because
there is no place else TO put
them: "
Three feeble-minded. One OF
them is pregnant. They should
be in District Training School at
Laurel, Md. That institution
yesterday had 723 inmates-23
more than 1t was designed to
hold. There Is q waiting list Of
156 feeble minded trying to get
in. In the present state Of med
,ical knowledge about feeble
mindedness there is almost nc
parole from the training" school
except death. .ileaa Ii
Three or four" sex perverts
Both hpys and girls. these have
to b. PATCHED every moment by
the Ncounselors." Those work.
ers. h6wever dedicated and in
teresked in children-and Mr.,
Shea finds them deeply so--are
united to Government Grade
GS-3 And there are. in any OF
the three units of the Receiving
Home never more than two on
duty II a riot starts-and they
happen more often than the
newspapers hear of them--the
counselors naturally rush to the
scene. Their special charges &c
unguarded.
No Room Elsewhere
Seven children who are in
the wrong place twice over,
These are 9 to II years old, de-
linquent, and should be placed
(under the present system) at
Junior Village. the District In
stitution charged with keeping
dependent" children, /. e. wards
of the city who have no other
source of support, but are not
commitably delinquent. Fifty
of the younger delinquents are
kept there because there is no
room for them at two other in
stitutions-the Industrial Home
School at Blue Plains. or the
Juvenile Training School at
Laurel. The receiving home staff
feel they should be at Junior
Village. Ideally, they, and the
so others. should be at Juvenile
Training School or Blue Plains
At least two emotionally dis
turbed children, said by the
Superintendent Of the home
J. s. Kosisky, to be definitely
in need Of psychiatric treat
ment." The city has no place
for such treatment. Six such
District children are living in
Children's Village at Dobbs
Ferry, N. Y. That costs 1921
a month per child.
An unknown number Of othel
children in the grip of similar
emotional disturbances, whose
needs the home has no way Of
knowing. Mr.. Shea notes that
q boy ct the Industrial Home
School, thought to be a quiet
model for his fellows, went Der.
serk last week. He was sent tt
District General Hospital fol-
mental observation" There II
no particular reason why hi
didn't do this at the Receiving
Home. where he had been earlier