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Mother files new
complaint
By CYNTHIA
McCORMICK
August 24, 2005
A Marstons Mills
woman alleges that a psychologist and a social worker at the May
Center for Child Development in Chatham violated professional ethics
by consulting on a 1999 police investigation into a teacher's
restraint of her autistic daughter.
Jean Bowden, who
last year settled a lawsuit against the Barnstable School District,
has now filed conflict of interest complaints with the state boards
of psychology and social work against Susan Thibadeau and Simone
Byrne of the May Center.
 She
alleges that police found no reason to charge a Barnstable teacher
with assault in 1999 after consulting with Thibadeau and Byrne, who
called the face-down floor restraints ''extremely therapeutic.''
Bowden's complaint
demonstrates the difficulty law enforcement officials face in
investigating abuse complaints involving children with special needs
and behavioral issues. The line between behavioral techniques used
to quell violent behavior and the abuse of a vulnerable child can be
hard to discern and police end up relying on the advice of experts.
Bowden believes
Thibadeau and Byrne were not impartial witnesses because they knew
the teacher being investigated and had done a screening and
consultation on Abbie's case for the Barnstable schools.
''How can they give
an opinion that isn't biased?'' asked Bowden. ''It was a conflict of
interest for Susan Thibadeau to give any kind of opinion to the
police on Abbie or any other part of the program. She was paid to
consult on the Barnstable program.''
Thibadeau, who did
not return calls, is program director at the May Center for Child
Development, one of many programs run by the May Institute. Byrne
has been an outreach director at the May Center, which first opened
with a program for autistic children at the Chatham site in 1955.
She did not respond to messages.
Dennis C. Russo,
chief clinical officer of the May Institute Inc., issued a written
statement calling Thibadeau a ''highly valued member of the
professional staff at the May Institute for over 20 years.''
Cape and Islands
District Attorney Michael O'Keefe's office had taken the videotape
of Abbie being restrained to Kathleen Ecker, a Cape Cod Hospital
nurse who works at Children's Cove, a county organization that
investigates cases of child sexual assault.
Ecker, who said she
has no expertise with special, needs children, asked Thibadeau and
Byrne to review the tape because of the institute's expertise in
autism.
''We were doing
(O'Keefe) a favor,'' Ecker said.
She said Bowden, by
pursuing complaints against people's professional licenses, ''is
only going to hurt the area of child services.
"'Trying to go
after people for using an outdated technology doesn't seem right,''
Ecker said by phone. ''(Restraint) might be an old-fashioned
technique. It was nonetheless state-of-the-art, what they were doing
at the time.
It wasn't a covert
act. It was being videotaped.''
Bowden once filed a
complaint against Ecker with the state Board of Registration in
Nursing for discriminating against Abbie because she has autism. The
complaint was dismissed.
Anne L. Collins,
director of the state Division of Professional Licensure, confirmed
the boards are looking into the complaints. She said board members
have the option of dismissing ethics complaints or referring them
for administrative prosecution. If administrators find an ethics
code was breached, they could suspend or revoke licenses, impose a
fine or get the professional to agree to drop a certain practice.
capecodonline.com.
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