Where troubled children can help themselves
A
different kind of attitude at a different kind of camp in Central
Texas
By Mike Ward and Jonathan Osborne
Sunday, May 18, 2003
SMITHVILLE — Betty Lou "BeBe" Gaines has been
in the business of helping troubled teenaged boys for 28 years. She
takes the foster kids, the convicted kids, the sex offenders others
refuse.
And when they lose control, the kind of
outburst that can hurt themselves and others, Gaines believes, they
need to be restrained. Hands held. Taken to the ground. Stopped from
fighting or other aggressive behavior.
"They sometimes need it; they know they need
it," said Gaines, executive director of the Woodside Trails
therapeutic camp, between Smithville and Bastrop. "Some of them will
do things so they can be restrained."
Like Josh, a 17-year-old Austin youth who has
been at Woodside Trails for nine months. In intricate detail, he
describes how he was restrained not too many weeks earlier after he
refused to play his guitar more quietly, then physically confronted
a staff member who ordered him to do so.
"I pushed him to where he would have to
restrain me," Josh said. "I knew he would have to. I needed to be
contained."
Anthony, a 13-year-old Burnet youth, recalls
being restrained at a San Antonio treatment center when he was 8 or
9.
"My dad was a drug dealer who died. . . . I had
anger-management issues," he said matter-of-factly, explaining his
life in a succession of therapeutic centers ever since. "I remember
they would throw me on the floor and hold me down. I would struggle
hard, but they would just hold me down harder. I couldn't breathe. I
would be down on the floor for 25 minutes or so.
"You can't breathe when they hold you down like
that. You struggle to get out, but they hold you down more. They
would shoot you in the butt with Thorazine."
Steven, a strapping 17-year-old San Antonio
native accused of raping his sister, described how he was restrained
in a similar fashion several times at other centers — for fighting
with other teenagers, for breaking furniture during fits of rage,
for refusing staff members' orders.
"Here, they give you the opportunity to ground
yourself," he explained. "I've seen staff wait for 30 minutes before
someone grounds themself, and I've seen a whole group get on the
ground to convince someone to ground themself."
For her part, Gaines said her system of
handling restraints — no matter what critics may say — works well
for the boys she supervises. That's why, unlike at other camps and
treatment centers, every restraint that occurs at Woodside Trails is
fully documented and investigated by the Woodside staff.
The boys themselves fill out forms to tell
their side of the story, and every case where there is a
disagreement over whether the restraint was warranted is reported to
state licensing officials.
So far, no one has died or been seriously
injured while being restrained at Woodside.
"I can't do this business and worry about
liability more than I do the kids," she said. "The kids are always
my main concern. This is painful, heart-wrenching work, and there
are some people out there who are doing it badly, and that's when
people get hurt and die."
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