Click For Home PageInclusion Daily Express Logo

International Disability Rights News Service
Click here for today's headlines


Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Click here for daily or weekly delivery . . . OR
Try Inclusion Daily Express for two weeks FREE . . .

Washington State's Institutions: Rainier School

"They're becoming functionally obsolete."
--Dennis Braddock, head of Washington state's Department of Social and Health Services, talking about the five state-run institutions that house 1,100 people with developmental disabilities (November 2002)

Related:
Washington State Institutions: Frances Haddon Morgan Center
Washington State's Institutions: Fircrest School
Text of Senate Bill 5971, A measure to consolidate the state's RHCs
Washington State Study Finds Community Costs Less

2007
Oct. 4: Television Crew Captures Abuses On Video
2006
April 17: Group Sues State Over Fircrest Moves
2003
January 31: Lawmakers Told Of Potential Savings In Closing An Institution
2002
October 1: Feds Say Problems Are Worse At State's Largest Institution
2001
August 29: Court Throws Out 'Whistle-blower' Award
October 15: Prosecutor In Rape Case Is Hopeful In Spite Of Barriers
November 30: Former Rainier School Employee Convicted Of Indecent Liberties
2000
July 3: People With Disabilities Win Two Cases Against Washington State

Click here for top of this page

People With Disabilities Win Two Cases Against Washington State
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 3, 2000
TACOMA, WASHINGTON--The state's Department of Social and Health Services and the Attorney General's office may have teamed up to produce two of the biggest "goof-ups" in the state's legal history.

On Friday, a jury awarded $8 million to Dr. Tariq Ahmed, a physician who had been fired after he reported that the residents of Rainier School were being treated poorly. Rainier School is an institution that houses about 440 people who have developmental disabilities. The state A.G. office had asked for the second trial, apparently believing the $350,000 award given the doctor by a June 1998 jury was too much.

"This is a victory for disabled persons and citizens who speak out about first-rate government services for all persons," Ahmed told the Seattle Times.

In March, the Attorney General's office missed the deadline to appeal a case in which a jury ordered the state to pay $17.8 million -- the largest judgment ever against the state -- to three men with developmental disabilities who claimed they were abused while in a DSHS-licensed group home.

Click here for top of this page

Court Throws Out 'Whistle-blower' Award
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
August 29, 2001

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON--In January 1997, Dr. Tariq Ahmed was fired from his job as physician at Rainier School, a state-operated institution housing about 440 people with developmental disabilities. Ahmed took the state to court, claiming he had been fired in retaliation after he complained that some of the residents were being treated poorly, and that some were being abused.

Ahmed's claims were rejected by Thurston County Superior Court after state officials said Ahmed was fired because he was a poor employee and that he was often aggressive and intimidating.

Ahmed appealed that decision. And in June 2000, a federal jury awarded him $8 million, saying the state had violated Ahmed's free-speech rights. He had been asking for $350,000.

Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the $8 million ruling and ordered the case dismissed. The appeals court said the June 2000 federal jury award never should have happened because the state judge had already ruled on the case.

"It was not then open to Ahmed to ask a federal jury to find to the contrary," the appeals court decided.

Click here for top of this page

Prosecutor In Rape Case Is Hopeful In Spite Of Barriers
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 15, 2001

BUCKLEY, WASHINGTON--This month two residents of Rainier School, an institution housing people with developmental disabilities, will testify against the staff member they claim raped them.

Wei Tang Chen, a former employee at the institution, is accused of raping three men at the facility. Chen says he is innocent of the rape and indecent liberties charges filed against him.

Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Diane Clarkson says prosecuting Chen will be particularly difficult because all three alleged victims have mental retardation and one does not talk. She does remain hopeful, however.

"I'm hoping for a conviction so people at Rainier School know they have a voice and that people are listening," Clarkson told the Seattle Times.

Clarkson's task is made more difficult because she cannot bring to the witness stand the investigators and staff members who were told of the crimes and called police. Under current Washington law, such testimony from people who do not witness a crime, but hear about it, is considered "hearsay" and is not allowed in criminal cases where the victim is an adult or a child over age 10.

An effort to change the "hearsay" law failed in the last legislative session.

More on the story from the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134352237_hearsay11m.html

Click here for top of this page

Former Rainier School Employee Convicted Of Indecent Liberties
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
November 30, 2001

BUCKLEY, WASHINGTON --A Pierce County jury has convicted a former Rainier School employee of sexually assaulting a male resident at the state-run institution.

Prosecutors say they will ask Judge Karen Strombom to give Wei Tang Chen an exceptionally long prison term for the crime at a sentencing hearing scheduled for January 11. The indecent liberties conviction usually carries a 15 to 20 month prison sentence, according to the Seattle Times.

Chen had also been accused of raping two other male residents at the institution that houses people with developmental disabilities. Judge Strombom refused to allow one of those men to testify, saying the alleged victim was not a believable witness because he had changed his story. The third man did testify, but the jury did not find Chen guilty of raping him.

"The jurors thought he was a child," said Pierce County Prosecutor Diane Clarkson. "That's the kind of discrimination we were trying to get over."

Clarkson said that the two rapes charges against Chen would have been stronger if she had been able to bring to the witness stand the investigators and staff members who were originally told of the crimes and called police. Under current Washington state law, such testimony from people who do not witness a crime but hear about it, is considered "hearsay" and is not allowed in criminal cases where the victim is an adult or a child over age 10.

An effort to change the law to allow "hearsay" testimony from seniors and people with developmental disabilities failed in the last legislative session. Clarkson said she would testify in favor of such a bill if it were reintroduced.

Investigations began after another Rainier School staff member reported seeing Chen on top of a nonverbal resident who was partly dressed on March 24, 2000. When that employee confronted him, Chen reportedly placed $40 in the coworker's hand and told him not to say anything.

That employee reported the incident, and the state immediately suspended Chen while it investigated. Chen, a 16-year employee of Rainier School, was formally dismissed nearly a year later. He has appealed the dismissal to the state Personnel Appeals Board.

"This is a sad case," said Clarkson. "A very, very sad case."

Click here for top of this page

Feds Say Problems Are Worse At State's Largest Institution
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 1, 2002

BUCKLEY, WASHINGTON--A new U.S. Department of Justice report shows that many of the troubles the department found at Rainier School in 1998 have continued or gotten worse over the past few years.

Rainier School, located west of Tacoma, is the state's largest institution housing 423 adults with developmental disabilities and employing 1,000 workers.

The DOJ report, written in July 2002, found a dramatic increase in assaults made on residents by other residents. The reviewer found that institution relies too heavily on what the report called "inhumane" restraint devices such as wrist-to-waist shackles and on medications to control mental illness without reliable information that those medications are needed.

The department also criticized the facility for not working hard enough to move people into the community.

State and institution officials responded by criticizing the report's author, Sue A. Gant, a psychologist hired by the Justice Department. Rainier's assistant superintendent, Jan Blackburn, defended the institution, saying that Dr. Gant's reputation for wanting to close institutions affected how she interpreted the information she received during her visits to Rainier.

If the conditions do not improve, the federal government could appoint someone to oversee the facility or it could seek a court injunction to close the institution.

The DOJ report comes as a legislative committee is looking at how feasible it is to keep open Rainier and the four other state-run institutions.

Last year a survey found that 80 of the 1,100 people currently in state institutions wanted to move out.

More details are available from this Tacoma Tribune story:
http://www.tribnet.com/news/crime_safety/story/1849421p-1963987c.html

Click here for top of this page

Lawmakers Told Of Potential Savings In Closing An Institution
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 31, 2003

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON--The Senate Ways and Means Committee heard staff analysts suggest Thursday that the state could gain $15.7 million if it were to sell off valuable land on the campuses of five state-run institutions. More could be saved if lawmakers closed at least one of those facilities, they explained.

There are currently 1,082 people with mental retardation housed in those institutions, here called Residential Habilitation Centers (RHCs). And while the numbers of those moving out has slowed over the past few years, analyst Brian Sims suggested that as few as 625 people would be at the five institutions by the year 2012 if the trend over the past three decades continues.

"The Legislature will eventually be faced with the decision to consolidate and close one or more of the RHCs," Sims said, according to the Associated Press.

With the state looking at a $2.4 million shortfall for the next budget period, this may be one of the best times for lawmakers to consider consolidating institutions and moving people into the community. Even if the state does not sell institution lands, it could save an estimated $82 a day per person by providing community services instead of costly institutional supports, one committee staff member estimated.

"If you can't do consolidation when money is this short, and when senators are willing to take a look at it, you never will," said Senator Darlene Fairley, the Shoreline Democrat who is leading the push to close of Fircrest School, an institution in her district.

Lawmakers would have to take on the powerful public employees union and parent groups, such as the "Friends of Fircrest", that want all of the state's institutions to stay open.

The last state-operated institution to close was Interlake School at Medical Lake ten years ago.

Click here for top of this page


Have the latest disability rights news delivered to your email Inbox every week day.
Subscribe to Inclusion Daily Express today!

Get your news here!

Inclusion Daily Express
3231 W. Boone Ave., # 711
Spokane, Washington 99201 USA
509-326-5811


News@InclusionDaily.com
Copyright © 2006 Inonit Publishing