Center faulted for abuse

State investigators agree with a teen who contends that he was handled roughly by a therapist at Sunshine Youth Services.

By RYAN DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 22, 2001

LAND O'LAKES -- A state investigative report released this week supports a 15-year-old boy's allegations that a therapist at Sunshine Youth Services abused him.

In the past year, the state Department of Juvenile Justice has investigated the facility for juvenile offenders three times. In each case, its Inspector General's Office has found the year-old center, 21808 State Road 54, or its employees to be at fault.

The most recent report stems from a March 8 incident at the state-contracted facility for offenders with mental disabilities. The teen, a detainee, said recreational therapist Bryan Landers, then 39, shoved him and threw him against a wall.

The report concludes that Landers used excessive force and an unauthorized technique -- grabbing the boy by the shirt and ripping it. The boy had welts on his neck, a bump on his head and a swollen lip.

Landers also violated policy by going into a room alone with the boy, the report says.

Landers was arrested and charged with child abuse, but the State Attorney's Office filed paperwork last month stating it will not pursue the charges, records show.

Executive director Tara Kozlowski said the center is working with juvenile justice officials to resolve differences between its report, which substantiated the allegations, and the State Attorney's Office, which decided the facts did not support prosecution.

Landers was put on paid leave after the incident but was reinstated last month after the charges were dropped, Kozlowski said.

"(He) has exceeded job performance standards," Kozlowski wrote in a response to questions from the St. Petersburg Times.

Shortly after the incident, Sunshine staff attended retraining sessions in crisis intervention, she said.

Sunshine, a secure facility that opened in June 2000, houses 13- to 18-year-old misdemeanor offenders with mental disabilities.

Previous state investigations of Sunshine have supported a detainee's allegation that she was raped and concluded that employees mishandled a racially charged incident, letting it escalate into a brawl.

-- Ryan Davis covers higher education and social services in Pasco. He can be reached at 800-333-7505 ext. 3452.

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