Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By ALEX LEARY and JIM ROSS
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 12, 2000
LECANTO -- Opponents of the Brown Schools say recent incidents there, from reports of sexual assaults and battery to two students who escaped the facility and allegedly stole a car, are unequivocal proof the facility should never have been allowed to open in Citrus County.
"This is exactly what we were concerned about from the very beginning," Black Diamond resident Tony Ulterino said of the Brown Schools, which is located next to the exclusive housing development off County Road 491.
"The credibility of the Brown Schools is really in doubt," said Clark Stillwell, a lawyer representing Black Diamond in a lawsuit challenging the county's decision to allow the school to move into a former adult psychiatric hospital without a zoning change.
"They said they were going to have nonviolent children in this institution," Stillwell said.
Critics said they will make a point of noting the incidents in detail when the Brown Schools' state license is reviewed next summer.
The Brown Schools is a private for-profit company based in Texas, with more than 10 branches in Florida.
Since opening this summer at the former Heritage Hospital off County Road 491 just north of CR 486, the Brown Schools has faced stiff opposition, and the new developments have only added to the outcry.
On Friday, two male students were reported missing after sheriff's deputies asked for a head count in response to a report of a stolen car at a nearby nursing home, Surrey Place. The two were found by sheriff's deputies in Lee County on Sunday.
Jennifer Black, the nurse whose car was taken, said the residents and employees are concerned for their safety.
"It's really scary because a lot of women work here," Black said. "Now that those kids know we're an easy target, is this just going to be the first of a lot to come?"
Earlier in the week, a 12-year-old female Brown Schools resident was charged with battery against a staff member and another resident. The scuffle arose after the staff member tried to take a pair of scissors away from the student.
Also last week, a mental health worker was arrested on charges that he sexually molested two girls at the Brown Schools.
Samuel Demetrius Smith, 38, of Inverness, was accused of sexual battery against the girls, ages 12 and 17.
Commenting on the alleged auto theft, Brown spokeswoman Donna Burtanger noted that, because of the pending legal challenges concerning zoning of the Brown property, the school has been unable to erect a 10-foot fence.
Burtanger did not say the fence would have stopped the boys. "I am going to say it would have been a deterrent," she said.
Brown officials said Monday they planned to seek county permission to erect the fence despite the pending challenges. County regulations call for a halt to all such work during challenges.
Burtanger noted that children served at the facility are accustomed to pushing authority. "Any child who has been abandoned by people his entire life is at a greater risk for flight," she said.
Brown is conducting an internal investigation that should wrap up today. Meanwhile, management has held quick training sessions with staff and met with residents collectively and one-on-one.
Real estate agent Kevin Cunningham, who handled the deal while he was serving on the Economic Development Council, defended the Browns Schools. "From what I've been told, violent kids would not be allowed in that facility," Cunningham said. Car thefts, he pointed out, "happen every day."
But others do not take the incident as lightly. County Commissioner Vicki Phillips said she has received several complaints about the Browns Schools during the past week.
"We need to help children in these situations but I think (the facility) would be better situated in another location, not in the most populated retirement community in our county."
Black Diamond developer Stan Olsen offered a similar response. "We don't oppose taking care of these kids, but don't put questionable-character people in the middle of a community," he said. "They are as much criminal as the rest of them, they just haven't been adjudicated because they are mentally unstable." The boys who escaped were part of Brown's competency restoration program, which means they had been deemed incompetent to proceed in juvenile criminal court. Burtanger said she did not know what charges the boys had faced in juvenile court.
Facility zoning faces challenge
Police visit new youth home often
Brown Schools await zoning review