DES MOINES – A class action lawsuit has been filed in federal court, alleging that the Iowa Boys State Training School in Eldora is home to harmful and illegal practices against the youth.
The lawsuit names Jerry Foxhoven, director of the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS); Richard Shults, administrator of the Division of Mental Health and Disability Services; and Mark Day, superintendent of the Boys State Training School.
The lawsuit paints a “grim picture of a facility that has no full-time licensed mental health professionals on staff,” according to joint press release from Disability Rights Iowa and Children’s Rights, two advocacy groups involved in the lawsuit.
“Instead of providing necessary mental health treatment, workers at Eldora, as it is known, rely heavily on potentially harmful psychotropic medications administered without appropriate oversight or consent—as well as solitary confinement and a full-body mechanical restraint—to control youth who typically have not been convicted of any crime,” writes the release.
Both non-profit legal groups want a court order to prevent policies and practices that violate their constitutional and federal statutory rights. CR and DRI assert that these boys, aged 12 to 19, do not receive the mental health treatment needed to fulfill the facility’s mission of providing “a program which focuses on appropriate developmental skills, treatment, placements and rehabilitation.”
The lawsuit is being brought on behalf of all children confined to the Boys State Training School now or in the future and who have significant mental illnesses.
