Gay Teen Suffers Horrible Systemic Sexual Abuse at N.H. Juvenile Facility
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A New Hampshire teen who was incarcerated in New Hampshire’s juvenile detention system beginning at the age of 11 years old was subjected to all manners of sexual abuse, that was chronic, systemic, and by male and female staff.
Above: The entrance to the former Youth Substance Use Disorder Treatment Center, added to the YDC building in 2018. Photo/Carol Robidoux
A gay teen was sexually molested by both a male and female staffer at the Youth Development Center and, when he confided in the juvenile chaplain that he was gay, he was told he was going to hell, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The plaintiff, identified only as John Doe #402, although his name and date of birth were filed under seal in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District, is among the more than 600 people who allege staffers at state-run and state-contracted facilities physically, mentally and/or physically abused them. They contend the abuse was systemic, known to authorities and took place for decades and that it is still happening.
The reality of John Doe #402’s life is that he ended up in the custody of the state because he was trying to get away from the Jolicoeur School after allegedly being sexually abused by an older child.
In his lawsuit, John Doe #402 says that when he was 7, he was molested by an older family member for about three years. The abuse progressed to him being raped multiple times a week. His abuser told him to keep quiet or he’d kill him.
Eventually, he disclosed the abuse to a teacher, the state Division of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) was called and an investigation took place. Unfortunately, to “keep family peace” his mother sided with the abuser. Based largely on his mother’s lack of support for her son, DCYF closed the investigation as “unfounded.”
John Doe #402, feeling deeply betrayed, came to distrust adults and the state. Depressed, his schoolwork suffered and he began skipping school. Eventually, he began to smoke marijuana, which led to him being deemed a “delinquent” at age 11, a status he retained until he was 17.
He was in state custody from 2009 to 2015. Initially, he was placed at Nashua Children’s Home, where he spent most of his time in isolation, either in his cell or in “the quiet room,” an isolation room used for punishment and compliance enforcement. He was subject to frequent violent “takedowns,” in which he was tackled by adults, with his arms twisted high behind his back, pinned to the floor and verbally and physically abused despite being only 11 or 12 years old and in violation of state and federal law.
He came out as gay while at Nashua Children’s Home, making him a target for anti-gay abuse by staff, some of whom referred to him as “the faggot,” according to court documents, as well as by other children who followed the staff’s example.
Next, he was placed at Mount Prospect Academy where the anti-gay abuse and name-calling continued. He was locked in isolation, sometimes 8 to 10 days at a time, with minimal bathing and irregular and arbitrary toileting. The staff, he says in the lawsuit, beat him severely about six times, including punching him, banging his head against the bed frame, the wall or a tree; wrenching his arms high up behind his back.
The beatings occurred for punitive purposes or for no purpose at all. John Doe #402 never engaged in violent behavior. “He’s just a sweet, gentle soul,” Vicinanzo said.
John Doe #402 also alleges that the staff at Mount Prospect distributed the drug “spice” to favored minors as well as cigarettes and alcohol. Some of the staff, he says in the lawsuit, used heroin.
John Doe #402 then was placed at the Jolicoeur School a/k/a Gammon Academy, operated by Easter Seals in Manchester. Members of the staff, he says, mocked him routinely for being gay and the minor residents made fun of him because of his sexual orientation.
One resident, larger and older than him, cornered him in a bathroom alone and sexually assaulted him.
Later, he tried to walk away from the Jolicoeur School, was charged with escape and sent to YDC.
The abuse was worse there, he says.
You can read the complete 40 page finding here.
