Gov. Blagojevich will remove the 140 state wards remaining at Maryville Academy’s main campus in Des Plaines, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
But the home for troubled youths could again receive state wards if child welfare officials are satisfied that children can be properly cared for there.
Blagojevich’s move means Maryville will lose a $21 million contract it had to run the 270-bed campus last year.
The state notified the Archdiocese of Chicago, which runs Maryville, of the decision Thursday, and Cardinal Francis George supports the move, said a source in Blagojevich’s administration.
Maryville’s contracts to run child-welfare programs at 13 other sites will be renewed.
“We believe the problems that have happened indicate at this time the Des Plaines campus is not the best campus to treat these children,” the source said.
There is enough room to absorb the kids into other residential treatment programs, the source said. Thirty-nine children are expected to be moved within the next 30 days. The rest will follow within 60 days.
A key reason Blagojevich agreed to move all the kids off the Des Plaines campus — called the City of Youth — is that little changed there after the state sent in two monitors to investigate violent and sexual outbursts by children, recently obtained state records show.
Among the problems: A threatened suicide went unreported, and a staffer did nothing as a child repeatedly hit his head on a window. Another employee choked a resident.
“If enough had changed, we wouldn’t be doing this,” the source said. “We just hit a point where it became clear this wasn’t in the best interest of the kids.”
Blagojevich’s decision stunned Cook County Public Guardian Patrick T. Murphy, who represents the kids.
Murphy blamed Maryville’s longtime leader, the Rev. John P. Smyth, for obstructing efforts to reform Maryville’s programs.
“Smyth is willing to bring the place down by not stepping down,” Murphy said. “The governor and the cardinal refuse to ask him to step down.
“To sacrifice the lives of over 100 kids because Blagojevich or the cardinal is afraid to stand up and say Smyth must go is absolutely immoral.”
Murphy said he could support a temporary shutdown of Maryville’s main campus, provided there is a plan to reopen it.
“Maryville is absolutely needed,” Murphy said.
Maryville board chairman George Rourke declined comment on the decision to remove the kids.
The governor’s office plans a team approach to get state wards back to the City of Youth, with the archdiocese, Maryville’s board and state officials working together to upgrade programs. Blagojevich will leave it up to the archdiocese to determine Maryville’s leadership.
“We’re not going to reopen that campus until we feel like all of the expectations have been met,” the source said, adding that Maryville might serve a less-difficult population of kids than in the recent past.
Blagojevich’s decision comes amid an FBI investigation of possible Medicaid fraud at Maryville, which has received more than $62 million in state and federal tax revenue last year. Maryville also has a $130 million endowment.
One part of the federal probe involves whether Maryville altered documents pertaining to a girl’s suicide at the City of Youth in February 2002.
Mayor Daley defended Smyth, while lashing out at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for picking on Maryville, long the state’s first and last resort for abused kids nobody else wanted.
“I’d shut my door and say, ‘You take the kids, Illinois,’ ” Daley said. “When the Police Department finds ’em at night, we’ll bring ’em to the Thompson Center and [say], ‘Here they are. That’s your problem.’
“If he [Blagojevich] closes him down, tell me where you’re gonna put these children. There’s no alternative.”
Murphy agreed with Daley and said he will meet with George today about saving Maryville.
The state stopped sending kids to Maryville on Dec. 8 and dispatched the monitors after the suicide, the rape of an 11-year-old girl and steady reports of fights, attacks on staff and sexual activity by youth.
The idea was to give Maryville time to bring the City of Youth under control, but records obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act show that Maryville violated DCFS regulations on nine occasions starting Dec. 9 through the end of July. Ten other complaints were pending.
To compare Maryville with other providers, the Sun-Times sought records on five other well-known but smaller youth homes over a much longer time period, 18 months. Only one had violated DCFS rules in that time.
Among Maryville’s problems:
• On Dec. 18, a Maryville administrator failed to submit a required report to the state regarding a minor’s “threatened suicide, physical restraint and the need for medical follow-up. The staff failed to refer the minor for psychiatric assessment and medical attention.”
• On Jan. 13, a resident bruised himself by banging his head on a window, hitting a ceiling and wall and kicking an iron bed for an hour as a Maryville family educator “stood by and allowed the youth to do bodily harm to himself.”
• On Feb. 3, a family educator choked a minor and threw him to the floor, requiring him to be hospitalized. The employee was fired.
The incidents lend credence to a report Murphy released Thursday about Maryville. His investigators concluded that “children at Maryville get the worst of all worlds: a staff untrained to care for complex children at facilities unable to deal with them.”
A group of about 70 Maryville employees and volunteers held a rally Thursday afternoon outside Des Plaines City Hall.
“The bottom line is, these workers are there for the kids,” said Michael Rios, a Homewood resident who lived at Maryville in the 1960s. “I think Gov. Blagojevich is misguided. I don’t think he could possibly make a decision of this magnitude without having all the facts.”
The Blagojevich administration is confident the state will resume sending kids to the City of Youth.
“I feel pretty good about the idea of the campus opening at some point,” the source said. “The cardinal takes this very, very seriously.”
Contributing: Dave McKinney, Shamus Toomey and Scott Fornek
