Legal claim alleges mistreatment at Valley of the Moon Children’s Home

The Valley of the Moon Children’s Home is under fire from a half-dozen or so current and former foster children seeking compensation for mistreatment they claim includes strip-searches, lockdowns and unwarranted cellphone confiscation.|

The Valley of the Moon Children’s Home is under fire from a half-dozen or so current and former foster children seeking compensation for mistreatment they claim includes strip-searches, lockdowns and unwarranted cellphone confiscation.

A formal complaint sent to county officials last week alleging violations of the California Welfare and Institutions code could lead to a class-action lawsuit involving more than 1,000 claimants, Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin said.

County officials deny that strip-searches or lockdowns take place at the facility, which inspections have found meets state standards.

The county has 45 days to respond, but Merin said he may seek a court injunction much sooner to end what he says are abusive practices that have been going on for more than a decade.

“It just seems totally out of control,” Merin said Friday. “There’s been very little help from the authorities in remedying the problems.”

Officials who oversee the emergency shelter for children removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect denied widespread problems.

Nick Honey, Sonoma County’s director of Family, Youth and Children’ Services, said rooms in the facility are not locked and none of the approximately 25 children is ever strip-searched.

Cellphones are confiscated as a safety precaution when children arrive from school or family visits, but they are returned each time the children leave the property, Honey said.

All activity is closely monitored by the courts and follows procedures approved by the state Community Care Licensing agency, he said.

“I feel confident the children’s rights are being respected,” Honey said Friday.

The facility is meeting the minimum standards for license requirements and is not on probation or facing revocation proceedings, said Michael Weston, a spokesman for the state Department of Social Services.

It has been the subject of 10 complaint investigations over the past five years and has received 11 citations, two of which were for serious violations deemed an “immediate risk to the health, safety or personal rights” of children, according to the agency’s website.

Further details were not immediately available.

The latest complaint filed by Merin, which names Honey’s division as well as the county’s Human Services Department, stems from the allegations of a 17-year-old boy who left the facility in December.

The boy, identified only as R.M., is described as having lived in the Children’s Home on and off since he was 6. His most recent stay covered a four-month period in 2014.

The complaint says he was regularly denied the ability to make phone calls and had his cellphone taken from him on weekends and other times when he was not in school.

Also, it says he was physically restrained, resulting in unspecified injury, and had his backpack and room searched daily when he returned from school.

In addition, he claims staff members taunted and provoked him with statements known to trigger emotional responses.

While he was living at the facility, R.M. said, he noticed other children suffering similar abuses including strip-searches, being locked in their rooms and being observed while showering, the claim said.

The violations were committed by staff members who were believed to also have been employed at the county’s juvenile hall, it said.

So far, about a half-dozen other foster children have joined the complaint and many more are expected, Merin said.

A Facebook page called Valley of the Moon Children’s Home Survivors that appears to have been started by the Foster Change Coalition repeats similar allegations. The coalition could not be reached.

“This is not something that’s going to go away,” Merin said. “This is the start of a long campaign.”

Merin would not disclose the amount of damages he would be seeking, saying only that it will be in excess of $25,000.

“Money is not the main thing,” he said. “What’s most important is to scrutinize practices so children have a safe and secure place to be. That will take a lot of work.”

Meanwhile, County Counsel Bruce Goldstein said Friday he had not yet received the complaint. He expressed doubt about any mistreatment, saying every child at the facility is closely monitored by the courts and is assigned an individual lawyer.

But he said the claims would be investigated.

“They are under quite a bit of review,” Goldstein said. “On the face of it, some of the claims aren’t consistent with the practices and policies out there and seem unlikely to be true.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.

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