Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump added his voice Thursday in support of a lawsuit brought in May against Los Angeles County by about 12 individuals who allege they were sexually assaulted as children while housed at the former county-run MacLaren Children’s Center.
Crump appeared during a news conference alongside the attorneys who filed the case as well as some of the survivors of the alleged abuses at the former emergency shelter placement facility that operated in El Monte from 1961 to 2003. Children removed from their homes were temporarily housed there while awaiting placement with a foster family.
Run for much of the time by the county Probation Department, MacLaren Hall “was operated more like a prison, rather than a home for dependent children,” the lawsuit alleges. Guards and staff frequently physically restrained and abused children, who also were frequently sexually assaulted and abused by staff members and other children because of poor supervision, the suit states.
“There have been numerous reports by former residents of being overmedicated, taunted by staff, restrained, physically beaten and mentally abused,” the suit states.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Adam Slater previously called MacLaren Children’s Center “a literal house of horrors for the children who were brought there, often taken from an abusive home only to be re-abused at MacLaren.”
“The county of Los Angeles had one responsibility — to protect and care for vulnerable children, but these children were sexually abused by the very people who were supposed to protect them and ignored by other adults when they reported the abuse,” Slater said.
A county Department of Children and Family Services representative previously issued a statement regarding the lawsuit.
“While the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services does not comment on pending litigation, the allegations leveled in any civil claim should and will be thoroughly examined,” the statement read. “DCFS serves more than 29,000 vulnerable children and families in Los Angeles County and each of our nearly 9,000 employees is held to the highest standards. Our department has many safeguards in place to protect children in our care and to hold accountable those who violate laws and policies.”
Control of MacLaren Hall was transferred from the Probation Department to the Department of Social Services in 1976 following public outcry stemming from the inappropriate treatment of foster children, according to the suit.
Five MacLaren Hall employees were arrested in 1984 following discovery of their crimes against residents, including child molestation and selling drugs to children, the suit states.
Criminal background checks on the staff about 20 years ago showed that at least 17 employees had criminal histories that rendered them ineligible to work at the facility, according to the suit.
MacLaren Hall was closed in 2003 as part of a class-action settlement headed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
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Itsdahapps says
This is so true i too was in McClaren Hall in 92-93 although i personally wasn’t abused i did see alot of unnecessary touching and physical verbal and mental abuse by staff members.Im so glad this has come to light all these years i have never stopped thinking about those girls
Silvia Robinson says
The events that took place at Maclaren hall were horrific and very real. As a woman who has fought all her life to overcome the things that were said and done there, I feel is about time and deserves to be brought to light. The lack of care shown by Department of Children services for the children placed in their care did nothing more than cause further suffering. They left many of us who were supposed to be protected feeling helpless. Many of us grew up thinking that those events were apart of our lives because no one cared for us. I thought that these people could do whatever they wanted to me because no one wanted me. It’s a shame that it took so long for anyone to care.
Tim Scott says
I keep thinking that this article needs a better headline. The lawsuit isn’t “claiming that minors were abused.” At this point that is basically established fact of long standing. The lawsuit contends that these particular individuals were among the abused and are due some sort of compensation, both of which seem too plausible to really dispute..