I have been hearing so many similar bad tales from realtors I know from all over the region, that I feel compelled to write this post. And it’s about behavior.
It used to be if you saw a house that was for sale that you thought it was adorable you might drive-by and you might take note of who the listing was with and the phone number. But you wouldn’t trespass onto the property. Not one toe.
Today, it’s like all boundaries and manners and social norms are out the window. If you have a for sale sign on your property, people trespass. I have heard of stories that people look up from whatever they are doing in their kitchen or sitting in their family room, or even working in their garden to find strangers looking in the windows, even attempting to enter the house if the doors open or garage door is raised. Even walking onto decks!
What is it people don’t understand about what the word trespass means?
tres·pass ˈtre-spəs -ˌspas. : an unlawful act committed on the person, property, or rights of another. especially : a wrongful entry on real property.
And the thing that is even more astounding is that sometimes the people doing the trespassing are realtors. And sometimes realtors with their customers in tow.
So that is to say they are just arriving unannounced and uninvited without an appointment. Forget about the ethics of it, it’s also illegal to trespass.
And properties that are for sale often have these lockboxes with a key inside. I’m also hearing the stories of realtors purposely jamming up the boxes so other realtors can’t get in on the appointment after them. And then they’re also the stories of the realtors who show up in a time slot that has been reserved for someone else, and just kind of piggyback on whoever else is showing the house in that moment, and not waiting their turn.
And then, when you want to look at a house and you have a realtor today, most of the appointments are made online with whomever has the listing. So you have a couple different scenarios. One scenario you have is when a realtor wants to sell it within their office and they just block out appointments to keep other companies out. Another scenario that you have is when a realtor from the outside who blocks out several appointments although they only actually have one client at one time coming through not multiple. And that’s also done to keep people out.
It seems since Covid the real estate industry has gotten even more uncivilized than it occasionally used to be. You have a lot of people who decided they were going to become realtors during this time and they really don’t have the experience or the polish so they really don’t know how to behave. And then you have the super aggressive house hunters.
And then there’s just the general lack of manners that people have when simply contacting a realtor. I keep hearing all of these stories told to me about realtors getting phone calls at one in the morning from other realtors and people who want to see a listing and they’re all within the same time zone so you can’t say that somebody was calling from California and messed up the time zone. And if they don’t get what they want, when they make the phone call or send a text, they’re just terribly rude, and even use quite the colorful combinations of profanity.
Along with the late night phone calls and text messages, come the early morning phone calls and text messages. Since when does anyone think unless it’s a relative bleeding on the street or in the emergency room that it’s OK to call someone before 6 AM for example?
This is why people used to do a lot of quiet listings. That is to say a property was for sale, but there was no sign out front. I think it’s almost worth developing as a new real estate trend. This is also why some realtors don’t want to do open houses anymore.
Moving is stressful. Getting your house ready for sale is also a stressful and often quite an emotional time, so for people to be so rude as to just stroll up a driveway and peep into windows and worse because they know there’s a sale sign out front is wrong.
And I encourage people who are selling their properties to just call the police when they see these people trespassing. Let them explain to the police and get charged with trespass.
I also think phone etiquette needs to be adhered to. And who is anyone to call up a realtor and berate them on the phone because their listing sold fast? I mean for real?
I think this is happening often enough that one would wish that the local and regional boards of realtors would act on this, but they are not.
Wheeeeeee. World gone mad. Not fun. Crazy every day. Today crazy included events at two West Chester Area School District schools, and one event at a Tredyffrin Easttown school. Last week a similar brand of crazy at a Great Valley School District school.
So it has to be wondered about, doesn’t it? Why now? Random acts of a similar nature or some weird thread of coordination not yet apparent? You know like a Tik Tok challenge or something?
Why Chester County schools? So many questions, so many fears on the part of parents and teachers.
So, if you all remember recently, I wrote a post about Church Farm School. And getting the boys to prom. I also remarked that there are tons of places to help girls get ready and go to prom but not boys.
So I am thrilled that the community at large came together for these boys from Church Farm School and yesterday I heard from Jenn Frederick from Fox29 that she had some good news. This is after I had heard from friends and churches that they were helping these boys as well.
Then this morning came two teases in the FOX 29 Good Day Philadelphia newscast before the big reveal!
First:
Then came Jenn Frederick’s big reveal and I was reduced to tears of happiness for these boys:
This is amazing! I can’t tell you how happy I am! This is the school that I happen to be in ordinately fond of, and I attend events there once in a while. It’s a beautiful school, and as a matter of fact, their greenhouse program years ago was started by none other that Edith Lockwood, one of the two Lockwood sisters of Loch Aerie in Frazer.
When I first posted this some asked why a “ritzy” private school needed help to go to prom. And then I realized that so many people right here in Chester County. Have no idea about the mission of Church Farm School. That these are boys here being given a chance at a future and college. These are kids on scholarship who worked hard for this opportunity. There is no silver spoon in any of their mouths, what they do is merit based. And these are amazing kids.
This is a Church founded in the light of the Episcopalian church and their principles a century ago.
The Church Farm School was founded by the Reverend Dr. Charles W. Shreiner in 1918. Dr. Shreiner had long envisioned a school where boys could develop their minds and bodies and grow to productive, meaningful adulthood.
Originally home to 15 boys, the school was focused on instilling its students with character according to three clear tenets: the value of religion, the value of hard work and the value of education. Students were given room and board in exchange for their continued efforts to pursue personal, physical and academic growth. And, just as it still does today, the school opened its doors to the families of boys who may not have otherwise been able to financially afford such a valuable opportunity.
Today, Church Farm School is a boarding/day college preparatory school for boys of all backgrounds in grades 9-12. It offers a positive, structured home life, an outstanding private school education, a competitive athletic program and recreational opportunities. In addition, thanks to the generosity and continued support of our donors, alumni and other organizations, Church Farm School offers a liberal scholarship to every student. Over the course of its history, the school has provided generations of young men with the skills necessary to be successful in all aspects of life.
Although the school has necessarily evolved and changed to keep pace with the world around it, what remains unchanged is its steadfast allegiance to its founding principles. All students at Church Farm School are required to attend weekly chapel services and to participate in their choice of numerous diverse community service programs. For more than 100 years, CFS has provided a safe, structured environment, extremely competitive academic and athletic programs and a commitment to individual personal growth for hundreds of young men from across the nation and around the world.
And these boys had never gone to prom. Every kid should have the opportunity to go to prom. some kids choose not to, but others want the experience. And because of my fondness for this school when my friend who works there, put it out into the universe that she had this crazy idea of wanting these boys to go to a prom at their sister school, Linden Hall in Lancaster, I decided to write about it and share this message.
There has been an outpouring of support, including from one of my other favorite places, St. David’s Church in Wayne, Who lives their Episcopalian mission every day giving back within the community.
This all makes my heart happy. We live in a world that is very ugly some days, and to find the goodness in humankind once in a while is just so nice. Fox 29 devoted a total of close to 8 1/2 minutes of airtime to Church Farm School today, and they helped get the boys the rest of the way there to go to their prom. But they also focused on the core values of the school and the fabulous colleges that these boys are getting into and getting financial aid and assistance so they can go. This was an incredible gift to the school on the part of Fox 29 and their morning program. [CLICK HERE FOR STORY ON FOX29]
There is this guy running for school board in the Downingtown Area School District. A nouveau politician who scrubbed all old social media and now he has a page where he’s like a drag version of Michelle Obama except more like her evil twin who is a member of Klanned Karenhood, right?
Well the professor from Gilligan’s Island has more credibility and now others are realizing it because why? Oh yes when politicians try to use local issues for political personal gain, well….people notice….and they don’t like it…..shocker, right?
People in DASD if you vote for him, you deserve what you get. That is all.
Politics is like spy vs. spy and the guy who always wants to tell you he’s by far the smartest guy in the room, generally speaking is not. And that’s something where he’ll say I am going low but last time I checked he wasn’t an air traffic controller.
This is beyond hateful and it’s going on in Tredyffrin and based on the posts I’ve received it must be happening around Chesterbrook.
The Holocaust was no joke. It was genocide. Millions of people. Hitler was a fanatical terrorist who ordered MILLIONS killed. Mostly Jewish people but not all. Tortured, victims of human experimentation and worse. People lost their homes, businesses, personal possessions, friends, family, even their pets. (You can read more HERE.)
I don’t even have enough time in the day or words to express how despicable it is that someone thinks it’s funny to go around spray, painting, swastikas. Anti- semitism is horrible and a crime.
It seems like Tredyffrin has issues. If you see whoever is doing this, or you catch them on the security camera, call 911.
Just when you think you can take a day off and enjoy your Saturday there’s this. And this is a byproduct of the extremism in politics we have been experiencing since 2016.
We all know that “UHHH OHHH, OHHHH NOOO” feeling when we see something. Like the real estate sign above. It is one of the two parcels that make up Johnson Matthey. To East Whiteland residents, Johnson Matthey is also a familiar name as one of the successor names to Bishop Tube over in General Warren, but I digress…only not really because things all seem to be related around her, right?
Another bite at the apple above was a post referring to the where’s Waldo as it keeps popping up issue in West Whiteland as to data centers and hydrogen plants etc there. It was a topic for discussion at the West Whiteland Planning Commission this Wednesday (oh and West Whiteland, that person your zoom bouncer didn’t let speak was ummm the chair of East Whiteland Supervisors, and since we all don’t live on islands, maybe learn who is on your calls. A neighboring township being interested should have some sort of professional courtesy, don’t you think?)
So. WHY is this 15.70 acres which is wooded with a cell phone tower of concern? Well Johnson Matthey wants to sell this chunk of their land on West King turning onto Phoenixville Pike is right on border with East Whiteland. Johnson Matthey is TWO parcels totaling 35+ acres.
And this is a real worry as to what kind of developer would snatch it up. Whether industrial or residential the scenario sucks. Because is it someplace they could put an Amazon hub for example? Or try to put a Data center or a hydrogen plant for example ? Or God knows how many townhouses or apartments?
And let us not forget Weston is across W. King Road, correct? And although residential plans have been shopped there it does have the labs and offices thing going on, right? And Johnson Matthey land has industrial going on correct? Is it as simple as 1 + 1 = 2? I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but this area right there in West Whiteland is truly the perfect storm for data centers and hydrogen energy plants, right? Are we wrong worrying about this? Like is the land at Johnson Matthey clean? As in DEP and EPA clean and isn’t that reasonable to ask considering it’s industrial?
The Johnson Matthey land for sale has a sign up and a listing on Loop Net for 15.70 acres. East Whiteland and West Whiteland need to pay close attention. They have to. First of all, how much more stress can W. King Road and that stress of Phoenixville Pike take? People who live on those roads have a hard enough time up and down getting out of their driveways and the ever increasing problematic four way stop sign and intersection of King and Ship is just up from there. It is already a shit show from existing development including West Goshen Township’s development. And next there is the piggy glut of development coming to Ship and 30 (Lancaster Avenue) and the rest of the development on the other side of the traffic light past the old Ship Inn, and east on Lancaster Ave towards the boundary there with East Whiteland.
This could be another bad plan coming our way when this property sells, couldn’t there be?
I also have *heard* via sources the intimation that some of the hierarchy of the Chester County Democrats don’t want to appear business “unfriendly” which is undoubtedly putting pressure on Democrat supervisors locally…like in East Whiteland and West Whiteland, right? But if these honchos are worried about appearing anti-business, are they also worried about appearing anti-resident and anti-environment? I think that could come into play here, sorry not sorry.
I also feel that in West Whiteland there is ONE Supervisor you can count on to do right by residents every time and that is Brian Dunn. Theresa Hogan Santalucia is now an angry lame duck politician, so she won’t care these next few months and Raj Kumbhardare is more pro-development and pro-data centers etc than I am comfortable with. He is not a bad person, however my opinion is at times he just doesn’t get it, and I have watched all of them, and he can dig in his heels and not for the benefit of all. He’s in the data kind of business for example given his career, so he doesn’t see the pitfalls, does he? Or doesn’t want to?
So I find this section of West Whiteland far, far away from not only the West Whiteland Township Building but also where two of the supervisors in West Whiteland live at risk. There are also multiple pipelines running around here including Williams which was mentioned somewhere when the whole data center hydrogen plant came up, right?
While we are on the topic of West Whiteland and data centers, allow me to share an update Ginny Kerslake sent out:
Good news from the data center / power plant zoning ordinance discussion at last night’s Planning Commission meeting in West Whiteland Township!
Over 20 residents attended to listen to the discussion and provide input on the public’s strong, universal opposition to allowing this use near our treasured Exton Park in the Office/Laboratory District. As a result, allowing this use in the O/L District appears to be off the table as far as the WWT Planning Commission is concerned. They are continuing the discussion next month. From there it goes to the Board of Supervisors and a public hearing. It’s important that we stay engaged as this proceeds.
Meanwhile, a proposed southeastern PA “hydrogen hub” called MACH2 would mean the construction of more fossil fuel infrastructure right here in Chester County including power plants, and dangerous, unregulated, CO2 pipelines in existing pipeline easements, including Mariner East and others. And it’s reasonable to assume that the proposed hydrogen power plant near Exton in Park was/is part of MACH2.
The time is now to do what we can to stop MACH2 from being awarded federal and state subsidies which it would require in order to advance.
I hope you can joinme and other community members protecting Exton Park this Sunday, April 23 from 3 to 5 PM at Stolen Sun in Exton for some food and drink (provided) to learn what next step you can take to stop this hydrogen hub …. and also celebrate our community’s recent victory in stopping the hydrogen power plant near Exton Park from progressing! RSVP here
A proposed southeastern PA “hydrogen hub” called MACH2 would mean the construction of more fossil fuel infrastructure, subsidized by taxpayers, including power plants, and dangerous, unregulated, CO2 pipelines in existing pipeline easements. And guess who’s a key player in MACH2 – Energy Transfer (Mariner East)
West Whiteland and East Whiteland residents need to pay attention here. Big time. We are all at risk from things like data centers because of PA’s tax credits for data centers. And certain political factions are pushing for these things so their besties can get contracts and jobs. And no ones really tales into consideration that a lot of the jobs are much like the jobs for Mariner East / Sunoco / Energy Transfer – out of state workers, not local. And yeah, sadly there are certain Democrats in Chester County push push pushing these things when they should be paying attention to their county row jobs, because what happens if audits on their county row job or a right to know is filed on their hours there happen? What will they show? Of course county row jobs in Chester County are a conversation for another day. Suffice it to say more than a couple should actually be spending more time earning their keep along county row and if they think even Democrats, let alone Republicans are not paying attention? Well that equals sadly mistaken, yes? Quit shilling for law firms, solicitors, and your union buddies from OUT of the area. Be present, be local, be for the residents you serve, not higher ambitions.
I am including photos of the streetscape so people have an idea. Why can’t that be bought and just left open space? A trail park?
Well, think about it people, because a buyer will come, and then potentially this is a fair bit of acreage in play if Weston wakes up again, this is oh hell no again, right?
It is never over in Chester County. And a lot of this is due to….wait for it…the Municipalities Planning Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which has not been comprehensively updated since 1969. It requires an act of the state constitution which means State Reps and State Senators and they never seem to want to deal with this, do they? It would be nice if they did. It would be nice if residents were protected better and had more of a say as to the way they want their communities to look like.
The Johnson Matthey Land and Weston land if improperly developed could drastically impact our eco system in that area and the environment. And then let’s look at traffic and infrastructure. And more.
Giant college party going on in Mt. Pleasant since 1 PM. Kids keep ubering in. Police as per residents have been called at least 5 times, and well here, read the screen shots off of social media:
Tredyffrin Police? Are you so busy you can’t deal with this, or is it you do not want to deal with it? Tredyffrin Supervisors? Do you have a collective pulse?
So Tredyffrin we KNOW you like to pretend Mt. Pleasant doesn’t exist, except when you and Upper Merion approve ridiculous land development that is. And is that development for college student rentals? Seems a little overpriced for that maybe?
I don’t want to say Tredyffrin is prejudiced or biased against some residents, but hey the optics? Sleazy at a minimum here? These people aren’t good enough to care for or something?
These people, as in the people raising kids and living like normal people in Mt. Pleasant have an expectation of quiet enjoyment legally, correct? I don’t think that includes blue tarps to block keg view for the neighbors etc is part of quiet enjoyment?
How about do your damn jobs Tredyffrin? And media? If you are interested in Mt. Pleasant I can hook you up. It is actually in Chester County, PA.
For years, virtually throughout it’s history, Mt. Pleasant is treated poorly, and poorly is a polite descriptive adjective.
Oh here’s a blue tarp party photo from September. Tredyffrin quite a few OUTSIDE of Mt. Pleasant have been keeping tabs. We want better for them. Even if you don’t give a good god damn.
I have been thinking. (And somewhere at least a few people are saying “oh no, not again…)
Unless you are a giant narcissist, among the hardest things for women to do is put themselves first.
Putting yourself first is a form of a boundary, and it’s hard sometimes to stick to boundaries.
With me it’s hard sometimes. People are always messaging me at all times, and even with Do Not Disturb set up on my phone, it doesn’t always work.
I like to be available for my friends and family in particular. I am always willing to listen and more. But not everyone reciprocates. I discovered that the other day and it actually stung a bit. So that got me to thinking, if I don’t put myself first even with friends and and family, it won’t happen.
I rarely am the one who reaches out and wants to talk. Usually, I am the one who listens or is a sounding board. Well, I have made the decision that I am slowing my roll there. I reached out and it made me want to be an island going forward. I understand life happens, and we all get stressed out, but still. Now it was nothing terminal to any sort of friendship, but it was something learned for me. It made me pause.
The other thing is this: women are sometimes not clear on expectations. Basic things. With themselves and with others. And if you aren’t clear, and someone doesn’t get it and then you get annoyed, whose fault is it really? We don’t read minds, and I have been guilty of this as well. I don’t like asking for help, for example, so when I do ask for help with something it feels awkward. Just like the occasional need to lean on others for whatever reason. There is the feeling of not wanting to stumble and fall, but we need to reach out at times.
Being clear can be on other things like an invitation. If you aren’t clear it leaves gray area and someone ends up with hurt feelings. Which is why I always include an RSVP request when I mail out invitations. And when people ignore an RSVP, it’s just not good no matter if it’s yes or no. Or when someone invites you to do something and then they fall off the face of the earth and evaporates. You don’t want to follow up and feel like you are imposing yourself, but it does get annoying when someone calls and asks you to do something on X date, you tell them you are free, they say they will follow up, and the follow up? Never happens. I have had this happen quite a bit with a couple of people, and I don’t want to be rude, but they asked me to put the time aside and then it was “poof.”
Also working from home, or for yourself. That is a tough balancing act some days. Especially when someone who is not work related calls and you really want to talk to them, but you know you really don’t have the time. It’s hard to say no and establish and maintain those boundaries.
And expectations. If you aren’t someone who keeps mental book, you don’t necessarily guess what someone expects from you or when. But that is also in that category of reading minds. It’s like giving gifts. I give them because I want to, not because I expect something back. Some literally keep track. Even I do it sometimes with family, and I don’t mean to. But when you agonize over buying someone the perfect present, and they don’t reciprocate, it is hard. So then I have to remind myself to knock it off because I got them a gift because I wanted to.
And this is all women, right? If men do this we read them the riot act. But women? We seem to accept and perpetuate these things. Part of why we don’t say anything is we don’t want to seem like a bitch, which then of course leaves to storing up little bits of hurt like squirrels with acorns.
I have the bad habit of storing up hurt acorns like a squirrel. I don’t want to offend people and sometimes it is simply so hard to talk about these things.
So I have decided to go back to not storing all these things up. It is not healthy. I would like to think we all try to do right by people, but it is human nature that doesn’t always happen.
We can learn thing from narcissists, and that is to put ourselves first or at least not sacrifice our sense of self. It’s not an exact science, sadly, unless you are quite selfish by nature. We don’t want to all become utterly narcissistic, just learn not to feel bad for putting ourselves first sometimes. It’s o.k. to do this and to tell people they could have done better with you, because they would probably tell you the same thing.
Well that is all for this mental ramble. Enjoy the beautiful day!
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Devereux has a campus on Boot Road in West Whiteland Township. 390 E Boot Road, West Chester, PA 19380 to be precise. If you live in the area you know kids seem to get out, and a lot of the time the same kids, correct? No one wants to talk about this, but it is true, correct? Ask the neighbors around there, right? And then there is a house on Ship Road that is Devereux too, correct? And another one on Boot Road?
So I hear today someone plowed into their fence there today? (That is just a related aside, but doesn’t Devereux act like good fences make good neighbors?)
And the kids who get out of 390 E. Boot Road are sometimes a problem? They are minors so this is hid from publicly available court items but occasionally we see emergency alert things like:
Same kid went missing November, 2022
Do not approach and use caution if seen? That is the one who seems to get out a lot doesn’t he? And has reported to have been destructive with private property too? And West Whiteland Police is aware of these issues and doing their best, but what is Devereux doing?
That is the question, what is Devereux doing?WHY do the kids get out and want to get out? Is it that bad there that they want to escape? Doesn’t the public deserve to know what is going on?
Simple Googling can find kids bolting from there since 2016 that I found. Devereux is not a good neighbor if you talk to neighbors around this location, and is it possible there is something wrong at this location that this is why the kids run away? Or is it they aren’t paying attention to their kids?
West Whiteland, isn’t it time to talk about the problems publicly? Or at least what you CAN talk about? The general public is not properly trained to deal with these kids when they run away, and why is it they run away and how do they keep getting out? Maybe a community meeting? Or are we all just supposed to continue to pretend it doesn’t seem to have repeated issues?
Devereux really needs to address this elephant in the neighborhood, i.e. them, don’t they? No one wants to be unfair here, but so much dancing and not a lot of answers?
Same kid went missing November, 2021
Various (but not all) media as it relates to Chester County Devereux problems:
An employee has been charged with multiple attacks on students inside a Chester County behavioral health center, authorities said, including an assault that left a 16-year-old girl with a broken arm.
Christina Borden, of Yeadon, allegedly threw the unidentified student at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health’s Leo Kanner Learning Center in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, to the ground, then struck the girl multiple times with her knee on Sept. 30, West Whiteland Township police said Wednesday.
The school serves children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The victim managed to get to her feet, but Borden, 27, then allegedly struck again, investigators said.
Two other school employees, Monique Scott, 25, of Pomeroy, and Solgie Barbar, 38, of Upper Darby, have been charged with failure to report the incident, police said.
A former employee at Devereux’s Brandywine Campus in Glenmoore was found guilty on Monday by a jury of simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child, announced Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan.
Alexis Boaz, age 35, was found guilty in a Chester County court of punching and kicking a 14-year-old Devereux resident in the head, face, and body on November 4, 2019.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, the attack continued until the victim was unconscious and another employee walked in. The victim was taken to Brandywine Hospital for head injuries and marks and lacerations on the head, face, neck, and body.
A jury found 29-year-old Major Yancy of Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania guilty this week of neglect of a care-dependent person for physically assaulting an 18-year-old non-verbal client at Devereux in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, in November 2020. Judge Patrick Carmody, who presided over the trial, also found the defendant guilty of harassment. The defendant will be sentenced later…
According to documents, on November 5, 2020, West Whiteland Township Police investigated a Childline report of child abuse at the Devereux Kanner campus located in West Whiteland Township. The report indicated that a witness saw a staff member, identified as Major Yancy, throw an 18-year-old non-verbal resident onto a toilet and punch him in the abdomen.
Investigators interviewed the witness about the incident, which occurred on November 4. The witness said the defendant was helping residents get showered for the night when the victim “flopped” onto the floor, refusing to get into the shower. The witness said she observed the defendant “bear hug” the defendant, lift him into the air and throw him onto a toilet.
When a 16-year-old with severe autism ran naked into the living room of his residential facility at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health’s campus in West Chester one early evening in September, a staffer turned off the lights and advanced on the boy.
Four times the man punched the teenager — in his head, his ribs, his groin. The boy, who is nonverbal, put up his hands to try to block the blows.
After the teen broke free and fled, the staffer, Olasoji Satimehin, turned the lights back on, looked up at a surveillance camera, then calmly sat down, according to a criminal complaint. Police say he did not know the camera was equipped with night vision.
Satimehin’s October arrest was the most recent in a string of criminal cases at Devereux.
Since July 2018, prosecutors have charged 20 staffers in connection with alleged physical abuse of 18 different children at Devereux’s three residential campuses in Chester County: Leo Kanner in West Chester, Brandywine in Glenmoore, and Mapleton in Malvern, according to an Inquirer review of court records…..
Devereux leaders would not answer questions about specific incidents, citing litigation concerns and privacy laws. In a statement, they said: “These incidents are heartbreaking and unacceptable, and we must always ensure we’ve learned from the past and are constantly driving change in our organization and industry. Every provider in the field must deal with the issue of employees who, despite thorough training, support, and supervision, do the wrong thing in complicated situations.
“At Devereux, we hold ourselves to the highest standards — we know there is still important work to be done and we are committed to protecting those in our care.”
Devereux senior vice president and chief strategy officer Leah Yaw acknowledged that more of its staffers have been arrested for abuse than those at other providers. She attributed that to “our really excellent use of video and reporting and catching incidents and being able to provide evidence so that when people need to be prosecuted, they are successfully prosecuted.”…
Devereux senior vice president and chief strategy officer Leah Yaw acknowledged that more of its staffers have been arrested for abuse than those at other providers. She attributed that to “our really excellent use of video and reporting and catching incidents and being able to provide evidence so that when people need to be prosecuted, they are successfully prosecuted.”…DHS said it has received 254 reports of suspected child abuse and neglect on Devereux’s three Chester County campuses from Jan. 1, 2018, to Nov. 16, 2020, through ChildLine, the state’s 24-hour hotline to report child abuse. DHS officials said they cannot reveal how many children are involved or how many of the reports were founded because the state’s Child Protective Services Law bars them from releasing that information.
It was just after dinner, on a cloudy evening in February, when a 16-year-old boy named Edward decided he couldn’t take it anymore: He left the cafeteria and walked quickly through campus, searching for someone to help him at Devereux Brandywine.
Behind him, Edward’s abuser followed in a van. The boy began to run.
Headquartered 15 miles outside Philadelphia, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health has specialized in treating children with intellectual disabilities, mental disorders, and trauma for more than a century. Operating 15 residential campuses that serve 5,000 children every year across nine states, Devereux is the nation’s leading nonprofit health organization of its kind.
Its motto: “Unlocking human potential.”
A shy 16-year-old from Clifton Heights, Edward had come to Devereux Brandywine, a campus in Glenmoore, four months earlier. Diagnosed with autism and developmental delays, Edward — his middle name — had spent his childhood in physical and occupational therapy appointments, learning to grip buttons and zippers, to plant his feet on the ground as he walked….
At least 41 children as young as 12, and with IQs as low as 50, have been raped or sexually assaulted by Devereux staff members in the last 25 years, an Inquirer investigation has found.
Of those, 10 said they were assaulted at Devereux’s three campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs, while the others were abused at facilities in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Connecticut, New York, and Arizona.
Devereux leaders, noting that a sexual assault can happen in almost any care setting, said that in the last two years they have increased safety and reduced risk by adopting a host of safeguards to prevent such abuse and hold staffers accountable.
Yet, between October 2018 and March 2019, three girls at a Devereux campus in Arizona were sexually abused by a male staffer in their bedrooms and the facility’s laundry room, they told police.
In December, at a facility in Texas, a Devereux staffer was charged with allegedly sexually abusing four children, including a 16-year-old girl who said he threatened to have her beaten up, and a 12-year-old who said he molested her several times.
And on that cloudy 2018 evening at Devereux Brandywine, Edward revealed to Wilson that a male staffer had been sexually assaulting him on campus for months. The teenager would later tell law enforcement that he was afraid to speak up, but knew he had to: The man had started abusing Edward’s 14-year-old “little brother” too.
A federal class action lawsuit was filed against Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health this week, claiming the nonprofit was negligent and did not protect at least six children from being abused by staffers.
According to the lawsuit, the six children, who ranged in age from 8 to 17 at the time, allegedly were abused between 2003 and 2019 at a Devereux campus — three in Chester County, two in Florida, and one in California. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, does not name individual staffers alleged to be responsible for physical, sexual, and verbal abuse.
