Miss. gets temporary custody of Bethel Home youths

KATHY EYREAP

The Baton Rouge Advocate

JACKSON, Miss. -- There is probable cause to suspect physical and mental abuse at Bethel Home for Children in Lucedale, a youth court judge ruled Friday as he granted the state Welfare Department temporary custody of the estimated 140 youths at the independent Baptist boarding home.

Judge Robert Oswald of Pascagoula issued the order at 11 a.m. Friday, and minutes later Welfare Department personnel arrived at the home. In the meantime, the youths apparently were alerted about the court order and most had fled.

"Prior to the time we arrived at the Bethel campus, the children had scattered," state Welfare Commissioner Thomas Brittain said Friday night in Jackson. "We were told they were allowed, if not encouraged, to leave the campus, and some of the children said they were told to run."

Another hearing in the case is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday in Lucedale.

Oswald had authorized the use of outside law enforcement officers to aid George County Sheriff Eugene Howell in ensuring that the children weren't taken from the home during a weeklong hearing, and state highway patrol troopers had maintained a vigil outside entrances to the home on Thursday.

It wasn't clear if any troopers were at the home when the children left Friday, although Brittain said he believed there were. Spokesmen at the George County Sheriff's Office refused comment, and spokesmen at the state patrol's main office in Jackson and district office in Gulfport said no one was available for comment Friday night who knew whether troopers were assigned to the school Friday morning.

Brittain said no Welfare Department representatives were at the home at the time the children fled.

He said the highway patrol and George County sheriff's officers were still rounding up the children Friday night. Some had been found in private homes, in restaurants and walking the streets of Lucedale.

By Friday night, Brittain said, about 60 children, most teen-agers, had been transported in state buses from Lucedale to quarters on the campus of the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. He said they were undergoing physical examinations.

He speculated that officers would be hunting for the remaining youths through the weekend.

Brittain said officials weren't sure how many children were at the home, because its operator, the Rev. Herman Fountain, refused to give authorities a list of residents.

Fountain, and several other ministers who flocked from Louisiana, Georgia and Texas to support him, claim such boarding homes are protected from any state regulation because of the separation of church and state.

Oswald issued the order Friday following a weeklong hearing on a request for such action by George County authorities. The hearing also concerned the the legal status of a child who ran away from Bethel.

The judge ruled that the children were being held in detention according to the state Youth Act. Detention facilities are required to notify the state of children placed in their custody.

Fountain had been jailed for two days for refusing to give officials a list of residents. But Fountain was freed Friday without providing the information when he agreed that there would be an orderly transfer of the children to state custody.

"One of the problems with these homes is we don't have any idea how many children are in these homes, what their ages are, how they got there in the first place, were they put there with proper adjudication, was adjudication needed, etc. etc.," Brittain said. "That is because in this state we do not have a licensing or even a registration law for these homes, and in that case we're in a very difficult posture" when abuse is found and the state is ordered to take custody of the children.

Brittain said Fountain was already at the home when Welfare Department officials arrived.

"We did not encounter any cooperation from him there. In fact, it was just the opposite," Brittain said without elaboration.

Brittain said he wasn't sure what action, if any, may be taken against Fountain.

The court order gives the state 48-hour temporary custody of the children, not including Saturday and Sunday. Brittain said welfare officials would attempt to locate and return the children to their parents within that time period. But he expects it might take longer to find all of the children.

"We have information that some folks are trying to help the kids escape out of state," he said.

Based on his experience with the Bethesda Home for Girls near Hattiesburg, from which about 100 residents were taken into state custody in September 1986, Brittain said he expects that the children's parents are scattered throughout the United States.

"We have a network set up with other states' social service departments" to help locate and notify the parents that the boarding home has been closed, he said.

Officials said a child identified by the court only as "S.D.L." ran away from Bethel on May 8. In a May 10 youth court petition, the child said he fled "because he is "tired of being locked up, slapped, and getting licks all the time.' "

S.D.L. told social workers he had been denied medical and dental treatment during his 19-month stay at Bethel.

The request to turn all of the children over to the Welfare Department was made by George County Attorney Mark A. Maples. Oswald made the request public Thursday, with the provision that the news media identify children at the home only by initials. Under state law, all youth court proceedings are confidential.

The atmosphere had grown tense Thursday as the hearing continued. More than 100 youths from Bethel gathered on Courthouse grounds to sing hymns and listen to sermons by Bethel workers and by ministers from out of state.

"The state and government has no compelling interest to monitor these ministries," said the Rev. W.N. Otwell, who operates a home for boys in Fort Worth.