Mount Pleasant officials want state regulators to close Westchester County child treatment center
MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. -- There are concerns a center meant to help children in Westchester County could be doing more harm than good.
Mount Pleasant officials want state regulators to close that treatment center, alleging the staff lacks proper training and that it's exhausting police and ambulance resources.
The JCCA's Westchester campus is a child welfare and mental health center that provides schooling, counseling, therapeutic arts, recreation and job internships. According to its website, most kids and teens have been abused or neglected.
For the first six months of 2023, police say they responded to 459 calls there, and they want it shut down. The JCCA's CEO agrees they need more help in order to help these kids.
Mount Pleasant officials played disturbing video of an alleged assault at JCCA's Westchester campus to further their case to state officials to close the treatment center.
"In the past, I was never a proponent of closing this residential treatment center, but I truly fear for the safety of staff, the safety of the youth and adults that are placed there," Mount Pleasant Police Chief Paul Oliva said.
Police say according to statistics, so far in 2023, both their department and the Pleasantville Volunteer Ambulance Corps have responded to calls for:
- 248 missing persons,
- 24 assaults,
- 23 vandalism incidents,
- 13 violent altercations/fights,
- 11 suicide or self-harm threats,
- And countless emotionally disturbed children.
By year's end, they expect to have well over 1,000 calls.
"In recent years, officials have decided to place children with serious psychological and emotional conditions, which the campus is not staffed nor equipped to handle," Mount Pleasant Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said.
Mount Pleasant's supervisor says they've asked the facility to increase security and supervision of residents.
Watch Alice Gainer's report
Four years ago, police say a 19-year-old named Angel King was paralyzed at the campus after a security officer placed his knee on King's neck trying to break up a fight.
Police say the school didn't call 911 until the next day.
King's grandmother says the school officials wouldn't tell her what happened until days later.
"The doctor ... told me that the neck and the spine was broken," she said. "If you say that this is a facility for children with mental problems, you should have had proper security."
King died two years later at the age of 21 and that case was settled out of court.
JCCA CEO Ron Richter won't speak about King's case but admits the facility, which houses around 170 kids, is not equipped for some of the behaviors.
"Some of them are beyond our ability, and we have brought that to the state's attention repeatedly over course of the past year-plus, and we are concerned," Richter said.
He claims that for more than a year, they've told city and state leaders about the growing need among young people with complex psychiatric and behavioral diagnoses that they can't address at their current campus.
"I'm as concerned as the town about safety. I've got another 150 kids that are appropriate for our campus who are afraid," Richter said. "We've actually put a written proposal in to multiple state agencies seeking a different model of a care for a small number of young people, but thus far we have not seen any action."
We've reached out to the state but have not yet heard back.