April 12, 2004
 

Last month, the state Office of Child Care Services told the DeSisto School of Stockbridge it could not admit more students after investigators determined it did not make the facility safe for children at risk of hurting themselves.

``June 6 will be our last graduation in Massachusetts,'' said Frank McNear, DeSisto's executive director. ``We've gone beyond everything the state has asked. We've spent over $1 million trying to comply. We don't believe they'll ever open our admissions.''

McNear would not say why he thought the state would never allow the school to admit more students.

Richard Powers, an OCCS spokesman, said the state has been working with DeSisto to fix its problems.

He said OCCS sent McNear a letter Friday saying state inspectors were willing to visit the school this week and ``move the process along.''

``Apparently, his response has been to close the school,'' Powers said. He said Monday the school had not notified the state it was closing.

McNear said parents of students who are not ready to graduate were offered to send their children to another campus that DeSisto runs in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, until the school finds another facility in the United States. Eighteen families are transferring their children to that site, and about seven withdrew their children from DeSisto, McNear said.

McNear said DeSisto students have been rotating among programs the school offers in Stockbridge, Mexico and Florida for about 20 years.

``This is nothing new,'' he said. ``This is nothing we've never done before.''

McNear said the school in Mexico will operate under the same guidelines as the school in Stockbridge, but said there is no government oversight of the private school in Mexico.

``That's not why we're going there,'' he said. ``We've had a presence in Mexico for a long, long time.''

The OCCS has been investigating five complaints filed against DeSisto for months. According to a letter sent by OCCS officials to McNear, the most serious incident at the school happened in January when a student with a history of hurting herself slashed her arms with razor blades. The student swallowed two of the blades and required 57 staples to close the wounds in her arms, according to the letter.

In 2002, a year before the school received a state license, a Suffolk Superior Court judge ordered it to stop admitting new students until it hired a consultant to make the school safer.

The school did plan to make changes, but state officials say they were not carried out.

Andrea Watson, a member of Parents for Residential Reform, an advocacy group for children with special needs, said parents should be skeptical about sending their children to school operating without government oversight.

``The standards that are set forth in Massachusetts and around the country for residential and group care facilities are there to help ensure the health, welfare and safety for children,'' she said. ``As a parent, I'd be very hesitant to send my kid to a country that doesn't set those standards.''