Big Security Concerns At Cypress Group Home In Ada
A wild showdown at an Oklahoma group home takes an entire police crew to handle. Thursday, July 31st 2014, 11:40 pm
A wild showdown at an Oklahoma group home takes an entire police crew to handle.
Police say it happened in Ada at the Cypress Hills Group Home, a privately owned place for at risk children.
It’s located just off the road outside of town, nestled behind the trees.
“Most people don’t even know it’s even there,” Ada police officer Jeremy Farmer said.
The facility houses 32 boys and girls from ages 13-17. It's their last chance of hope before entering into a detention center or a psychiatric hospital.
“These are kids that this is their last resort,” he said.
Off this beaten path of life is where some of Oklahoma's most vulnerable children call home.
“We’ve been out there 28 times since July 10. Twenty eight calls,” Farmer said.
The place has only been open since June 12.
“We’ve been out there on calls of runaways,” he said. “We’ve been out there for assaults. We’ve had staff members at the facility getting assaulted by the juveniles.”
News 9 obtained the reports, and, no doubt, things escalated out of control.
On July 11, one of the children "kicked a hole in the wall" and "used a chair to break a window."
On July 13, a "14 year old female" "in DHS custody" "walked away from one of the units" "because she said other patients were picking on her" and "one of the other girls" "placed a scorpion in her bed." The report states "the situation became too dangerous" and so the staff just let the girl run away and called police.
On July 23, another broken window was reported.
On July 25, there was a false fire alarm, and police found "the staff holding down" a girl because she'd assaulted another patient.
On July 26, there were several runaways and an assault.
On July 28, there was an assault and battery on an officer. However, what police walked into this past weekend takes the cake.
“I would describe it as a riot,” said Farmer. “At one point, there were at least 10 juveniles that we had to get down on the ground.”
On that day, there six runaways and two assaults. It took every officer on the force plus a county deputy to get things under control.
“It is tying up a lot of our time dealing with these juveniles,” said Farmer. “A couple of them have made comments that they’ve broken into vehicles and whatnot.”
News 9 talked to the director of the group home, and he says they are doing their best to provide a service to these kids who have no other place to go.
Many of the children are orphans. Just this week they met with DHS and Ada police about how to better handle these situations.
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