A former foster child of a religious school in South Florida claims that he was humiliated, harassed and exposed to “conversion therapy” while living in a foster home.
When the boy was asked about his sexual orientation and shared that he was indeed gay, the head of his foster care shelter then purportedly drove him to an isolated location, wept uncontrollably and screamed at him: “How could you do this to me?”
The next two years, the teen told the Miami Herald, were pure hell. He was expelled from the Christian school, in which he had been enrolled by the shelter. He was forbidden to speak with his best friend, a young man shelter administrators erroneously believed also was gay. Staff tried repeatedly to “convert” him to heterosexuality. Other staffers “humiliated and harassed” the boy – and so did other foster kids who were housed with him.
“They always told us that God is love, but I guess there’s no God there,” the teen wrote to his court-ordered guardian of his experience at His House Children’s Home. “Please help them,” he added, referring to other gay children he believed were experiencing similar treatment.
While administrators with Our Kids, a privately run foster care agency that oversees His House, found the teen’s story credible. The Department of Children & Families declined to look into the case – twice.
In a letter dated Oct. 12, DCF Inspector General Christopher T. Hirst said the youth’s treatment did not violate “state or federal laws, rules or policies.”
“As a result,” Hirst wrote, “the [inspector general] stands by its previous determination that an investigation is not merited.”
According to The Miami Herald, which did not name the teen to protect his privacy, the young man entered foster care in 2003 at the age of 10 after his mother was charged with beating him. Today he is living on his own and attending college.
Jean Caceres-Gonzalez, who founded and heads His House, said in an email to The Herald that “all children at His House are treated with great love, respect and dignity regardless of their sexual orientation. Harassment by other kids or staff members is not tolerated and dealt with immediately. This child was no different. He fully enjoyed a safe and loving home.”
DCF administrators declined to discuss the case in detail. The agency spokesman, Joe Follick, reiterated Hirst’s conclusion that the youth’s reported treatment violated no laws or policies and added: “Nobody at this department will tolerate the bullying or harassment of any child in our care in any facility or home.”
But the boy tells of a very different experience. He said his ordeal began at the age of 16, when he became friends with another boy at the shelter. Staffers assumed the two teens were dating, even though the other boy is not gay.
The boy said he was confronted by leaders of Dade Christian School, who insisted he state whether he was gay. “They specifically said it was a yes or no question,” the teen wrote. “I told them yes.”
The teen said he was expelled from school and that one afternoon Caceres-Gonzalez picked the youth up from a basketball court, claiming he had a dentist appointment “which was a lie. I had one two days prior to that,” the teen wrote.
Caceres then reportedly drove the teen to “an isolated area” where her emotions boiled over as she confronted him. “He said she was crying so hysterically he felt afraid,” the letter said.
“He said that she made him feel guilty and bad about himself to the point that he apologized for the agony he was putting her through,” Toledo said in a letter.
From that point on, the teen said he was isolated from others at the shelter and forced to speak to a minister, who tried to “convert” him to heterosexuality.
In Our Kids’ request to the state, Toledo said the guardian program suggested that His House administrators failed to “aggressively” seek the youth’s adoption, and kicked him out of a program that helped pay for his college tuition and living expenses, all “due to his sexual orientation.”
Hirst, the inspector general, rejected the complaint, and asked Our Kids to look into it again.
On Oct. 3, Toledo followed up that initial query with a lengthy letter to DCF, saying high-ranking administrators of both Our Kids and DCF in Miami had met with the teen on Sept. 27. “As part of our work,” she wrote, “we hear from a lot of clients with serious and sometimes outrageous claims. As a result, we have become very good at determining whether a story is related in a consistent and truthful manner. In our evaluation of [the youth’s] account, we found his recitation to be consistent and compelling.”
He is, Toledo wrote, “a credible witness and we believe his statements about how poorly he was treated.”
The teen told authorities he was not alone, and that any adolescent who is gay or questioning his sexual orientation “will likely endure the same treatment while at His House,” Toledo wrote.
Less than two weeks later, Hirst rejected the complaint for the second time.
After consulting with DCF’s civil rights division, Hirst wrote, the agency determined that “no violation of state or federal laws, rules or policies occurred with respect to the alleged harassment/discrimination of the former foster child. As a result, the [Office of Inspector General] stands by its previous determination that an investigation is not merited.”
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Beth Cohen, who oversees the county’s foster care program as chairwoman of the Community Based Care Alliance, said she was “disappointed” that DCF investigators declined to look into the matter. “Whether this is a violation of state law or policy,” she said, “it should be.”
“Our job is to help these children in every way possible to reach their full potential, whether they are heterosexual or gay,” she said. “If these allegations are true, then teenaged children should not be placed with this agency.”
