Wrong impression of Homestead

I have been following the articles and responses on the Homestead Project with concern. It is obvious that the many inaccuracies and lack of information are giving the public the wrong impression.

During my three years as a teacher at Homestead, most of the staff I worked with were dedicated and caring people who took sincere interest in helping the kids in the program. Despite low pay, long and unusual hours, and difficult, often dangerous work situations, many employees continued at Homestead for years because of genuine caring for the kids.

Your June 23-24 article described a penitentiary where all interactions are punitive. This is not the case. Field trips, weekly allowances, hobby classes, and special athletic events can all be earned by the residents as part of the regular schedule. Furthermore, the student-teacher ratio of 8 to 1 allowed residents to receive quality education, often allowing the kids to make up educational time they had lost because of truancy or suspension in the public school.

I left Homestead last June as I saw state agencies undermining what had once been an effective program. No employee enjoyed or took lightly having to restrain a raging child or do a walk-through srub, a practice very inaccurately described in your article.

The fact is, walk-through scubs and the intensive work program were two things that got through to these kids. Furthermore, it was the strictest of the Homestead employees that the kids always went to to talk or to cry on a shoulder. The kids knew these employees genuinely cared.

Yes, Homestead is having difficulties which need to be addressed. However, let’s not place the bulk of the blame on the hard-working employees, or on Doug Houck who, though we had our disagreements, always had the residents’ best interests at heart. Let us start looking at the state agencies that seem to think the horrors these kids have experienced in their lives serve as a permanent excuse for continued delinquency. For a good number of these kids, only a caring but strict program will allow them to experience a productive and fulfilling life. It is for these kids that I continue to pray daily. Douglas E. Fogg Old Town