CAMARILLO — As the sun rises over the Santa Monica Mountains, the children awake each morning at 6:30, take turns showering, clean their rooms and eat breakfast. The school-age children report later to their classrooms and the younger ones to the preschool center.
This is the morning routine at Casa Pacifica, Ventura County's only emergency shelter and residential treatment program for abused and neglected children through the age of 17. The Santa Monica Mountains provide a serene backdrop for the 22-acre facility. But there has been little tranquillity at Casa Pacifica since October, when the state Department of Social Services launched an investigation into a report that a 9-year-old molested a toddler while other youngsters were forced to witness the incident.
Though public attention has focused on that incident, state records show there have been more than 40 other violations at Casa Pacifica since its opening 2 1/2 years ago. At least 14 have occurred since the state's investigation began.
As the state continues its probe, which could lead to actions as tough as closure of Casa Pacifica, caseworkers for the department's Community Care Licensing division have documented problems that include:
* Inappropriate disciplinary measures such as use of excessive force during restraint procedures that have resulted in injuries, including an incident June 24 when a child's jaw was broken during a scuffle with staff members trying to stop him from throwing apples and oranges at other children.
* Lack of staff supervision that has generated many incident reports, including that of a drug overdose April 16 after a child learned she could hide medications in her mouth and then take them all at once. Reports indicate this child also needed hospital attention.
* Consensual oral sex between two children under a couch in a residential cottage April 1 during an evening movie; an admission by one child that he had participated in oral sex with several children in the past; and other incidents of consensual sex behind the facility's gymnasium and in children's rooms.
* An inappropriate decision by a staff member Jan. 18, 1996, to bring his pit bulldog to the facility and unleash it. "Children were left alone with the dog. Children may be scared of the dog," a report said.
* A disparaging remark to a child Jan. 16 by a staff member who called a girl a "loser" and referred to her as a "51/50," a term for someone suffering from mental illness.
