Thread by @reveal

1/ Children have been given powerful psychotropic medications at one of the federally funded shelters for migrant children, #ShilohTreatmentCenter.

Let's break down what we know and how we know it …

2/ This court filing, part of class-action lawsuit, contains 420 pages of children’s medical records.

They lay out in detail the kinds of drugs children were given -- like the antipsychotic drugs Latuda, Geodon and Olanzapine.

documentcloud.org/documents/4525…

3/ On top of that, the children report being held down and forcibly injected with the drugs -- against their will, and without the consent of their parents.

4/ They say they were told the pills were vitamins. And they needed to take them or they’d never see their parents.

Read their accounts here:

revealnews.org/blog/forced-dr…

5/ Before we’d even seen these court documents, though, we’d heard this story already, from a 10-year-old boy and his mother, Maribel Bernardez.

revealnews.org/blog/immigrant…

6/ She provided medical records show that her son -- who we’re calling José -- was administered psychotropic drugs at Shiloh.

She told @aurabogado that she repeatedly objected and did not sign any consent form.

@aurabogado 7/ Bernardez saw José through video chat.

“He was completely hypnotized and lethargic,” she said.

@aurabogado 8/ Like other children in the court filings, José also said staff abused him and other children.

“There was the man that hit me,” he told @aurabogado.

@aurabogado 9/ This raises a series of questions:

* Is this use of drugs appropriate?

* Who is overseeing it?

* And how has the federal government, which has paid Shiloh nearly $26 since 2014, allowed this to happen?

Let’s break those down:

@aurabogado 10/ Forensic psychiatrist Mark. J. Mills assessed the 420 pages of children’s medical records for us and said the use of drugs was inappropriate.

“That’s not what antipsychotics should be used for. That’s like the old Soviet Union used to do,” he said.

@aurabogado 11/ It turns out that the psychiatrist who has been prescribing the drugs, Dr. Javier Ruíz-Nazario, lost his board certification to treat children and adolescents in 2010.

revealnews.org/blog/exclusive…

@aurabogado 12/ Shiloh is representative of a wider problem.

Migrant youth shelters across the country have been accused of serious wrongdoing. But they’ve rarely faced any consequences. And they’ve been awarded $1.5 billion over four years by the fed gov't.

revealnews.org/article/migran…

@aurabogado 13/ The court records we reviewed show since 1993, four children died from being restrained at a child-care facility run by Shiloh's operators.

documentcloud.org/documents/4525…

@aurabogado 14/ Listen to the full @reveal show we did on Shiloh and family separation here:

revealnews.org/episodes/rippe…

@aurabogado 15/ We’re still trying to learn more about what goes on inside these shelters.

Leak to us securely: leak.revealnews.org. Or email us at [e-mail].

@aurabogado 16/ Here’s a map of the 86 shelters we know about, which are spread out across the country.

We made it with @AP:

revealnews.org/article/heres-…

@aurabogado @AP 17/ We’re also suing the government for more information.

7 months ago, we filed a FOIA request to see the agreements between the gov’t and the shelters.

We heard crickets. So now we’re headed to court.

revealnews.org/blog/the-gover…

@aurabogado @AP 18/ Sign up for our emails to get the next big story and to follow along as we learn more.

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