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Thomas Farragher

A father’s anguish

Seven of the eight staffers accused of abuse at the Long Island facility were arraigned on Wednesday.SCOTT EISEN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

The father, tormented now by his decision, can’t sleep at night. He’s up every half-hour. At work, he sometimes has to pull over to wipe the tears that fill his eyes and roll down his cheeks.

He is angry. He feels betrayed. He wants justice. He’s haunted by the decision he made for his son. The son he loves.

“We put him in this program,’’ the father said. “We tried to use tough love as well as parenting to let him know that he should be held accountable and to let him know that for every action there is a consequence.’’

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Now, the father is wrestling with — and is staggered by — the consequence of his own actions.

The man’s son is one of the victims of what authorities this week called “ritualized instances of physical abuse’’ at a Department of Youth Services residential site on Long Island, a 15-bed facility where about 10 boys would spend an average of 30 to 40 days learning final support skills before their release.

The center is now closed. Eight former staff members stand accused of — and have pleaded not guilty to — a variety of charges, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The details are enough to make any parent’s head explode.

“Many instances of the physical abuse were called ‘orange chicken’ by staff members and involved staff members, as well as residents directed by staff members, targeting a specific resident, having that resident’s pants pulled down, and hitting that resident on the naked buttocks with a DYS-issued orange sandal,’’ Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office said in its preliminary statement of the case.

The DA’s office said the boys were abused for misbehaving, for returning to the program after being discharged, or just before their release as incentive not to return. The father, who talked to me on the condition that neither he nor his son be identified, was blunter: His son believed he was about to be raped.

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“Grown men held him down while other people pulled his pants down with his behind out,’’ the father said. “They are sexual predators and deviants who took advantage of children and used connections and their positions at these facilities to intimidate, humiliate, and torture these kids with joy on their faces.’’

The Long Island facility, known as Casa Isla, had been run since 1991 by a nonprofit group called Volunteers of America Massachusetts Inc. Officials from the group, in a telephone interview Friday, said the former staff members are “devastated’’ by the criminal charges they now face.

“If these allegations are true, it undermines what we’re trying to do with the program,’’ said Henry Goodhue, chief operating officer of Volunteers for America. He said the abuse was reported by a child after he’d left the Long Island facility.

Goodhue said the DA’s office has 95 days of videotape, and accompanying logs, and he wonders how thoroughly investigators reviewed them before filing charges. Many staff members, he said, were not interviewed by police.

“The individuals accused of this have made this their life’s work,’’ said Stephanie Paauwe, the group’s external affairs director. “It’s difficult for us to imagine eight of them systematically abusing these kids.’’

The district attorney’s office said Friday the charges are founded on solid evidence it gathered for nearly a year.

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The mother of the alleged victim said she sees that evidence in her son’s distant demeanor.

“We were under the assumption that he was in good hands and that he was going to be rehabilitated,’’ the mom said. “We thought this would be a stepping stone to being a productive member of society. This just kills me as a mother.’’

The boy’s parents want the truth to be produced in court.

That’s what all sides here want. It’s what they deserve. The sooner the better.


Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at thomas.farragher@globe.com.