How Could You? Hall of Shame-Terri Canady UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Hogansville,Georgia, Terri Canady, 25, an employee of “Dream House Youth Services, a Hogansville-based group home management company, was taken into custody Monday after a cell phone video emerged of her allegedly abusing a child in her care at a Granite Street group home in Hogansville.”

She was “charged with battery, terroristic threats and child cruelty in the first and third degrees.”

“The owner of the group homes, Jimmy McCamey, called the video “horrific” and said Canady has been terminated from her job.

 

The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) has since terminated its contract with Dream House and children from all three of Dream House’s group homes have been removed and placed in other facilities. The incident is under investigation by the Hogansville Police Department and DFCS.

 

This isn’t the first time Dream House has been under scrutiny. Formerly known as the Center for Creative Growth, the company owns one group home in Hogansville and two in LaGrange. In October 2009, a youth from their group home on Ridley Avenue in LaGrange ran away, and one month later shot and killed a gas station attendant at the Shell Mart on Vernon Road. The shooter plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

 

In 2011, DFCS and the Department of Juvenile Justice also pulled their youths from the Center for Creative Growth, the precursor to Dream House.

 

Also in 2011, a 45-year-old female employee of the Center for Creative Growth was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy under her supervision.

 

In March 2012, two boys from one of the homes stole a van from the program — one of them made it all the way to an Atlanta MARTA station before being picked up by police.

 

The string incidents prompted city officials in both Hogansville and LaGrange to draw up new ordinances pertaining to the management and licensing of group homes. LaGrange passed its ordinance after the shooting death of the gas station attendant — and Hogansville followed suit in November of 2011.

 

The homes have been plagued by allegations of poorly trained staff, uncontrollable boys and frequent disruptions to the communities in which the homes sit. According to a former employee of Dream House, staff members are paid between $8 and $10 per hour, depending on their level of education. McCamey said there are two staff members with the boys during the day and one overnight.

 

Dream House receives a per day payment of between $100 and $170 for each boy in the group home, according to McCamey. The homes can house up to six boys at a time — doing the math, that’s more than $30,000 each month in payments from the state government to Dream House, assuming the house is at capacity and Dream House is receiving the maximum per day for each boy. Operating all three houses at capacity with the maximum per day, that’s nearly $370,000 yearly.

 

A woman who lives near the Granite Street group home in Hogansville told the Daily News she’s observed staff member harassing the boys in the street and said the boys “roam the streets” at all hours unchecked. “I have seen one of the staff members beat up on the kids — not real bad, but slap them down, you know? I saw him body slam him,” another neighbor said.

 

McCamey said the staff members go through a 40-hour training before beginning work at the group homes. They are trained in a curriculum known as “Mindset,” which teaches de-escalation and restraint techniques. Staff members also receive training in medication administration, McCamey said. Staff member also receive training in first aid, including CPR.

 

The Granite Street group home first opened in 2007. The dilapidated house was originally purchased as a project for the boys to fix up.”

Group home employee arrested for child cruelty[La Grange News 9/19/14 by Tyler H. Jones]

 

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:”Tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Hogansville, is a group home for at-risk teenage boys.

Diana Daughtery lives across the street. “I heard a bunch of yelling over there in the house all the time, I hear things getting knocked around” she said.

The group home is one of three in the are. They are all operated under the name “Dream House Youth Services”.

Mark Silver’s 15 year old son was placed at the Hogansville Dream House by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, or DFCS.  “It’s like a place that DFCS should be taken kids out of, not puttin’ em into,” said Silver. He says his son would call him, complaining of poor treatment, lack of food, and fighting amongst the boys in the home.  His son recorded some of what went on at the Hogansville Dream House with his cell phone.  Including….the most explosive incident of all….an incident that police say occurred on September 15, 2014.

The video shows a former employee at the Dream House beating a minor. She’s standing over him, while he is curled up on the ground, punching and kicking him.  She’s even heard on the video threatening to kill him.

Silver said his son, called him the morning after he recorded the incident. “He called me on his cell phone and he said Dad I’ve got this video…he was shakin. And you could hear his voice was quivering he was so scared…” said Silver.

Silver told his son to take the video to his high school counselor.  That’s when Hogansville police got involved. Detective Bob Baker got the call from the school resource officer at Callaway High School. Detective Baker says he was shocked by what he saw on the cell phone video.  “Even with my law enforcement hat on, it was pretty disturbing.”

That very same day, September 15th, the Hogansville Police Department arrested 25 year old Terri Canady, of West Point. Police say she was the employee seen in the video beating the minor.
After her arrest, the Hogansville Dream House was shut down. The kids were removed. Same goes for the other two Dream House locations, both in nearby LaGrange.

But even with the Dream House getting shut down, and Canady getting arrested, Mark Silver wasn’t satisfied. “I think all those kids deserve justice down there. Every kid down there who’s been through there cause this is ain’t no one time deal…this has been going on,” said Silver.

Silver is referring to the history of the Dream House Youth Services. The group homes opened in 2007, under the name:  “Center for Creative Growth.”  There were four homes total.

DFCS placed at-risk youth in the homes. In a statement to News Radio the agency said: “DFCS initially contracted room, board and watchful oversight services with Dream House Youth Services (then, Center for Creative Growth and Development operating four homes) in July 2008.  Over the course of the contract, 249 children were placed in one of the four homes for varying periods of time.”

But in 2011 DFCS pulled all its kids out, citing a “trend of non compliance” —  that, led to the Center for Creative Growth closing down.

But just a few months later, the owner, Jimmy McCamey, reopened 3 of the homes under a different name, The Dream House Youth Services,  he reported to DFCS that he made all the necessary changes to be in compliance with state standards. DFCS then signed a new contract and resumed placing minors in the homes.

Mark Silver admits, he’s not a perfect parent, but he loves his son, and wonders why the State would place his son, and other at-risk teens, in a home that it had already taken kids out of, once before.  “They shut it down and all they did was change the name and reopened the place and [DFCS] started putting kids right back in there,” he said. “The state is suppose to protect kids,”…Silver said. “But he [my son] wasn’t being protected.”

DFCS defends its 2011 decision to resume placing kids in the homes, saying that authorities proceeded cautiously and that there were some stipulations given to owner, Jimmy McCamey. For example, the agency usually signs one year contracts, but in the 2011 instance, it signed a 6 month trial – and the agency says it did random onsite checks at the facilities. But three years after DFCS signed it’s 2nd contract with Jimmy McCamey…the agency would find itself pulling their teens out, yet again. The state says, it was already in the process of terminating its contract with the Dream House Youth Services, even before the alleged incident of abuse on September 15th. In fact, DFCS says it notified McCamey on September 3rd (12 days prior to the incident) that the contract would be terminated as of October 3rd. When Canady was caught on camera allegedly beating the boy, DFCS had to take immediate action and pull all its teens out right away. James woods is the Hogansville city manager, he says he was upset to learn that DFCS hadn’t notified the city that there were concerns with the facilities. “How can the State have been looking into something and not have raised the issue so that we can be watching and be more attentive to the group home.

Woods says when the video surfaced, city officials enacted a 180 day moratorium on all group homes in the city, as to re-evaluate the city’s current ordinance that regulates them. “Unfortunately this is a State regulated issue, in large part. The issues that we’re looking into, is where can we have ordinances and rules and regulations on our books that help us to provide that level of watchdog that we feel like needs to be here.  Hopefully the State will look at this during the coming legislative session and will find there’s a need for some refinement of the rules that govern group homes,” said Woods.

Newsradio reached out to Jimmy McCammey, the owner of the group homes, and he declined to comment. We were unable to reach Terri Canady. However she has been indicted on 2 counts of cruelty to children and one count of terroristic threats.  She appeared in front of a judge for her arraignment on February 12, 2015 in Troup County Superior Court. She waived her right to a formal arraignment and her next court date is set for March 13th. She plead Not Guilty.”

The Nightmare at Dream House [News Radio 1067 2/16/15 by Carolyn Ryan]

“Terri Delaney Canady, age 26, pled guilty Friday to First Offender Cruelty to Children in the first degree. Canady was charged after a cell phone video was taken to police.”

Former Employee Of Hogansville Group Home [Troup County News 5/20/15 by Vicki Sharpton]