Parents dismayed by lack of empathy from others

Donna Ylen stood helpless outside a high school office as her 19-year-old autistic son, with the mental capacity of a 4- to 7-year-old, "went ballistic," crying out, "Mommy, mommy, help me!"

Four police officers were struggling with the 6-foot, 250-pound student, trying to handcuff, shackle and arrest him for throwing a computer monitor in class.

Ylen could relate to the mother of the 17-year-old mentally ill student who, armed with a knife, became combative upon seeing police officers at a Roosevelt High School office. That student, shot in the wrist by police during a scuffle, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

"My heart goes out to this mother because her son, like my son, didn’t ask to be this way," she said. "We just need a better system. It may not be broken, but the system needs help. We need a little more empathy, a little more compassion."

The arrest of both students punctuates a staggering statistic: Of the 7,000 children statewide who go through the Family Court system for breaking the law each year, roughly 60 percent — or 4,200 — suffer some form of mental illness, the state Judiciary reports.

The Roosevelt shooting on Jan. 28 raised numerous questions about the schools, police, the Health Department and the courts and their roles in addressing the needs of students with mental health problems and whether the "system" is failing them.

After being treated by emergency medical technicians, Ylen’s son was arrested and charged with criminal property damage and resisting arrest. Ylen, who said she was not allowed to be with him during the arrest, said he was left frightened and sobbing, his face bloody — presumably from being shoved to the floor.

Ylen, who first spoke to the Hono­­lulu Star-Advertiser shortly after her son’s Nov. 4 arrest, said the public should be aware of problems families of children with mental health issues face.

"Police officers need more training. … Even the schools. I understand protecting the students, the teachers. Where’s the protection for my son? He’s the one with the disability, and I just think they handled it so poorly," she said.

Attorney Myles Breiner, who is handling her son’s criminal case, said calling police is a way to shift liability to a different agency within the government and relieves the schools from having to be accountable to the student.

"It’s easier to have the kid arrested," said Brei­ner. "By arresting and prosecuting him, it places him in a different category and shifts him into a different venue."

Schools don’t seem to be addressing these students "with any particular sensitivity" except to put them into the judicial system, he said.

The decision by the DOE is made with protecting its employees and other children in mind, he said.

Breiner said police are "over-armed and undertrained," and when they went to arrest Ylen’s son, they saw a 6-foot, 250-pound man not responding to their instructions.

"What they’re dealing with is a child who is terrified," he said.

PARENTS of children with mental health issues contend that situations can escalate when schools call police.

Citing confidentiality laws, the Department of Education, state Department of Health and Hono­lulu Police Department declined to comment on the specifics of the two cases but did explain their policies in general.

The decision to call police is based on whether there is a "potential for danger to self and/or others," said Steve Shi­raki, DOE administrator for comprehensive student support services.

"The school has to weigh out the evidence, and sometimes it has to be a very quick decision by the school principal or administrator on how to best proceed," he said.

Calling police is "not to stop the threat," he said. "It’s just to ensure the safety and well-being of the youth or anybody else on that campus. Any kind of behavior can really escalate and get out of hand very, very quickly."

He added, "You’re always going to hear about those cases that didn’t work out well, but for many cases it does work out well, but we never hear about them."

In the Roosevelt case, the boy’s mother, Shereen Narvaes, said he was combative because of a prior incident at Pearl City High School, where police subdued him by using a Taser and placed him in a straitjacket.

The boy was simply trying to register for school at Roosevelt, but the school "didn’t even give him that chance," Narvaes said. "Instead of getting the proper counselors, they just called police."

After a struggle ensued and the teen punched and slashed at officers, one of the officers fired two shots, hitting the boy once in the wrist.

In a written response to questions, HPD said its officers — recruits as well as veterans — are trained in dealing with "persons in crisis" who are mentally ill or in emotional or psychological distress.

HPD has an on-call psychologist at all hours to advise officers, and officers must consult with the psychologist before transporting anyone to a hospital or facility for mental health evaluation, the department said. There were more than 3,000 consultations in 2013.

HPD said it participates in the Emergency Psychological Services and Jail Diversion Program "to provide access to emergency psychological services … and to divert as many mentally ill and emotionally disturbed persons from the criminal justice system into the mental health system as possible without compromising public safety."

However, in Ylen’s son’s case the charges of criminal property damage and resisting arrest were never dropped, despite an offer by Ylen to pay for the damaged computer monitor.

Narvaes said officers who came to her home in response to her calls for assistance before the Roosevelt incident told her that he would soon be 18 and would no longer be her problem.

Her son, diagnosed under a broad spectrum of psychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia, was aggressive and a habitual runaway.

"I was left alone without any form of help" and had not been "trained as a mom," she said, feeling unequipped to care for her son.

"There’s nothing to protect children from their mental illness … except to lock them up," said Narvaes.

The boy had escaped from at least two Health Department-contracted facilities, including Hale Kipa and the Queen’s Medical Center, where his mother said he reportedly injured a worker while trying to flee.

Narvaes said he was awaiting a psychiatric review to determine fitness to stand trial for misdemeanor charges when he escaped from Queen’s, where he was admitted by court order, two weeks before the Roosevelt shooting.

He needs medication, and she said she even suggested having it injected into him and having him locked in his room.

The Health Department provides a spectrum of services for children with severe mental illness.

Those cases usually come to the department’s attention either from the DOE or through MedQuest because the child has no private insurance coverage.

Under the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division, the Health Department may provide in-home treatment or place a child in therapeutic foster homes. It also may contract with hospital-based programs such as at Queen’s and Kahi Mohala.

The department provides families with a caseworker to help provide guidance in finding available programs and to navigate between the agencies.

Dr. Dan Ulrich, medical director for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division, said the department is looking for ways in which it can improve and to fill gaps. One area on which the department is focusing is to provide a secure treatment facility for mentally ill children, he said.

"I love my son," Ylen said. "I am his biggest advocate. But to navigate the system at any age is really hard. There is no manual. It’s all trial and error. We just need a better system because there are more and more children and adults with mental illness these days. We just need a system that really helps more than hurts them."

Ylen’s son was allegedly being violent by throwing a computer monitor at a wall, but his frustration was directed at an inanimate object, the way a frustrated child would break things, Brei­ner said.

"They don’t have the emotional tools to address that emotional frustration."

If there is a message Ylen has for those in the schools and the legal system, it is this: "Do right by my son. Think of him as your kid."