More Allegations Surface Against Rainbow Of Hope

We've recently received signed statements from parents and former children-residents that detail more allegations against Rainbow Of Hope. These statements have been forwarded to State investigators and will also be forwarded to authorities and attorneys.

What's most disturbing is that many of these allegations echo with a similar theme. Sadly, many of the statements reinforce the fact that these horrendous infractions were brought to the attention of Kevin Cook and Lisa Polite by children-residents and parents alike. The echoed theme is that Kevin Cook and Lisa Polite disbelieved the complaints and never followed up on them. It seems evident that the voices of our children have been ignored by Cook and Polite. It also seems evident that our voices have been ignored. We now use this collective voice to call attention to what Cook and Polite refuse to acknowledge.

The following is a general overview of some of the complaints made in signed statements. The following does not contain all of the complaints. Names have been omitted for the time being so as not to impede the current investigations.

* Staff would hand out our medication to us in the morning. I can only declare definitely for myself, but X seemed to have a lot of trouble with my medication dosages. He would give me the wrong medication, too much of the medication, not enough of a certain medication, and refused to listen to me when I tried to correct him. Though I was a mere consumer, I had my personal medication memorized to a ‘t’ and would refuse the medication until he would re-check it. Sometimes, I even got into trouble for this, when I was undeniably trying to keep my health well.

* X and X were constantly seen on the computer and on their cell-phones, talking, going on face-book and myspace, texting, et cetera. They were neglecting their jobs and trying to spend personal time while at work. I also remember X arguing from when she picked us up from school to when her shift ended, on her cell-phone. She had no problem telling us of her personal issues with her ex-boyfriend, and how he was upset about an old picture being up on her blog. She used the facility line to argue with him, and even threatened police, obviously too occupied to do her job, as she left her peers/staff members to do her job for her.

* A lot of the kids in the group home, at least while I attended, including me were of low self-esteem and suffered from depression. The facility was made for practically just that, and a lot of us suffered from minor paranoia in being constantly worried about people whispering. We, as defendants, had to be constantly on-guard to reclaim the proper truth and respect we deserved. Staff members X, Y, and Z all had a ‘thing’ for whispering, meaning, they did it a lot. Sometimes they’d hide their face behind a folder, or point and mouth words. We, as the consumers of Rainbow, would respectfully tell them that this made us uncomfortable, and they refused to listen, even when Lisa Polite addressed the issue. Nothing was ever reinforced.

* X, a staff member at ‘ROH’ was constantly the one to wake us girls up during the week. He was always claiming to be taking the ‘girls’ and favoring us for plainly being females. It was all a joke until he started coming up to me, whispering my name and touching my back. Then I confronted other girls in the home about it, asking if they had experienced similar things with him, and they had claimed to have been ‘smacked in the ass’ by X. I didn’t believe it until I saw it, and when we claimed these things were true to authorities at the home, they refused to believe it themselves, and never did anything about it.

* A lot of kids at the group home argued within each other about ‘who was who’s boyfriend or girlfriend.’ Investigators have even come numerous times because reported sexual harassment has taken place. As an observer, I took in a lot of information from my peers, and got to see everything from all angles. Kids were constantly kissing, ‘making out,’ and performing other inappropriate sexual foreplay.

* My child told me he was constantly yelled and cursed at by staff. I talked to the manager about this and he denied it. He passed it off like it was impossible for this to happen in his facility. I even felt silly for bringing it up. Then one day while returning my son from a home visit I heard X yelling at a kid to "knock that shit off right now". It happens in there all the time, I'm sure. But management is comfortable pretending it doesn't.


The first complaint listed above is very serious. Parents sign a form that consents to allowing non-licensed Rainbow Of Hope staff to administer medication. However, according to the Nurse Practice Act, non-licensed staff may only administer medication under the delegation of a Nurse. There's a technical violation being committed here as there is currently no full time Nurse at the Rainbow Of Hope facility. Do we truly want non-licensed staff giving our children medications when there's no Nurse there to oversee this? Especially when some staff obviously can't seem to get the dosages right??

The other complaints speak for themselves. But we're left to wonder WHY Kevin Cook and Lisa Polite failed to take reasonable action to correct these problems when they were initially reported. Is it simply a matter of not believing our kids? Do you think of them as "troubled" and therefore dismiss their complaints as not being valid? Do you think that our complaints as parents aren't valid because we're not there 24/7 to witness all this horrendous stuff? Do you think your staff members who complain are troublemakers and just show them the door? Cook and Polite were given reasonable and numerous opportunities to correct these matters. They did nothing. Now we're doing something. The children need to be safe and protected and we don't feel these conditions exist under the current management of Rainbow Of Hope.

Concerns About Rainbow Of Hope Staff

Putting our children into the mental health care system means placing a lot of blind faith in people we don't know. A lot has been said about the unprofessional conduct of counselors Bridget Perez and Wayne Wilson, but there are at least three other counselors who have been formally named in our affidavits and on documents submitted to attorneys and investigators. These three counselors, all females, will be examined for unprofessional conduct in the workplace. These counselors not only helped facilitate some of the major infractions mentioned elsewhere on this blog, but have also provided an inconsistent relationship between fellow staff members, children-residents, parents and management. They have also turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the valid complaints of the children-residents they supposedly care for, thus lending complicity to the deplorable state of affairs within Rainbow Of Hope.