Columnist Sandra Thompson: Troubled kids, families need expanded center

Sandra Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or through e-mail at [email protected]

"IF WE TURNED over our world to our children now, and they graded us on how well we have taken care of them, what kind of grade would they give us?"

Dr. Thomas Kinsora posed the question at the recent land-breaking ceremony and capital campaign kickoff for the Nevada Children's Center. It's the final stage of a 10-year dream to provide much-needed care for emotionally and behaviorally challenged children and their families.

The seed was planted in 1990 when Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa raised concerns about Nevada spending more than $9 million to send troubled children out of state for treatment because there was no program or facility for them here. A group was formed to pattern a treatment program after the San Diego Children's Center, which cared for many of the Nevada children.

At the time, concerns were raised over whether Las Vegas could support a residential treatment facility.

Apparently considering those concerns, the group changed its vision in 1995. It severed the San Diego connection and focused on customizing services to fit Nevada families' needs.

"We wanted to benefit ... students before they needed a residential program; to catch kids before they get into desperate straits," says Carolyn Sparks, a former university regent and now president of the Nevada Children's Center Foundation.

The nonprofit center offers a treatment program for children ages 4 to 13 with emotional and behavior problems; after-school programs; home-based programs for special-needs kids and their families, and for families in transition or at risk of crisis; parenting classes and adoption support services.

The goal is to keep children at home with their families. Transportation is provided to the program from the child's school and then home.

Some scholarship slots are available, Kinsora says, for families who can't afford to pay for services.

The center has outgrown its 2929 S. Decatur Blvd. site, which has stifled attempts to provide other needed services, Kinsora says. Seeking to expand, the center leased 10 acres from the Bureau of Land Management across from Roger Bryan Elementary School in northwest Las Vegas.

Kinsora hopes to raise about $3 million within the next 18 months to build a larger facility on 5 acres. The rest of the site may be used by the Clark County School District for a school for students with behavioral problems.

Kinsora, president of the center's operating board, said services can't keep pace with the growing needs of children, considering the incidences of physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, fetal alcohol syndrome and neurological problems.

"Clark County is badly in need of foundation-based services for challenged kids," he said.

Kinsora says the new center plans to offer respite care and day care for challenged children, and school-based behavior specialists.

It bothers Kinsora that insurance companies don't pay for many of the treatment programs. Some neurological disorders in children manifest themselves in behavioral problems, yet companies don't consider it a "medical" problem.

"If we continue to ignore the needs of today's children, they'll perpetuate the sicknesses of today's society," Kinsora said.

The center hopes to develop a comprehensive data base that would be used to conduct scientific research on why one child who faces adversity can succeed and another, who faces the same adversity, fails. This could provide valuable information on what programs/approaches work.

Kinsora considers the Nevada Children's Center an investment in the future -- our children.

Carol Bumgarner, principal of Bryan Elementary, the center's future neighbor, sums it up best by quoting a favorite saying:

"For these are all our children. We will profit by or pay for whatever they'll become."

And speaking of children ....

Last week a couple acted like kids when they couldn't agree on how to divide their Beanie Baby collection as part of a divorce settlement. So Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle had to intercede. He ordered the wife to bring the collection into the courtroom so she and her ex could choose -- one by one -- which to keep. He invited the media to watch.

Tally that tab: The $100,000 salary of a judge, the wages of the bailiff and court reporter and the fee charged by the wife's attorney. Was it worth the cost?

Hardcastle deserves credit for speaking out and bringing this to the public's attention. Not all Family Court problems can be blamed on the judges. How can they pay attention to the needs of children when adults hog the court calendar with such petty issues?

I don't care how much the Beanie Babies are worth. Our children are worth much more, and they deserve the court's time.

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