Panel wants shelter’s permit revoked after tragedy

Two youths drowned in the Gulf on field trip with Galveston center

A state commission is seeking to revoke the operating permit of a Galveston children’s shelter after two boys in its care drowned in October.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is pursuing revocation of the permit for the Galveston Multicultural Institute, saying the program “poses an immediate threat or danger to the health and safety of children.”

On Oct. 14, two boys, Nicholas Garner, 16, and Noah Authement, 11, drowned during a beach field trip supervised by the institute.

“After the Oct. 14 drowning incident, our inspectors found numerous and repeated deficiencies in meeting state standards in many areas including training and hiring staff, conducting background checks and maintaining records,” said John Reynolds, a spokesman for the commission.

The institute is a program developed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and run by The Children’s Center, a Galveston nonprofit, that provides emergency shelter to children and youth who are in the custody of Child Protective Services and need temporary care while waiting to return home or be placed permanently.

The multicultural institute serves boys and girls ages 5 to 17.

The institute has asked for an administrative review of the state agency’s decision.

Caught in the surf

The Department of Family and Protective Services’ residential child care licensing division is also investigating the incident. The Children’s Center will remain operational regardless of whether the multicultural institute is ultimately shut down.

James Keel, CEO and president of the Children’s Center, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Garner and Authement were on a field trip when they drowned in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 14 close to a beach near 17th Street and Seawall Boulevard.

After Authement got caught in the choppy surf, Garner dived in to try to rescue him.

A bystander called police that evening to report that Authement and a friend were caught in the rip current, authorities said.

The friend managed to swim ashore.

Garner and Authement were not wearing bathing suits when they entered the water. Authement was wearing grey sweatpants with no shirt, while Garner had on blue jeans and no shirt.

On Oct. 16, Authement’s body was recovered 2 miles offshore from 9 Mile Road and FM 3005 near Galveston’s West End. Garner’s body has not been recovered.

Authement was in state custody at the time of his death.

A letter written by Amber Krause, director of residential licensing for the state Health and Human Services Commission, to Vivian Putney, the chief financial officer for human resources at the Children’s Center, details alleged oversights by those charged with supervising the children at the beach.

‘Red flag warnings’

According to Krause, institute staff “failed to determine if a water activity was safe that day,” and either ignored or were ignorant of the “red flag warnings” that indicated dangerous tides and currents.

Institute staff divided the group of children into one group with boys and another with girls, with each group swimming at different locations.

While the girls were swimming in the Gulf, a large wave came in and pulled multiple girls underwater. The HHCSC said the girls were at “serious medical risk” following neardrowning experiences and did not receive timely medical care until they exhibited severe symptoms of “dry drowning.”

At around the same time, at the other location, Authement was swept into the Gulf current, prompting Garner to swim after him. Both later drowned.

The drowning and neardrowning incidents were grounds for revoking the multicultural institute’s operating permit, the agency said.

Krause also detailed previous incidents in which the multicultural institute was cited “for issues related to training and hiring staff, background checks, and maintaining records” that could have prevented the drowning.

An October inspection found that multiple staffers were not trained for water safety.

A September inspection also noted that the institute did not practice “severe weather drills” despite living in a hurricane zone.

“In short, a properly managed and trained staff would not have made the decisions that contributed to the recent tragic incident,” Krause wrote.

“The cascade of poor decisions culminated in the deaths of two boys in the operation’s care.”