The Knuckleads of the Day award Part Four

Our fourth winners are The Texas Youth Commission and The Texas Department of Public Safety aka The Texas Rangers. They get the award for the following.

PYOTE, Texas -- For at least two years, investigators say, boys at a juvenile prison in the West Texas desert were summoned from their dorms late at night and taken to darkened conference rooms, offices and ball fields for sex with two of the institution's top administrators.

The boys told their parents, their teachers, any staff member who would listen. A few diligent staff members took their complaints to their supervisors. But the allegations were largely covered up until last month, when they exploded in the biggest scandal ever to engulf the Texas juvenile prison system.

The No. 1 and No. 2 officials at the Texas Youth Commission have lost their jobs over their handling of the allegations. Prosecutors are looking into criminal charges. And lawmakers are infuriated.

"What scares me the most is what I don't know," said state Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee.

The allegations became public when the Dallas Morning News cited a never-released 2005 Texas Rangers report that said 13 boys were molested at the West Texas State school, a red-brick institution ringed by razor wire in a desolate part of the state. Since then, others have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse at other juvenile prisons across Texas.

Lawmakers were outraged to learn that the two men accused of molesting boys at the West Texas State School -- Ray Brookins, an assistant superintendent who temporarily ran the place, and Principal John Paul Hernandez -- were quietly allowed to resign in 2005 with no criminal charges. (Hernandez took a job as the director of a nearby charter school, which accepted his resignation last week.)

Attempts to reach Hernandez and Brookins by telephone and at their homes were unsuccessful. Hernandez previously denied wrongdoing.

The Texas Youth Commission oversees 7,500 youths -- including some of the most dangerous offenders, ages 10 to 21 -- and operates 15 prisons, nine halfway houses and numerous treatment and counseling centers.

Absolutely horrifying. This story has me speechless and outraged. The Texas Rangers have just shamed themselves to an extent that their reputation should be in tatters. They covered up these crimes instead of throwing the bastards in jail, what the hell for? How do those involved sleep at night?

This is Knucklehead of the year material, but we'll have to wait till December for that. I make The Texas Youth Commission and The Texas Department of Public Safety aka The Texas Rangers, the fourth and last Knucklehead winners of the Day.

Hat tip- Florida Cracker
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