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JUN 22, 2023
The City of Hayward filed a lawsuit today asking a judge to intervene to protect children at an Alameda County transitional center where foster children frequently go missing and are knowingly being exposed to and/or coerced into drug use, assaults and other forms of violence, sex trafficking and prostitution.Hayward sues Alameda County over failure to protect foster children at transitional center | City of Hayward - Official website
HAYWARD, Calif., June 22, 2023— The City of Hayward filed a lawsuit today asking a judge to intervene to protect children at an Alameda County transitional center where foster children frequently go missing and are knowingly being exposed to and/or coerced into drug use, assaults and other forms...www.hayward-ca.gov
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“As a consequence of the County’s deliberate indifference and failure to act or intervene, the City has deployed officers from the Hayward Police Department (HPD) on hundreds of occasions since mid-February to investigate complaints of missing children, drug overdoses, assaults, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children within the Center and in the surrounding neighborhood,” City Attorney Michael Lawson wrote in a June 14 letter putting the County on notice of the pending lawsuit. Lawson reminded the County of the death of Sophia Mason, the eight-year-old child whose homicide last year highlighted the mishandling of at-risk children by social service administrators.
Conditions at the Assessment Center spiraled following the inexplicable withdrawal on Feb. 15 of Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies who had provided security for the Center.
Since the deputies’ departure, calls to Hayward police and firefighter-paramedics related to the Center skyrocketed—including for AWOL children as young as 10 years of age, drug overdoses, assaults on staff, and sex trafficking of children by older youth in the Center—and have resulted in more than 750 police-officer-hours spent responding to, following up on and investigating Center-related calls and incidents.
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Horrifying, isn't it? I've lived in Alameda County for most of my life and I don't even have words. I'm in a different area in the large county, and it is hard to even comprehend that this is a reality but I know that it is. Believe me when I say that it wasn't always like this. It is so sad to compare the Bay Area of today (the whole state, really) with the way it once was.
