Mount Pleasant urges closure of troubled Westchester County facility
MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. - The Westchester County JCCA Treatment Center is currently under fire as the town of Mount Pleasant wants to close it due to dangers.
This video shows a disturbing, violent assault of a 15-year-old at the Pleasantville Cottage School in Mount Pleasant, New York. It's a residential facility for troubled children run by the Jewish Child Care Association also known as the JCCA.
The video of the assault was released by the Mount Pleasant police department with the permission of the victim's mother Michelle Lovanella.
Lovanella said her daughter was jumped by three girls in the cottage and was beaten over the head with a frying pan which sent her to the hospital.
Mount Pleasant police say the facility has been out of control for years.
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Officers say judges are placing violent juveniles and those with serious psychiatric health issues in a place not equipped to deal with those types of residents. The facility has an open campus. Minors who live here can come and go as they please.
Chief Paul Oliva leads the Mount Pleasant police department.
He said, "we respond to violent suicidal emotionally disturbed persons."
Police respond to hundreds of emergency calls on the campus every year.
The Mount Pleasant town supervisor is now calling on the Governor to close the Westchester County facility.
Carl Fulgenzi is the Mount Pleasant town supervisor.
The New York State office of Children and Family services told us the state is exploring options to move residents whose needs may be better served into another program but did not say where that location would be or when it would happen.