Editor鈥檚 note: This story contains discussions of suicide. If you or someone you love is considering self-harm, support is available 24 hours a day at the national suicide crisis lifeline. Just call 988.
Like many kids placed in foster care, bounced around, moving more than 50 times between , residential treatment centers and foster homes. But he spent much of the last two years of his short life living in a Residence Inn in Eugene.
Jacob was staying at the Residence Inn on Saturday morning when he died by suicide.
The 17-year-old鈥檚 death is the latest blow to a trouble-ridden system that has struggled for decades to take care of its most vulnerable kids. The state was responsible for Jacob for the majority of his life. Six years ago, Oregon Department of Human Service officials promised in a legal settlement to stop placing kids in hotels recognizing the harm it does. But it didn鈥檛 stop.
Jacob was one of those kids.
His life was often marked by dehumanizing moments. Like, when Eugene hotel rooms were in demand 鈥� University of Oregon students were graduating or the Prefontaine Classic track and field meet was happening 鈥� state officials would tell Jacob to pack up his belongings. He would throw what he had into plastic storage bins and move into a Salem hotel until the event was over.
Or the time when he broke his foot but it took so long for him to get medical care it healed incorrectly and he needed surgery. Or the time he moved placements and lost half of his limited clothing, including a beloved pair of Nike basketball shorts. Or at the boy鈥檚 home when seven grown adults physically restrained him for an extended period of time after he acted out demanding to call his attorney.
But Jacob was also a younger brother who promised his older brother, who had developmental disabilities, they would live together someday. The two brothers loved going to the movies together. Jacob talked a lot about 鈥済etting out of DHS.鈥� He loved strawberry cheesecake flavored Blizzards from Dairy Queen. He liked drawing and loved Mexican popsicles. When he was little, he would watch the 1937 black-and-white Captains Courageous movie with his grandmother on repeat.
OPB is choosing to use Jacob鈥檚 full name because his attorney and members of his family believed he would have wanted us to humanize him as much as possible.
Jacob was in foster care most of his life after the age of about 2-years-old.
He spent some time with foster families, but mostly it was in and out of facilities and group homes and hotels and short-term rentals. The truth is even though hotel living wasn鈥檛 ideal, he preferred it compared to the facilities where he had lived much of his life, according to his attorney.
His trauma, said his attorney, Annette Smith, was compounded over his life.
Jacob struggled with mental health issues, but sustained treatment was nearly impossible without a stable place to consider home. Oregon has struggled with providing adequate care to those struggling with mental health for years. The state consistently ranks as one of the worst in the country in providing access to mental health care.
The Oregon Department of Human Services announced the teenager鈥檚 death in a news release earlier this week. The agency is required by law to tell state leaders when a child dies in their care by abuse or neglect. It鈥檚 unusual, however, for the agency to send out a press release about a child鈥檚 death. What is less unusual is Jacob鈥檚 trajectory while in state custody.
Oregon was sued for placing kids in hotels and promised in 2018 to stop the practice. They ignored the order and have spent upwards of $25 million placing hundreds of kids in hotel rooms and short-term rentals.
The Monday news release said the state鈥檚 child welfare program and health agency had been working together to try to connect the child with behavioral health support for an extended period of time. Both agencies said they plan to review the circumstances around the teenager鈥檚 death and intensify their 鈥渆fforts to ensure all children have access to appropriate behavioral health services.鈥�
Smith, Jacob鈥檚 attorney, said his care team was aware he wanted to kill himself. She, along with Jacob鈥檚 caseworkers and attorneys for the state had been consistently meeting with a judge leading up to his suicide to find an adequate placement to care for him. Instead, he remained in the hotel room with rotating shifts of caseworkers tasked with looking after him.
One of the people who was staying with Jacob at the time of his death, one of the state鈥檚 safety and service providers, ran after him in the streets early in the morning trying to catch the 17-year-old before he died, according to Jacob鈥檚 attorney.
鈥淚t is too much to ask caseworkers to serve as front-line crisis workers,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淎nd I recognize the trauma this death had on them too.鈥�
In 2023, a federal judge took the rare step of appointing an outside expert to oversee the state鈥檚 Department of Human Services, noting the agency could not figure out how to wind down the practice of 鈥渢emporary lodging鈥� on its own. The 2023 report from the outside expert noted, 鈥淓veryone agrees that temporary lodging must end because it is not good for children.鈥�
The state also and has agreed to have an expert oversee the foster care system and offer recommendations to improve the system as a whole.
So far this year, the state has looked into the deaths of 12 other children ranging in age between one-month and 17 years-old. The state is required to investigate the deaths of children who come in contact with the agency who die and write a with the hopes of understanding what happened to prevent it from happening again.
Copyright 2024 Oregon Public Broadcasting
