MANVEL, Texas A residential facility for troubled and disabled children in Manvel was shut down by the state Friday, one day after the November death of a 16-year-old resident was ruled a homicide by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
Today, we have revoked Daystar s license to operate, effective immediately. The DFPS investigation found that this facility is just not safe for children, said Anne Heiligenstein, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
On November 5, 2010, paramedics were called to the Daystar Facility in the 3900 block of CR 736B to find staffers performing CPR on Michael Owens.
Investigators said the teen had been restrained by two staff members because he was hiding something behind his back. It turned out to be a pen cap.
Owens was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation.
Daystar Residential Inc. describes itself as an alternative to institutionalization. It offers services to clients between the ages of 3 and 22 who are hearing impaired, mentally impaired, or have pervasive developmental or emotional disorders.
It s been open since 1995, but Owens death was just the most recent incident that brought state scrutiny to the facility.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services assigned a state monitor to Daystar from June 21-Sept. 30, 2010, after reports surfaced that some developmentally disabled girls at the center were provoked into fighting to win after-school snacks. The fight, in April 2008, resulted in the firing of a supervisor and at least one other worker.
The department stopped placing foster children at Daystar on June 11, 2010.
