TAMPA, Fla. — A Hillsborough County judge has blocked the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) from returning a 15-year-old girl to Tampa Bay Girls Academy after her father filed a lawsuit alleging she was overmedicated and assaulted at the facility.
The judge's Jan. 12 order came after the state's maximum-security youth detention facility for girls was shut down for the second time in two years due to what a DJJ spokesperson described as "incidents that jeopardize the safety of the youth."
Volodymyr Koval, a Ukrainian immigrant from Fort Lauderdale, filed the lawsuit in July after his daughter was hospitalized three times while at the facility.
The lawsuit alleges the facility's psychiatrist overmedicated his daughter, causing her to become "mute, incontinent and cognitively impaired."
"I would say there's a lack of supervision," Koval said. "It was the last resort I had in my possession to protect my daughter's life and well-being."
A former resident of Tampa Bay Girls Academy, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she remains on probation, confirmed Koval's allegations about his daughter being assaulted by other residents.
"There's been several times that girls have assaulted her, and the staff just let it happen because they just thought it was funny," the former resident said.
The teen described her own experience at the facility as "chaotic and traumatic."
"Not a lot of people talk about these type of facilities. They try to like cover it up as a mental health facility where they help these girls, but it's not really mental health. It's just prison in a nutshell," she said.
The facility houses Florida's maximum-risk female youth offenders, all convicted felons.
Some have been diagnosed with mental illness, while others have substance abuse problems.
The state pays the operator up to $499 per bed per day for treatment services.
Tampa Bay Girls Academy was previously known as Lake Academy before being shut down in 2024 after a girl died by suicide there.
Former teachers at Lake Academy described being attacked by residents while the staff allowed violence to occur.
The former resident said many of the same staff members worked at both facilities, despite Tampa Bay Girls Academy being operated by a different private contractor.
"It was basically the same abuse and neglect as it was in Lake Academy. There was no change," she said.
The facility experienced significant staff turnover, with five different facility administrators during the former resident's eight-and-a-half-month stay.
Judge's protective order
The Hillsborough County juvenile judge's order specifically states that Koval's daughter should not be sent to any facility operated by Wayne Halfway House, staffed by any individuals who worked at Tampa Bay Girls Academy, or located on the same campus.
The judge also prohibited DJJ from using the same psychiatrist to treat the girl.
"The allegation of greatest concern to the Court is the use of medication as means of unlawful restraint," the judge wrote in the order.
Despite the protective order, a DJJ attorney filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider and allow the girl to be returned, arguing the state has no other maximum-risk facility for girls.
The motion noted that "less than one-third of the Wayne Halfway House staff have been retained" by the new provider, though it acknowledged the new provider hired the same psychiatrist.
The judge denied the motion to reconsider.
Koval's daughter was moved to another residential facility, where her father says she is doing well.
Wayne Halfway House, which operated Tampa Bay Girls Academy, said in a statement: "Tampa Bay Girls Academy has a difficult population that presents distinct challenges to daily operations. We wish the State and the new provider the best for success at the Tampa facility."
A DJJ spokesperson said: "We cannot comment on a particular youth's case, and our investigation related to the Tampa Bay Girls Academy is ongoing. The department is committed to working with the new provider to provide high-quality treatment services for the girls in ourcare."
Share Your Story with Adam
Adam Walser has spent more than a decade fighting for what’s right in Tampa Bay as part of the I-Team. He’s helped expose flaws in Florida’s eldercare system and held leaders accountable for how they use your tax dollars. Reach out to Adam with any issue you think he needs to investigate.
.
Terri Schiavo's family seeks to unseal guardianship records 20 years after her death
More than twenty years after Terri Schiavo's death sparked a national right-to-life debate, her family returned to court Tuesday seeking to unseal records from her guardianship case.
