Remember Eva? The shift leader with an unhealthy sense of her power over four young men.
I've mentioned before about the guy in the Unit who had a thing about removing zips, ties and cords from everyone's clothes. In the first two months at the Unit, Steven's 2 week old winter coat had the zip ripped out. The cords from all his tracksuits, shorts and trunks were pulled out. It was very embarrassing - he'd get out of the swimming pool and find he'd left his trunks behind. Same thing during his football session - he'd do some short sprints and his shorts would be around his ankles. Add that to the socks and underwear that repeatedly went missing and within two months, Steven had hardly any wearable clothes. Oh - and the Unit used an industrial washing machine and tumble drier, so that all his winter sweatshirts came out several sizes smaller than when they went in.
In that first two months I spent about £300 replacing ripped, lost or shrunken clothes. But it didn't stop the replacements getting ripped, lost or shrunk.
So, I brought it up in a meeting. I said that it was not right that Steven was wandering around in clothes that made him look like Max Wall.
The manager's reply to that was: "Steven doesn't seem bothered. That's your autism Mark".
He then gave Eva the project of replacing all of Steven's clothes.
"Oh fantastic, "she replied, "I get to dress Steven".
My heart sank. She didn't say this in a Gok manner but rather the manner of a little girl let loose in the Barbie and Ken aisle.
Everything she brought was either too small or second hand and they all went in the recycling bin when Steven came home.
I remember years ago a colleague telling me that you could always tell which young men were in care.... their trousers were at least an inch too short.
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