The residents in Colorado’s residential treatment facilities are among society’s most troubled children.Some display inappropriate sexual behavior or have a tendency to become violent, perhaps a response to being sexually and physically victimized themselves. Some self-injure. Many run away, flout authority, abuse drugs and alcohol and struggle with mental illness.“These are some rough kids,” said Rick Bengtsson, director of the El Paso County Department of Human Services. “To get to that level of care, we’ve normally tried in-home services, therapeutic services, wrapping services around them. They don’t care what judges say, what their parents say, what their caseworkers say.”A residential child care facility is one of their last, best hopes for getting on track. It’s up to the staff to help them get there.But it’s not a job for just anyone. It takes someone who can stand up to the kids without being a bully, someone who can be caring without getting too involved, someone who can recognize manipulative behavior or a flirtation without caving in.Not everyone makes the grade. Staff members burn out or decide they’re not cut out for the work.“It’s a tough business to be in, and turnover is common,” said Lee Hodge, child welfare manager for El Paso County DHS.But some leave the business under more troubling circumstances: They’ve sexually assaulted a child they were charged with protecting. It doesn’t happen often; from 2008 through the present, there were only 17 founded incidents of sexual abuse in Colorado child care institutions, which also includes group homes and youth corrections facilities.When it does, however, it can be devastating on many levels: to the victim, to the child welfare system and to the institution itself.“I would say these are infrequent, but every case of it is disturbing,” said Lloyd Malone, director of the child welfare division of the Colorado Department of Human Services. “We’re saying to kids and families, ‘We’re going to help, and we’re putting your child in the hands of people we trust, and when this happens, it’s disturbing to everyone.”The issue hit home in May when an ex-employee of the Axios Youth Community in Green Mountain Falls, formerly known as the Children’s Ark, was arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old female resident when he worked there.Axios closed its program for girls in March, shortly after the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office got involved in the investigation. About a week after the former employee, Michael Broadnax, was arrested in May, Axios suspended all of its operations in El Paso County, and the dozen or so remaining residents were sent elsewhere.Broadnax has denied the allegations. He faces a preliminary hearing later this month.•••All residential child care facilities in Colorado have licensing and training standards and rules to follow, and they are required to check the background and criminal history of employees. The state conducts inspections, and complaints trigger investigations.But it’s not enough to ward off problems with staff, especially in an environment as challenging and volatile as a residential treatment center. Child welfare experts say the facilities need to go beyond what is required and establish their own, higher, standards, well-enforced policies and ongoing training programs to teach employees how to recognize red-flag behavior in both their colleagues and the kids, and how to set boundaries when they’re dealing with adolescents who may show highly sexualized behavior.“It’s one thing to show empathy toward these youths, but you can’t get emotionally involved with them,” Bengtsson said. “You have to set good boundaries, physical and emotional.”One issue is that the employees who work directly with the kids in the homes tend to be younger and, perhaps, naive.“It’s tough, because you get a lot of people who get into this for the right reasons, but aren’t ready to deal with the issues,” said Jeremy Hudgens of Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Center in Canon City. “Maybe it’s immaturity. Their primary focus is to help the kids, but they don’t really understand that they may be getting manipulated.”Ken Lingle, chief operations officer for the Griffith Centers for Children/Chins Up, said the youth treatment center counselors at its programs go through intense training, where they learn about manipulative and sexual behaviors.“They’re very well trained and constantly supervised,” he said. “Our males have good boundaries. They don’t look at girls as potential girlfriends. You have to be trained to recognize (come-ons) and know what to do with that.”Administrators and staff are also trained on how to spot predatory behavior.“We have a mechanism for red flags,” Lingle said. “It takes attention to the tiniest details: Does the staff member spend too much time with a kid?’ In the field, it’s called grooming. We know what grooming behavior looks like.”•••Some centers also try to limit the amount of one-on-one time between a staff members and residents. At Southern Peaks, for example, all offices have windows, and no fewer than two staff members accompany residents on trips outside the facility.“Some of that is to deal with behaviors; the other is to make sure there are two sets of eyes at all times,” Hudgens said.But it’s not always feasible, and no matter how many safeguards are built in, a predatory employee may find a way to get around the rules, even with the strictest background checks.“My experience is that these guys have kept secrets, and they carefully keep them from being discovered from the time they’re screened,” Malone said. “Most of them don’t have a history of charges, or discoverable things that could have been found. But at some point, when it happens, someone has lost their boundaries and are using their power and control to take advantage of someone else, and it’s hard to discover in advance.”What, exactly, happened at Axios is unclear. According to an affidavit, a staff member told Green Mountain Falls police in October 2011 that Broadnax had been hugging several of the female residents, and they reported being uncomfortable around him. The staff member also accused Axios management of trying to cover up the alleged sexual assault on the 13-year-old girl — a charge that former Axios officials vehemently denied.Axois’ decision to suspend operations leaves Griffiths as the only long-term residential child care facility in El Paso County that works with the same type of troubled youths, but Hodge said DHS has facilities elsewhere in the state to place them.Axios, meanwhile, is keeping a low profile and has not announced whether it plans to reopen. Its management has apparently changed: a telephone call to interim CEO listed on the Axios website is now answered by someone else.“At this point, we’re not really discussing whether or not we are (reopening),” said the man, who declined to be identified. “For sake of our industry, we not talking about it.”