Juvenile Treatment Center in Hunt County Shut Down by State
February 10, 2025
The state has shut down a juvenile residential treatment center in Hunt County, three months after an 11-year-old boy died in an incident that state officials and Hunt County Sheriff’s Deputies are investigating.
Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees licensing of foster care facilities, said Thursday that Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center license has been revoked. Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center is located on FM1564 in unincorporated Hunt County.
During a November 27th evening movie outing, the boy was found unresponsive at The Majestic 12 movie theater in Greenville around 10:00 pm. Greenville Fire and AMR Hunt County responded, with AMR Hunt County Medics administering CPR while transporting the child to Hunt Regional Hospital-Greenville, where he was pronounced deceased. Other boys who lived at the center told Lone Oak ISD Police Chief Joe Sterner that the boy had complained about a stomach ache and had sustained a head wound in recent days.
The boy and his fellow housemates watched the movie and by the time it ended, the child had died, one of the people familiar with the case said.
“The lights came up and the child had blood coming down his nose and he was deceased,” said one source, who spoke on condition that their name not be used because they do not want to hurt their professional relationship with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees the state’s foster care system operations.
News of the child’s death surfaced publicly for the first time Monday, February 3rd, at a Senate Finance Committee hearing focused on the state budget. DFPS and the Hunt County Sheriff’s Department are each investigating the boys’ death. Both agencies declined to publicly speak about their separate inquiries.
It remains unknown if the child died from an underlying illness related to stomach pain or from a wound that he had on his head before he entered the Greenville movie theater.
It is not clear if Thompson’s staff members who accompanied the children to the movie theater, sought medical treatment for the child. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees licensing of foster care facilities, said Thursday that Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center license has been revoked.