Last week was officially the last few days for the now-former employees of the Graywood Foundation. It was sad to witness the faces of those who did their jobs diligently and correctly as they uprooted themselves from the lifestyle they had known.

It was also quite a shame to hear the stories of the residents at Graywood, who now have no choice but to leave the places they’ve long called home. It’s enough to make a person take a look back at just how this tragedy came to be, and wonder: “Did it have to be this way?”

It appears that most Graywood employees did their jobs as they were trained. We’ve had two cases now where it appears that the opposite occurred. On top of that, Graywood has faced other issues, such as the double-decker bus situation.

Backing up, let’s take a look at the employee issue. The man who runs the entire organization has lost his license to provide care for the mentally disabled forever. Now, obviously, he doesn’t do the hiring at Graywood but, moreover, he doesn’t set the laws for who can work at a care facility either. The qualifications to work at a residential care facility are set by the state of Illinois. If the men behind the tragic occurrence at Graywood met state requirements, then it isn’t the owner’s fault.

Several employees also mentioned that the owner had a way of taking on clients that other facilities did not want to deal with. There are, of course, different levels of mental disabilities that require different levels of care. These distinctions are also set by state referendum. Therefore, any clients that Graywood took on had to have met legal statue.

I’m not defending what happened at Graywood. But I’ve heard many people hold the owner responsible for things that happened, when really it doesn’t sound like he had much control over the situation and appeared to be following state requirements. It seems to me what should be at question here is how the state of Illinois has set laws that allow virtually anyone to work in a residential care facility for the mentally disabled.

What happened at Graywood could have happened at any care facility. It seems to me that, due to the state’s lack of decent boundary setting, the owner’s life is forever changed, numerous employees lost their jobs, and the residents are forced to relocate to unfamiliar places.

The lives and roommates they have come to know all this time are shattered and disrupted because of what? The owner’s mistake, or the State of Illinois’s failure to set and enforce stricter requirements on employees working in mentally disabled residential care facilities?

Julian Russell is a junior communication studies major. He can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.