Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 28, 1990 TAG: 9005280122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Ten or 11 years old, abandoned by his parents, the child had run away from a bad foster home.
In the early 1970s, before the area had juvenile centers and emergency foster care, there was one place for a child like that to spend the night - the local jail.
"And this kid had done nothing wrong. He didn't break any laws," said Chaplin, now head of the 15th District Court Services Unit, which handles juvenile and domestic cases.
It was night when Chaplin, then chief probation officer, drove the boy to the regional jail. He remembers pulling into the jail parking lot. He looked at the jail; he looked at the boy.
"This is really ridiculous," he said to himself. And, without further deliberation, he turned the car around and took the boy home with him.
Chaplin has no idea where the boy is now, but he carries the story around with him, like countless other stories he's strung together in his 20 years with the court services unit.
At 65, when some people think of retiring, Chaplin is planning new projects and running court services with a strong hand and a soft heart.
He spends most of his time on administrative duties, such as drafting the budget and monitoring state standards. His desk is covered with paperwork.
But scattered among the papers and files, budgets and blueprints, are a dozen little trinkets, gifts from friends and co-workers. There's a fancy marble pen holder, pictures of his grandchildren, a sculpture made of nuts and bolts, a barometer, a decal that reads, "Our son serves proudly in the U.S. Army" (a gift from a boy he once helped), a plastic toy monster head.
He doesn't like to throw anything out.
That could be why he and his wife, Joady, couldn't turn away the first troubled children who needed them.
At the time, Chaplin was working for Ingenuics Inc., a manufacturer of photo-optical devices. Before that, he had traveled around the world as a marketing director for Westinghouse Electric International. With a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and a master's degree in business from New York University, he had never planned to work with any children besides his own.
But his two daughters were growing up fast, and he was tired of spending so much time on the road away from the family's farm in Stafford. When former Juvenile Court Judge Francis B. Gouldman offered him a job as a probation officer, he jumped at it.
From then on, the family took in a steady stream of children - mostly boys - who would show up at Chaplin's office with nowhere else to go.
He loves telling the story of a little boy who was nervous about coming to the Chaplins - until he saw their cat.
"Oh, he just went crazy. He wanted to sleep with the cat, wanted the cat in bed with him," Chaplin said.
Soon the boy was placed in a permanent foster home. "He ran away two nights later and came back to be with the cat," he said.
Another boy, about 8 years old, was caught vandalizing a phone booth. "He said he wanted to be on probation with his buddy because his buddy went on trips with the probation officer," Chaplin said, laughing. "We didn't put him on probation, but we did take him on some trips with us."
The extra children were treated just like members of the family, said Sue O'Toole, the Chaplin's younger daughter. They went on family camping trips, they took out the trash. If they misbehaved, they got a scolding.
"A lot of them turn out all right when they become adults," said Chaplin. "We're just here to help them get through the rough teen-age years."
Chaplin has held firm to this belief, even as he has watched life get harder for young people.
Two decades ago, when he was chief probation officer, he and two deputies served all of the city of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Stafford and King George counties. Kids came into the system because they ran away from home or skipped school or stole a car.
Now, alcohol, drugs and sexual assault are the more common problems. His staff has expanded to 38, and his department handles three more areas - Hanover and Caroline counties and all of the Northern Neck.
"We're seeing a tremendous number of children who have emotional problems," Chaplin said.
"[Children] want structure. You say, `Here's the line, and if you cross the line, this is what is going to happen to you,' " Chaplin said.
"I get angry at times with the parents. Geez, if we could just do more with the parents. A lot of times the kids brought before us haven't done anything wrong."
More than once, a parent has dragged a child into Chaplin's office, dropped off the boy and a suitcase, and said, "Here. He's yours. I'm fed up with him," said Chaplin.
"You say: `How can this be? How does that child feel, I wonder?' . . . That's why a lot of kids have anger, and you can't blame them for being angry."
Recently, a young man he worked with almost 20 years ago stopped by his office.
"Geez, he was into everything there was. I thought we'd never get him out of here," recalled Chaplin. The boy even managed to break out of a state detention center.
During the recent visit, Chaplin asked him whether he resented the times Chaplin cracked down on him.
"He said you're the only person who really cared about [me]." To Chaplin's astonishment, the man hugged him and thanked him.
Talking about the meeting later, Chaplin leaned forward in his chair. "Guess what that young man is doing," he said, smiling proudly. "He's a correctional officer."
by CNB