Saving Nicholas

He was hurt by his mother, ripped away from the foster parents who loved him and put in an institution where he was abused. That's when Alice and Ellery Riha really decided to fight.

A A A Comments By Brian Wallstin Thursday, Oct 18 2001

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When he was younger, educational and developmental assessments routinely described Nicholas as "marginally intelligent." In one scenario, he was considered borderline mentally retarded. But last year, when he was in third grade, Nicholas took the Metropolitan Achievement Test, a comprehensive skills assessment used by many private schools. His score ranked him in the 88th percentile, which the Rihas have been assured is exceptional.

Alice is 56 years old now; Ellery just turned 63. Nicholas has put a crimp in their retirement plans, to be sure, but so far he hasn't driven them into poverty. The private school he attends is paid for from a trust fund established with two out-of-court settlements the Rihas reached with Timothy Sharma and Forest Springs Hospital.

Courtesy of Alice & Ellery Riha

Nicholas celebrates his first Christmas.

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The Rihas remain bitter over the treatment they and Nicholas received from the child welfare system, and continue to rail against its deficiencies -- especially when it comes to emotionally disturbed children.

"These kids were dealt a bad hand to begin with," Ellery says. "But the cards don't get any better when they're in that system."

Judging by the voluminous record on Nicholas -- thousands of pages of assessments, case notes, hospital records and progress reports -- Nicholas was a difficult case for Children's Protective Services of Harris County. For its part, CPS has tried to improve its accountability to kids like Nicholas.

For one thing, parental rights are now terminated within one year if the evidence supports it. In 1999 the state opened the Children's Assessment Center, on Murworth, to give structure to the treatment of all foster children. Rather than wait for a child to display symptoms of an emotional problem, the center evaluates and assesses all children within 45 days of their entering the system.

It's hard to say whether any of this would have spared Nicholas some of the pain he endured. But even CPS spokesperson Hay acknowledges that Nicholas is "very, very lucky."

"The Rihas fought for him, they fought for him," Hay says. "Kids need that."

While Alice couldn't shortchange Nicholas if her life depended on it, she says, "If there's a hero here, it's Ellery."

And of course he feels the same way about her.

"I'm a hero only because I didn't say, 'Hell, no, I'm not going to do it,'" he says. "Truthfully, I wouldn't have done this without her insistence. We both came around and adjusted to what we had to do."