On June 28, 2019, San Francisco’s mayor and other officials held a press conference to discuss a horrific abuse scandal at Laguna Honda, one of the nation’s largest skilled nursing facilities. According to the officials and a press release by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, a group of six employees abused 23 residents over a period of  years, subjecting them to verbal and physical abuse, sexual harassment, drugging, humiliation, neglect and other despicable acts.

Reportedly, the abuse scandal was uncovered in February 2019, the CEO subsequently resigned, the Director of Quality was replaced, and the six employees are no longer employed by the Health Department. The police and the California Department of Public Health are said to be conducting separate investigations.

Despite the effort to reassure the public that corrective action has been taken, many critical questions remain, such as which employees committed the abuse, how and when it occurred, what has been done to help the victims, why the abuse went undetected so long, and why the scandal was not exposed in February when it was said to have been uncovered.