A female youth worker at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center was briefly left alone to supervise nine teenage boys Saturday -- a violation of state staffing regulations -- and was struck by one of the teens, sustaining a black eye requiring hospital care.

That assault followed another incident at Shuman Center a week ago in which an unruly teen was handcuffed behind his back and restrained face down on a floor flooded with toilet water. He later was taken to the hospital for stitches to close a cut above his eye that the youth said was caused when a staff member picked him up and threw him against a wall.

Staff members said the boy injured himself when he banged his head against the wall.

State Department of Public Welfare officials were at Shuman Center Tuesday to investigate the Aug. 24 restraint incident but did not immediately announce any findings.

Yesterday, DPW issued a preliminary incident report on the Aug. 30 assault on the staff member.

The Lincoln-Lemington facility has been under state scrutiny since early this summer when DPW found it out of compliance for a number of violations, including inadequate staffing, poor record keeping and problems with facility maintenance.

The detention center, the largest in the state, is now operating under its first-ever six-month provisional license.

"If they continue to have incidents, we will continue to respond by sending in staff to monitor the situation in an effort to maintain the health and safety of the kids," said DPW spokeswoman Stacey Witalec.

Early last month, Shuman Director William T. "Jack" Simmons said the center had addressed DPW's concerns and he invited state inspectors back.

State officials inspected Shuman again Aug. 15, but no report on that visit has been released.

Yesterday, Mr. Simmons reiterated that staffing issues have been addressed.

In Saturday's instance, he said, a youth care supervisor had stepped out of the unit to get clothing for residents who were showering. While he was gone, one teen who was not showering started to fight with another resident. The staff member got punched when she tried to intervene.

"She did all she could," Mr. Simmons said.

The youth care supervisor has been suspended for three days, he said, for violating state regulations mandating at least one staff member for every six residents.

"You have to be in ratio at all times," Mr. Simmons said.

Rick Grejda, business manager for Service Employees International Union Local 668 representing about 100 Shuman Center youth care workers and supervisors, yesterday said he gets calls from members "every day concerning the staffing and the safety of the building. I don't want to say the building is unsafe, but there are definitely circumstances up there that lead to unsafe conditions."

The details of the assault illustrate how quickly that can happen:

While others were showering, a 15-year-old left his room to pick a fight with another resident. In the few minutes she was alone in the unit, the staff member tried to get him back in his room, but he became agitated and threw a chair. When the staff member tried to restrain him, they fell to the floor where the teen punched her in the eye.

The teen was then moved to a high security unit at Shuman.

The Aug. 24 incident began shortly after 4 p.m. when a supervisor was told a resident had flooded his room by stuffing clothing down the toilet. When staff tried to calm him, the teen started swinging at them and making threats, prompting staff to call for handcuffs.

When a supervisor arrived, the boy was handcuffed and face down in the toilet water, with a cut above his eye.

"I don't know how long he was down" on the floor, Mr. Simmons said.

After being evaluated by a Shuman Center nurse, the youth was taken to a local hospital for stitches and later returned to the center.