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U.S. failed her son, Calabasas mom says A Calabasas woman whose 35-year-old son was killed in China this year has launched a campaign against the U.S. State Department, saying the American consulate failed to help her son when he was in danger and then covered up the circumstances of his death. Maxine Russell said she also hopes to prove that the death of her son Darren in April - which Chinese police attributed to a truck accident - was really the result of an attack that the consulate could have prevented. Maxine Russell, a former Los Angeles schoolteacher, has organized an online petition to raise awareness of the case and try to get answers from the consulate and the State Department. She also has enlisted the help of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Henry Waxman, who both have received promises from the State Department of investigations into Russell's death. "She's facing a horrible situation, and she wants to know the facts," said Waxman, D-Los Angeles. "I'm going to keep the case open until Mrs. Russell gets answers." State Department officials said they could not discuss Russell's case because of privacy concerns, but they said the safety of Americans overseas is a top priority. Angela Aggeler, a spokeswoman at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, said that because Americans overseas can find themselves in so many difficult situations, there are no clear guidelines on what a consulate should do. "We do everything possible within the context of a foreign-country environment to help our citizens overseas," she said. Born and raised in Sherman Oaks, Darren Russell took a teaching job in China, his mother said, because he felt he could help in a country where the average family income is less than $300. "He thought if he could teach kids English there, they would really be able to have a better place in their life," Maxine Russell said. He signed a contract with a private school in Guangzhou that promised small classes, upper-level grades, travel time and his own apartment. He arrived to find he would be teaching more than 1,200 students on a schedule of 80 hours per week. According to his family, when Russell was sick with bronchitis, school officials refused to let him cut his schedule to six days a week. When he threatened to quit, they ordered him to leave. Officials at the school did not reply to telephone and e-mail requests for comment. But organizations familiar with English-language schools in China say the tale is familiar. "The Chinese market is just massive. Technology, trade and globalization (are) fueling it, and the Chinese businesses are demanding (English) from their employees, so English classes are starting at a younger age," said Marc Cappelletti, a program director with TEFL Services International, which helps place English teachers overseas. But, he and others cautioned, because China does not yet have an organized structure for foreign teachers, fraud is rampant and Americans dealing directly with schools on their own are taking a chance. After the school let Russell go, he was evicted from his apartment and driven to a military hotel an hour away from the school in a crime-saturated neighborhood, his mother said. He was robbed his first night there. Ill and without identification, he was unable to withdraw money that his father had wired to his bank account. Then, his family said, Russell left a message on his parents' phone telling them, "I have never been this scared in my life." His parents said they began calling and e-mailing the U.S. consulate, asking someone to drive their son to an airport until they could make arrangements to get him home. Instead, they contend, a consulate official called the hotel and asked someone to comfort Russell. Hours later he was dead. By Maxine Russell's count, the official version of her son's death has changed more than 20 times. Police said he died in a traffic accident first at 4:35 a.m., then at noon. One official said he was taken by ambulance and died in surgery. Another said he was dead on arrival. The parents were given a hospital report in Chinese. When they had it translated, they found it was not about their son but about a female patient suffering depression. The U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou maintains Russell died in a truck accident. Maxine Russell, who later had her son's body examined in the United States, believes his injuries were more consistent with his having been hit on the head with a blunt object. But trying to prove that has been her most daunting task. Lisa Friedman, (202) 662-8731
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