Diamond Ranch Academy to close after the third teenager died at the facility.

Many might wonder why 3 teenagers should die before the authorities came to the conclusion that the entire operation was a danger from day one.

Was it the consideration that jobs could be lost? For decades many jobs in the United States have been moved to countries like Mexico and China and frankly a town like Hurricane do not offer many oppertunities and not even things worth to visit as a tourist. They do not have many bars where youth can go to like they do on Ibiza and even here in Copenhagen where Wonderful Copenhagen marketed the city as a place you could engage in business with women. And if you do not have that, none will come to visit.

Hurricane and the nearby cities became a heaven for private detention centers living of a market of parents who cared less about their offsprings so they had time to go on cruises or play golf. They called them treatment centers or boarding schools. By labeling them that instead of detention centers, they even fooled school districts and caring parents.

But as with all detention centers, people inside them die and then as every operator of prisons and detention centers know, it become important to cover up deaths. Heart-failure and other random causes of death which seems to be impossible to prevent was issued by local coronors.

Look at the killing of Martin Anderson from 2006 in Florida. That is how it is done in 90 percent of the cases.

At Diamond Ranch Academy as mentioned above, 3 teenagers died

Two of the cases look very similar

In 2009 14-year-old James Richard Shirey died of an illness before he could be brought to the hospital

In 2022 17-year-old Taylor Goodridge died of an illness before she could be brought to the hospital

It seems that there from the very start had existed an internal policy where the employees were motivated to wait and see instead of taking the youth to a hospital for a check-up. A policy which have proven deathly in two cases.

The third death occured when a teenager seeking a better place disturbed a marketing event. Parents were given tours of the facility and because the teenager was trying to take his life while possible new customers were around and employee closed the door to the room where the teenager was hanging from a rope and called co-workers. How many seconds were lost because the employee decided not to attempt the rope right away? We cannot know if that were the seconds which enabled the teenager to escape both Diamond Ranch Academy and life in general.

While Diamond Ranch Academy soon will be gone and the city hopefully will turn to dust because none have a reason to come there, the mystery of why it should take to many years for the authorities to intervene, will remain.

Sources

• Diamond Ranch Academy: School for 'troubled teens' ordered to shut down after deaths of students (Sky News)
• James Richard "Jim" Shirey (Legacy Memorial site)
• DHS confirms another child death at Diamond Ranch Academy (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)
• ‘Therapeutic boarding school’ in Utah told vomiting teen to ‘suck it up’ before treatable infection led to deadly sepsis: Lawsuit (Law & Crime)

Who is watching the children at Diamond Ranch Academy - now there is one less

The website drasurvivors are now redirecting to the website of Diamond Ranch Academy which is a so-called residential treatment facility in Hurricane, Utah.

Drasurvivors contained the testimones of a number of former residents who were forced to play students at the facility.

Often children who had committed no crime but disapointing the expectations of their parents when it came to grades, choice of religion, choice of gender in relationships or choice of habits when partying.

Still they endured isolation from family and friends.

Still they endured punishments without access to legal representation.

Still they had no access to commnication which could allow them to access the authorities when they exposed to unjust treatment.

What the website drasurvivors gave them, were the chance to let the public learn of their torment.

It was important because two students never had the chance to tell anyone because they died while they were under the care of the facility.

A boy died from an illness. At least that is what we are supposed to accept base on a report from the local coronorer. It could be right but in cases like this a single report is not enough. Especially after the boot camp scandal in Florida where the papers didn't tell the truth because someone wanted to protect the local jobs at the boot camp.

A boy opted to take his own life rather than subject himself to the harsh treatment at the facility. It could have been prevented. An investigation into the suicide concluded this.

Some might claim that the authorities do supervise. That they do come to the facility and ask to speak with the student without monitoring. But do they listen? Are the local jobs not more important?

Then what about the social services from the communities all over the United States from where the students are sent? It doesn't happen. It really should because the welfare of the children at Diamond Ranch Academy should not be weighed against local jobs.

Something is really wrong at the facility because our contacts at Fornits reports an alarming number of deaths among the former residents at the facility.

We are really concerned because we already have two families who didn't get their son home alive. How many more should be put at risk before the social services all over the United States and United Kingdom who also have sent children to such facilities say stop to this child trafficing across state lines?

The children at Diamond Ranch Academy lost someone who could look after them with the hostile takeover of the drasurvivors website. Others need to take over or we will start counting dead bodies of children again.

When will the next death happen

The blog "Today a child died" already have more than 100 entries. An entry covers the tragedy of an individual child sent to a residential treatment program.

It can be a wilderness program. It can be a boarding school. It can be a residential treatment center or a juvenile detention center.

In each case the child didn't make it out.

Most deaths were caused by restraints. A number of employees jumps the child officially to stop the child from hurting another child or the child itself. The child is crushed to death slowly. Sometimes it takes more than 15 minutes to die. What goes through the mind of the child while every breath means one more step towards death is not to explain.

Other deaths are caused by heath, malnutrition, cold and infections. It is often something which occur in wilderness programs. Reality television shows like Brat Camp made this kind of therapy look safe. It is far from the case. Even trained wilderness people lose their lives from time to time. The nature can be non-forgiving. A small mistake can mean the difference between life and death.

Then there are children who dies from illnesses which could have been treated easily in hospitals. The problem is that the employees believe that the child tries to manipulate them. Often there also is a cost issue because many programs exist to make profit so they hire employees who even didn't graduate high school. They may hire nurses and doctors to drop by. But how should it be possible for poorly educated employees and hired medical staff to evaluate children regarding illness without the resources of a hospital.

Last but not least there are cases where the children should have been on suicide watch and they were left on their own.

Facilities like Liahona Academy in Virgin, Utah, Diamond Ranch Academy in Hurricane, Utah are among those who have lost children in their care. They continue to operate like nothing happened.

That is why it is important for both parents but also the extended family to research the treatment options considered. Educational consultants, local sheriff departments, local departments of social services often looks more at referreal fees and local jobs than security of the children in treatment.

The advocates of a child cannot be economically dependent of the facilities and programs. There is a need for federal oversight and federal rules. A number of states have forbidden a number of treatment programs but we are still waiting for federal rules.

"Today a child died" is sadly only one out of several blogs covering this area. More and more countries join the sad statitics having a need for such a blog. You can find links for a number of countries on the blog.

Source:
Today a child died

Former students sue Diamond Ranch Academy

Former students have sued Diamond Ranch Academy near Hurricane in Utah.

In their complaint they call the facility a private prison.

Their claim supports the numerous statements made by former students on various website and in blogs.

Statements the facility has sought to silence by suing a number of the people who have helped the former students to tell their side of the treatment approach they experienced during their stay at Diamond Ranch Academy.

I feel that it is important to learn what the student’s state even when they are not satisfied with their treatment. In a world where crime among minors have dropped and the new generation acquires the highest grades and have become the most sober youth maybe ever, there should be space to offer those who struggle the best possible treatment.

Lately the experts in Denmark have become worried because the soberness and none acting out among teenagers we have experienced the last 5 years seems to have resulted in a massive epidemic of depression. Especially female teenagers struggle to maintain the strait A’s hiding their identity and wishes for the future behind success with their studies.

At some point some of the reach out before they turn to suicide attempts? Should they then be sent to a place where they are punished because they asked for help? Should they be disconnected from the entire world for a week, a month or more depending of their progress in a program?

No of course not. The time for programs and group homes where the teenagers live a sheltered life shunned from the rest of the world should be over.

In Denmark the parliament researched the outcome of residential treatment centers in 1999 and discovered that those who have been in them did poorer compared to teenagers who lived in neglect at home dealing sexual abuse and addictions. They did not pass exams with the same quality in curriculum compared to public school. They didn’t end up going to universities. Maybe just stood in the waiting list for a cell in prisons.

Most important: The Danish government discovered that some firms milked the system promising cure and better life while they just warehoused the children in internal schools. One of the firms even had their own education for teachers which were not recognized by the rest of the world but did qualify them for jobs inside this firm. The “Tvind”-law was passed.

Improvements over night were not achieved but the path was decided. Some years ago the authorities cracked down on a number of group homes. Oversight became tighter. Treatment became individualized. Today it is normal that the teenagers have their own room and cell-phone on them outside school. For the counselors the cell-phones have become a tool. Runaways forget to turn their phone off and the counselors just have to call the social worker back home and alert the police who then return the teenagers to a talk with the social worker so it can be decided why the teenager ran.

Each and every incident of the use of restraint has to be reported to a central agency and the social services back home. It has resulted in better training of employees. It has forced the social workers to validate the placement better so the teenagers are sent to places suiting their needs. It has reduced the number of restraint cases to almost none and no death has occurred the last years.

Of course there are teenagers who have committed crimes. Denmark has lockdown treatment centers functioning as jails. If you have teenagers who commit violence the society needs protection from them. But the real effort is to separate punishment from treatment. An addict doesn’t need punishment to stop. An addict deserves an analyze where both the addict and the counselors can learn the source of the addiction. Why did it start? What kind of individualized treatment should be used? Should there be a treatment at all or should the teenager move far away to an isolated place as a kind of time out to allow the teenagers to mature in a place where drugs are harder in this way reducing the drug-use until the teenager mature?

Diamond Ranch Academy – despite their rework of their program some years ago – represents a treatment approach of the past. It was a time where the teenagers and their problems were forced to adapt to a system which they could be kept in until they either adapted or was broken down to a point of not-living waiting to return to the real world so they could continue their previous lives.

As many other treatment programs started at the same time using the same types of methods with variations they have a massive problem with former students starting to tell how they felt. They didn’t cut their clients tongues out during the treatment so their entire business plan is going to fail at some point.

They can fight it. They have tried. However it is just a question of time before their time is over. Maybe this lawsuit is the start of the end.

Sources:

• 
  Teens Call 'Academy' a Private Prison (Courthouse News Service)
• When far from home (Testimonial blogs - includes testimonies from Diamond Ranch Academy among others)
• Tales from the black school (Testimonial blogs - includes testimonies from Diamond Ranch Academy among others)

Diamond Ranch Academy against the free speech

We believe that former residents at any group home, therapeutic boarding school, boot camp, treatment center and wilderness programs have the right to speak out against their stay if they believe that they were treated in an unjust manner.

That is what a number of former students at Diamond Ranch Academy located near Hurricane in Utah have done.

Human rights organizations like our have aided them to get individual testimonies syndicated because we know that even a large number of individual testimonies cannot be heard in a time where Search Machine Optimizing matters.

Now Diamond Ranch Academy is targeting both former students and the humanitarians who have aided to the syndication process.

We fear that the voices of the former students can be silenced. We fear that the losses of lives which today at Diamond Ranch Academy has been numbered to 2 will rise in the future.

We know that unjust in this area only can be fought with information and knowledge. In Denmark the trial against the group home Solhaven was the result of a 10 years effort of former students to get their side of the story heard. They had to fight both local political interests like creating jobs because Solhaven was by far the largest employer in area. They have to blow the cover co-workers of social workers had put in place to prevent outing of social workers who had neglected their duties when they heard of manual restraints of residents which were not reported in the way the law dictated. They had to find police officers who were not of the gift present list.

It took some years to achieve that. Now there is a trial ongoing.

For them to get heard websites in the United States aided the Danish blogs to be found first when someone searched on the Internet in exchange for Danish site to aid the US sites doing the same.

And that is what we will do right now. We will aid former students from Diamond Ranch Academy to get their statement out. Free speech must never be silenced. In Denmark we fought and won the Cartoon war. We are veterans in taking down people on the Internet. So Diamond Ranch Academy! Please watch out. We will be here, there and everywere battling for the right to free speech among your former students.


Sources:

• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)
• Memorial blog
• DIAMOND RANCH ACADEMY DOUBLES DOWN WITH FILING ANOTHER LAWSUIT...

Diamond Ranch Academy fights back at negative testimonies from former students.

Diamond Ranch Academy has made a website where students make positive statements about their stay at the school. A method previous used by other boarding schools using behavior modification methods several students see as abuse.

So now the question whether Diamond Ranch Academy is abusive or not has turned into a kind of shouting game on the Internet where some students claim that their stay at the boarding school helped them and others that the school created emotional scars which will follow them for the rest of their lives.

Both sides can be right. Maybe there are dysfunctional families out there where the best option for the children was to be removed from their families. Maybe the methods used at the boarding school which normal children would regard as abusive if you look at the things in life the students miss out could be better than parents using drugs – prescription or illegal – parents being alcoholic or even parents having sexual relationships with their children. Children who have been given too much responsibility too early in life being forced to parent their parents need a structured environment where they can learn to be children having other in charge for a while. For such children Diamond Ranch Academy could be a help. Parents who the decision that they need others to be in charge because they have failed could find legitimate help the boarding school and they should not be condemned for doing this. The need of children should be always be prioritized.

Both the real problem with Diamond Ranch Academy that they take everyone who have someone to pay for them. Each child has individualized problems. Having worked monitoring the treatment facilities worldwide for more than 6 years have made me realizes this fact. There is no general approach to every child in the world. Each child at a treatment facility needs some kind of special permission in a special area or more to meet their individual problem. You cannot create a kind of level system every child fits in.

Take education as example. Some children needs being taught in group settings. Other children need to be taught in a structured environment. The ideal version of a treatment facility will have students who start at the local public school from day one; Students who only will live at the treatment facility when school is over.

There are the issues with social media. Children of 2013 need access to their Facebook. Of course guidelines are needed but it can be managed. Parents should be allowed to visit their child with only hours of notice from day one unless the social services in the individual case have decided otherwise. It minimizes the possibility of abuse. A lot of boarding schools function fine with individualized rules.

I know it because I as a parent have a child living at a group home 40 miles from my home due to an illness. I know that I can grab my phone 24/7 and state that I will be there in an hour and the employees will accept it. I can speak with my child unrestricted by phone 3 times per week. The employees know that I will be there if they need me at some kind of activity. This summer my child volunteered selling various items founding activities in the local public school my child attends near the group home. I drove out there and coached my child from distance allowing the employees had more time to take of some of the other children. The group home has its own school but the need of my child was a public school so my child rides 3 miles alone every day on a bicycle instead attending the internal school.

I am not happy that my child had to live outside my home. I was the toughest decision I ever made as a parent. Has every day then been a success? No. There have been days involving confrontation between my child and the employees; Always solved without any kind of manual restraints but still confrontations. In Denmark every single action involving restraints or other kinds of force against children in group homes has to be reported to the authorities. I can read on a website at the local authorities if they have used restraints. It is a criminal offense if the group homes don’t report it. But my happiness has nothing to do whether my child should be at the group home or not. The illness my child suffers from could not be handled at home or in the local school system where I live. The local public school hadn’t the resources or wouldn’t pay for them. The local public school where the group home is located has.

I knew when I made my decision as a parent that I had to support my child so the stay would be a success. My support has aided to a positive result not only for my child but also for children all over Denmark placed in group homes and foster families because I knew that while I properly are well informed about the experiences my child experience many parents don’t know what kind of questions they need to ask and what signs they can observe to protect their children. I know thanks to the lessons made by former students at Diamond Ranch Academy and other facilities.

So I have created a number of whistleblower sites in co-operation with local human right groups. A number of high profile cases have hit the Danish media since January 1 when my child left for the group home. Several group homes have been closed. Some foster families have been fired. A brand new set of legislation has been approved by the Danish parliament. It is not my work. I have only taken the testimonies from former students to the right persons inside the Danish media world. The former students and the journalist are those who need to be thanked.

In the same way people need to listen to former students who had a less pleasant stay at Diamond Ranch Academy. Because Diamond Ranch Academy has not always been the facility with modern football fields and a focus on sport they are today. They started over in Idaho and they were raided by the local authorities. Then they moved to Utah. When they started in Utah they were not a facility employing professional licensed counselors because the laws were less strict back then. They were in a learning process. They made a lot of mistakes. They can call the testimonies of from former students’ lies or slander. Fact is that while they might have changed Diamond Ranch Academy of today so the experiences the students speak of can no longer take place today the program as it was in the past allowed the space for such actions to take place. The school cannot rewrite history. Too many former students can back the incidents in the testimonies up.

Back in 2009 a boy died out there. They claim that it was an illness which could not have been avoided. Fact is that the people who are claiming that the boarding school is responsible could have a case because the school had a set of rules properly made of the basis of former students crying wolf. Every sign of illness need check by professionals. Can they not make it to the school then the school needs to get the student to a hospital. That is the only solution. Once you create an internal sickbay or decide to wait the illness out you are putting the life of the student at risk.

Diamond Ranch Academy is a boarding school with more security than most boarding schools. They can properly handle students acting out. However there is a limit. Students who are suicidal need a real hospital. That is what Diamond Ranch Academy learned the hard way this autumn when a student died in the shower. Then we are back at the very start. As I wrote above: At Diamond Ranch Academy they take every teenager regardless of issues. Like small children poking into life they state that they can deal with every kind of issue a teenager can suffer from. They can’t. They have limitations and the tragedy is that they don’t get it.

So we at Spft will continue to have Diamond Ranch Academy marked in our search engines. Regardless of the number of websites they create telling the world how happy former students and parents have been about their stay at this boarding school. I am a parent. I know very well the concerns parents should have. My guts feeling are that something is wrong about this place.

Divorce and school. Do not hold the child as hostage

From one of our partners in the United States we have learned about a divorce case where the outcome very well could be that a teenage girl is send to a remote boarding school in Utah which have claimed the life of a boy back in January 2009.

A petition has been made to save this girl from Louisiana from her awful fate.

We have chosen to quote it in full in order to appeal to you to sign it.

Save Victoria From Diamond Ranch Academy

Today we heard a troubling story about a girl named Victoria, a sweet 16 year old girl from Louisiana who is in danger of being court ordered to be held at Diamond Ranch Academy, in Hurricane, Utah, a notoriously abusive behavior modification program for the next 2 years. Victoria does not deserve to be incarcerated, her father from whom she is estranged simply does not like the school she currently attends and is determined to dictate her education.

Apparently, in Louisiana, when divorced parents cannot agree on a school for their child they go to court, where a judge listens to both parties and then issues a court order deciding which school the child will attend. (This is what the mom has told me.) The father brought in glossy brochures about DRA, showing the horses, the beautiful grounds, ponds, classrooms, dormitories etc, and presented DRA to the judge like it was a boarding school.

Ultimately, the judge approved the Dad’s petition to send his daughter to DRA, and she is scheduled go there June 1.

Mom and daughter both recently visited DRA and were horrified. Neither of them want Victoria to attend this school, and are desperate to find a way to show the judge the truth about Diamond Ranch Academy, the abuse and the maltreatment that has been the cause of injury and death of at least one student in their care.

Please consider signing this petition in support of Victoria being saved from this fate, allowing her and her mother the freedom to choose the school that is best for her, not a program that will abuse her and rob her of the best years of her life.

If you were a student at DRA please share your story here, we will make sure each and every testimony is delivered to the judge presiding over this case.

Thank You
www.troubledprograms.com

We must urge parents that they don't keep their children is a kind of prize money when they divide their assets with their former partner. The children haven't chosen the divorce. They are victims of it and should be allowed to continue their schooling and social life just as they lived it before the divorce.

To sign the petition please use this link: Save Victoria from Diamond Ranch Academy