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)

Properly legal in one state, illegal in another

When you follow the trail against Ben Trane from the former Midwest Academy, you notice that methods which are standard at most programs in Utah, is now critized in court in Iowa.

One point which is hight-lighted is the level sysem.

Food at Midwest Academy was used as punishment according to the prosecutor.

“Level 1 had certain restrictions,” said Timmins. “Food was a privilege there. So as a Level 1, you could not eat catsup and mustard and you could not have the salad dressing at the salad bar. You had to earn condiments.”

It is basically the same at Turn-about Ranch used in Dr. Phil Shows. When a teenager enters Turn-about Ranch, they are housed in a modern heated cabin enjoying the same food as teenagers on higher level. Their food is also basic.

A testimony from a former Turn-about Ranch residents tells us that:

They eat breakfast (oatmeal, cooked over their personal camp fire in an old coffee can), lunch ("trail mix," which is shredded coconut, Cheerios, and raisins), and dinner (which can vary from beans & lentils to Ramen noodles, depending on availability and behavior).

Then the Level one teenagers are also met with restrictions on who they are allowed to communicate with. This is what is writen about Midwest Academy:

“As a Level 1, you couldn’t talk to people. There were certain people you could talk to… but Level 1's were not able to talk to each other. They weren’t allowed to talk to staff. It was part of the discipline.”

What are said about Turn-about Ranch?

During this time they are not allowed to talk (except to ask for water or food) and are forbidden to sleep except when the staff tells them to.

It is basically the same. Again at Turn-about Ranch we see the attempt of isolating the newcomer from the rest of the teenage population at the facility. It is a gruesome mental method used to break down the teenager so they can force the teenager into making kind of confessions making the stay at these private teenage prisons justified.

There is a reason that isolation in any form is considered close to torture. Most humans are social creatures. They do not have the mindset so they can bare isolation for longer periods. In justice systems they learned this the hard way when they designed early prisons. In the start they believed that isolating prisoners from each other forcing them to wear hoods which covered their faces while they were out would make them repent and become good people. These methods were abolished as the prisoners became insane. Keeping in mind that a counselor was murdered at Turn-about ranch and another hurt when a teenager could not bear the isolation any more, why are such methods then still allowed in Utah?

Communication with the outside world was also restricted. Why limit the communication with the parents, the people who are paying for the stay. Parents could not drive by any weekend and talk to their child. Communication were limited to letters, letters which were screened so the employees could ask for a new version of a letter if it was too complaining.

It is basically what allowed the alleged abuse Ben Trane is on trial for. In 2012, Denmark introduced "the law of a child". In Denmark teenagers in group homes are allowed the use of cell phones from day one. It serves two purposes. The child can call the state hotline preventing abuse. The child can be tracked using the cellphone if the child runs away from a group home. The child and the parents can maintain and repair their relationship.

The background for "the law of a child" was tragic. On the island of Laesoe a male employee has sex with a girl who was isolated due to some rules at a group home. The confession of the male employee was secretly taped by the girl and she also keep part of her clothes with his semen on.

The Danish court system handed down the most severe sentence the system allowed them. 60 days in prison suspended. It demands an explanation. In Denmark social standards are very much enherited. People from low-income families, immigrants and people who were placed in the social system are at the bottom in the court system. When they are charged, their names are made public unlike people with money who can afford lawyers where their names are secret until the courts have ruled. So the victim in the sex-case was from a low-income family and the employee a local respected man. 60 days was a severe sentence given the circumstances.

It left the Danish politicians with only one option. To abolish use of isolation for children when possible. Only when we are talking crimes like terrorism and use of guns, the court can rule for isolation.

I believe that the state governments of both Utah and Iowa should rule against any use of level systems where food and social isolation are used.

Use of isolation does not result in positive change. The most smart of the teenagers learn that they just have to play along and wait until they are 18 so they can continue their lives as they did before the stay.

The other kids leave such places damaged and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The suicide rates among people who suffered time during their teenage years are alarming high. The number of former inmates in these places who dies of medical overdoses also.

They are basically good for none but of course good for drama in television shows like Dr. Phil when the teenagers are dragged out to a car by handpicked thugs while the teenagers are screaming about not forgiving their parents. It is a sick culture.

It needs to be stopped and it is up to the politicians to save teenagers from ending up at such places. The real question is whether they are prepared to do that when jobs are brought to an area. Ask your local polician this question over and over again until you get an answer.

Sources:

• Prosecution Lays Out Criminal Case Against Former Boarding School Owner (WIUM Tristates Public Radio)
• Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide) (Tales from the black school testimonial blog)

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.

A death is a tragedy - regardless who the victim is

What was supposed to happen at one point - did happen.

The entire setup of Turn-about Ranch in Utah was a setup for disaster.

Removing a child without warning from its own bed or luring the child on holiday only to dump it at Turn-about Ranch is not only traumatic, it provokes resistant. It was only a matter of time before a child reacted with such a violence that either the child or anyone else would have died.

It is not as if it did not happen before. On course there are many deaths caused by restraints. In fact, there are an entire blog about each recorded death among teenagers who have been confined to residential programs. Some deaths are not recorded. The local newspapers are quiet due to concern of loss of local jobs. The family has to settle out of court because they do not have the money to go up against the rich facilities.

Then there are deaths caused among innocent neighbors. Especially the Luc Ranch killings were tragic. Traumatized by their stay two teenagers ran and killed an elderly couple. However, people have been hurt in a number of incidents where the teenagers on the run or innocent people who just happened to be on the road at the same time also were either injured or killed.

Then there are teenagers in the programs who kills or just try to kill other teenagers to prevent them from reporting attempted escapes. Mountain Park Academy in Missouri saw such a tragedy. Out of three boys two are now dead and the last one still in prison. None today questions the fact that Mountain Park Academy was abusive. Given the news that the employees moved on to work at similar places makes it not better.

This time an employee lost his life at Turn-about Ranch. In Europe Turn-about Ranch is known from Brat Camp who boosted the career of Jemma Lucy. While her career certainly is an achievement, we only can question ourselves if the life lessons learned really are the kind of values we want to instill in our children. She entered the ranch with dreams of becoming a singer. The ranch taught her that life was extreme that she thought and extreme is the measures she has used during her career in the entertainment industry.

A boy is in prison. An employee is dead. Another employee needed treatment after the attack. Why? I am sure that the family of the boy now agree that it was not worth messing with the choices the boy made before they decided to send him to the program. Sometime teenagers make poor decision. Sitting around in the corner as a parent while you are bitter waiting to have money enough to send your child to other people for a quick fix instead of setting the standard your self is an absolutely no-go.

I am a parent. My children are among the few young Danes who do not drink and at the same time is not radicalized as much Danish teenager risk during these hard years where we have opened our vulnerable small culture to many outsiders.

I believe in setting standard. I do not drink very much and I am never drunk in front of my children. I wear a bike helmet. Instead of telling them how to behave, I show them how to behave. I show them how to work hard only days after a van crushed my bike with me on it. Broken limbs – no problem. You work! I do not tell my kids. I dragged myself out of my bed to the computer so I could serve my workplace who had granted me a position to serve at.

Showing instead of telling. That is the right way.

Nevertheless, even I have to learn about how group homes and residential programs work when your child needs treatment. My children live away from home. Their need for special treatment cannot be met where I live. It is painful for a parent. However, the difference between Turn-about Ranch and the place my children live is that my children was involved in the enrollment process.

No, it was not funny for them. It was not funny for me. From day one based on my experience with the industry I demanded unlimited visitation rights and that I only have to give the employees minutes of warning before I arrive. My wishes have been complied.

Both my children are intelligent people. They know that the rules at the group home are not the same as home. Because with special need special rules also have to be made. That is why violations have been minimal. Escape attempts have not been met with violence but with information so I could track the individual using the GPS on the smartphone. Yes. My children have smartphones while they are in the residential program. They have the right to communicate with friends and extended family at home.

The oldest even have the right to buy alcohol under the safe limit of 16.5 but have not exercised the right. Properly because they both have observed me.

Unlike the treatment facility my children live at, Turn-about ranch does not believe in communicating with children before they enter the program. When they enter the program, they are met with a unified approach. Any treatment reports made before entering the program are not taken into consideration so an individual treatment plan can be made.

It was a recipe for disaster and it became a disaster when employee was killed. A boy now enter the prison system instead of just being an underachiever. The family of the employee suffered a huge loss. The surviving employee might never come back due to the emotional damages caused by the fight.

There are no winners of this story. Only a huge amount of sorrow and loss.

Turn-about is an outdated form of treatment program. It should have closed years ago. Sadly, it did not.


Sources:

• Tragedy at Turn-About Ranch: A teen came for rehab, then killed a staffer to escape, police say (The Washington Post)
• Southwest Missouri group home suspended after teen escapees are accused of murder (The Kansas City Star - about the LUC ranch murders)
• Man convicted as a teen of murder at Missouri boarding school dies (missourinet)

Riot at Copper Hills Youth Center

The journalist Lyn Duff battled during her teenage years to be allowed to live the life she wanted. Her choice of partner didn't suit her mother and she was sent to a treatment center in Utah where she was forced to smell ammonia to learn her the right choice of a partner. She escaped and with legal help she got the life she wanted.

Years later the residential treatment center now operating under a different name is the in news again. A riot is the reason.

Comments show a understaffed facility with toxic mix of youth.

Fact is that no treatment center in the world can fix every issue. A treatment center needs to focus. It needs to specialize. It is costly but if corners are cut a dangerous mix of minors can be put together and either employees or the children will be hurt.

Of course there are also some who never should be put in treatment programs. Children with addiction should never be put in treatment programs involuntary unless the entire family is sent there for a short stay so they can prepare their roles as addicts and relatives to addicts. People cannot fix issues they don't acknowledge. It also goes for children. If addicts are sent to place involuntary it becomes a holding place and the minute the addict is released to the society the risk of relapse is high.

If you check out deaths involving addicts they often happen shortly after leaving the treatment center.

The treatment center claiming to have the higest rate of successes either keep the addicts in semi-confinement or sober living communities where they cannot afford to leave from creating a kind of cult environment.

Copper Hills Youth Center is a "we take them all" treatment center. It has a history of incidents where employees and children were hurt. It should have been shut down years ago for the sake of both employees and children.

It had another name while Lyn Duff was confined in it but the mismanagement seems to have continued.

Hopefully the riot will force the authorities to close it down.

Source:
10 teens arrested in riot at youth treatment center (Desert News)

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)

Once again relatives fight for the freedom of a family member

This time it is a girl being hold at Elevations RTC - previous known as Island View Treatment center in Syracuse, Utah.

Her testimony is needed back home in a domestic case. However by holding her locked up this so-called treatment center the outcome of this case could be impacted by the so-called therapy enforced upon her.


Above a video from the girl can be seen:

It looks like the Free Chandra case years ago where family member successfully got a girl released so she could move on as a graphic designer.

It is not the only case where children are held hostage in treatment cases where their testimonies is needed in their home state.

What Elevations RTC is doing is not treatment. It is juridical work done for the father. Should juridical work be done disguised as treatment?

We say no.

Please support this girl so she can be released and move on in life.



Sources:

• ELEVATIONS RTC IN UTAH: FREE HANNAH!
• Testimony from a patient who were there while it was called Island View (The conditions might have been changed)
• IamA survivor of Island View RTC, an abusive program like many others in Utah. AMA (Reddit)

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.

Discovery Academy in Provo releases young man pressured by a Radio show

We have learned that Discovery Academy in Provo released a young man aged 18 after trying to hold him illegal. In the United States as in many countries only minors can be held in so-called treatment against their will. Once they turn 18 they can legally leave the treatment program unless they were court ordered from the begining.

Because the young man who is suffering from depression after having lost his father did leave the Academy without the approval of his mother he got a lift down to a home shelter many states from his home.

It was only after having reached out to the public that various people paid his plane ticket home.

Now he is living in his home city without support from his family.

Back to the case

When he turned 18 he should be able to leave the academy but they refused to let him go. Friends knew that he should be allowed to leave and they phoned the police and reported that he was held back against his will despite his age making him legally an adult. The radio show by Mark Levine picked the case up and made an entire show about it. Here are some highlights from the Radio show:

• The police seemed initially interested, but after talking to the kid's mother, they said there was nothing they could do. Even though keeping him there was a crime, and this was pointed out to them.
• What gets even weirder is the officer told advocates that she had met with the teen and he said he was fine and wanted to stay. The teen had been begging his girlfriend and her mother to get him out, he said no officer ever met with him.
• Even weirder is when Mark Levine called, the same officer at first said she met with the teen, but later refused to confirm or deny that fact. She told him to call Discovery Academy and ask them about their policies. Mark told them that if his wife was kidnapped, he would not call the kidnappers and ask them their policy. She still refused to budge or help him.
• The FBI said it did not meet their criteria and did nothing.
• CPS would not get involved because he had turned 18 and was no longer a minor.
• The local disability rights org, who is mandated by the state, was willing to help but not quickly. They offered to file a lawsuit, which would take at least a month, and probably drag out longer. Also, his mother claimed he was disabled when she enrolled him, but now said that he wasn't.
• There are allegations that Discovery Academy abused the teen, but we don't have a lot of info about that. Yet.

On the worldwide scene it is a problem when parents accept to place their child in a residential treatment program without the consent of their child. In Denmark the problems was recently debated and legislation may be in progress fixing the problem so teenagers are heard before the social services put them into treatment based on parental accept only.

For more information about this case:

• 'm beyond horrified. A teen was kidnapped in Utah and the police wouldn't do anything to help him, neither would the FBI or other local authorities. Does anyone have any media contacts we can tell his story to? (Reddit Troubled Teens)
• Does the City of Provo Endorse Kidnapping? (Mark Levine Radio Show)
• Datasheet of Discovery Academy on Fornits Wiki

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