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)

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)

Investigation into death at Elan School in Maine

Everybody who has followed the trial against Michael Skakel knows that the now-closed Elan School in Poland, Maine had it secrets.

People who investigate the business like our organization also knew in advance that a death which occurred around 1982 properly was the result of violence inflicted in the so-called therapeutic boxing ring.

But the problem has been that the authorities never wanted to release any records, they never really wanted to conduct a throughout investigation. Elan School was a convenient dumping place for troubled youth. It was a place where the authorities sent unwanted children to and where they could be kept quiet until they became broken adults who would end their lives prematurely as too many of the former students have done. The suicide rate among former students are alarming high.

It seems that every country needs such a dumping place. In Denmark it was called Solhaven and it was only because some brave police officers finally ignored the cries for local labor and the business caused by housing a larger company in a remote neighborhood where every job-position is welcome, that Solhaven was stopped. The juridical system is complex so no conviction came out of it but the business was shut down and while they might want to reopen they will never grow to the size before the closure.

Poland in Maine also needed the jobs and when Joseph Ricci created the school, eyes were closed. They continued to be close for almost the entire time Elan School was open. Joseph Ricci who came with no education into taking care of teenagers with often complex disorders took care of a problem for the state and for that they shielded him from proper investigation into what went on at this business.

Maybe the investigation into the 1982 death of Philip Williams Jr. might provide the public a clearer picture of what when down at Elan School? It is properly too late to bring any of the former employees and management to justice. As we learned in Denmark the court system can be complex and a huge lawsuit against the people behind the infamous WWASP organization in the United States which got schools closed down in several states and countries came to nothing. But it really doesn't matter. It is about learning from the past. The troubled teen industry which boomed as result of the 3-strike laws introduced in the 1990's which scared many parents to seek residential treatment for even minor things like alcohol consumption or poor grades left many teenagers with emotional scars which might never heal.

The future must learn the damage Elan School and similar places caused in order to prevent new places from opening if the society ever might focus on over-controlling the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood again.

We urge the authorities to open their records so the truth of the past can be learned.


Sources:

• His family asks: What really happened to Phil at the Elan School? (Maine Sun Journal)
• Factsheet of the school (Fornits Wiki)

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.

When the punishment becomes too severe

Eric Perez broke the law. The law dictates that he should go into custody for his parole violation. He had been smoking an illegal kind of tobacco.

But the punishment for smoking marijuana is not death, but death was what he got.

He was denied medical attention for hours when he complained of pain and by the time the staff intervened it was too late to save him.

The question is now whether the authorities are able to cover this story up. After the terrible video of a boy dying in a boot camp a new legislation has been put into place. Now the public can be denied knowledge of what is going on inside prisons, boarding schools or boot camps.

While Eric Perez was an offender he ws also a citizens with some kind of potential if he at some time would deal with his addiction and it is important to know that every drug user has this potential at some point in their life when they are ready. You cannot force a drug user to change his or her life, but you can offer them to come back for help when they are ready.

But Eric Perez was not given the opportunity to reach out for help when he was ready. He was denied life instead and for that someone now has to pay. It is the only option if you want to call a society civil.

Source:
Grand jury to probe teen’s death in Palm Beach County juvenile lockup (by Carol Marbin Miller, The Miami Herald, August 2, 2011

Wilderness therapy: Shouldn't 2012 be the end of this

Kurt Hahn developed the early basic for so-called outward bound education before the second world. These ideas were picked up by several schools.

In the 1970's the first wilderness therapy programs began to emerge. However they took only volunteers in and while the survival gear was somewhat primitive compared to the equipment at hand here in 2011, most teenagers who entered these programs made it home.

This all changed when the Reagan and Bush administration in the 1980's declared war on drugs and raise the age of alcohol consumption to 21 in the United States. Such a war demanded strict punishment and when the parents discovered that even minor violations of the law could put their children in jail for decades - in some cases even life, a market for alternative private punishment marketed as therapy was pushed in business based on parental fear for the future of their children.

The first wilderness programs where teenagers were forced into entering the program appeared. Then deaths of such teenagers in the wilderness became headlines in such a number that they eventually were something you could read about on page 34. It was an accepted risk because the alternative was claimed to be a life on drugs and as result deaths or life in prison.

One of the first programs of this new type was named Challenger. It was as almost every modern wilderness programs outdoor adventure combined with boot camp mentality. In closed a few years after it opened because a young girl named Kristin Chase died during the program.

One of our volunteers looked the program up on Facebook and found a group of survivors of the program. While some praise the program despite its harshness there are also those who to this day recent all what did take and basically blame their experience for all the suffering they have experienced in life since. What is true? Is it just something you should get over with or should you speaks up against the lack of fairness?

Life goes on but just as people have to endure scars and injuries from traffic accidents it does meant that you should forget all what was wrong. A girl died in the program and only pure luck prevented others from joining her.

Second those who praise the program forget one thing. It is a basic function in the brain which enables them to select the good things and make them forget the bad elements in the program just as rape victims often are able to hide the ordeal and function relatively normal.

But what about the deaths? Wasn't something learned from Challenger?

No, nothing was learned from her tragic death. In the years since the program closed not a single year has been without deaths in residential treatment programs for children. Several of the deaths in wilderness programs have been exactly copies of her unfortunately death - Deaths which for sure could have been avoided if just the tiniest piece of teaching had been learned from her ordeal.

Wilderness therapy is not safe. It doesn't matter what kind of regulations which are introduced. Records show that there will always be the next set of parents who will receive a coffin instead of a cured child.

Taking teenagers out of their comfort zone should be controversial and the very last resort.

2011 brought awareness of the risk and the suffering among teenagers who are being removed from their homes.

2012 should be the year where the use of wilderness therapy for children who are not willingly entering the program should stop.

That is our simple New Year wish.