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Teen ‘boot camps’ get congressional
scrutiny
October 10, 2007
By David Goldstein
The Star’s Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON | The death of 15-year-old Roberto Reyes at a “boot camp”
for troubled teenagers in rural Missouri three years ago drew the
attention of Congress on Wednesday.
Thousands of teenagers have
possibly been abused and many have died as a result at similar
residential disciplinary treatment programs, a federal investigation
has found.
The report by the Government
Accountability Office addressed problems at several disciplinary
programs across the country. Concerns included withholding food,
drink and medical care, as well as reckless practices by untrained
staff. Its findings, that more than 1,600 employees at treatment
centers in 33 states had been linked to incidents of abuse in 2005
alone, were the subject of a House hearing Wednesday.
The GAO echoed some of the findings
of a 2005 Kansas City Star investigation, which uncovered several
alleged instances of abuse at the Thayer Learning Center in Kidder,
Mo., north of Kansas City. The owners have denied any wrongdoing.
The focus of the hearing was also
on parents, forever haunted by choices they’d give anything to take
back.
“His mother and I will never escape
our decision to send our gifted 16-year-old son to his death,”
testified Bob Bacon of Arizona, whose son, Aaron, died at a Utah
wilderness therapy camp. “We were conned by their fraudulent claims
and will go to our graves regretting our gullibility.”
The GAO said that during three
weeks in 1994 when Aaron was constantly forced to hike, he
complained of severe abdominal pain, lost 20 percent of his body
weight and lost control of his bodily functions. He received no
medical care.
It also found little oversight.
Some states license the centers. Others, such as Missouri, don’t.
“These allegations range from
neglect to torture, a word that I don’t use lightly,” said
Democratic Rep. George Miller of California, chairman of the House
Education and Labor Committee.
He said that Congress needed to
ensure that children were protected.
The National Association of
Therapeutic Schools and Programs represents residential treatment
centers, but does not oversee them. Executive Director Jan Moss told
the committee that its goal was to eliminate the kinds of practices
the GAO exposed.
“Clearly we still have a very long
way to go,” she said.
GAO investigator Gregory Kutz said
the circumstances sounded like “human rights violations in the Third
World. Unfortunately, these human rights violations occurred right
here.”
The report focused on 10 cases,
including that of Reyes, where teenagers died while in the care of a
treatment center. Few criminal charges have been filed in any of the
deaths.
The family of Roberto Reyes was not
at the hearing.
From California, Roberto’s parents
had sent him to the Thayer Learning Center after his grades had
dropped and he had repeatedly run away.
Roberto died of complications that
likely resulted from an insect bite. But he had been ill for days
and too sick to exercise. The GAO report said staff at the center
tied a 20-pound sandbag around his neck and forbade him from sitting
down. He died later that day.
James Thompson, a Kansas City
lawyer who represented Victor and Gracia Reyes in their
wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Thayer, said neither he nor the
Reyeses would comment directly about Thayer. More generically,
Thompson said, “I have always felt that this is an area that needs
federal government regulation.”
Messages left for Thayer attorneys
were not returned. They were not at the hearing.
Another story contained in the GAO
report was that of Erica Clark Harvey, 15, who died of heat stroke
and dehydration while hiking through the Nevada wilderness in 2002.
Her parents had sent the California teenager to an Oregon-based
outdoor therapy program because she suffered from depression and
thoughts of suicide and abused drugs.
She fell several times during the
hike, the last time “head first into rocks and scrub brush (and) was
left to lie where she fell for 45 minutes,” her mother, Cynthia
Clark Harvey, told the committee.
At the hearing, Paul Lewis said
that his 14-year-old son, Ryan, committed suicide six years ago
after one week at a West Virginia wilderness therapy program.
Asked what he would say to parents
in similar straits, Lewis, of Massachusetts, said: “I wouldn’t let
my son out of my sight. To turn your child over to someone else and
hope they’re going to love and protect your child was naive on my
part. We thought (the program) was an answer to our prayers. It
turned out to be a living nightmare.”
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The Star’s Steve Rock contributed
to this report. To reach David Goldstein, call 202-383-6105 or send
e-mail to dgoldstein@mcclatchydc.com.
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