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NEWS:

Three children die at KidsPeace - Chloe Cohen - Jason Tallman - Mark Draheim

Articles cover the abuse and deaths of the children named below:

Chloe Cohen

She had emotional and psychological problems
The school district in January sent Chloe to the KidsPeace residential treatment center in North Whitehall, Pa., which can cost as much as $180,000
Six weeks later, she was dead
Minutes after she went to her room to take a shower on Feb. 21, KidsPeace workers said, she tied a bathrobe belt around her neck and they found her body hanging from the metal railing on her bunk bed
In Chloe’s case, no agency - not the Nassau County Department of Social Services, the state's Office of Children and Family Services or the Great Neck school district - knew of two prior deaths at KidsPeace
No one knew Maine stopped sending children to the PA center in the mid-90’s because of what officials characterized as repeated instances of abuse by staff
Chloe’s relatives had no real knowledge of KidsPeace; it was presented as a wonderful place
Her parents believed she would never have ended her own life
PA’s Department of Public and Welfare did not cite KidsPeace, saying the dormitory where Cohen lived was adequately staffed on the night of her death

Amy

Amy was 14 when she was sent to KidsPeace program, St. Anne Institute in Albany, because she was taking drugs – drugs she started taking after she was raped the year before – Suffolk County paid about $200 per night for her care
Within a few months of arriving at St. Anne’s, Amy was molested by a male staff who forced her to perform oral sex on him three times while she was there
She fled in the middle of a cold March night wandering the streets of NY in the dark, hopping a train the next morning to NY city, eventually arriving at her parents’ home
Charles Graham of Albany was charged with sexually abusing two girls at the institute; since he was arrested a third girl came forward to make additional charges
A second worker was arrested on sex abuse charges involving a fourth girl
Since the arrests, administrators have stepped up security and begun conducting criminal background checks on all new employees
Click here for article re another sexual abuse charge at KidsPeace

Jason Tallman

On his second day at KidsPeace, Jason Tallman, 12, of Barnegat, N.J., had become agitated and threatened to run away
According to records, two counselors grabbed the 85-pound boy when he began kicking and screaming
They put him face down on the floor on a pillow, even as he complained he couldn't breathe
They held his arms, legs and lower back until he was still
One of the workers was arrested, but he later was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter
The other was never charged.
Click here for more news re Jason Tallman

Mark Draheim

Mark Draheim of Pelican Island, NJ, was placed in a KidsPeace program
In December, 1998, he was asphyxiated by counselors who were trying to control him after he reportedly tried to stab a counselor with a pen
His lungs crushed and his brain deprived of oxygen
He slipped into a coma
Records show he died 26 hours later
Three KidsPeace employees were involved
The District Attorney chose not to press charges saying they followed procedure
State welfare officials cited KidsPeace for an unnecessarily high use of restraints and inadequate reporting of such incidents
KidsPeace defends its programs, patting themselves on the back for “working in the trenches” trying to save these children
Click here for more news re Mark Draheim

Stats and info

Nearly 1,000 Long Island children in 2003 were expected to be institutionalized for emotional problems, troubled pasts or juvenile delinquency
Many are sent out-of-area to treatment centers where serious questions exist about the care they receive
Nassau and Suffolk lack adequate facilities so about a third of the children are sent throughout New York or out of state for treatment, far from their families, their homes and their communities
Cost to taxpayers is rising – bill for treating these 1,000 children was expected to top $80 million by the end of that year – out-of-state placements can cost $40,000 more annually – in some cases the annual price per child rivals the tuition for four years at Harvard or Yale