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SON DIES AT WILDERNESS
CAMP, PARENTS SUE
December 20, 2002
CHARLES SHUMAKER
cshumaker@wvgazette.com
The parents of
a Massachusetts teen who hanged himself at a Tucker
County wilderness treatment center say counselors neglected their son when he
killed himself, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
R.L. hanged
himself using a tent cord, one day after showing instructors at the
Alldredge Academy a slash on his arm where he tried to kill himself.
"Take my knife
before I hurt myself some more," the 14-year-old reportedly said.
Alldredge
Academy, now called the Ayne Institute, and the two founders, L. Jay Mitchell
and Lance Wells, are named in the suit filed Thursday in Kanawha
Circuit Court.
R.L.' parents,
D.L. and P.L., brought him to West Virginia in early February 2001
for a three-month program to get him back into school. The Alldredge
wilderness treatment program for youths offered therapy through
outings like hiking and camping.
R.L. was
dyslexic and was being treated for depression when his parents
applied to the program.
They noted on
their application to the program that their son had attempted
suicide twice before, the suit says.
A psychiatrist
also noted that R.L. needed to be monitored for his depression.
During the
first week, R.L. and several other youths ventured out for a month
of camping and hiking, the lawsuit states.
A short time
into that outing, R.L. allegedly went to instructors and showed them
self-inflicted wounds. An instructor "exacted a promise" from R.L.
that he wouldn't hurt himself again. The instructor returned the
teen's program-supplied knife to him, the suit alleges.
R.L. then asked
to call his mother so he could go home to Massachusetts. Instructors
and counselors held a day of group and therapy sessions, but never
addressed R.L., the suit alleges.
On a trip to
gather firewood later that evening, R.L. hanged himself.
R.L.' parents
allege negligence and fraud in the suit, filed by Charleston
attorneys Jim Lees and Stephen Jory.
The program
promised their son a full-service therapy program that was
innovative, comprehensive, therapeutically sophisticated and an
effective therapy program, they allege.
They are asking
that a jury award punitive damages for their son's death.
After R.L.'
death, Mitchell and counselor John Weston White were indicted on
child-neglect charges. Those charges were dropped after the center
was fined $5,000.
The program
costs $18,900 for each teenager that enrolls. It is marketed to
wealthy parents of troubled children throughout the country.
The state
Department of Health and Human Resources ordered the program closed
after R.L.' death. Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom stopped
that order when Alldredge officials fought it.
Alldredge
closed in August, then reopened as the Ayne Institute. Ayne
officials were ordered to follow more than two dozen DHHR rules and
make regular reports on the program.
To contact
staff writer Charles Shumaker, use e-mail or call 348-1240.
(Out of
respect for the family, child's and parents' names were omitted,
initials used.)
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