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June 11, 2005
Investigators Find
Assaults Reported at Youth Center Were Without Merit
Copper Hills: The
Probe Says the Jump in Assault Referrals Came from Better Reporting
by Management
By: Kirsten
Stewart
State investigators
have concluded the embattled Copper Hills Youth Center is a safe,
caring and effective treatment option for teens and preteens with
severe sexual, behavioral and substance-abuse problems. Alarmed by a
growing number of alleged assaults at the West Jordan psychiatric
facility, Utah Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) Director
Richard Anderson dispatched a team of caseworkers to audit center
files and interview youth and staff.
In 2004, West
Jordan Police responded to 36 reports of simple assault at Copper
Hills. DCFS and Juvenile Justice Services contract with the 126-bed
facility to treat 17 children.
But the probe found
the assaults to be without merit or minor scuffles between wards of
the center, according to Anderson.
"An increase in
assault referrals doesn't mean there's an increase in assaults. It
turns out the facility's new management is just making sure the
assaults are reported [as required by law.]"
Since its 1997
opening, Copper Hills has operated under three different owners.
Today, it is run by Kids Behavioral Health, a teen help provider
based in Reno, Nev., that also oversees programs in Montana, Hawaii
and California.
Officials at Kids
Behavioral Health and Copper Hills executive director Mike Rowley, a
licensed clinical social worker, have repeatedly declined to comment
on allegations that the center is understaffed.
But Anderson says,
"the place is probably better managed now than it's ever been."
The DCFS probe
follows a recent licensing investigation triggered by the arrest of
a Copper Hills counselor who was charged with seven felony counts of
sodomy and forcible sexual abuse.
The investigation
discovered alleged perpetrator Melanie April Seager had never
undergone a criminal background check.
But licensors
cleared the facility after it caught up with its criminal
screenings.
kstewart@sltrib.com
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