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The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 6, 2005
State Probes
Boy's Death:
Camp's Risky Punishment Cited
By Jill Young Miller - Staff
Counselors at a state-run
camp for troubled youngsters held a 13-year-old Douglas County boy
facedown on the ground for an hour and a half before he stopped
breathing and later died, state records show.
[Emphasis added]
The counselors subdued Travis
Parker using a hold that has been banned by the state Department of
Juvenile Justice because officials there consider it too dangerous.
Travis, who had asthma, died on
April 21, the day after he was restrained by at least three
counselors at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp,
an outdoor therapeutic program in Cleveland, in the North Georgia
mountains.
The Georgia Bureau of
Investigation is looking into the matter, and the results of an
autopsy are pending, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead.
The boy was "placed in a full
basket restraint due to his acting out behavior," according to a
Department of Juvenile Justice report obtained by The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution under the Open Records Law.
The Juvenile Justice Department
doesn't allow its workers to use the hold. "We don't use any holds
that could possibly restrict a child's ability to breathe," said
Bill Reilly, the agency's chief of staff.
The camp is one of two operated by
the state Department of Human Resources. Troubled children aged 6 to
17 are placed there from a variety of sources, including the
juvenile justice system and mental health programs. On average, the
children stay less than 12 months.
Reilly said that his department
had been assured by DHR officials that the facedown restraint would
no longer be used on children at the wilderness camp.
The DHR refused to discuss the
case, but a department spokeswoman said it allowed its employees to
use the "basket restraint."
"Yes, that restraint is continuing
to be used," said DHR spokeswoman Dena Smith, who said the
department was reviewing the "application of the restraint, as well
as all policy and procedures."
While the details of what happened
the night Travis was restrained are sketchy, the Juvenile Justice
Department's incident report suggests that counselors were trying to
place the boy under control after an outburst.
The report says that boys at the
camp began misbehaving at about 3 p.m. on April 20 and continued
"acting out" until 10 p.m.
By then, 11 campers had missed
their evening meal because of their behavior, the report said. When
two campers were rewarded with food for being good, Travis "became
enraged," the report said. A counselor grabbed him by his jacket,
Travis resisted, and the counselor "put him in a full basket
restraint." The report did not identify the counselor.
One counselor held Travis from
behind, crossing the boy's arms against his chest, the report said.
The boy "was taken to the ground, where another counselor was
holding his legs and another counselor holding the hip area," the
report said. "The camper is face down during the entire time."
A counselor told authorities that
the boy had to be restrained after about 10 p.m., according to an
incident report filed with the White County Sheriff's Department.
The boy started having trouble breathing, and camp officials called
911.
Before an ambulance arrived, the
boy quit breathing and staffers started CPR, the sheriff's report
said. He was taken to a hospital in Gainesville and transferred to
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. He died the next day.
Staff members at the wilderness
camp have been put on administrative leave while the incident is
investigated.
A Douglas County Juvenile Court
judge committed Travis to juvenile justice custody after a community
group recommended placing him in an outdoor therapeutic program,
Reilly said. Being in the agency's custody expedites a child's
placement in such a program.
Reilly was unsure why Travis was
in court, but he said the boy had a history with juvenile justice
authorities. He had his first brush with the law at about age 9,
Reilly said.
Wilderness therapy programs take
children who are addicted to drugs, in trouble with the law or out
of control at home and school and put them in a primitive outdoor
setting where they must learn to live and work together.
The Juvenile Justice Department
has about 20 children at the camp, which has room for 50, Reilly
said. Travis entered the camp in February, records show.
The boy lived in the small town of
Winston with his grandmother. The boy's family members could not be
reached for comment Thursday.
Peggy Walker, a Douglas
County Juvenile Court judge who knew Travis and attended his funeral
last week, was troubled by the circumstance that led to his death.
"I'm very distressed that he would be restrained for an hour and a
half."
"When we work with
children, what we're trying to do is provide the assistance they
need," the judge said. "Certainly the last thing that we want to do
is to do harm." [Emphasis added]
--- Staff writer Craig Schneider
contributed to this article.
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