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February 6, 2005
Teen’s
Parents Sue Camp Over Death: 15-Year-Old Died at Military-Style
School
ST. JOSEPH (AP)
- The parents of a 15-year-old boy who died while attending a
northwest Missouri boot camp have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit,
claiming the military-style facility failed to provide care fast
enough.
Roberto Reyes of
Santa Rosa, Calif., died Nov. 3, less than a week after being
enrolled at the Thayer Learning Center Boot Camp and Boarding School
in Kidder.
Medical
examiners have said his death was probably the result of a spider or
insect bite.
"Had Roberto
Reyes received competent medical intervention in a timely manner,"
the lawsuit states, "he would have survived."
An attorney for
Thayer, Ed Proctor, did not return a call to The Associated Press
seeking comment yesterday.
Proctor
previously told The Kansas City Star that "every child at Thayer has
immediate access to medical care at any time."
Aside from
inadequate care, Gracia and Victor Reyes claim their son was
dragged, hit, placed into solitary confinement and "forced to lay in
his own excrement for extended periods of time."
An attorney for
the Reyeses, James Thompson, said his clients were horrified by what
they learned.
"Their reaction
is shock," Thompson told the Star. "As more and more information
comes to light, they cannot even comprehend it."
According to the
suit filed Friday in Buchanan County Circuit Court, symptoms of
Roberto’s failing health "would have been present for a significant
period of time prior to his death."
"What he died
from, regardless of the cause, would not have led to a deterioration
of his condition in an immediate sense," Thompson said. "It’s a
process that would have taken time."
A child fatality
review panel issued a report in December saying that "earlier
medical treatment at the Thayer Learning Center may have prevented
this fatality."
No charges have
been filed in connection with Roberto’s death, though a division of
the Missouri Department of Social Services is conducting an
investigation.
The camp, which
enrolls about 100 teenagers, has no medical staff but contracts with
a local physician.
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