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June 10, 1996
The rise and fall of Steve Cartisano
by Christopher Smith
"Break the kids down and build them back up."
 That’s
the philosophy of Utah native Steve Cartisano, often called the
godfather of wilderness therapy treatment. When the former military
special forces officer and Brigham Young University dropout founded
a company called Challenger in 1988, it took off like a rocket,
grossing $3.2 million in its first year and spawning several
imitators.
Cartisano apparently hit upon the idea of
intimidating tough kids into submission through outdoor survival
while studying communications at Brigham Young University in the
mid-1980s. Some say he borrowed the concept from a former BYU
professor, Larry Dean Olsen, who eventually left the BYU faculty in
the 1970s to help start another therapy school, the nonprofit
Anasazi Foundation.
But while Olsen gave teens choices in the wild
so they could learn from mistakes, Cartisano applied what he liked
to call "street smarts’ to problem kids: Strip searches and military
haircuts. He adopted a drill-sergeant style of speech which required
"Yes sir!" answers. Rules were strict and heavily enforced - a girl
caught saying "I’m sorry" instead of "I apologize" would be punished
by carrying a football-sized chunk of cow manure all day in her
backpack. A boy caught eating raw oatmeal instead of cooking it
would have his oatmeal ration taken away. Good behavior for
Challenger students was rewarded with canned peaches, raisins or
cinnamon.
By many accounts, Cartisano got results. The
rich and famous flocked to the school: Satisfied customers included
the Winthrop Rockefeller family of Arkansas, who placed a daughter
and later a son in Cartisano’s programs. Iran-Contra conspirator
Oliver North visited a Challenger camp in southern Utah during the
summer of 1989.
But the high-profile, big-profit days of
Challenger ended in 1990 when Kristin Chase, a Florida teen on her
fourth day in the program, stumbled during a hike on Utah’s
scorching Kaiparowits Plateau and collapsed. Revived once, she
hallucinated, fell and died, according to authorities. Because of a
partially inoperable radio, it took two hours before professional
medical help arrived.
Cartisano and Challenger were charged with
negligent homicide and nine misdemeanor counts of child abuse. The
company soon filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy after falling more than $1
million into debt. While Cartisano was acquitted of all criminal
charges in Chase’s death in 1992, the national publicity spawned a
slew of civil suits against his company. Seven federal suits
alleging negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress,
fraud and breach of contract were filed August 1989 and November
1993. All were settled out of court.
Cartisano was subsequently banned from
operating any child treatment program in Utah and later in Hawaii,
where another version of Challenger faltered in 1990. He later
orchestrated similar programs in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Virgin Islands. None were ever licensed; each left behind a
trail of angry parents and unpaid bills.
Cartisano’s latest venture was working as a
supervisor of a dormitory for American Indian students on a
reservation in Oklahoma. But late last year, when a Bureau of Indian
Affairs officer read a magazine article about wilderness therapy
that featured Cartisano’s history and photograph, Cartisano was
fired.
His philosophy has continued to flourish,
however. Two former employees who testified against him in return
for immunity from prosecution went on to found an outdoor survival
school. Decrying Cartisano’s allegedly abusive ways, Bill Henry and
Lance Jaggar were licensed by Utah officials and began operating a
teen wilderness program in 1992. Called North Star Expeditions, it’s
the same outfit that is now accused of negligence in the death of
Aaron Bacon.
Cartisano at Challenger camp. Salt
Lake Tribune
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