Sheriff recommends death be identified a homicide - Sagewalk

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[DannyB II]

http://www.wilderness-therapy-programs.com/faqs.htm

Will my child be safe?

A: The safety of our students is our "number one" concern, and SageWalk is highly involved with risk
management and safety at all times. Our staff is required to be thoroughly trained in the latest techniques for both medical and non-medical emergencies and evacuation drills are held on a regular basis.

SageWalk goes beyond:

* We require all Head Instructors to be Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certified
* All students medical needs are overseen by registered nurse
* Each family is automatically enrolled in Air-Life (a medical helicopter evacuation plan)
* All staff are thoroughly trained and have Satellite Cellular phones, or cellular phones
* All Field Instructors are required to make safety check in calls to base twice a day
* SageWalk keeps an ERV (Emergency Relief Vehicle) near the field location at all times
* All Instructors are required to be in student briefing prior to their shift
* All Students in the SageWalk program are thoroughly screened by a Physician prior to going to the field

SageWalk supports the highest standard of safety and our goal is to keep your child's environment safe as well as productive.

Sagewalk did not live up to the "highest standard of safety"  on Aug. 28, 2009 when Sergey Blashchishen died.  The State of Oregon should shut Sagewalk down.  

 :shamrock:  :shamrock:
Thank You, Joel...This says it all.
Danny

[Antigen]

Interesting tidbit

Sagewalk employed Aaron Bacon's murderer, Eric Henry during a 9 month diversion agreement following Bacon's death. Then went on to Obsidian Trails where another death occured.
http://www.sociopranos.com/forums/threa ... &start=401

Long term memory problems?

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Antigen]

The program could feed, detox and stabilize the child for a week and then get clearance from a test (blood test) of some sort which deems the child healthy enough to move into the wilderness program. Just coming off butts and junk food suddenly would be enough to put the body in shock and throw off the electrolytes I would think.

Exactly! In military boot camp, this is what they call Weather Acclimation. New recruits spend about a week in process, getting clothes, standing in formation, drinking water about every 15 minutes, full diet, down time at night, etc. It's a tough enough regimen. You can be punished for failure to drink enough water, rolling up your sleeves and getting sun burnt or failure to follow any directive at all without question. The charge is usually "damaging government property". But they also have IV sets on-hand and, if your battle buddy reports that you're looking kinda puny, the Sergent WILL order the medic to shove a thermometer up your ass and hydrate you by IV if you over-heat.

But in the military, the object is to produce soldiers who will be fit and trained to function under adverse conditions. In the Program, from the midnight abduction all the way through to the exit plan, the object is to break the inductee and produce a totally dependent, helpless person who can't think for themselves if their life or the life of one of their charges depended on it. Program staff are the success stories. These guys did just exactly as they were trained to do. That's why this keeps happening again and again.

[DannyB II]

The program could feed, detox and stabilize the child for a week and then get clearance from a test (blood test) of some sort which deems the child healthy enough to move into the wilderness program. Just coming off butts and junk food suddenly would be enough to put the body in shock and throw off the electrolytes I would think.

Exactly! In military boot camp, this is what they call Weather Acclimation. New recruits spend about a week in process, getting clothes, standing in formation, drinking water about every 15 minutes, full diet, down time at night, etc. It's a tough enough regimen. You can be punished for failure to drink enough water, rolling up your sleeves and getting sun burnt or failure to follow any directive at all without question. The charge is usually "damaging government property". But they also have IV sets on-hand and, if your battle buddy reports that you're looking kinda puny, the Sergent WILL order the medic to shove a thermometer up your ass and hydrate you by IV if you over-heat.




 :shamrock:  :shamrock:
That is a bit of a exaggeration but thanks, point well taken. Many of men in bootcamp and war are dying due to lack of proper integration and nutrition, you just don't hear about it. Military Machine. It is called dying do to Bla Bla Bla.....

 

But in the military, the object is to produce soldiers who will be fit and trained to function under adverse conditions. In the Program, from the midnight abduction all the way through to the exit plan, the object is to break the inductee and produce a totally dependent, helpless person who can't think for themselves if their life or the life of one of their charges depended on it. Program staff are the success stories. These guys did just exactly as they were trained to do. That's why this keeps happening again and again.

 :shamrock:  :shamrock:
Antigen, I just used the analogy of my being in bootcamp and how they went about nutrition before sending us out on a hike as a example of "Hey WTF" are you doing sending a young kid out on a 2 mile hike within 24 hrs of getting to this camp. I just thought (common sense) would prevail.
I agree with you 100% that what they did with this child from the time he was abducted to his untimely death
was a blatant disregard for human freedom and life. You will never see myself argue this point.
Danny

[Antigen]

I quoted a comment by the investigator and don't believe people sit around watching children die at a picnic.  But I could be reading into your statement wrong.  If any people honestly believe those are my true thoughts, then I'm beyond offended. That I would take very personal.  

No, no, no! I didn't mean it that way at all and don't think that of you. Please don't take me the wrong way. I'm only making the point that lack of oversight doesn't really explain it all. These "counselors" aren't just lacking in good instruction. Seems they're influenced by decidedly bad instruction. Ya' know, The Tools®.

Anyway, I haven't read the rest of the thread. Just wanted to try and clear that up. Peace? Ya peace and carats.















Reading......

[Whooter]

The program could feed, detox and stabilize the child for a week and then get clearance from a test (blood test) of some sort which deems the child healthy enough to move into the wilderness program. Just coming off butts and junk food suddenly would be enough to put the body in shock and throw off the electrolytes I would think.

Exactly! In military boot camp, this is what they call Weather Acclimation. New recruits spend about a week in process, getting clothes, standing in formation, drinking water about every 15 minutes, full diet, down time at night, etc. It's a tough enough regimen. You can be punished for failure to drink enough water, rolling up your sleeves and getting sun burnt or failure to follow any directive at all without question. The charge is usually "damaging government property". But they also have IV sets on-hand and, if your battle buddy reports that you're looking kinda puny, the Sergent WILL order the medic to shove a thermometer up your ass and hydrate you by IV if you over-heat.

But in the military, the object is to produce soldiers who will be fit and trained to function under adverse conditions. In the Program, from the midnight abduction all the way through to the exit plan, the object is to break the inductee and produce a totally dependent, helpless person who can't think for themselves if their life or the life of one of their charges depended on it. Program staff are the success stories. These guys did just exactly as they were trained to do. That's why this keeps happening again and again.

If it turns out this would have saved Sergey’s life I am sure this is something the programs could implement.  The parents are not going to have a problem having the child stabilized prior to setting out on a hike.  This could be done by a third party or by the program themselves.

As far as the programs trying to make a dependent child who cannot think for themselves.  This could not be farther from the truth.  I think if you looked at the kids who didn’t do so well then maybe they do become followers.  But the kids I have seen coming out of these places are fully independent and have matured well beyond their peers and do very well in college and life.  I can see how one would get this impression by just reading here on fornits, but there are tens of thousands of kids who go thru these programs every year, very few end up here on fornits.  So it is a biased cross section that we see here, in my opinion, which leads you to your conclusion.



...

[Whooter]

http://www.wilderness-therapy-programs.com/faqs.htm

Will my child be safe?

A: The safety of our students is our "number one" concern, and SageWalk is highly involved with risk
management and safety at all times. Our staff is required to be thoroughly trained in the latest techniques for both medical and non-medical emergencies and evacuation drills are held on a regular basis.

SageWalk goes beyond:

* We require all Head Instructors to be Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certified
* All students medical needs are overseen by registered nurse
* Each family is automatically enrolled in Air-Life (a medical helicopter evacuation plan)
* All staff are thoroughly trained and have Satellite Cellular phones, or cellular phones
* All Field Instructors are required to make safety check in calls to base twice a day
* SageWalk keeps an ERV (Emergency Relief Vehicle) near the field location at all times
* All Instructors are required to be in student briefing prior to their shift
* All Students in the SageWalk program are thoroughly screened by a Physician prior to going to the field

SageWalk supports the highest standard of safety and our goal is to keep your child's environment safe as well as productive.

Sagewalk did not live up to the "highest standard of safety"  on Aug. 28, 2009 when Sergey Blashchishen died.  The State of Oregon should shut Sagewalk down.  

Wow, Great post Joel.  So the program does go to great lengths to keep these children safe.  But even with their defined safety net a child was able to slip through the cracks.  I am sure the investigation team will compare the above safety measures to what occurred in real life along with the cause of Sergeys death and come up with the root cause and who dropped the ball.
I think this puts to rest the theory that programs have the local cops in the hip pocket.  I am sure the other wilderness programs are following this investigation closely also.



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[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Antigen]

If it turns out this would have saved Sergey’s life I am sure this is something the programs could implement.

Yeah, no shit, Shirlock! Could have back when Aaron Bacon died back in `94.

The question of the decade is "Why haven't they?"

[Whooter]

Whooter the best you can say is "Wow, Great post Joel?" You are a true piece of work. Sagewalk (Aspen Education Group owned wilderness program) failed to utilize the tools at their discretion in order to save a life. This speaks volumes about the programs integrity and leadership. There is no excuse for what the staff did at Sagewalk Whooter and I'm not convinced you understand that.

Your exactly right, Joel, I don’t understand.  That is why I am asking the question of what went wrong. Anyone who cares about Sergey should be wondering the same thing I am.   Which tools did they fail to utilize?  You were not specific and what could they have done differently which would have saved Sergeys life?  Can you post the steps that directly caused Sergey to die instead of lists?

I mentioned twice on page 10 of this thread the State of Oregon should shut Sagewalk down. Sagewalk fucked up when they hired Eric Henry then their latest fuckup resulting in the death of an innocent child's life. Yet, you still say, "Wow, Great post Joel."

So do you think if you mention it 3 times the state will listen to you? lol If we followed your advice and just shut down Sagewalk how will this help other kids in other wilderness camps?  I am interested in determining root cause so that other kid’s lives can be saved.  Why are you not interested in this?

If someone dies of food poisoning in a restaurant that is part of a chain how would it help to just shut down the restaurant without determining how it occurred?  Wouldnt you be concerned that the other restaurants could make the same mistake?



...

[Whooter]

If it turns out this would have saved Sergey’s life I am sure this is something the programs could implement.

Yeah, no shit, Shirlock! Could have back when Aaron Bacon died back in `94.

The question of the decade is "Why haven't they?"

Exactly!!  Why does everyone take the macro view here on fornits and feel if we just destroyed the wilderness then maybe there would not be any more wilderness programs and no more kids would die.  Shutting down programs isnt going to save lives.  43,000 people die in car accidents every year.  Would a smart solution to this be to make all vehicles illegal and just stop driving?  or should we look to work on solutions from an intelligent point of view?

Kids are going to die in programs and if you shut the programs down kids will die someplace else.  The key is to continuously improve them and reduce the risk and make them safer and safer.  Programs may be 1,000% safer than when Aaron died in '94 and we have been able to avert many deaths because of the changes that have been made since then, who knows?
According to Oscars data less than 1 child dies every year in programs.  Thousands die each year in the public school system and thousands more die at home.

The one thing that many here do not seem to care about are the specific events that caused Sergeys death.... identify these events and plug the hole in other programs.  How come people want to burn down the forest?



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[Anne Bonney]

But in the military, the object is to produce soldiers who will be fit and trained to function under adverse conditions. In the Program, from the midnight abduction all the way through to the exit plan, the object is to break the inductee and produce a totally dependent, helpless person who can't think for themselves if their life or the life of one of their charges depended on it. Program staff are the success stories. These guys did just exactly as they were trained to do. That's why this keeps happening again and again.

 :tup: