Judge ends pulls plug on teen program
By Jacob Santini
The Salt Lake Tribune
October 25, 2003
It took 15 months, but Judith Pinson, the birth mother of a teen who died of heat exhaustion while hiking in a Utah outdoor wilderness therapy program last summer, finally received news Friday she had wanted to hear.
In a ruling released Friday, a state administrative judge revoked the operating license of Skyline Journey over the July 13, 2002, death of Ian August, a 14-year-old Texas boy enrolled in the program by his adoptive mother. The Nephi-based business has until next Friday to shut down and send an estimated 10 campers back to their homes.
"It's nice to get some good news," Pinson said in a telephone interview from Drumright, Okla. "It showed me somebody did pay attention. [Ian's] death means something."
Lee Wardle, an owner of the program, declined to say if Skyline Journey would appeal the ruling to a district court.
"I don't want to say anything at this point," Wardle said.
Ruling on just one of four operating violations alleged by the state during a series of hearings earlier this summer, the judge found that Skyline failed to provide a description of the environment and demands of the program on a form sent to a Texas doctor who cleared August to enroll.
Calling the requirement "one of the most critical rules governing wilderness programs," Sheleigh Harding, a Department of Human Service's administrative judge, said "Ian's doctor never had the opportunity to determine whether Ian's 'fair' physical condition would make him an appropriate candidate for the types of activities Skyline Journey would require him to do."
August stood at 5 feet 3 inches and weighed 198 pounds and was taking a medication that may have made him susceptible to overheating.
On the day of his death, August set out with five other teens and three counselors on a scheduled 3-mile trek across the Sawtooth Mountain region in western Millard County as a heat wave set records across the state. The group had covered little more than a mile in about 3 1/2 hours when August crested a ridge and refused to hike further.
The teen reportedly stood and sat in the sun for at least an hour before collapsing and being moved to the shade of two trees, according to court records. By 1:30 p.m., August stopped breathing and counselors were unable to revive him through several hours of CPR.
An autopsy later determined the teen died of hyperthermia, better known as heat exhaustion.
Mark Wardle, a program manager and part-owner of Skyline Journey, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in August's death when a 4th District Court judge dismissed a charge of child abuse homicide against him in February.
Judith August, the teen's adoptive mother who reportedly has defended Skyline Journey in the past, didn't return telephone calls Friday.
Ken Stettler, the director of the state Office of Licensing, which regulates wilderness therapy programs in Utah (there are five others now operating), said Harding's ruling is "what we expected."
"I'm never pleased to see a program lose its license and operators losing their livelihood," he added.
The state also had alleged the Skyline staff failed to treat August in a timely manner, the hike exceeded the capabilities of the weakest member and the program failed to complete a review of the teen's health history before accepting him for enrollment.
Harding, however, declined to rule on the three allegations because a program can lose its license for just one violation.
State law requires wilderness programs to obtain a license prior to starting operations. That provision would prevent the Wardles from starting another program in Utah under a new name, Stettler said. But there is nothing to prevent them from starting a program in another state.
Cathy Sutton, the mother of the first teen to die in a Utah wilderness program 13 years ago, has fought unsuccessfully for years to create national regulations and licenses to govern the industry and its operators.
"I'm tired of saying the same thing," Sutton, of Ripon, Calif., said Friday. "The only thing that gets me thrilled, excited, and is worth talking about, is national legislation."
Sutton's daughter, Michelle, 15, died in May 1990 while hiking in the Arizona Strip as part of a St. George-based program. Authorities attributed her death to dehydration, heat exhaustion and altitude sickness. The state eventually closed the program; the Suttons received $345,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit they brought against the program.
In the years since, Sutton's campaign for national regulations has done little, as programs across the country have remained popular and many parents praise them for changing the lives of their troubled children.
But today, Sutton has one additional ally.
"Not an hour goes by in the day that I don't think of him," Pinson said of the son she gave up at birth but with whom she remained in contact through an open adoption arrangement. "He's always in my heart. . . . Why should other parents have to go through what I have?"
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See link below for further details
http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestead.c ... young.html