Citizens of Cedar City: I'd like to commend you for your activism in trying to bring necessary reforms to the teen industry in Utah. Some children are being tortured and abused in these programs and they have no way to report this to the authorities. Rules and regulations that have been established for safety of children and staff are routinely violated. More must be done to prevent this and give these children a way to report violations and abuse.
I obtained hospital records. On one document alone there were three violations of Utah Core Rules. The core rules state that isolation can not be used for more than four hours unless a child is evaluated by a physician. The staff must try less drastic measures first and the isolation can not extend past normal sleeping hours. On day three of my mentally ill daughter's stay at Provo Canyon School six staff members bodily stripped her and restrained her and forced her to stay in a small, cold, concrete room from 1800 until 0130. On the document there are boxes to check indicated that staff tried less drastic measures first - like therapeutic comunication. NONE of these boxes were checked off. So on this one form three rules were broken - she was isolated for nearly 8 hours instead of 4 and it was past bedtime - 1:30 am. This is commonplace. She was later isolated for an entire week without notifying us. This was also a violation - parents are to be notified of isolation in excess of 24 hours (this must be ordered by an MD) Here again there are 6 violation - excessive time, past bedtime, no less drastic measures used, no MD evaluation, no notification of parents. All of this was reported to CPS, Licensing, DHS, and the Attorney General and to date - nothing has been done. This is documented - not a he said, she said situation. YOUR GOVERNMENT DID NOTHING, as far as I know. Many other parents do not go to bat for their kids who are abused. Some would care less or are led to believe that it is somehow necessary for their recovery.
These rules are in place for a reason - to prevent child abuse. The rules regarding staffing are there to prevent what happend to Anson. Escape attempts are commonplace for many reasons. Some of the kids are drug needy and addicted. Some are being abused. Some have mental illness and are being abused either physically, emotionally, verbally or psychologically. As we've seen with Anson - they can be desparate enough to severly injure or even kill a person who stands in their way of freedom. This will happen again if rules continue to be violated. In the case of Aaron Bacon who died as a result of extreme negligence, cruelty, starvation and exposure to the cold, many rules were violated. Only one of those responsible served jail time - three months.
More must be done. Unfortunatly many in leadership postitions are reluctant to kill the goose that gives the golden political donations. See for yourselves at:
http://www.opensecrets.orgLook up the Lichfields of St. George and you will see what I'm talking about. You can also plug in other names of administrators and owners of teen programs. Look up Rober Crist - administrator of Provo Canyon School. I think you will get the picture......
Best Wishes to all of you and keep working for reform. This must become a topic of discussion until it is resolved.
Were the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as infallible,[sic] too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere.... It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
http://laissezfairebooks.com/product.cfm?op=view&pid=FF7485&aid=10247' target='_new'>Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
[ This Message was edited by: cherish wisdom on 2004-06-24 00:56 ]
