Author Topic: TX wilderness camp in news  (Read 1648 times)

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Offline PerfectStraightling

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TX wilderness camp in news
« on: September 20, 2004, 02:22:00 PM »
I've seen this on the news a few times lately, I thought I would post the story:



Wilderness camp may be closed after assaults alleged
 
State moves to revoke license; director cites Strayhorn 'vendetta'


09:00 PM CDT on Thursday, August 26, 2004
 

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
 


AUSTIN ? The state has moved to shut down and revoke the license of a Bastrop County wilderness camp where two male employees have been accused of sexually assaulting teenage boys.

"Your operation is an immediate threat to the health and safety of children, therefore, you are not to operate," Charlane Bateman, the state's director of residential child-care licensing, wrote to an officer of the Woodside Trails Therapeutic Camp.

Camp director Bebe Gaines, who has attributed its problems to a "political vendetta" by state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, said Thursday that the facility will fight the Department of Family and Protective Services' attempt to strip it of a license.

"We ... will ask for an administrative review," Ms. Gaines said in a statement. "Regardless of the outcome, I am proud of all the good that we have done for the most difficult of Texas's children."

Jackie Dewayne Reynolds Jr. 36, is accused in the indictments of waking a 13-year-old resident one night last spring and forcing the youth to engage in oral sex.

Robert Carl Meuth, 26, of San Marcos is accused of fondling and performing oral sex on a 15-year-old resident in late 2001.

Both men have posted $50,000 bail.

Woodside Trails, a primitive camp where the state has placed foster boys for two decades, has received numerous citations. In April, Ms. Strayhorn criticized it for mixing foster children with juvenile offenders.

Geoff Wool, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, said the state didn't act sooner to close the camp because it wasn't until the last three months that tipsters informed a state child-abuse hotline of the assault allegations.

"Basically, it was mounting evidence in a situation that needed to be addressed," Mr. Wool said.

"We had those four allegations that were all serious in nature that came up within a 10-week period."

Mr. Wool said he was referring to, in addition to the allegations of sexual abuse by staff members, two other incidents that a state inspector confirmed July 1 ? a beating by two boys of a third boy, causing head injuries; and a boy's obtaining marijuana from a female staff member's daughter.

Mr. Wool said child-care licensing authorities had to investigate and confirm the allegations before they decided Wednesday to move to revoke Woodside Trails' permit and order that all children be removed by this evening.

E-mail [email protected].
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Offline PerfectStraightling

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TX wilderness camp in news
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2004, 02:26:00 PM »
http://www.woodsidetrails.com/

Ruthless compassion...I think that says it all.[ This Message was edited by: jane on 2004-09-20 11:28 ]
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline ehm

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TX wilderness camp in news
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2004, 02:41:00 PM »
Hey! That looks and sounds a whole hellova lot like the place I went before Straight in Palastine Texas.

Thanks for the post Jane. :smile:

Everything that people say to you is personal. Whether it is constructive criticism or not will determine whether it cam from and asshole or not.

----Bill Warbis

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Offline PerfectStraightling

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TX wilderness camp in news
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2004, 06:36:00 PM »
You're welcome! It looks like this place is in Smithville, TX though. But maybe they're related somehow. They kept showing it on the news and it looked like a crap place to stay.
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Offline animals all of us

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TX wilderness camp in news
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2004, 11:07:00 PM »
And, as always, the parents are not to be implicated for leaving their children unsupervised which is why most children wind up in joints like this and molested and whooped up on or wind up dead.  Good going, parents!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »