Author Topic: Another death last week at an Aspen program  (Read 21850 times)

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Offline Whooter

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #120 on: November 15, 2009, 08:06:05 PM »
Quote from: "Guest"
You were deviant, stupid and lazy as usual.  To coin a phrase, that's no way to go through life, son.

Awe come on thewho got rid of the RobertBruce guy for us or atleast drove him underground. No one can say they miss Bruces constant trolling of thewho.  Thewho keeps the place colorful at least.  I filled in for him just to see if I could pull it off that’s all.  I did good I think.
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #121 on: November 15, 2009, 08:08:00 PM »
I don't believe you think at all.  You run off of your amygdala.
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Offline Troll Control

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #122 on: November 16, 2009, 12:18:22 PM »
Yes, "thinking" and "TheWho" in the same sentence is a nonsequitor.  Coincidentally (?) the nonsequitor is what he uses to derail threads about Aspen abuse.

So, back on topic:  Aspen Education MURDERED this boy in their care by force marching him until he collapsed and refusing medical attention until he was dead.
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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #123 on: November 16, 2009, 06:56:45 PM »
Quote from: "AuntieEm2"
Another teen has died in an Aspen-run program.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ss ... nd_di.html

Sergey Blashchishen, 16, died Friday, August 28, 2009. He had been there one day. This is not an isolated incident. We'll wait for the details to emerge, but I expect we will hear the familiar story of events emerge: The teen complains about not feeling well, and is ignored. Then the teen vomits, and is ignored. Then the teen collapes, and the staff on hand is not trained to save the child's life. How many times have we heard this story?

I am so angry. Please keep this boy and this family in your thoughts.

Thanks to CAFETY for alerting me to this story.

Auntie Em
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From The Oregonian

Portland teen collapses and dies during wilderness camp hike
by Stephen Beaven, The Oregonian
Tuesday September 01, 2009, 2:44 PM

The Lake County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of a Portland teen who collapsed during a hike as part of a wilderness camp exercise, a spokesman said today.

Sergey Blashchishen, 16, died Friday after collapsing about 2:30 p.m., said Deputy Chuck Pore. An autopsy was performed on Sunday but the results are incomplete and a cause of death has not been determined, Pore said.

Investigators are trying to find out if Blashchishen, who lived in Northeast Portland, had any medical problems that might have contributed to his death, Pore said. He had passed a physical the day before he died.

Blashchishen was attending the SageWalk wilderness school, a program for troubled teens based in Redmond. He was hiking with a group in northern Lake County between Burns and Bend when he got sick.

"He said he didn't feel good and shortly after that collapsed," Pore said.

The Bureau of Land Management has suspended the permit for SageWalk to operate on BLM land, pending the outcome of the investigation. It could not be confirmed if Blashchishen was on BLM property when he collapsed.

"SageWalk considers student safety our number one priority and takes this incident very seriously," SageWalk Executive Director Mike Bednarz said in a statement.

Lyudmila Blashchishena, Sergey's mother, said she was told that her son vomited and then passed out during the hike, adding that he did not suffer from any medical conditions.

"We are still so shocked," she said. "He always did sports, never had any disease. How could he pass away just from hiking?"

Blashchishen dropped out of Parkrose High School last year, his mother said, and enrolled in the wilderness school on Thursday.

He had worked construction and lived with an uncle before deciding to go to SageWalk.

"He asked me to place him in the boot camp," his mother said. "He really wanted to change his behavior."

--Stephen Beaven; stevebeaven@news.oregonian.com

This is sad.  when will the authorities stop Aspen's killing in the name of "treatment"?  How many more have to die before Aspen is closed for good?  1?  10?  50?
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Offline Troll Control

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #124 on: November 18, 2009, 06:25:06 PM »
They have killed children before.  Another Aspen facility in Texas called LoneStar was shut down right after they killed a kid there too.  It seems like everywhere Aspen operates, kids are being killed.  They should shut down Aspen as a whole.  Their track record is abysmal and they even admitted in court recently while being sued over not providing treatment as they promised that they don't, never did and never will provide any treatment and that the statement was just "advertising."  Sheesh.  There is just no reason to hire them if they already admit under oath that they're not providing any treatment services.  How dumb can parents be to even think about using Aspen? :suicide:  :poison:
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Offline Whooter

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #125 on: November 18, 2009, 06:33:40 PM »
They have killed children before.  Another Aspen facility in Texas called LoneStar was shut down right after they killed a kid there too.  It seems like everywhere Aspen operates, kids are being killed.  They should shut down Aspen as a whole.  Their track record is abysmal and they even admitted in court recently while being sued over not providing treatment as they promised that they don't, never did and never will provide any treatment and that the statement was just "advertising."  Sheesh, they even admitted to being involved in the 911 attacks.  There is just no reason to hire them if they already admit under oath that they're not providing any treatment services.  How dumb can parents be to even think about using Aspen? :suicide:  :poison:
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Offline Troll Control

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #126 on: November 18, 2009, 06:38:45 PM »
Quote from: "Guest"
They have killed children before.  Another Aspen facility in Texas called LoneStar was shut down right after they killed a kid there too.  It seems like everywhere Aspen operates, kids are being killed.  They should shut down Aspen as a whole.  Their track record is abysmal and they even admitted in court recently while being sued over not providing treatment as they promised that they don't, never did and never will provide any treatment and that the statement was just "advertising."  Sheesh.  There is just no reason to hire them if they already admit under oath that they're not providing any treatment services.  How dumb can parents be to even think about using Aspen? :suicide:  :poison:

That's exactly right, guest.  And you know what?  No amount of trolling this thread will change those facts, but this thread will stay at the top.  And when people come here, they read threads from the beginning, so trolling it is insuring more people read the facts and news articles right in the front of the thread.  The fact that Aspen abuses and kills children is in cold print, right up front, with links to the news stories confirming the facts reported in this guest's post.
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Offline Whooter

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #127 on: November 18, 2009, 07:22:12 PM »
Quote from: "Guest"
Quote from: "Guest"
They have killed children before.  Another Aspen facility in Texas called LoneStar was shut down right after they killed a kid there too.  It seems like everywhere Aspen operates, kids are being killed.  They should shut down Aspen as a whole.  Their track record is abysmal and they even admitted in court recently while being sued over not providing treatment as they promised that they don't, never did and never will provide any treatment and that the statement was just "advertising."  Sheesh.  There is just no reason to hire them if they already admit under oath that they're not providing any treatment services.  How dumb can parents be to even think about using Aspen? :suicide:  :poison:

That's exactly right, guest.  And you know what?  No amount of trolling this thread will change those facts, but this thread will stay at the top.  And when people come here, they read threads from the beginning, so trolling it is insuring more people read the facts and news articles right in the front of the thread.  The fact that Aspen abuses and kills children is in cold print, right up front, with links to the news stories confirming the facts reported in this guest's post.

You seem to have missed the point.
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Offline Troll Control

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #128 on: November 18, 2009, 09:09:00 PM »
Quote from: "23PMROEC"
http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=11137730
Redmond wilderness school suspends operations
Posted: Sep 15, 2009 08:14 PM CDT
Video Gallery <1>
SageWalk sends students home amid probe (9/15)
2:12
 
Lake County sheriff's deputies served search warrant Monday at SageWalk Wilderness School's Redmond office
Sergey Blashchishen's mother said her son had asked to go into wilderness school for troubled teens
State DHS, Lake County investigating teen's death on first hike; offices searched
From KTVZ.COM news sources

A Redmond-based wilderness school said Tuesday it has agreed to suspend operations amid state and Lake County investigations into the death of a 16-year-old Portland boy on his first hike with the school, in a remote area east of Bend late last month.

Word of the halt to operations came one day after Lake County sheriff's deputies traveled from Lakeview and executed a search warrant at the Redmond office of SageWalk Wilderness School, as part of its continuing investigation into the death of Sergey Blashchishen.

The school issued a statement Tuesday indicating it had learned the Oregon Department of Human Services' Office of Investigations and Training is looking into the Aug. 28 death about 60 miles east of Bend.

Results of an autopsy conducted by the Lake County medical examiner have not been released, so it's not known yet if a cause of death has been determined. The teen's mother said she was told her son vomited, collapsed and died, despite efforts to revive him.

Michael Bednarz, executive director of the school, declined to comment on-camera Tuesday to NewsChannel 21, but provided the following written statement:

A Statement from SageWalk

SageWalk Wilderness School has received notice of an investigation by the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) Office of Investigations and Training due to the recent death of one of our students that occurred on August 28.  DHS has requested that we remove all students from SageWalk until the investigation is complete, and we are cooperating with this request.

In addition, local law enforcement is conducting an investigation and has executed a search warrant.  We have not seen the affidavit for the search warrant and are therefore not in a position to discuss any factual matters or further details.  

We firmly believe there to be no basis for these actions.  At this time, the exact details surrounding the student's death are still being determined and autopsy results are not yet available.

SageWalk considers student safety our number one priority and is confident in a positive resolution to this investigation.  Over the course of our 12 year history, our program has adhered to the highest standards of care and we currently meet or exceed all industry and state standards.  We were the first wilderness program to be individually accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, and we are licensed by the State of Oregon to work with students who are experiencing issues with substance abuse and are also licensed by the State of Oregon as both an Outdoor Youth Program and Private School.

Due to the limited information available, this is all we are able to communicate at this time.  

Mike Bednarz, MS, MBA
Executive Director
SageWalk Wilderness School

Man, I'm glad the authorities are finally starting to shut down Aspen programs.  There have been a lot of kids dying in Aspen facilities recently and lots and lots of documented, proven abuse.
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Offline wild thing

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #129 on: November 19, 2009, 01:03:22 PM »
We firmly believe there to be no basis for these actions.
A student died, not the first, in their care and there is no basis for action?  How bloody cold hearted and ignorant is that?

Over the course of our 12 year history, our program has adhered to the highest standards of care and we currently meet or exceed all industry and state standards.
The industry standards?  What a joke, "the industry" makes billions from the pain and suffering of children and families.  They are ghouls without standards themselves, except making the bucks, how can they possibly set standards?

We were the first wilderness program to be individually accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, and we are licensed by the State of Oregon to work with students who are experiencing issues with substance abuse and are also licensed by the State of Oregon as both an Outdoor Youth Program and Private School.
It takes nothing, but filling out a form to receive accredidation from the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, hence many states do not recognize these wilderness programs and they cannot receive funding from educational funds states and districts set aside for bonafide "non-public schools."  There is no actual education in these programs and yet NAAS will certify them for a price.  As far as a licensed private school, again, it is a simple form to be completed and mailed into the state.
Close the whole industry down!
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Offline Troll Control

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #130 on: November 21, 2009, 08:49:53 AM »
If not the whole industry, at least all Aspen programs.  They are the worst of the worst.  They kill, abuse and neglect kids on a regular basis and are being shut down left and right by state governments.  Bye-bye, Aspen programs.  Your reputation is horrible and deserved.  Enrollment is dropping like a stone.
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Offline wild thing

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #131 on: November 21, 2009, 12:36:47 PM »
The industry needs to be regulated by a governmental body other than regulating themselves...we've already seen how well that worked with Wall Street and banking!  All of these so called "therapeutic" programs should be licensed by State Mental Health as well as made to follow the education codes of their respective states. The educational piece should be delivered via state standards and guidelines and the should be held accountable via standardized testing (the Stanford for private schools would work).
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #132 on: November 21, 2009, 12:51:25 PM »
Quote from: "wild thing"
Over the course of our 12 year history, our program has adhered to the highest standards of care and we currently meet or exceed all industry and state standards.
The industry standards? What a joke, "the industry" makes billions from the pain and suffering of children and families. They are ghouls without standards themselves, except making the bucks, how can they possibly set standards?

The industry does set standards: the standard is to make billions from the pain and suffering of children and families.  Sounds like Aspen does adhere  to ( and may possibly surpace )the highest standards of making money from and inflicting more pain upon suffering children and their families.
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #133 on: November 21, 2009, 12:54:20 PM »
I meant "surpass"...sometimes its too friggin' frustrating to correct errors due to the intensely altered state required to actually read the conf. code. ???
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Offline FreeOfCC

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Re: Another death last week at an Aspen program
« Reply #134 on: November 24, 2009, 11:38:21 PM »
Investigator calls wilderness school reckless in teen’s death
A 16-year-old collapsed and died on an August hike in Lake County; a sheriff’s deputy says interviews indicate the school may have skirted disaster before
By Erin Golden / The Bulletin
Published: October 20. 2009 4:00AM PST

The investigation into the death of a 16-year-old Portland boy who collapsed on a hike with a Redmond-based wilderness school this summer is focusing on reports that the boy may not have had proper nutrition and medical care before and during his hike through a remote area of northern Lake County.

In an affidavit requesting a search warrant to seek documents and other evidence from SageWalk Wilderness School’s Southwest Obsidian Avenue office last month, Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Poré wrote that he believes Sergey Blashchishen’s death was a homicide and the result of criminal mistreatment and reckless endangerment by the school.

No charges have been filed against SageWalk or any individuals, and the investigation is expected to continue for another few months.

But Poré said Monday that the information he gathered to make his case for a search warrant — including interviews with school staff members who said Blashchishen started showing signs of distress hours before anyone called 911 — are still pointing him in the direction of a crime.

“I have not changed my course from what I saw when I made the application for the search warrant,” Poré said.

Blashchishen died on Aug. 28. About two weeks later, SageWalk Executive Director Mike Bednarz said the Oregon Department of Human Services had ordered the school to send all of its students home.

On Sept. 14, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office executed the search warrant, taking more than 400 files and Blashchishen’s camping equipment.

On Monday, Bednarz said no students are currently at the school, but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing law enforcement and state Department of Human Services investigations.

Surprise pickup

SageWalk is one of a handful of wilderness schools in Central Oregon for teens dealing with emotional and behavioral issues or other problems, including substance abuse.

According to the affidavit, the boy’s mother, Lyudmila Blashchishen, wrote on a school form that her son was aggressive, sometimes rude and uninterested in studying or thinking about his future. On Aug. 26, Blashchishen’s parents enrolled him in SageWalk without his knowledge.

On Aug. 27, between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., two “transporters” contracted by SageWalk woke Blashchishen at his home in Portland to take him to SageWalk, according to the affidavit. Blashchishen’s parents, who had been told to be away when their son was picked up, watched from a neighbor’s house.

Poré wrote in the affidavit that surprise early-morning pickups are a frequent occurrence for new SageWalk students.

Blashchishen arrived in Redmond around 9 a.m. and was later transported to a medical facility for blood tests and a drug screening, according to the affidavit. He tested positive for THC, a substance found in marijuana, but a staff member present for the testing said no additional questions were asked about Blashchishen’s drug use or his two-year cigarette smoking habit, which his mother had listed on a school medical history form.

Around 1 p.m., Blashchishen was blindfolded and put in a vehicle headed to the school’s base camp in Lake County. Around the area of Hampton Station, Blashchishen said he wanted the blindfold removed, and staff members agreed to take the blindfold off and let the boy lie in the back seat if he’d look only at the vehicle’s ceiling.

Blashchishen was never told where he was going or what would happen to him, according to the affidavit.

Once he arrived at camp, Blashchishen met other students. The conversation turned to drug use, and Blashchishen talked about purchasing the drug OxyContin.

Calorie count


The students later had a meal of rice and lentils. Though some students were allowed to ask for up to five cups of food, Blashchishen, as a newcomer, was offered just two, according to the affidavit.

DHS regulations for wilderness schools require all students to be offered no less than 3,000 calories of food per day.

Poré wrote that SageWalk staff members could not provide information about what else, if anything, Blashchishen ate before the meal of lentils and rice. He wrote that the boy could have had as few as 400 calories during the day.

That day, Blashchishen wrote a poem, in which he described the camp scene — “squirrels/running around/blue skies/green bushes and trees/but I’m still hungry.”

Staff members Poré interviewed later said they did not recall Blashchishen saying he was hungry.

The next morning, at 11:45, Blashchishen, the other students, and three staff members had breakfast and set off for a hike south of Hampton.

Blashchishen carried his camping gear, food, water and clothing in a pack that weighed between 40 and 50 pounds, according to the affidavit. He set out at a “good pace” in the front of the rest of the group, though he didn’t know how far he’d be hiking that day. The terrain was dusty, with tall brush and little shade.

About an hour later, one of the staff members noticed Blashchishen walking strangely. The group took a break and Blashchishen drank water and consumed electrolytes.

When the hike continued, another staff member noticed that Blashchishen had started carrying his backpack in a different way, and he was “not resting efficiently,” but did not ask the boy if he was having problems, according to the affidavit.

Staff members told Poré that they did not push Blashchishen to continue on, but added that other students encouraged him to continue.

As the hike went on, the staff members said Blashchishen fell several times, but pulled himself up and kept walking. Just after 2 p.m., staff members called the school’s field supervisor to report that Blashchishen had vomited, but the hike continued.

Less than a half-hour later, about one mile from where the hike had begun, Blashchishen collapsed and lay on his back in the sun. The other students moved to the shade and began preparing lunch.

Blashchishen declined the offer of food and shortly after began flailing his arms and yelling in a foreign language, according to the affidavit. Staff members said the boy began to hyperventilate before his breathing slowed and then stopped altogether.

Call for help


One staff member told Poré that by the time Blashchishen stopped breathing, he’d been thinking about calling for help, but had not. At 2:36 p.m., staff members called a school nurse, who then told another staff member to call 911.

In the affidavit, Poré wrote that the call came much too late.

“This was not a call in progress explaining that Sergey was doing weird things and then during the conversation he collapsed,” Poré wrote. “This call began with the announcement of the cessation of life and the beginning of CPR. This is a call that should have gone first and directly to 911.”

Two staff members trained as emergency medical technicians performed CPR for about 45 minutes before an AirLink helicopter arrived from Bend. But by the time the helicopter arrived, Blashchishen was already dead. Deputies from the Deschutes and Lake County Sheriff’s offices were called to the scene.

Poré arrived around 7 p.m., nearly five hours after staff members had begun CPR and more than three hours after they’d stopped lifesaving efforts. He rolled Blashchishen onto his side to examine him, and was surprised to find the boy’s body still warm.

“Never before have I encountered a body that was warmer than my own touch, and it was especially remarkable as it was overcast and had been hours since death. ... Although I was gloved I was wearing short sleeves and could feel the heat radiation against my own skin,” Poré wrote. “My senses likened the feeling to touching someone who had just gotten out of a hot shower.”

The investigation continues


The State Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the results of an autopsy, and in a preliminary death certificate signed on Aug. 30 by Dr. James Olson, the deputy state medical examiner for Southern Oregon, Blashchishen’s cause of death was listed as “pending.”

But on the certificate, Olson listed hyperthermia — the condition that occurs when a person’s body temperature rises to abnormally high levels — as a possible contributing factor.

In his affidavit, Poré alleges that SageWalk was negligent on several counts. He wrote that school staff members should have asked more questions about Blashchishen’s tobacco and drug use before sending him off on a hike. In addition, he said the school failed to consider the stress that could have been created by the previous day’s early-morning pickup and blindfolded transport to the campsite.

Finally, Poré wrote that the staff members should have responded more quickly to Blashchishen’s signs of distress on the hike.

Gordon Gannicott, a Portland attorney representing Blashchishen’s family, said his clients agree with Poré’s conclusions.

“I think the family is upset about what happened to Sergey, and they have concerns about these type of programs. ... There’s a real possibility for danger with these camps. It appears that the behavioral focus is placed maybe above the medical focus in the food chain, and you end up with situations where the counselors, the people involved with the camps, are involving straightforward medical symptoms and signs in an attempt to shape behavior, and they should be responding more properly to medical issues.”

The state began licensing outdoor schools after the death in 2000 of a 15-year-old student, who was being held facedown on the ground by a counselor while on a hiking trip in Lake County. The student was attending Obsidian Trails, a Bend-based wilderness school that closed several years after the incident. A civil suit filed against the school by the boy’s mother was settled for an undisclosed amount.

No criminal charges were filed in connection with the 2000 incident.

DHS spokesman Gene Evans said his department’s investigation into Blashchishen’s death is ongoing, but declined to comment further.

Poré said he still needs to conduct more interviews and sort through the hundreds of pages of documents seized from the SageWalk office before he can decide if he will recommend that the Lake County District Attorney’s office pursue criminal charges.

But in the affidavit, Poré wrote that his interviews with staff members had led him to believe that problems had occurred at the school.

“The pattern suggests that SageWalk, as a day care facility having a seemingly special right to press children to their maximum and beyond, is without the capability to separate symptoms of misbehavior from symptoms of approaching death,” Poré wrote. “(My) interviews strongly suggest that, at least for the last nine months, SageWalk may have taken children to the precipice of disaster and been lucky. On Friday, August 28th, 2009, this luck ran out.”

Erin Golden can be reached at 541-617-7837 or at http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.d ... category=#
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