I agree with you 100%, prevention is the key. The best thing we can do is try to determine root cause and learn from it. We go thru this everytime on fornits. No one ever seems to be interested in determining cause. The Anne Bonneys and auntieEms of the world who just want to stand on the sidelines, point the finger of blame and put someone in jail does nothing to help the next child. They are merely trying to satisfy their selfish agenda and personal feelings.
If people like myself push for answers it pisses people off here and they perceive my actions as being proprogram or defending the programs point of view. Its like no one wants to know how this happened to this child. Many focus on “homicide” vs "Man Slaughter" or calling people liars vs. learning the cause of the childs death, gaining understanding and helping others. If we can determine "one" change in the procedure as a result of this boys death, which we could implement in the other existing programs that would save a life, then that would be worth fighting for and worth discussing. But each time a child dies fornits, unfortunately, takes on a mob mentality and I am not sure why they do this versus trying to help the next child.
Should field operators be trained differently? Should there be supplemental or special training off site which will help them to differentiate between behavior issues and medical issues? Should home base be called prior to 911 in every case? At what point could have this childs life been saved? What was missed? These are some of the questions we should be seeking answers to. Let the police determine which person was negligent and prosecute them if needed. We should be focused on the children.
If people can put a little bit more effort into trying to find out how this happens, listening to the investigation results all the kids would be much better off, in my opinion.
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How can they do other than choosing this approach to a situation?
We have a number of parties who could make a difference and save lives.
First the program owners: They should have an interest in setting up programs, which not only cures the special problem they have specialized in but also say no to parents showing up with a kid who will be at risk in the program or delay the entry in the program until risk factor has been eliminated. In cases where a kid has been measure to have taken certain drugs, they must keep the kid in the office or a hotel into the drug is out of the system. If a kid cooks to death out in the desert and the staff ensures that the kid has gotten both food and water, it must be the medical staff, who has failed or there must be a wrong policy which prevents the medical staff from stopping these kids before they are put in a potential dangerous situation.
One way of forcing the programs to create the right set of policies is to make them hurt until they learn. It seems that the amount they settle with the parents is not high enough. Where are the Insurance firms in this game? Are they not tired of paying up? In Denmark where In Germany they have removed some of the most extreme speeding. As you properly know there is no speed limit on most part of the German high ways, but the German Insurance firms have decided that the owners must pay for their own car if they crash while going faster than 87 mph, so most drivers choose not to exceed this limit. In Denmark young drivers can get a huge discount by some firms if they install a satellite box in their car, so they are warned if they exceed the speed limit and the Insurance firms can learn of the last movements of the car and the choices the driver did up to an accident.
So much for the Insurance firms: If you have seen the victim list the number of kids dying is not dropping if you compare the numbers to the 1980's and the 1990's. Of course we have to look at the number of programs and kids in programs. Where are the statistic showing how many kids who are in programs, so we all can learn if the percentage of kids dying in programs is the same or it has changed? Every death is unacceptable but in this case none seems to collect the statistic material which can prove if the industry is on the right path.
Where is NATSAP in this issue? Why are they not out there pointing fingers at programs which set aside all of the too few guidelines which exist? They must realize that people cannot differ between a program operated by a NATSAP member and a program operated by a non-member if there is no difference. Have they at any point in their history kicked a member out if the member did not live up to their guidelines?
If the insurance firms won't stop the dangerous procedures, if the industry show no interest in so, then we normally turn to our politicians so they can make laws which ensure guidelines. But here we have a problem we also battle in Denmark. Politicians also want jobs in their area so sometime they choose to forget safety at firms operating in their area. It is certainly the case in many areas. In Denmark we have taken all work about taxes away from the towns and made it a job for the tax department only to check if the firms pay their taxes and we did find firms where they were not doing a good job in the old days. I believe that it shouldn't be up to the single state to set standards for wilderness programs. It shouldn't be up to the single state to decide if they want to abolish checking up on boarding schools just because the school is a religious boarding school as it is the case in Missouri. It should be a federal matter.
For now the more unserious program owners can state shop looking for the state with the poorest level of regulation. Parents can read a warning about foreign programs. Where are the warnings against states choosing not to do their job in a proper manner?
I can understand why Anne Bonney and AuntieEm are out there criticizing the programs. You can say all about their methods but at least they are out there speaking out against repetition of these tragedies and I will continue to support them as the death kids in the programs were failed by the Insurance firms, the programs owners and our politicians. Who else are out there ensuring the safety of kids in the programs?
