More children die from swimming pool drains than in programs. I'm not saying that a kid dying in a program isn't a big deal, but it's also important to have some perspective. When you are talking about an industry dealing with tens of thousands of kids, a rogue staff might sneak their way into the system and take advantage of it and be mean to kids and physically harm them, or just not do their job and be neglectful and harm them by accident.
Thousands of kids every year die of suicide. That means all of those parents found out their teenager decided to take their own life, many of those parents are the one's who find the dead kid hanging in their closet, or some other gruesome scenario. It's easy to get caught up in how dangerous programs seem on fornits, but there is a lot of other dangers facing troubled teens today, that statistically speaking, are much more dangerous to the well being of a child than being in a treatment program. If your troubled teen is using drugs, and driving around with their friends while intoxicated, what is more likely that they will die in a DUI (accidents in the top 3 leading cause of death of teens, along with suicide) or that they will be killed in the program you send them to? We all know the answer to that, and parents have to make these calculations and it's not a surprise they come down on the side of caution and choose treatment rather than fearing the rare event of program violence, and rightfully fearing the end result of a troubled teen which can commonly be, death , jail or even institutionalization. This is where this statement comes from, it's not a cliche if it's true.
