Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Ridge Creek School / Hidden Lake Academy
RC Students Charged with Assault and Armed Robbery
FreeOfCC:
The Fun Never Ends
Students charged with assault, robbery of teacher
By Matt Aiken
Published:
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 9:29 AM EST
A pair of Ridge Creek Academy students will face charges of aggravated assault and armed robbery after they allegedly attacked a counselor, stole her car and fled from deputies in an early morning escape attempt from the Camp Wahsega Road therapeutic boarding school last week.
Officials from the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office said Sydney Vaughn and Lucrezia Albegiani, both 17 years old, developed a detailed plan to overpower their night-time counselor Debra Page and then flee to Atlanta early Friday morning.
“They were conspiring to leave campus and steal one of the staff member's vehicles after assaulting her,” said Investigator Ellis Childress. “They did so.”
It was a few hours after midnight when the two girls reportedly rose from bed and began to strike up a conversation with their counselor. When Page turned her back, Vaughn reportedly grabbed a nearby lamp and struck her on the head with it, said officials.
Albegiani then allegedly put her counselor in a choke hold.
Page, who was still conscious, reportedly told the students to take what they wanted from her.
“They took her keys, her radio and her purse and left,” Childress said.
The pair then reportedly jumped into Page's Toyota 4-Runner and drove away with Vaughn at the wheel.
Page then alerted a nighttime counselor at the boys' dorm who called 911 and reported the incident as a runaway juvenile and stolen vehicle.
By the time the suspects had traveled the eight miles to the Highway 19 Bypass two LCSO patrol cars were turning onto Camp Wahsega Road.
When the deputies signaled from them to pull over Vaughn reportedly sped up to about 70 miles per hour, ran right through the intersection and drove the vehicle into the side of Dahlonega Automotive.
“They hit a propane tank damaging the tank and the well cap,” Childress said.
The volatile liquid leaked into the parking lot but did not ignite. The students were then taken to Chestatee Regional Hospital for precautionary purposes.
Since the incident was not reported as an attack it was only after talking to the suspects that investigators discovered what had taken place at the boarding school, said Childress.
“They said they weren't going to kill her. They were just going to hurt her real bad and they were going to take her car and go down to Atlanta,” he said.
Instead Vaughn and Albegiani were taken to Lumpkin County Detention Center.
Albegiani, of Lemont, Ill., has since been charged with aggravated assault, armed robbery, second degree criminal damage to property and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and armed robbery.
Vaughn, of State College, Pa., faces the same charges as well as a slew of traffic related offenses.
On Monday, Sheriff Stacy Jarrard said the LCSO is occasionally called to the boarding school, formerly known as Hidden Lake Academy, to assist with runaway juveniles but the incidents usually aren't of this level of violence.
“I don't know of anything since I've been sheriff that has been this bad,” he said. “ ... I'm just glad the the officers that were responding made contact with the victim's vehicle and got them stopped, not only for the welfare of the victim but also for the welfare of the two girls.”
Ridge Creek Academy founder Len Buccellato said he had no comment on the incident.
http://www.thedahloneganugget.com/artic ... ssault.txt
Whooter:
That's tough to hear. I hope it turns out well for everyone and Debra Page was'nt hurt too bad.
The paper got some of the facts wrong. Lucrezia is from State College, PA not Sydney Vaughn.
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Dysfunction Junction:
Ridge Creek School (fka Hidden Lake Academy) is a dangerous juvenile detention center marketed as a "Therapeutic Boarding School." Like most facilities that call themselves "TBS's" RCS is nothing more than a place for deeply disturbed and criminal youths to be privately jailed until they turn 18.
Parents, you have been continuously warned about the business practices at RCS/HLA. There have been several serious assaults on staff members and children in the past 6 months. There have been sexual assaults, beatings, suicide attempts, medication mismanagement and all sorts of events requiring local police intervention. Sending your kid to RCS is a guarantee of further trauma and harm. It's that simple.
In this latest spate of felony crimes occurring in the understaffed and unsecured detention center a staff member was stuck in the skull from behind with a lamp. This could have easily killed her and this case could easily have become a murder case instead of just several serious felonies.
RCS is a DANGEROUS DETENTION FACILITY populated by serious VIOLENT JUVENILE CRIMINALS who roam the facility with very little supervision. It's only a matter of time before someone ends up dead at this detention center or, God forbid, these deeply disturbed criminal youths make it into town and kill, rape, rob or maim some innocent citizens.
People of Dahlonega, is this REALLY how you want your community served? By warehousing dangerous criminals from out of state at an unsecured facility where crime and violence are constant? Is it worth it for the handful of professional jobs and a dozen minimum wage jobs? Not to me it wouldn't be. Wake up and take action against RCS and Len Buccellato. They are both a detriment to your community.
Whooter:
All great points that have been brought up. This helps to further solidify the need for facilities like Residential Treatment Centers and boarding schools to help these kids and at the same time get these at-risk youths off the streets and out of toxic home environments. It is obvious that these kids need help to get set back on the right path.
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Dysfunction Junction:
The salient point here is very simple. These facilities market themselves a "schools" that provide "therapy," but in reality, they are dangerous private jails for criminal and mentally disturbed kids. They are run by unqualified people, lack supervision, don't help any kids and put residents and staff at extreme risk to their health and well being.
Nobody is "getting back on track" at TBSs. They are getting psychologically and physically assaulted by the staff members and are at extreme risk from other residents who often rape, beat, batter and assault one another due to almost a complete lack of supervision or treatment of any kind.
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