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Tierra Blanca Ranch

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Reddit TroubledTeens:
http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_20301184

Their View: Learning boundaries in wide open spaces
By Claudette Ortiz / For the Sun-News
Posted:   04/01/2012 12:38:48 AM MDT

On Highway 27 outside of Hatch, past the sea of solar panels and just before the whirly-gig wind turbines, is a road that snakes, dips and climbs the Geronimo Trail to where 22 teenage boys are housed at Tierra Blanca Ranch.

Some of them made bad choices, and some of them had bad choices made for them but out on this working ranch, at-risk or troubled teens can unplug from all that in order to focus on who they are. It's a place to stop merely surviving and begin thriving.

Pictures on the refrigerator say it all ... there is a new kid around the campfire looking down at his feet, but a later picture of him has him looking straight into the camera. Now he is seeing his surroundings and feeling connected to them. And whether he will be at the ranch for one year or more, whether his parents paid his tuition or he is here on a scholarship ... he will learn life skills, he will receive an education as well as love, and he will find he can respect himself and others when he discovers what relationships are all about.

What they are accomplishing out here takes people like Scott Chandler, director of the Tierra Blanca Ranch High Country Youth Program; it takes people like June and Bill Halsell who sponsor its team in the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands; it takes the families trying to heal who can pay tuition for their sons ... but it is staff members like Emily Campbell who make it work.

Building relationships is the key to feeling loved and connected, and Emily happily lives and works and listens to the boys. As she explained to one boy recently at midnight, "We don't not want to be some white-walled institution; we want to meet you where you are at, so you can be productive in this society."

As I walk through the house with Emily, there are boys studying together at the table. In home-bound schooling through Deming Public Schools, two teachers come out twice a week for individual tutoring. Otherwise the kids take their textbooks along with them whether they are branding at cow camp, moving hay, moving cattle or mending fences.

It is hard to imagine any of these students as sullen or combative as some were when they first arrived. Nor does it feel like a white-walled institution: Some of the kids have their own dog, and the ones who join Deming High School's football team or baseball team get carted back and forth for practice.

None of these kids want to be here when they first come. It was certainly not their idea to leave their friends, fast food and the Internet behind. Some feel angry or in shock when first taken to a camp into the middle of the woods. But like Emily says, these are kids with bad choices, not kids with bad hearts. The first thing everyone does at camp is take a really long hike. And they camp until the new arrival is finally ready to go to his new home.

For a few boys, it is their first real home. Dmytro came to the ranch when he was 12. He was adopted from a Russian orphanage and then given up by his adopted family. Emily tells Dmytro it was they who missed out on knowing him; she and Dmytro grew close during the six years he was at the ranch and she recently saw him in Arizona, where he is working full-time while taking a break from college. It was Emily who taught him to read. They sat on the back porch as they read from the Bible, "Like how people learned to read in the old days," she says. On May 18 at Deming High School four more kids graduate this year and one of them is in the top 10 percent of his class.

I asked Emily how she and the ranch found each other since they seem such a perfect fit. She said she interned here 11 years ago. Majoring in Forest Recreation Resources, she was told she could intern anywhere in her junior year, as long as it was outdoors, and found the Tierra Blanca Ranch advertisement for parents with troubled children in Sunset Magazine. Her internship was mentoring 12-year-olds in week-long summer camps coordinated with NMSU, and the goal was to see how outdoor activities affect future choices toward drugs and alcohol.

Emily said that "loving on the kids seemed far more necessary than the last year of school" at Oregon State University but that it left her eager to return after she graduated in order to work for the Chandlers in their faith-based program.

The afternoon I left, Emily and the 16 boys who volunteered to march in the Bataan Memorial were preparing to put in the last of their 180 miles of training (it is "Team ZX," named for Scott and Colette Chandler's ZX Land and Cattle Company). And they train knowing they have sponsors, staff and parents to cheer them on.

Claudette Ortiz is a monthly columnist for the Sun-News and lives in Hatch. She can be reached at www.krwg.org by clicking on the "Local Viewpoints" tab under the "News" menu.)

Oscar:
Here is an update:


--- Quote from: New Channel 10 ---NM probes possible abuse at youth ranch (News channel 10)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Reports that teenage boys living at a ranch for troubled youth in Sierra County were physically abused have led to an investigation by state officials.

Investigators are looking into reports that boys were beaten by a former staff member and forced to wear leg shackles and handcuffs for minor infractions of ranch rules.

The Albuquerque Journal reports (http://bit.ly/GEaIHk) in Saturday's editions that the program is run from the Tierra Blanca Ranch north of Las Cruces near Hillsboro. It caters to parents who can't deal with their children's drug use or other behaviors.

State police and an official with the state child welfare agency confirmed the investigation.

A statement from ranch owner Scott Chandler said he is "proud of its success in serving families and their at-risk children over the years."

--- End quote ---

Oscar:
9 boys are missing from the ranch. They were last seen together with the director. Have they become lost in the wilderness or has the employee utilized the use of a final solution as the Germans once called it in order to help the parents from having at-risk teens return home disappointing the family?


--- Quote from: KSDK News - Associated Press ---Scott Chandler 'person of interest' after 9 boys disappear

HILLSBORO, N.M. (AP) - State police say they're still searching for nine teenagers reported missing from a ranch for troubled youth in New Mexico.

That's despite an earlier statement from an attorney for the Tierra Blanca High Country Youth Program that the nine boys are safe and being returned to their parents.

State police say they executed a search warrant at the ranch early Friday as part of an investigation of abuse.

But they say the teens between the ages of 13 and 17 were not at the compound and neither was program operator Scott Chandler.

As of Friday night, police say they haven't been able to confirm a location of the safety of the boys and Chandler is considered a person of interest in the case.

--- End quote ---

Oscar:

--- Quote from: KASA news ---Gov. Martinez: evidence at Tierra Blanca Ranch backs up abuse allegations (KASA)
By Chris McKee, October 14 - 2013

HILLSBORO, N.M. (KRQE) - New Mexico’s Governor Susana Martinez addressed the ongoing investigation at the Tierra Blanca Youth Ranch Monday, revealing new details about what investigators uncovered at the ranch property and firing back at allegations from the ranch owner's attorney that the teens at the property were never in danger.
Defending the state’s use of the Amber Alert, Governor Martinez gave an emotional response to the media on Monday, underscoring the state's response in the search for the nine teens that went missing from the ranch in southwest New Mexico on Friday.

"Absolutely I stand behind this alert, I will never apologize,” said Governor Martinez. “We felt they were in imminent danger because of what was discovered within those buildings in Tierra Blanca.”

In her address, Governor Martinez said that evidence was collected Friday in relation to recent allegations
that kids may have been abused at the ranch over the past few years.

“The search warrant revealed evidence that I cannot tell you precisely what it was but did corroborate some of the allegations of some of those boys,” said Governor Martinez.

When that search happened, New Mexico State Police say none of the teens were on the property, something the Governor says was troubling.

“They (the ranch) had had contact with Children Youth and Families Department the day before and all of the sudden all of the boys are being returned home,” said Governor Martinez.

The attorney for ranch owner Scott Chandler, Pete Domenici Jr. insisted over the weekend that the boys were on a wilderness trip.

“They've been on many, many of these similar kinds of trips that have been safe productive, they've allowed continuity, so there's nothing unusual about this,” said Domenici Jr.

However, Martinez says the ranch owner Chandler drove the boys home across multiple states.

“When they're being delivered home, they're not on a pre-planned wilderness program,” said Martinez. “For him to have stayed put and let police and social workers do their job would have been much better than to go around amongst three states dropping off children.”

As the investigation continues, New Mexico State Police still haven't talked to Chandler.

“We're still looking for him, my understanding is that no one has spoken to him as yet, he's still a person of interest and they're still a lookout for him,” said Governor Martinez.

News 13 spoke to Chandler's attorney Pete Domenici Jr. today over the phone. He would not say anything about Chandler’s whereabouts or whether or not he’s even in New Mexico. He says Chandler will give a statement to authorities though.

New Mexico State Police say all of the teens involved in the Amber Alert are OK but according to the Governor, the teens will have to undergo in-depth interviews with specially trained child safety workers.

--- End quote ---

Che Gookin:
What triggered the investigation in the first place?

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