As a separate matter from my personal crisis regarding my young friend in an RTC in Utah, we have decided to sue the State for all the obvious reasons. We realize that it won't help the Mountain Lake kids, or anyone in the immediate future but it has to be done. The necessary legislation to protect kids will never get through. A suit can bypass legislation. Anyone interested in joining (i.e. former participants, parents) please let me know. This is not about damages. No one's going to make money off of this. The lawyer and I will lose by doing the work and I'll pay his very much lowered fees. We would like to have as much testimony as possible, particularly when state agencies have been contacted and there has been no reponsei.e. their CPS (has another name Child Family Welfare?), licensing (at all levels), DHS, AG or any deputies or assistant AG's, legislators, and police. Names, dates and particulars of those contacts would, of course, be most useful.
I know Utah is not the only state that is so egregious. But one state at a time and Utah government is no doubt the worst offender. Plus, we have experience now with the state and know something of the ins and outs (mostly outs!). The lawyer practices in Utah and that's a big plus because not too many lawyers want to take this stuff on, at least not for a very steep price.
Please help. Send me a private message or email me at my not yet built site
info@troubledteenindustry.org Just to be clear, since I was trolled on another thread for reasons I don't understand - the site I'm working on will be a non-profit advocacy site, focusing on database information such as state by state licensing regs and officials to contact, program by program reports, legal issues. Just lots of information. Nothing to sell or recommend, other than position papers from well recognized authorities regarding legal, medical and mental health matters relevant to the issue. Signed affidavits of former participants' experiences along with parents' experiences will also be welcome and made anonymous if requested (but I'll have a signed copy of the affidavit in my file, in case there's a libel issue.) No agendas except disseminating accurate relevant information hopefully not replicating ISAC or anyone else's work. I am very respectful of all the other sites. I just think that a central info base would be a welcome addition.