Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Bunnie on May 07, 2007, 01:49:47 AM
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This I have not heard about! :cry: Anyone know about this?
Utah teen dies in Colorado wilderness therapy program
Last Update: May 4, 2007 11:29 PM
Story by:
Larry Warren
[email protected] A Utah teenager ordered by a juvenile court to attend a wilderness therapy program died in the program Wednesday in Colorado. His mother says her son died of a simple staph infection which could easily have been treated. And, she told ABC 4 News, employees of the company running the program informed her callously that her son was dead without offering much in the way of sympathy or explanation.
"Couldn't it have been more compassionate?" the mother of 17-year-old Caleb Jensen asked. She said a representative of Colorado based Alternative Youth Adventures called and said "Caleb was life flighted out of the program and Caleb is dead."
Caleb had been ordered into the wilderness therapy program by Juvenile Justice Services in Utah. He died in a camp near the Montrose and Mesa County lines in Western Colorado, near Grand Junction.
"They did say it would be a tough program," Caleb's mother Dawn Boyd told ABC 4. But she said court officers said "There was nothing to worry about, that this would be a good thing for Caleb and that there was no reason to worry."
A spokesman for Alternative Youth Adventures, senior vice president Bill Palatucci e-mailed a Colorado newspaper saying, "We are saddened by this sudden, tragic incident and will review the circumstances surrounding it. It is important to note that AYA is a program with an excellent reputation and strong track record of providing safe, effective services for troubled youth."
Meanwhile, Mrs. Boyd says no one has offered to help pay the costs of transporting her son's body home. She is a single mom and low income, and can't afford the burial expenses. Friends have set up a donation account at Credit Union One to help her.
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http://www.cecintl.com/Bios/default.aspx (http://www.cecintl.com/Bios/default.aspx)
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Since so many wilderness programs are in Utah, I wonder why a Utah court didn't send him to one of their own. Maybe because the programs in Utah have a long history of killing kids...
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utah what a fucking surprise!
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Since so many wilderness programs are in Utah, I wonder why a Utah court didn't send him to one of their own. Maybe because the programs in Utah have a long history of killing kids...
yeah and the government has a long history of being paid to keep the laws VERY LOOSE in utah and arizona.
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ASPEN YOUTH SERVICES DIVESTS
ADJUDICATED PROGRAMS
Contact: Larry Stednitz, Senior Director,
Alternative Youth Adventure
406-443-8579
(December 13, 1999) - Aspen Youth Alternatives, a subsidiary of Aspen Youth Services has merged with a leader in the adult corrections, field, Community Education Centers of New Jersey. This merger enables Community Education Centers to focus their efforts on juveniles. Although they have adolescent programs in New Hampshire and Wyoming, Community Education Centers have until this point concentrated their efforts in developing treatment approaches in pre-release centers, operating 2,000 adult beds in five states.
Aspen Youth Alternatives was formally the segment of Aspen Youth Services, which focused on adjudicated youth, operating programs in Utah, Montana, and South Carolina. Modeled after the successful Aspen Achievement Academy, in just four and half years, Aspen Youth Alternatives grew from a very small program to one of the largest backcountry-based programs in the country. Currently it operates four programs in three states, serving nearly 200 youth every day and is developing a fifth program.
The programs developed by this new merger will not retain the Aspen name; they will be called Alternative Youth Adventures, or “AYA.” Of particular interest to consumers is that the Montana, and Utah program has recently begun to open “AYA” to the private market. They will continue to focus on adjudicated youth, now accepting referrals both from the states as well as from professionals in the private pay sector.
According to AYA’s national director, Gordon Birch, “consumers should be reassured of AYA’s quality!” He is referring to the fact that AYA will be regularly monitored by a state agency, whose officials interview every youth who leaves AYA. Gordon Birch remarks, “in these days of concern over quality programming, AYA’s proven track record of safety and quality is only enhanced by the state’s involvement. AYA is perhaps the only private pay program of it’s kind to have this kind of scrutiny.”~~
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Is that the same man who writes for Struggling Teens
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Yes.
LARRY STEDNITZ, PhD
1969-1979 - Provided Administrative and Direct Services to students at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Boys Town, Nebraska and Santa Ana, California. Provided school psychology and counseling services to students. Provided consultation to parents and professional staff.
1979-1992 - Served as Clinical Director for Capistrano by the Sea hospital, a 100 bed psychiatric treatment center located in Dana Point, California. Over this 13 year period of time, managed a day treatment program for emotionally disturbed adolescents, a 22 bed adolescent treatment program, a 20 bed adolescent substance abuse program, a 12 bed psychiatric assessment center, an adult psychiatric program and an adult substance abuse program. Accountable for a 12 million dollar budget, served on the Board of Directors and responsible for the design and development of all programs.
1999-2002 - Administrator for Alternative Youth Adventures located in Montana. Responsible for the administration of multiple services for boys and girls aged 13 through 18. The program worked with neglected and abused adolescents, delinquent youth, and emotionally disturbed youth. The program included assessment, wilderness treatment, residential treatment, outpatient therapy, case management, aftercare programs and substance abuse treatment. The program served over 100 youth daily. Responsible for design and implementation of all services and responsible for a 4.5 million dollar budget, enrollments, and plant operations. Managed a staff of over 100.
1980-2003 - Assessment and Placement for troubled youth - Developed and operated the Western Youth Network, a service that helped parents and professionals to find the right help for their children and clients. This service was provided in both outpatient and inpatient settings. The Network served 1000's of youth and parents and is still active as the National Youth Network.
2002-2003 - Program Leadership - School Director of Boulder Creek Academy located in Idaho. Responsible for the administration of a 70 bed facility for youth who had emotional, social, and learning disabilities. The school specialized in working with socially and emotionally delayed boys and girls aged 14 through 18. Responsible for all aspects of the program including a 5 million dollar budget, enrollments, program delivery and plant operations. Managed a staff of over 60 and was a member of CEDU Education senior management.
Direct Youth Services - Worked for 14 years as a teacher, counselor, coach, and school psychologist in public and private schools. Began career at Boys Town, Nebraska as a school counselor and coach. Provided individual and group counseling for personal, educational, and vocational issues. Developed peer counseling, staff training, and administered education programs including gifted and special needs students. Provided case management services for special education students. Conducted psychological and educational evaluations for students and served as an expert witness in non-public school funded residential treatment program placements. ~~
Larry Stednitz, an educational consultant who refers parents to youth facilities and has visited Mission Mountain, defended work regimens as a useful way of keeping kids occupied. "If you don't structure things pretty tightly," he said, "you're going to have problems."
More on Stednitz
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?p=41302#41302 (http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?p=41302#41302)
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thank you, everyone for your reply's, it is strange nothing much has been reported on this young man. I sure hope the mom gets a attorney, and gets depositions, I can bet he was sick for a long time and suffered terribly. I just wanted to be sure this was posted so it will be out there, and added to the list of death and abuses, by so called professionals, in the great money makeing industry.
Too many political party members are either part owner or owners, or getting funds for their campaigns, to get anything done about the abuses and deaths, and make them license and be what they say they are. But then humm .......they would have to shut them down.
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Is that the same man who writes for Struggling Teens
Oh.. Now there's a surprise.
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I live on the west slope of Colorado where this tragedy took place and this story has been all over the news. I heard that this was the first kid that ever died in their program and that the staff did a very good job of taking care of him and other kids in the program.
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They didn't take that good care of him did they?
He's dead, just another brick in the wall - the poor mother, how terrible for her :(
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They didn't take that good care of him did they?
He's dead, just another brick in the wall - the poor mother, how terrible for her :(
It appears they were set up to take very good care of him. We should all wait for the final reports to come out before pointing fingers. Seems they have a very good track record also.
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This may seem a little odd to you Guest
But speaking as a parent of troubled teens, I would say that a child who has ended up dead while in the care of others, wasn't looked after - if it was a complete and utter accident that could have/would have happened to anybody, then I eat my words, if it was neglect, then, they didn't care for him
But as you said, when the final report comes out....
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I live on the west slope of Colorado where this tragedy took place and this story has been all over the news. I heard that this was the first kid that ever died in their program and that the staff did a very good job of taking care of him and other kids in the program.
Thats what they all say, smoke and mirrors....
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I live on the west slope of Colorado where this tragedy took place and this story has been all over the news. I heard that this was the first kid that ever died in their program and that the staff did a very good job of taking care of him and other kids in the program.
I'm sure his parents are thrilled at the wonderful job they did taking care of him!
This kid died of a simple staph infection that was easily treatable. That's not a whole lot different than the tragic death of Aaron Bacon so many years ago. Aaron had a different medical condition, but it was also easily treatable...if any of the "responsible adults" in the program had given a shit about him.
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Son died in wilderness program
A mother seeks answers
She says authorities in Utah and Colorado remain vague on what happened to boy [Imagine that!!]
By Nate Carlisle
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/12/2007 01:31:13 AM MDT
Click photo to enlarge Caleb Jensen wrote his mother weekly. This is his last...
(Danny Chan La/The Salt Lake Tribune )
Caleb Jensen was not an innocent teenager, his mother admits, but he was supposed to get better.
A wilderness camp in Colorado was supposed to improve the 15-year-old's behavior and make him more respectful, said Dawn Boyd, Jensen's mother. That's why a Utah court sent him there.
Now Boyd wants something else out of the camp: answers as to how her son died.
"What's important to me is other mothers don't ever have to go through this again," Boyd said, "because this is the most horrible thing a mother can ever go through, losing a baby they think is going to get better."
Colorado authorities say Jensen died from a staphylococcus infection. Personnel at the camp, Alternative Young Adventures, observed signs of the infection, according to a state agency, but neglected to properly care for it. The state of Colorado suspended the company's license this week.
Boyd suggested the state of Utah bears some responsibility, too. Speaking from her Salt Lake City apartment, Boyd said Jensen had been susceptible to infections, particularly on his face, ever since he was a toddler and contracted impetigo, a common skin infection in young children. The state of Utah had Jensen's medical history, Boyd said, before it sent him to the camp.
"He would get [an infection on his face] one day and the next day his face would just be swollen huge," Boyd said.
Boyd described her son as being somewhat different than the average teenager. He could have a bad attitude, the mother said, two or three times worse than other kids.
But the Bryant Middle School student also was smart, Boyd said. He was a writer, composing something between poetry and rap lyrics. He was funny, too.
"Maybe he could have been a comedian," Boyd said. "Maybe he could have been a lawyer. He could have been anything. He was so smart."
Boyd declined to give specifics of what her son did to get in trouble with the law, but said it was not violent, nor an egregious crime.
"He was one of those kids that wanted to fit in with everyone," Boyd said, "and he got in with a group of kids and they dared him to steal something and he got caught."
A juvenile court issued a sentence, Boyd said, but Jensen did not follow the terms. The court then sent Jensen to the Youth Adventures camp near Montrose, Colo. Boyd said the court informed her of what was happening to her son but did not give her a choice in the matter.
Jensen arrived at the camp on March 28. He wrote once a week to his mother or two sisters.
"He just mainly spoke of how they hiked up big mountains, and how tired he was from hiking everyday," Boyd said.
"He was so tired and he just explained to us that he was optimistic to get out of the program and do what he needed to do to come home and get back right with his family," she added.
Then on May 2, Boyd received a telephone call from someone at Youth Adventures. A man on the other end told her Jensen had been placed on a helicopter to be flown to a hospital and he died.
Boyd said she asked the man what he was talking about. Then she realized what he was saying.
"It was all blurry," Boyd said in an interview. "I lost it. I handed the phone to my fiance."
Her fiance, Boyd said, learned from the man Jensen had been on a "down day," where the kids take a break from hiking to attend lectures and counseling sessions. Jensen was sitting on his sleeping bag speaking to a staff member, the man said.
Five or 10 minutes later, Boyd said the man told her fiance, someone called out to Jensen and he didn't answer. At some point, the boy slumped over.
The family does not know where her son was pronounced dead. Boyd said she did not receive any information from the coroner investigating her son's death until she hired an attorney.
Then, Boyd said, she had to make the arrangements to bring her son's body to Salt Lake City. At some point she received $1,500 in checks, but in her confusion she didn't note whether they came from the state or from Youth Associates.
Boyd said she saw her son's body for the first since he left Utah on Tuesday, the day before his funeral. He had sores on the outside of his mouth, Boyd said.
"It wasn't even until the day before my son's funeral that I was overnighted a letter from [Youth Associates] with an apology," Boyd said.
Boyd declined on Friday to say who she holds responsible for her son's death. Instead, she just talked about the answers she's seeking.
"I don't know any of the details [of Jensen's death]," Boyd said. "I'd like to know what my son's last words were."
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5879895 (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5879895)
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Utah teens back from wilds after boy's death
By Angie Welling
Deseret Morning News
Three Utah teenagers who had been placed in the same youth wilderness program where a 15-year-old Salt Lake City boy died earlier this month have returned home.
Staff members from Utah Juvenile Justice Services, which had custody of all four boys, drove to southwest Colorado on Thursday to pick up the teens, agency director Dan Maldonado said. Two of the teens had recently completed the 60-day program for at-risk youths and were ready to come home, while the third will be placed in another program based on his needs.
On the orders of state officials, Caleb Jensen entered Alternative Youth Adventures in Montrose, Colo., on March 28. He died May 2 from what the Mesa County coroner has determined to be natural causes.
Concerns about whether Jensen suffered from an untreated staph infection, however, have led Colorado authorities to suspend the facility's license pending an investigation by the Montrose County Sheriff's Office.
Utah has a long history with Alternative Youth Adventures, contracting with the facility when it was located near Loa, Wayne County, and continuing the relationship when it moved to Colorado, said Carol Sisco, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Human Services.
"We've had a very good track record with them," she said.
The state has placed 20 youths in the Alternative Youth Adventures program since July 1, 2006, according to Maldonado. The facility is the only wilderness therapy program with which Utah Juvenile Justice Services currently contracts, though that three-year contract was set to expire on June 31.
The agency typically has custody of about 1,300 youths under the age of 21 who have been referred to them by the juvenile court system. It places the children in a variety of programs, depending on an assessment of their individual needs.
"We have a wide array of programs, and most of them are much longer custody programs," Maldonado said. "Something like a wilderness program is indicated for someone whose offense profile suggests that we might be able to have a shorter-term custody arrangement."
In this case, staff members advised that Jensen be placed in the wilderness program and a juvenile court judge accepted the recommendation. The teen was placed with eight other at-risk youths for a two-month "outing" with four AYA staff members to take part in character-building exercises intended to build their self-esteem and communication skills, said Bill Palatucci, senior vice president of Community Education Centers Inc., which operates Alternative Youth Adventures.
"This is a well-known, well-regarded program and so this incident is really out of character and unprecedented for AYA Colorado," Palatucci said. "That makes it all the more difficult to explain."
Jensen passed a physical exam the day he arrived at the facility, as well as a checkup the week before his death. He also visited with a counselor the day before he died in the base camp, Sisco said.
Staff members are trained to identify medical conditions in the youths, according to Palatucci, and medical assistance is always available.
"They're very used to adolescents with behavioral problems, but also with claims of medical conditions," he said. :question: "They have to know how to recognize symptoms and problems and the track record has been that they've been able to do that very well.
"Our contention is that this medical condition was just something that was not easily detectable."
Maldonado is in daily contact with Colorado authorities and is awaiting the outcome of the investigation there before taking any action in Utah.
"The nature and depth of our review will be contingent on the results of the investigation that comes out of the county sheriff's office," he said. "At this point, what we are waiting for are some answers from Colorado about their judgment about staff error or negligence."
The director has also been in contact with Jensen's family, who are understandably struggling with the young man's death.
"They are not doing very well at all. My staff tell me that mom is having a very difficult time with this," he said. "There are people in our staff that are having a hard time and there are people in Colorado having a hard time, too."
E-mail: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660220017,00.html (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660220017,00.html)
Teen died of staph infection while on outing
Katharhynn Heidelberg
Daily Press News Editor
MONTROSE — Outdoor programs through Alternative Youth Adventures are on hold after the state suspended the organization’s licenses Wednesday.
The state human services department said the staph infection that claimed 15-year-old Caleb Jensen during a Montrose outing produced observable symptoms which AYA staff allegedly neglected.
[Palatucci, "Our contention is that this medical condition was just something that was not easily detectable."]
The program’s parent company, Community Education Centers, Inc., denied negligence in the boy’s death.
AYA, which runs wilderness therapy programs for at-risk or adjudicated youths, was being investigated by Montrose County authorities after Jensen’s death on Little Red Mountain May 2, near the Mesa County line.
The Mesa County Coroner, to whom Jensen’s autopsy was transferred while jurisdiction was being determined, said in a Thursday news release the youth died from a methicillin-resistant staph aureus infection.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office confirmed Thursday AYA’s therapeutic residential childcare and residential childcare licenses were summarily suspended at the request of the Colorado Department of Human Services.
“It’s the department’s belief the child reported symptoms of observable signs of infection that were neglected and he was denied proper medical treatment,” Liz McDonough, Colorado Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said Friday.
“That’s the basis for the summary suspension. The kids have been removed and are being put in alternative placements.”
The suspension means AYA is prohibited from engaging in the practices its licenses permitted it to undertake, AG spokesman Nate Stauch said.
AYA has the right to an expedited hearing on the matter, but according to the suspension order, it had to surrender its license immediately. Further proceedings will determine whether the license should be revoked.
Jensen was participating in a program run through the Montrose office when he died.
According to the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office, AYA staff members tried to revive Jensen and notified emergency dispatch. They brought him to an evacuation point, and Mesa County deputies responded, but CPR efforts were unsuccessful and Jensen was pronounced dead.
AYA Vice President Bill Palatucci said the organization will fight for its licenses and its staff. “We plan to contest the suspension. We firmly believe the staff did everything appropriately and correctly and there were no obvious signs that this juvenile was distressed,” he said.
“We’re very happy to work with the department to review policies and procedures, but we don’t see the need for suspension right now.” :rofl:
District Attorney Myrl Serra said previously the matter was still under active investigation.
Serra said Thursday he had no information about the suspension.
Palatucci said the Little Red Mountain outing included four staff members and nine youth clients, which is typical. The program’s licensing allowed a ratio of one to four, he said.
He would not say why Jensen was in the program, citing confidentiality concerns, but did say the boy’s enrollment had been court-ordered in Utah.
Program outings have ceased for now, Palatucci said, and AYA has complied with the suspension. “We’ll have to deal with the hearing procedure the suspension puts in motion,” he said. “It adds to the difficulties of the staff and clients. We will have to find alternative placements for youths in programs that can accommodate them.”
He said AYA was going to stand behind its employees. “While outings have been suspended, our staff will remain in place,” Palatucci said.
“We don’t think anybody did anything wrong. It was a very tragic set of circumstances. The underlying cause (of death) was just undetectable.”
McDonough said the incident was “disturbing.”
“This tragic death of this young man is something we have to look at in terms of how our kids are cared for and to ensure that, no matter what the nature of the program, that appropriate medical procedures are in place to handle what may come up. Our thoughts go out to the young man’s family in Utah.”
http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2 ... news/2.txt (http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2007/05/11/local_news/2.txt)
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Caleb wrote weekly. This was his last letter.
I wish I could go back and be a good little boy, a nice little niave church boy who couldn't steal bubble gum without feeling bad about it. I want to wear Sponge bob pj's and Teddy bear slippers and cuddle with my Mommy.
I used to think I was too hard of a gangster that nobody could break me, but they found my weakness and I want to go home. Tell Heather and Marie I miss them. I miss you and love you all so much. Please write back here. I love you.
PS I want my mommy.
Love you're baby boy,
Caleb
http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/h ... artImage=1 (http://www.sltrib.com/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?articleId=5879895&siteId=297&startImage=1)
Letter and photos of Caleb and mom here:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5879895 (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5879895)
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No wonder he died.
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In all fairness, anyone can die pretty quickly from a staph infection. And even when someone suspects that little cold sore is staph, and gets treatment, it's becoming pretty common for the staph to be completely resistant, and the victim dies anyway.
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More reason not to ignore an INFECTION. Clearly the kid was suseptible to infection. It was in his records.
MRSA used to infect people who had chronic illnesses, but now MRSA is becoming more common in healthy people. These infections can occur among people who are likely to have cuts or wounds and who have close contact with one another, such as members of sports teams. This type of MRSA is called community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA).
Community-associated MRSA commonly causes skin infections, such as boils, abscesses, or cellulitis. Often, people think they have been bitten by a spider or insect. Because MRSA infections can become serious in a short amount of time, it is important to see your doctor right away if you notice a boil or other skin problem.
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/Meth ... A-Overview (http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/Methicillin-Resistant-Staphylococcus-aureus-MRSA-Overview)
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This is why I chose to wait (and encourage others to do so) for the details to surface before pointing the finger and blaming anyone each time a child gets sick, gets hurt or dies.
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This is why I chose to wait (and encourage others to do so) for the details to surface before pointing the finger and blaming anyone each time a child gets sick, gets hurt or dies.
:question:
Text book death in a wilderness program, "He was alive and then he died, Whatever happened we're not responsible"
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This is why I chose to wait (and encourage others to do so) for the details to surface before pointing the finger and blaming anyone each time a child gets sick, gets hurt or dies.
:question:
Text book death in a wilderness program, "He was alive and then he died, Whatever happened we're not responsible"
I do understand that it is a knee jerk reaction,here, to blame the school.
Yes, people are alive and then they die, text book. Sometimes people are responsible for another’s death..... Sometimes they are not. We have a system in place which helps to determine this. Let us let them do their job...why is everyone so anxious to have the wilderness program to be blamed? I am sure the counselors feel bad enough, as it is, without others throwing stones......Why not base our conclusions on facts and findings? Lets give people the time to do their jobs...........
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This is why I chose to wait (and encourage others to do so) for the details to surface before pointing the finger and blaming anyone each time a child gets sick, gets hurt or dies.
Who, next time you get an infection, please "wait" to see a doctor until it's too late to treat. A parent could go to jail for this.
What other "details". The only detail left is for Caleb's mother to hire the most informed industry attorney she can find and sue them out of existence.
Perhaps you could do some research determine how their staff are "trained to identify medical problems in youth". First Aid class? No staff nurse? No doctor on call? Why it wasn't "detectable" to staff, but was to others.
Here's the details.
Personnel at the camp, Alternative Young Adventures, observed signs of the infection, according to a state agency, but neglected to properly care for it. The state of Colorado suspended the company's license this week.
Boyd said Jensen had been susceptible to infections, particularly on his face, ever since he was a toddler and contracted impetigo, a common skin infection in young children. The state of Utah had Jensen's medical history, Boyd said, before it sent him to the camp.
The family does not know where her son was pronounced dead. Boyd said she did not receive any information from the coroner investigating her son's death until she hired an attorney.
Boyd said she saw her son's body for the first since he left Utah on Tuesday, the day before his funeral. He had sores on the outside of his mouth, Boyd said.
Staff members are trained to identify medical conditions in the youths, according to Palatucci, and medical assistance is always available.
"They're very used to adolescents with behavioral problems, but also with claims of medical conditions," he said. "They have to know how to recognize symptoms and problems and the track record has been that they've been able to do that very well.
"Our contention is that this medical condition was just something that was not easily detectable."
“We plan to contest the suspension. We firmly believe the staff did everything appropriately and correctly and there were no obvious signs that this juvenile was distressed."
“We don’t think anybody did anything wrong. It was a very tragic set of circumstances. The underlying cause (of death) was just undetectable.”
“It’s the department’s belief the child reported symptoms of observable signs of infection that were neglected and he was denied proper medical treatment,” Liz McDonough, Colorado Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said Friday.
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Deborah wrote:
Who, next time you get an infection, please "wait" to see a doctor until it's too late to treat……. The only detail left is for Caleb's mother to hire the most informed industry attorney she can find and sue them out of existence.
Very intelligent, just sue everyone…again you play the judge and jury before the evidence is released…you show your prejudice too well…why not post the names and pictures of the staff members on the internet to discredit them and form a lynch mob to hang them.
To give you the benefit of the doubt, though Deborah, I think you may get too emotionally involved and don’t understand what you are saying. What really needs to be determined is what the requirements are as far as training in this area and then bounce that off the training that the staff received. If they did not receive the proper training then this could be an issue for the school. If they did receive the proper training than we need to proceed to whether or not they reacted in a timely manner and utilized and applied the training they received. This could be an issue for the staff members. so you see we need to determine root cause before we can determine who is to blame if anyone. If it is determine that the child would die anyway even in the best of circumstances and medical availability then why would you want to sue the school or staff members? If the school was negligent then there are grounds for recovery.
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This is why I chose to wait (and encourage others to do so) for the details to surface before pointing the finger and blaming anyone each time a child gets sick, gets hurt or dies.
Oh Please the US is a first world country. If you asked the average reasonable American on the St whether it was possible for a kid to die of a simple infection they would laugh. But on a wilderness adventure it is completely unremarkable and thus no culpability lies with tjose who had a legal duty of care?
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I do understand that it is a knee jerk reaction,here, to blame the school. Yes, people are alive and then they die, text book.
Sounds like your philosophy may have changed since you warehoused your kid to keep her alive.
Sometimes people are responsible for another’s death..... sometimes they are not.
And sometimes they are, and walk away with no punishment.
...why is everyone so anxious to have the wilderness program to be blamed?
Oh... I don't know. Maybe it's our bias showing again. Or, the 'fact' that 44 kids would still be alive, if not for their wilderness death therapy. 60 if you add the boot camps deaths. How many were convicted? Five, six?
I hope Caleb's mother stumbles across Fornits or any of the other sites and realizes that this is not an 'isolated', 'freak' incident. Medical neglect is second only to restraint for cause of death.
I am sure the counselors feel bad enough, as it is, without others throwing stones......
As they should. Tough lesson. Perhaps they should sue the program for not adequately training them to diagnose infection. With luck, they'll find their way here too and discover how they were used by the program.
Why not base our conclusions on facts and findings?
How bout you stop trying to control others?
Here's a new slogan for the Wilderness Industry...
Kid going off the tracks? Back-talkin? Experimenting with drugs and friends you don't like? Failing algebra?
Forget the tutors and therapists and sign your kid up today for a
Near Death Experience
Disclaimer: We can't guarentee your kid will survive, but if s/he does, we can almost guarentee that s/he will figure out how to get back on the tracks.
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This idea that those responsible for a death having feelings of guilt is punishment enough to avoid facing a court is absurd. if someone accidentally kills someone in a bar brawl often they feel *really bad*. The judge often even takes this into account in sentencing. What the judge does not do is let the person walk without penalty.
Tell us who what measurement are you using for the staffs bad feelings if you feel the legal justice system is not the right one? Does the person cry? tell everyone the kid was awful and it was a window of loss situation? Go to religious service? post on an internet forum about their heartbreak? or just do what the henry family did and treat the whole thing as a joke and then go work for sagewalk. What is your criteria for "feeling bad"
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Deborah wrote:
Oh... I don't know. Maybe it's our bias showing again. Or, the 'fact' that 44 kids would still be alive, if not for their wilderness death therapy. 60 if you add the boot camps deaths. How many were convicted? Five, six?
I hope Caleb's mother stumbles across Fornits or any of the other sites and realizes that this is not an 'isolated', 'freak' incident. Medical neglect is second only to restraint for cause of death.
How many were guilty…5 or 6 ? out of thousands… So five or 6 kids died..that is 5 or 6 too many, I agree…but how many have they saved? Thousands that we know of…so instead of a thousands being dead we have 44. Not all the kids can be reached. We are now talking about a specific case and I am saying we should wait for the results of the investigation before you post these kids (counselors) names and pictures all over the internet for their family and loved ones to see…it is only fair. You don’t know what happened or how they tried to save him or the training they received..let’s let the authorities do their jobs and not try to ruin anyone’s lives or careers because of uncontrolled hatred towards all the people trying to help these kids.
Deborah, just for the sake of their family and kids, try to give them the benefit of the doubt. If it turns out one of the counselors caused the kids death then you can ridicule them and post their pictures, call them killers for their families and kids to see, the counselors children will have to endure ridicule from their class mates knowing the kids father was posted all over the internet and you will feel good about yourself that justice was done and you got revenge by destroying a family and causing them to move.
But you should at least wait until the facts are in….
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How is posting something that was already in the press naming any specific staff. Where are the pictures you refer to Deborah posting?
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Another Child Dead: When Will We Wake Up to Tough Love's Toll?
(4 comments )
READ MORE: Colorado, Utah, Martin Lee
by Maia Szalavitz
Although it hasn't yet received much coverage, yet another teenager has died under suspicious circumstances in a "wilderness program" -- this time, a 15-year-old boy who was mandated to a troubled teen program in Colorado by the state of Utah.
Caleb Jensen joins Martin Lee Anderson, Aaron Bacon, Michelle Sutton, Katie Lank, Erica Harvey, Michael Wiltsie (whose mother later killed herself and her other child), Kristen Chase, Tony Haynes, Ian August, Chase Moody, Ryan Lewis, Nick Contreras and dozens of others [warning: music plays, slow to load] who died needlessly because enforcing "tough love" was considered more important than preserving children's lives and health.
As a neuroscience journalist, I spend a lot of my time reading medical literature and marveling at what we now know about the human brain and how to help people when things go awry. Then, I look at what's actually available to people who seek or are forced into mental health and addiction treatment -- and I want to cry.
There are effective treatments for teen mental health and behavioral problems -- but they don't involve sending children away from their families to be beaten into shape by drill sergeants or exhausted into submission by forced hikes. We do know how to dramatically reduce teen misbehavior -- but it doesn't involve seeing teenagers as lying "manipulators" and ignoring their health complaints as evidence of malingering.
Virtually every death that has occurred in tough teen programs happened for essentially the same reason: the program believed that pain was "good" for kids and saw any complaints as sneaky attempts to avoid this necessary suffering. When such belief is combined with lack of oversight in remote facilities with under-trained staff, the only reason deaths are not more common is that teenagers are generally extremely healthy.
This latest death has followed the pattern I've seen in every prior case that I've covered. First, the program claims that the death is due to natural causes and was "a tragic accident." At the same time, state officials back the program and claim that it is excellent. Then, the truth begins to come out about how medical complaints were ignored and how other teens were maltreated. Only at this point are remaining youth (who have already had the trauma of seeing a peer die, aside from whatever abuse the program dishes out) removed.
If the past is any prologue, soon a history of poorly-trained staff, failures of compassion and lack of oversight will be revealed. Some parents and staff will staunchly defend the program as having been "life-saving" and will denounce those who try to improve conditions as getting in the way of a desperately-needed and healing organization.
It's a shame that the wilderness is being used as a way to abuse kids, as a way to impose harsh punishment in the name of "natural consequences." It's a shame that our mental health system -- and our courts -- don't require that treatment is proven to be safe and effective before it can be forced on people, especially children.
And it's a shame, but kids will continue to die and juvenile recidivism will remain high until we actually regulate, monitor and oversee these programs, ensuring that the treatments which are known to be safe and effective are delivered and punitive tactics known to fail are avoided.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szal ... 48540.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szalavitz/another-child-dead-when-_b_48540.html)
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Have you read the news stories posted, they let that kid die. This is always the case with wilderness deaths. If they feel guilty good, they are. I've read (forgot were) that a death in an institution that looks after people is always due to a serious failure in the institution. Be it a restraint death, suicide, medical neglect, or an "accident" the training or mentality of the staff is highly suspect. In wilderness deaths you will probably find that staff thought that the kid was faking being sick. If programs gave a damn about the kids I wouldn't be reading about the same death year after year.
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Deborah wrote: Oh... I don't know. Maybe it's our bias showing again. Or, the 'fact' that 44 kids would still be alive, if not for their wilderness death therapy. 60 if you add the boot camps deaths. How many were convicted? Five, six?
I hope Caleb's mother stumbles across Fornits or any of the other sites and realizes that this is not an 'isolated', 'freak' incident. Medical neglect is second only to restraint for cause of death.
How many were guilty…5 or 6 ? out of thousands… So five or 6 kids died..that is 5 or 6 too many, I agree…but how many have they saved? Thousands that we know of…so instead of a thousands being dead we have 44. Not all the kids can be reached. We are now talking about a specific case and I am saying we should wait for the results of the investigation before you post these kids (counselors) names and pictures all over the internet for their family and loved ones to see…it is only fair. You don’t know what happened or how they tried to save him or the training they received..let’s let the authorities do their jobs and not try to ruin anyone’s lives or careers because of uncontrolled hatred towards all the people trying to help these kids.
Deborah, just for the sake of their family and kids, try to give them the benefit of the doubt. If it turns out one of the counselors caused the kids death then you can ridicule them and post their pictures, call them killers for their families and kids to see, the counselors children will have to endure ridicule from their class mates knowing the kids father was posted all over the internet and you will feel good about yourself that justice was done and you got revenge by destroying a family and causing them to move.
But you should at least wait until the facts are in….
What, not proud of that position, Who?
Window of loss. Ah, yes.
Ethical, evidence-based "Therapy" doesn't subject kids to the risk of death.
Let's see, Who. Would you rather be publicly humiliated and endure the inconvenience of having to relocate, or grieve a dead child?
You sit on your side and have sympathy for the counselors and their families.
I'll sit on this side and have sympathy for the victims and their families.
Sounds like a balance to me.
Not all the kids can be reached?
Not all the kids can be reached?
Nothing to do with denying a kid oxygen to breath or water to drink or denying medical attention or allowing kids to hike in undesignated areas or force marching them in 100* temps or setting up their tent under snow-laden branches that snap and crush their skull.
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Caleb Jensen
Caleb Christopher Jensen "You're my Superstar" Caleb passed away May 2, 2007 near Grand Junction, CO at the age of 15. He was born September 11, 1991 to Dawn and Joel Jensen. Caleb loved to write poetry and draw, but his all-time favorite was word-art. He was very creative and talented with words. Caleb is survived by his mother, Dawn Boyd; father, Joel Jensen; brother, Brian; sisters, Heather and Marie; grandparents, Ralph Burgess, Ella and Jerry Reese; aunts, Tabathea Lopez, Roberta Thompson, Angela Hampton, Jill Teresa, Nichole Jensen; uncle, Michael Holfeltz; great-grandpa, Ellwood Meckley; great-uncles, Jay, Cameron, and J.R. Meckley; great-aunts, Carol Galentine, Julia Dominguez; and many extended family. Funeral services will be held Wed-nesday, May 9th, 11 a.m. at Redwood Memorial Mortuary, 6500 S. Redwood Road, with a viewing one hour prior to services. A trust fund has been set up for the family at any Credit Union One in Caleb's name.
Published in the Salt Lake Tribune on 5/7/2007.
http://www.legacy.com/saltlaketribune/O ... D=87834162 (http://www.legacy.com/saltlaketribune/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=87834162)
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Mother: My son fought to live
Last letter home before death at remote camp reveals 15-year-old's pain, hope
By Nancy Lofholm Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/16/2007 12:11:25 AM MDT
"I want my mommy." Dawn Boyd said her son Caleb Jensen's letters said he was feeling better about his life but badly wanted to come home. (Special to The Post)In a last letter to his family from a wilderness camp for troubled youths, Caleb Jensen wrote about the difficulties of surviving in the wild and added a postscript: "I want my mommy."
Caleb's mother, Dawn Boyd of Salt Lake City, received the letter from her youngest child during the week before he died of an untreated staph infection. He was participating in a court-ordered wilderness therapy program through Alternative Youth Adventures near Montrose.
The program's license to operate was suspended after the 15-year-old died May 2.
Boyd said she believes camp staff ignored her son's assertions that he was sick and needed to go home. She also believes the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services, which placed her son in the rough and remote program, failed to take into account his frequent problems with staph infections.
"He should have been cared for. He should be alive today," a sobbing Boyd said during a telephone conversation from her home. "I know my baby told them. He always knew when he had a staph infection."
Boyd said her son's letters from camp recently said he was feeling better about his life but badly wanted to come home, "so he could get in his SpongeBob pajama pants and his big slippers and curl up with me and his sisters to watch TV."
Caleb described a different life in camp. He wrote he had to climb mountains every day until he was exhausted. He was able to wash only twice a week using tiny amounts of water. He had to clean his dishes after meals by licking them and then using dirt to scour them.
Therapy or deprivation?
"That's not how he should have been treated - like a dog or a lizard," said his grandmother, Ella Reese of Troy, Idaho.
Caleb expressed some optimism along with the complaints. "Mom, I think I'm going to make it this time," he wrote in a letter.
Caleb died of a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection. The bacterial infection traditionally is seen in hospitalized or very ill or elderly patients.
Caleb's mother said he had been treated for numerous staph infections since he was a toddler and suffered a related skin problem called impetigo. He was treated for three infections while he was in other juvenile justice programs in Utah before being sent to the camp, she said.
"When I saw my son in the casket and looked at his little face, there was a sore on each side of his mouth under the makeup. ... I knew," she said.
Actions at camp defended
Carol Sisco, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Human Services that oversees the juvenile justice programs, said Caleb passed a physical before he was sent to the camp March 28. She said he had a physical in the field the week before he died and a session with a therapist the day before his death. No one reported that he was ill. His mother said he did not report being ill in his last letter.
Because he wasn't allowed to write that he was sick?
Caleb's family has been unable to get much information about his death. Reese said they pieced together information that shows Caleb was sitting on his sleeping bag in the camp during a rest day on the day he died. Caleb, who had been exhibiting behavioral problems for several days before his death, told a counselor he didn't feel well and needed to go home. After the counselor moved on, Caleb slumped over. Less than 10 minutes later when a counselor checked on him, he was dead, Reese said.
Bill Palatucci, a spokesman for Community Education Centers Inc., the Roseland, N.J.-based company that created the youth camp, said complaints from troubled youths are common. "They hear a lot that youths want to go home. The staff is taught to sort through those and determine the genuine issues and the non," Palatucci said.
They're faking.
Palatucci would not reveal the amount of medical training the four camp counselors have. He said their training meets state licensing requirements.
First Aid?
Community Education Center is contesting the Colorado Department of Human Services suspension of its license to operate the camp. A hearing is expected to be scheduled within the next month. The other 26 participants in the camp have been moved to youth-detention facilities in Utah and Colorado.
Mother gets few answers
Boyd said she is working with an attorney to try to find out more about the death of a son who had been in and out of state custody "for anger issues" since she and her children moved to Salt Lake City in 2004.
She said a representative of Alternative Youth Adventures phoned her to say her son was dead more than five hours after his body was airlifted out of the remote camp. She received few details and no offers of help. A week later she received a two-paragraph letter of condolence.
It ended: "The memory of Caleb will inspire us to continue our good work on behalf of all the juveniles in our care." :rofl:
Utah human services authorities gave Boyd $1,500 to help with transporting Caleb's body to Utah and with the cost of the funeral. She has not received her son's belongings.
Sisco, of Utah's Human Services agency, said officials there can't help Boyd without more facts. "The hard part is that we don't know all the answers yet. We don't know yet if there was staff negligence or if this was something that couldn't be caught," she said.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or http://www.denverpost.com:80/avalanche/ci_5904191 (http://www.denverpost.com:80/avalanche/ci_5904191)
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How many were guilty…5 or 6 ? out of thousands… So five or 6 kids died..that is 5 or 6 too many, I agree…but how many have they saved? Thousands that we know of…so instead of a thousands being dead we have 44. Not all the kids can be reached.
Is that you Steve? Steve Cartesano? I remember reading an interview you did once about the deaths at Challenger, and you said something like hey, so we lose a few kids once in awhile, but look at all the kids we're saving. It's a small price to pay.
Except that no kid has ever been saved by a wilderness program. Oops. But hey, there's lots of money to be made, so it's all good.
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Bump..
This thread is worthy of more attention.
Any Updates?
Remember Fuckers.. School is out soon.. These wilderness shit pits will be filling up to the brim.
How many will die?
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Deborah wrote: Oh... I don't know. Maybe it's our bias showing again. Or, the 'fact' that 44 kids would still be alive, if not for their wilderness death therapy. 60 if you add the boot camps deaths. How many were convicted? Five, six?
I hope Caleb's mother stumbles across Fornits or any of the other sites and realizes that this is not an 'isolated', 'freak' incident. Medical neglect is second only to restraint for cause of death.
How many were guilty…5 or 6 ? out of thousands… So five or 6 kids died..that is 5 or 6 too many, I agree…but how many have they saved? Thousands that we know of…so instead of a thousands being dead we have 44. Not all the kids can be reached. We are now talking about a specific case and I am saying we should wait for the results of the investigation before you post these kids (counselors) names and pictures all over the internet for their family and loved ones to see…it is only fair. You don’t know what happened or how they tried to save him or the training they received..let’s let the authorities do their jobs and not try to ruin anyone’s lives or careers because of uncontrolled hatred towards all the people trying to help these kids.
Deborah, just for the sake of their family and kids, try to give them the benefit of the doubt. If it turns out one of the counselors caused the kids death then you can ridicule them and post their pictures, call them killers for their families and kids to see, the counselors children will have to endure ridicule from their class mates knowing the kids father was posted all over the internet and you will feel good about yourself that justice was done and you got revenge by destroying a family and causing them to move.
But you should at least wait until the facts are in….
::blah:: :skull:
This is classic.
There are so many things to discuss about this post.
*This is an expensive "therapy" facility. The untrained, undereducated councelors purposefully denied medical attention. Even though this is what they are required to do as part of this behavior modification program. Everyone has a filter to determine what is appropriate.
*This is not an "accident" this is a mindset. Many children have died and been abused by the staff denying medical care. Part of the program is inflicting pain upon the student. The theory.. "window of loss" is real as stated in the post. The people administering this type of behavior modification program in the industry feel these children are disposable. If they lose a few... they are saving many.
*The programs are able to get away with this type of abuse because some states do not agree on what is considered child abuse. Locking a child in a box, denying food or medical care is NOT considered abuse in many states. I spoke to someone at the licensing division and he stated to me that the abuse has to happen first. The problem is .. the children are isolated, there is no contact with the parent, its happening out in the middle of no where. If abuse happends.. its between the teenager and the councelor. Who do they believe "the program".
*I can predict what will happen with this program. They will shut it down and they will farm out the people who currently work in the program to different programs or open a new one. The councelors will not be held accountable for their personal actions of denying medical care.. as they were told this child is a manipulator and they just assumed he was faking... and the owners are far removed from the kids.. they are too busy marketing to parents.. they would have nothing to do with this "accident". They will probably not be charged with any wrong doing. Not only will these souless people be allowed to continue with their lives they will go back to working in the industry.. smuggly.. thinking ... this child would have died anyway he was "troubled" kid.
*Follow the money trail .. parents.... judges. You will find these programs are not for saving youth. Its a money making machine with a cult like following. The dangerous mindset of behavior modification is administered by staff that does not have any creditials. They are usually very young people in their early 20's. They do not have any formal training or creditials. All of the people sourrounding the death of this young boy have been criminally reckless. It does not take a rocket scientist to determine an oozing infected sore and a child who is in severe pain needs medical attention. These children do not learn to survive in the wilderness .. they are MADE to survive.
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I can predict what will happen with this program. They will shut it down and they will farm out the people who currently work in the program to different programs or open a new one. The councelors will not be held accountable for their personal actions of denying medical care.. as they were told this child is a manipulator and they just assumed he was faking... and the owners are far removed from the kids.. they are too busy marketing to parents.. they would have nothing to do with this "accident". They will probably not be charged with any wrong doing. Not only will these souless people be allowed to continue with their lives they will go back to working in the industry.. smuggly.. thinking ... this child would have died anyway he was "troubled" kid.
"The essence of obedience is that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred, all of the essential features of obedience follow. The most far-reaching consequence is that the person feels responsible to the authority directing him but feels no responsibility for the content of the actions that the authority prescribes. Morality does not disappear -- it acquires a radically different focus: the subordinate person feels shame or pride depending on how adequately he has performed the actions called for by authority.
Language provides numerous terms to pinpoint this type of morality: loyalty, duty, discipline are all terms heavily saturated with moral meaning and refer to the degree to which a person fulfills his obligations to authority. They refer not to the "goodness" of the person per se but to the adequacy with which a subordinate fulfills his socially defined role. The most frequent defense of the individual who has performed a heinous act under command of authority is that he has simply done his duty. In asserting this defense, the individual is not introducing an alibi concocted for the moment but is reporting honestly on the psychological attitude induced by submission to authority."
from The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=21675 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=21675)
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You know sad fact is RW probably isn't to wrong. Lot of educating needs to be done for state officials. Sounds like a good issue to kick off a summer awareness campaign over.
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Post your thoughts at the Denver Post Forum
http://neighbors.denverpost.com//viewto ... ?t=5904191 (http://neighbors.denverpost.com//viewtopic.php?t=5904191)
A few posts
From Ex Staff
kristin
Joined: 14 May 2007
Posts: 6
Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 8:36 am Post subject: Not for "anger issues"
kids don't come to AYA for "anger issues." They come to AYA by court order, meaning there is a crime that occurred, and it is almost always more than once. This sounds like a tragedy. Caleb should not have ever gone to AYA, it is a place where you are outside and you are hiking and living on the bare minimum. It is awesome for the kids. They leave the program changed. They recognize their own power and capabilities, and live a life free from drugs, and usually a horrible family life. It sounds like his mother neglected to tell the courts about his infections. This could have been the action that saved his life. There are many other options for treatment centers. AYA is not the only one. Court systems generally use it when kids are about to be in more serious trouble, like commitment. This generally carries a much longer jail sentence. This sounds like a freak infection and AYA acted appropriately. Let the program have their license back.
It gets worse..... Responding to Izabelle
Obviously you don't know much about back country wilderness programs. Students are in the backcountry for 60 days. They don't ever go inside, and they don't ever have contact with the outside world. This is what gives the program power. Students learn to rely on themselves, they learn about how strong they are. In an environment that is safe from temptation. The clean there cups that way because we have to conserve water. The cups are dipped then cleaned by staff members later in the evening. AYA also deals with the issues of the particular child. Each student has a staff member assigned to them. They work on the particular students problems, which often stem from a poor home life. But also they are drugs, and running away. AYA is a different approach to treatment. An approach that teaches students about their own value. Before you knock the program it is important that you understand what goes on. This is not your typical treatment; it is another attempt to rehabilitate these kids. I did look at your website. However, I think you may have missed the mark with this child. While I recognize the growing issue, and I believe in what you are doing. You need to understand AYA. The no shower deal, they are out in the middle of no where. There are no showers. They do what the state mandates as far as bathing. The kids do get dirty... they are living OUTSIDE!!! I wish you could see the merits of a program like this. But for people who don't camp, or backpack, it would seem gross to only "shower" twice a week. But, it does work. The kids move camp every day, they are hiking through a beautiful area of our state.
Look, all I'm saying is this isn't AYA 100%. There are many places and people that let this child down. And I would appreciate it YOU would quit exploiting this case for your cause... when you don't know if the two are truly related. If you recognize, there have not been any comments from AYA in the newspaper, maybe because they are maintaining the dignity of the child, and looking into the issue before they start splashing personal information on their website. Not everything relates to your cause! I hope when all of the information comes out you take down Caleb from your website. Thanks for listening.
I just saw that you published excerpts of my thoughts on your website. I’m not an employee of AYA anymore. I am now a public school teacher, who spent time working with adjudicated youth. Just for your information.
What about crusading for more money from the government to improve the care of kids in jail? The main fact that I think you are missing is that these programs serve a need in society!!! They are programs that are attempting to rehabilitate kids so that they become high functioning adults, so they don't remain in the system as adults. The adult penal system is far less forgiving and there is almost no way out!
I would like to see more ideas on your website about what we can do to improve care. I'm not sure publishing stories of kids’ death is the best way to change the system. And going after programs that attempt to help kids is not appropriate. The system isn’t perfect, but programs that are trying to help kids aren’t the imperfection.
And Justice Smith chimes in.....
Dear CAICA,
First, I read the story about what led Isabelle to found CAICA. It seems natural to be shocked and appalled after a hearing story like this. However, let us not forget that children who are sent to behavior modification programs usually need some behavior modification. Kids I have known personally are often times manipulative and unable to take responsibility for their actions. It is possible that the boy who inspired your cause was exaggerating. I do admit that abuse occurs in institutions, but most of the argument you make against AYA is full of holes. For instance, there is reference made to children who refer to their mothers as "mommy" as being broken. Perhaps, but these kids are emotionally immature all around: teenagers who like to be read to and sung to as they drift off to sleep, children who were robbed of their childhoods. Using the term, "mommy" may indicate a "broken" child, but that child was most likely "broken" prior to arriving at AYA and by NO means indicates abuse or negligence on the part of AYA or its staff. Furthermore, most of your argument hinges upon sound bites created by the local media rather than cold-hard fact. Because you don’t know any. Because very little has been released. So far, the coroner has ruled the death “natural causes”, a DHS representative has been quoted as saying there was a staph infection, and The Denver Post reports that Caleb died of a methicillin-resistant strain of staph. A representative from DHS is not a medical official who is at liberty to rule cause of death and if staph did end Caleb’s life and it was an antibiotic resistant strain, it sounds like there may be more to the story than meets the eye. In my opinion, you are jumping to conclusions and are infringing on libel. Lastly, I feel that it is completely inappropriate to minimize Caleb’s theft charges, blaming them on being persuaded by friends. Behavior modification programs work long and hard trying to teach students to take responsibility for their actions and to realize that they are the only ones who can make change in their own lives.
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Isabelle Zehnder promotes PURE who places kids in unregulated programs that have an agreement to pay PURE a fee for referrals that result in a placement.
That is a conflict of interest that should not be ignored nor minimized by persons who claim to be concerned about the safety and well-being of children.
:flame:
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Kids don't deserve no goddamn rights, cuz they ain't no better than a bunch of fuckin NIGGERS! If mine ever try to "assert their rights" I'm gonna drag 'em out to the woodshed and tear up their uppity little asses!
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Does Izzy have time to do anything other than post on the internet?
Seriously though.. if you comment on that link don't turn it into a flame fest over PURE. We have a pure forum for that. Keep it on track about the kid Caleb. The more people get the word on this the better.
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We need to keep this topic at the top of the forum. I refuse to believe that the only game in advocacy is me getting banned from a forum and ST being shut down.
Lets get some sorta sign up sheet going for those who want to mob that link and do a mass posting part. cut and paste and repost with your screen name or number or whatever you choose to id yourself with.
Don't worry about IPs.. I'll put a list of proxies up that are free to use by everyone if you are afraid of prosecution.
1) TSW
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We need to keep this topic at the top of the forum. I refuse to believe that the only game in advocacy is me getting banned from a forum and ST being shut down.
Lets get some sorta sign up sheet going for those who want to mob that link and do a mass posting part. cut and paste and repost with your screen name or number or whatever you choose to id yourself with.
Don't worry about IPs.. I'll put a list of proxies up that are free to use by everyone if you are afraid of prosecution.
1) TSW
Keeping this up top. Their is so much more going on to fight programmie scum and their sorts than forum drama.
Sign up today!
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Shades of Pueblo Chieftain all over again?
No thanks. The IZZY factor appears to be in full force.
:rofl:
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I posted,
I haven't read through all of these post so I'll keep it brief. I've seen many case like this involving programs for troubled teens, this is a death due to medical neglect. In the troubled teen industry there's a tough love think that allows this sort of thing to happen much to often. Contrary to the questionably good intentions of staff, kids who complain about being sick are more often called a "faker" or a "manipulator" who's trying to get out of "working the program". When ever a kid dies, like in the case of Ian August (http://http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestead.com/IanAugust_Skyline_Journey.html), the program always tries to place the blame on something or someone else. Nature, the parents, or the dead kid are the usual scapegoats. Programs try to justify medical neglect by saying that the kid was always faking being sick. It disgusts me when people use the delinquency of the child as a way to excuse the program for the child's death or harsh treatment. FYI: Abuse is wrong period
I hear what you folks are saying in regards to AYA's, and the troubled teen industry's, mission of helping troubled teens. However you need to realize that the industry has had decades to change and many deaths, and a vastly greater number of abused kids, to show that change is desperately needed. But no change will come from these supposed saviors of teens in crisis. After a death Programs fight tooth and nail to avoid taking responsibility for the ethical deficit of it's staffers and policies that lead to that death, I highly suspect that it will be the same in this case. Is that the action of a caring guardian of the most vulnerable children in our society? All of the change that has come has been hard fought by former victims, and now survivors, of these "caring" programs.
I'll post some links to some websites you folks can visit to learn more about this issue. If you truly care about the children you will take the time to educate yourself. If AYA truly cares, accept responsibility for your actio... inactions that led to this boy's death...
- ISAC corp (http://http://isaccorp.org/) - Watchdog group for the Troubled teen industry made up by survivors of abusive programs.
- Who's Watching The Kids? (http://http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids/) - Documentary, viewable online, by the Montana PBS that looks at programs run by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools(WWASPS) An organization based in Utah
- Inside Edition Report (http://http://isaccorp.org/wwasps/insideedition.mpg) - Report(video) done by Inside Edition on WWASPS that shows video of kids at a facility in Mexico who were kept in dog cages. Read Jessica's testimony of her time at the facility (http://http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=20412)
- Holy The Children Memorial (http://http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestead.com/INMEMORIAM.html) - Online Memorial for children who did not survive the "caring" hands of their abusers
- Fornits (http://http://fornits.com/wwf/index.php) - unmoderated message board for survivors to vent, reconnect, or talk about the weather. Valuable information if you can stomach it.
- Struggling People (http://http://www.freepowerboards.com/strugglingppl/index.php) - a moderated forum for both parents and survivors to share experiences, good and bad, and to educate each other on issues faced by survivors and parents.
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You know sad fact is RW probably isn't to wrong. Lot of educating needs to be done for state officials. Sounds like a good issue to kick off a summer awareness campaign over.
My family is going in that direction, my wife has gotten addresses and phone numbers of local officials here. My step daughter needs to send her personal story in, I think it would get the attention of the politicos in a way a parent's letter wouldn't.
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Send it to Fred Thompson (seriously)
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Advocacy is important enough to be done well. So consider this:
The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored. But all we have is the result: he died of an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph; he'd had staph numerous times before. The staph infection could have appeared and killed him within hours, as this type of infection does--daily--around the country. It happens with chilling frequency, and may have little or nothing to do with any preventative measures taken. It may be a case of neglect, but at this point, it's a stretch to place this in the neglect/abuse column. The death alone is not convincing to anyone who's seen how virile this infection can be.
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The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored.
Yep, thats how we work here at fornits get use to it, he will be placed on the list as a homicide (killed by camp employees) and the official results will not make a difference either way.
We know the real story, dont let anyone tell you any different.
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Advocacy is important enough to be done well. So consider this:
The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored. But all we have is the result: he died of an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph; he'd had staph numerous times before. The staph infection could have appeared and killed him within hours, as this type of infection does--daily--around the country. It happens with chilling frequency, and may have little or nothing to do with any preventative measures taken. It may be a case of neglect, but at this point, it's a stretch to place this in the neglect/abuse column. The death alone is not convincing to anyone who's seen how virile this infection can be.
INTERESTING... where did you find this information regarding the "resistant" staph. This sounds like pure BS to me.
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The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored.
Yep, thats how we work here at fornits get use to it, he will be placed on the list as a homicide (killed by camp employees) and the official results will not make a difference either way.
We know the real story, dont let anyone tell you any different.
TheWho likes make fun of sexual abuse victims, isn't that disgusting?
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Hey TSW, still waiting for the following:
Don't worry about IPs.. I'll put a list of proxies up that are free to use by everyone if you are afraid of prosecution.
Thanks!
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The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored.
Yep, thats how we work here at fornits get use to it, he will be placed on the list as a homicide (killed by camp employees) and the official results will not make a difference either way.
We know the real story, dont let anyone tell you any different.
TheWho likes make fun of sexual abuse victims, isn't that disgusting?
yes he is a creep, that has been known for a long time.......
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Advocacy is important enough to be done well. So consider this:
The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored. But all we have is the result: he died of an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph; he'd had staph numerous times before. The staph infection could have appeared and killed him within hours, as this type of infection does--daily--around the country. It happens with chilling frequency, and may have little or nothing to do with any preventative measures taken. It may be a case of neglect, but at this point, it's a stretch to place this in the neglect/abuse column. The death alone is not convincing to anyone who's seen how virile this infection can be.
Why wouldnt the staff know about the infection? The child had to be sick and it had to be very painful. Are you suggesting that the staff had no idea that a child was in pain, ill or exhausted? If you have ever seen anyone suffer from a staph infection, it is beyond obvious they need medical attention. Have you ever had the flu? Can you imagine a raging staff infection while trying to hike miles everyday? How COULD the staff NOT know? Isnt it their job to watch out for your child? Do you think this little boy kept this to himself? I am interested to know how you found out so quickly this is a "staph infection resistant to antibotics"-I suppose he will never know because he was not treated with antiboitics--which is the only way to tell if the infection he has is resistant. Your post is transparent. Yes, I suppose it is true that when a child dies of medical neglect we assume it is another needless death at the hands of these programs.
This is why we need federal legislation and take away the power from these programs. Every person working with these children, expecially if they are out in the wilderness need to have some type of medical background. I believe every person should have state mandated training on recognizing abuse and that they are required by law to report it. ESPECIALLY for adjudicated youth. If you are being sent by the state and it is paid for by the tax payer. They should be required to have properly trained employees.
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We need to keep this topic at the top of the forum. I refuse to believe that the only game in advocacy is me getting banned from a forum and ST being shut down.
Lets get some sorta sign up sheet going for those who want to mob that link and do a mass posting part. cut and paste and repost with your screen name or number or whatever you choose to id yourself with.
Don't worry about IPs.. I'll put a list of proxies up that are free to use by everyone if you are afraid of prosecution.
1) TSW
TSW- signing up. rw
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Well damn I go to bed for 4 hours and people are making posts and and telling fred thompsen.
Who is Fred Thompsen?
proxies..
www.3proxy.com (http://www.3proxy.com)
www.torpark.com (http://www.torpark.com)
try those two first if they don't work let me know I'll dig around on my list of degenerate trolling.. special advocate "tools" and throw out a few more.
Also remember keep on point with this. Let's not turning this into a feeding frenzy over that doophus Izzy.
I mean come on peeps... hasn't she gotten enough attention already?
Hanzomon good onya.
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Advocacy is important enough to be done well. So consider this:
The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored. But all we have is the result: he died of an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph; he'd had staph numerous times before. The staph infection could have appeared and killed him within hours, as this type of infection does--daily--around the country. It happens with chilling frequency, and may have little or nothing to do with any preventative measures taken. It may be a case of neglect, but at this point, it's a stretch to place this in the neglect/abuse column. The death alone is not convincing to anyone who's seen how virile this infection can be.
You have some sources to back up the infection resistant staph premise? In my point of view that fact alone makes the program more responsible for the death and not less. Please cite some sources as this may well be critically important for demonstrating a critical flaw in the day to day operations of the average wilderness program. Here are my thoughts as to why I feell that.
Neglect is just as screwed up as abuse. The one thing people forget is that from the minute the child steps foot on the program is the minute the program becomes fully responsible for the child's safety. Not just sort of responsible that is shrugged off, but the sort of responsible that involves every aspect of the child's life. The program is responsible for ensuring the physical, mental, and emotional well being of those place in its care.
Now I'm not going to get involved in a debate over whether this was murder or not. Mainly because I'm nore prone to believe like you that it was neglect. It could well be that it was an accidental neglect as well. If this staph does work like you say and it strikes so fast it could be that the staff involved shrugged off the intial reports as malingering. Being realistic most staff don't have advanced medical training in the first place.
But this is my take on it.
The program was responsible for Caleb's health and safety needs from the second he arrived. The fact that Caleb is now dead indicates to me that they neglected their responsibilities to ensure those needs would be timely met. It isn't a matter of fairness to the program and employees as the in the end the young man is dead. That death they are responsible for because somewhere along the line the promise spoken or otherwised was made that Caleb would be returning home alive. The fact that medical treatment wasn't provided is solely the blame of the program. No physical complaint should be considered to trivial to not warrant the notice of some sort of medical care.
How that plays out in a wilderness program is difficult to ascertain, but none the less still critically important.
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Advocacy is important enough to be done well. So consider this:
The general assumption here is that camp employees knew about the infection and ignored it, that the kid's needs were ignored. But all we have is the result: he died of an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph; he'd had staph numerous times before. The staph infection could have appeared and killed him within hours, as this type of infection does--daily--around the country. It happens with chilling frequency, and may have little or nothing to do with any preventative measures taken. It may be a case of neglect, but at this point, it's a stretch to place this in the neglect/abuse column. The death alone is not convincing to anyone who's seen how virile this infection can be.
Peddle your bullshit somewhere else.
Yeh, perfectly innocent. That's why they were so vague with his mom. She didn't even know where he was pronounced dead. And couldn't get anything out of the coroner until she hired an attorney. Welcome to program land.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261428#261428 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261428#261428)
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261428#261428 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261428#261428)
I guess those sores on his mouth just cropped up in the 10 minutes between the time he told the counselor he was sick and needed to go home and when he fell over and became unresponsive.
Antibiotic resistant or not, he deserved a fighting chance. It's not a certain death sentence.
Wyllie et al. report a death rate of 34% within 30 days among patients infected with MRSA, while among MSSA patients the death rate was similar at 27%. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRSA)
Since it's most commonly "community-acquired", who's to say he didn't get it there, or that the deprivation diet and austere rigors of the program didn't exacerbate the problem? All those things are hard on the immune system.
Caleb described a different life in camp. He wrote he had to climb mountains every day until he was exhausted. He was able to wash only twice a week using tiny amounts of water. He had to clean his dishes after meals by licking them and then using dirt to scour them.
Sounds like a staff infection waiting to happen.
Patients are quarentined. Have any of the other kids acquired it?
And I guess DHS just made this one up, “It’s the department’s belief the child reported symptoms of observable signs of infection that were neglected and he was denied proper medical treatment,” Liz McDonough, Colorado Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said Friday.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261430#261430 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261430#261430)
Who was the lucky staff who got to perform rescue breathing???
Who's responsible for overlooking or ignoring his medical history of staff infections on his face???
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261462#261462 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261462#261462)
Caleb, who had been exhibiting behavioral problems for several days before his death, told a counselor he didn't feel well and needed to go home. After the counselor moved on, Caleb slumped over. Less than 10 minutes later when a counselor checked on him, he was dead, Reese said.
At the very fuckin least, he should have been able to die with his family instead of in some cold, heartless program.
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And I guess DHS just made this one up, “It’s the department’s belief the child reported symptoms of observable signs of infection that were neglected and he was denied proper medical treatment,” Liz McDonough, Colorado Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said Friday.
Jesus. Is the state pushing for charges yet?
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bump
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You have some sources to back up the infection resistant staph premise?
Yeh, it was reported:
His mother says her son died of a simple staph infection which could easily have been treated.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... sc&start=0 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=21509&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)
Colorado authorities say Jensen died from a staphylococcus infection.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261428#261428 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261428#261428)
The Mesa County Coroner, to whom Jensen’s autopsy was transferred while jurisdiction was being determined, said in a Thursday news release the youth died from a methicillin-resistant staph aureus infection.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261430#261430 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261430#261430)
Caleb died of a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection. The bacterial infection traditionally is seen in hospitalized or very ill or elderly patients.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261559#261559 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261559#261559)
~~~
Remember the Andersen case? A second opinion might be good. Although, even if it was MRSA, he still could've survived with proper medical attention. It's not an immediate death sentence, unless one happens to be in a program.
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Ok we got this on the line up.
Hanzomon
RW
TSW
Who else is gonna post or have already posted?
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Caleb described a different life in camp. He wrote he had to climb mountains every day until he was exhausted. He was able to wash only twice a week using tiny amounts of water. He had to clean his dishes after meals by licking them and then using dirt to scour them.
Sounds like a staff infection waiting to happen.
Who's responsible for overlooking or ignoring his medical history of staff infections on his face???
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261462#261462 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=261462#261462)
I was about to edit those typos, but decided to leave them. How appropro!! STAFF infection. :rofl:
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Hey debs you going to get in on this?
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I'll check it tomorrow and see if there's anything I think needs to be said that hasn't been. Not interested in wasting my time debating and posting information in that venue only to have it all deleted when some program jerk complains. My time is too valuable these days.
May just put together some links to info on Fornits. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
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that alone is awesome. We do need someone to do the research.
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Why isn't anyone posting on the Denver site?
It's not OK that Isabelle Zehnder has taken over this board and turned it into her CAICA self-seving agenda; linking all of her websites and services.
Izzy is in BLOG heaven.
BeeTrue
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link please
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From Montrose Press: http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2 ... news/2.txt (http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2007/05/11/local_news/2.txt)
The Mesa County Coroner, to whom Jensen’s autopsy was transferred while jurisdiction was being determined, said in a Thursday news release the youth died from a methicillin-resistant staph aureus infection.
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From Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_5904191 (http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_5904191)
(http://http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2007/0515/20070515__20070516_B1_CD16CAMPDEATH~p1.JPG) frequent problems with staph infections[/color].
"He should have been cared for. He should be alive today," a sobbing Boyd said during a telephone conversation from her home. "I know my baby told them. He always knew when he had a staph infection."
...Caleb died of a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection. The bacterial infection traditionally is seen in hospitalized or very ill or elderly patients.
Caleb's mother said he had been treated for numerous staph infections since he was a toddler and suffered a related skin problem called impetigo. He was treated for three infections while he was in other juvenile justice programs in Utah before being sent to the camp, she said.
"When I saw my son in the casket and looked at his little face, there was a sore on each side of his mouth under the makeup. ... I knew," she said.
...Caleb's family has been unable to get much information about his death. Reese said they pieced together information that shows Caleb was sitting on his sleeping bag in the camp during a rest day on the day he died. Caleb, who had been exhibiting behavioral problems for several days before his death, told a counselor he didn't feel well and needed to go home. After the counselor moved on, Caleb slumped over. Less than 10 minutes later when a counselor checked on him, he was dead, Reese said.
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Denver Post blog can be linked near the bottom of the above article.
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Deborah wrote:
Post your thoughts at the Denver Post Forum
http://neighbors.denverpost.com//viewto ... ?t=5904191 (http://neighbors.denverpost.com//viewtopic.php?t=5904191)
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Visible signs of infection.. jesus..
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http://166.70.44.77/comments/read_comme ... arch#14623 (http://166.70.44.77/comments/read_comments.asp?ref=5869683&sec=Search#14623)
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from WebMD:
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus overview (http://http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/Methicillin-Resistant-Staphylococcus-aureus-MRSA-Overview)
What is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)?
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are a type of staphylococcus or "staph" bacteria that are resistant to many antibiotics. Staph bacteria, like other kinds of bacteria, normally live on your skin and in your nose, usually without causing problems. MRSA is different from other types of staph because it cannot be treated with certain antibiotics such as methicillin.
Staph bacteria only become a problem when they cause infection. For some people, especially those who are weak or ill, these infections can become serious.
MRSA infections are more difficult to treat than ordinary staph infections. This is because the strains of staph that are known as MRSA do not respond well to many types of antibiotics-the types of medicines that are normally used to kill bacteria. When methicillin and other common antibiotic medicines do not work to kill the bacteria that is causing an infection, it becomes harder to get rid of the infection.
MRSA bacteria are more likely to develop when antibiotics are used too often or are not used correctly. Given enough time, bacteria can outsmart antibiotics so that these medicines no longer work well. This is why MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria are sometimes called "super bugs."
What causes an infection?
MRSA, like all staph bacteria, can be spread from one person to another through casual contact or through contaminated objects. It is commonly spread from the hands of someone who has MRSA. This could be anyone in a healthcare setting or in the community. MRSA is usually not spread through the air like the common cold or flu virus, unless a person has MRSA pneumonia and is coughing.
MRSA that is acquired in a hospital or healthcare setting is called healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA). In most cases, a person who is already sick or who has a weakened immune system becomes infected with HA-MRSA. These infections can occur in wounds or skin, burns, and IV or other sites where tubes enter the body, as well as in the eyes, bones, heart, or blood.
MRSA used to infect people who had chronic illnesses, but now MRSA is becoming more common in healthy people. These infections can occur among people who are likely to have cuts or wounds and who have close contact with one another, such as members of sports teams. This type of MRSA is called community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA).
What are the symptoms of MRSA?
Symptoms of a MRSA infection depend on where the infection is. If MRSA is causing an infection in a wound, that area of your skin may be red or tender. If you have a urinary tract infection, you may have fever, back pain, burning when you urinate, or a need to urinate more often than usual. If you have pneumonia, you may develop a cough.
Community-associated MRSA commonly causes skin infections, such as boils, abscesses, or cellulitis. Often, people think they have been bitten by a spider or insect. Because MRSA infections can become serious in a short amount of time, it is important to see your doctor right away if you notice a boil or other skin problem.
How is an infection diagnosed?
If your doctor thinks that you are infected with MRSA, he or she will send a sample of your infected wound, blood, or urine to a lab. The lab will grow the bacteria and then test to see which kinds of antibiotics kill the bacteria. This test may take several days.
You may also be tested if your doctor suspects that you are a MRSA carrier-a person who has the bacteria on his or her skin but who is not sick. This is done by taking a swab from the inside of the nose.
How is an infection treated?
Depending on how serious your infection is, the doctor may drain your wound, prescribe antibiotic medicine, give you an IV (intravenous) antibiotic, or hospitalize you. You might also be given an ointment to put on your skin or inside your nose and be asked to wash your skin daily with an antibiotic soap called chlorhexidine (Hibiclens) to reduce MRSA bacteria on your skin.
If you have a MRSA infection and need to be in a hospital, you will be isolated in a private room to reduce the chances of spreading the bacteria to others. When your doctors and nurses are caring for you, they will use extra precautions such as wearing gloves and gowns. If you have a MRSA pneumonia, they will also wear masks.
Most cases of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) begin as mild skin infections such as pimples or boils. Your doctor may be able to treat these infections without antibiotics by using a minor surgical procedure that opens and drains the sores.
If your doctor prescribes antibiotic medicine, be sure to take all the medicine even if you begin to feel better right away. If you do not take all the medicine, you may not kill all the bacteria. No matter what your treatment, it is important to call your doctor if your infection does not get better as expected.
How can I prevent getting or spreading MRSA?
As more antibiotic-resistant bacteria develop, hospitals are taking extra care to practice “infection control,” which includes frequent hand-washing and isolation of patients who are infected with MRSA.
You can also take steps to protect yourself from MRSA.
- Practice good hygiene.
* Keep your hands clean by washing them frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Hand-washing is the best way to avoid spreading germs.
* Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage and avoid contact with other people’s wounds or bandages.
* Do not share personal items such as towels or razors. - Be smart about using antibiotics. Know that antibiotics can help treat bacterial infections but they cannot cure viral infections. Always ask your doctor if antibiotics are the best treatment and avoid pressuring your doctor into prescribing antibiotics when they won't help you get better.
- Always take all your antibiotic medicine as prescribed by your doctor. Using only part of the medicine can cause antibiotic-resistant bacteria to develop.
- Do not save any antibiotics and do not use antibiotics that were prescribed for someone else.
If you have an infection with MRSA, you can keep from spreading the bacteria.
- Cover your wound with clean, dry bandages and follow your doctor’s instructions on caring for your wound.
- Keep your hands clean. You, your family, and other people with whom you are in close contact should wash their hands frequently with soap and warm water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially after changing the bandage or touching the wound.
- Do not share towels, washcloths, razors, clothing, or other items that may have had contact with your wound or a bandage. Wash your sheets, towels, and clothes with warm water and detergent and dry them in a hot dryer, if possible.
- Keep your environment clean by wiping frequently touched surfaces (such as countertops, doorknobs, and light switches) with a disinfectant.
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So in short about 50 dollars worth of antibiotics and some bed rest probably would have saved Caleb's life?
OH what a fucking waste.
:cry:
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NOTE:
"He was treated for three infections while he was in other juvenile justice programs in Utah before being sent to the camp," she said.
Was this just recently prior to the wilderness camp? How aggressively did the juvenile justice programs treat his infections? Did medical personnel do swabs and culture the organism appropriately to ascertain whether he had come down with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)? These type of bacterial infections are far more common in institutional settings. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that is where the original infection came from.
He most likely received antibiotics at the time, but... in a case where you have a kid who is prone to this kind of stuff, follow up to confirm that the infection has been eliminated is absolutely critical. Plus, MRSAs can apparently be pretty stubborn. By definition, this type of bacterial infection is resistant to many different commonly used antibiotics. The infection possibly stayed latent for some time and then stress events enabled it to take hold with a vengence. Did the AYA staff have emergency provisions of antibiotics on hand?
Whether or not the above scenario is true, and I would venture that any self-respecting pathologist would have to cede that it is quite possible, if not probable, aggressive intervention at the time of his "not feeling very well" could still have saved his life.
I hate to say it but, to my mind, this potentially broadens the net of culpability beyond just AYA, to include the institutions/juvenile justice programs he was enrolled in while in Utah as well.
This is, of course, dependent upon how recently he was in the Utah programs, which I do not know... although the wording in the Denver Post article would suggest that it was relatively recent.
Certainly a kid who has a lifetime history of being especially prone to Staph infections and who has recently battled three episodes thereof, should not be "ha{ving} to climb mountains every day until he was exhausted, ...able to wash only twice a week using tiny amounts of water, ...ha{ving} to clean his dishes after meals by licking them and then using dirt to scour them."
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You know sad fact is RW probably isn't to wrong. Lot of educating needs to be done for state officials. Sounds like a good issue to kick off a summer awareness campaign over.
My family is going in that direction, my wife has gotten addresses and phone numbers of local officials here. My step daughter needs to send her personal story in, I think it would get the attention of the politicos in a way a parent's letter wouldn't.
And what a story your daughter has to tell. How is she doing?
Also why not make this a multipronged attack? How can others help?
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http://166.70.44.77/comments/read_comme ... arch#14623 (http://166.70.44.77/comments/read_comments.asp?ref=5869683&sec=Search#14623)
man either more people are paying attention to this thread than I thought or people have more than likely been busy on their own.
Go get em!!!
GO GO GO GO!
Oh my good.. Is that Cathy Sutton? Now that woman is an inspiration.
HEY cathy if you read this just to let you know that I've never forgotten about Michelle and I never will.
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(http://http://caleb-jensen.memory-of.com/Uploads/Pictures/2007/5/21/MediumPic633153410162343750.jpg)(http://http://caleb-jensen.memory-of.com/Uploads/Pictures/2007/5/21/MediumPic633153410154843750.jpg)
(http://http://caleb-jensen.memory-of.com/Uploads/Pictures/2007/5/21/MediumPic633153410164375000.jpg)(http://http://caleb-jensen.memory-of.com/Uploads/Pictures/2007/5/21/MediumPic633153410165000000.jpg)
(http://http://caleb-jensen.memory-of.com/Uploads/Pictures/2007/5/21/MediumPic633153410160937500.jpg)
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Most of this has been already stated by previous articles, save for the last paragraph.
Casper StarTribune article (Wyoming) (http://http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/05/14/news/regional/1ab532726ba41504872572d8007c7dfd.txt)
In 2001, Colorado corrections officials investigated an incident where campers cursed and threatened counselors with sticks and rocks, saying the Alternative Youth Adventures program was too difficult. Counselors called sheriff's officials for help.[/color]
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Kristen Chase died in the Challenger Program, Utah, on July 27, 1990. Just six weeks after my daughter Michelle. The cause of Kristen's death was Heat Exhaustion. She died on day-3 of what was supposed to be a 63-day program. Like Michelle, Kristen's pleas for help were ignored. It is a pattern of behavior in these programs for children to be labeled fakers, whiners and manipulators. No one was held accountable.
How many more will die before this gets regulated?
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Rocky Mountain News article (http://http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5531438,00.html)
The child reported symptoms of observable signs of infection[/color]," McDonough said.
Dr. Rob Kurtzman, the Grand Junction pathologist who performed the autopsy on Caleb Jensen, 15, said testing confirmed that the death was caused by a staph infection.
He said the boy would have had observable signs, but wouldn't elaborate.
Jensen had been ordered to the program by a judge in Salt Lake County, Utah.
The investigation continues under the direction of Montrose County Sheriff Rick Dunlap and District Attorney Myrl Serra.
AYA, operated by New Jersey-based Community Education Centers, hires camp counselors to operate the program for at-risk juveniles through education, counseling and work projects in national forests.
It has contracts with Colorado, Montana and Utah to provide teenagers with cognitive behavior wilderness therapy.
McDonough said the 26 remaining teens in the camp were dispersed to other state juvenile facilities, including the Division of Youth Services jail in Grand Junction and the Ridge View facility in Watkins. About 10 were sent back to the counties that had ordered them to the Montrose County program.
AYA's camp in Montrose County had attracted law enforcement notice on at least two prior occasions, both involving walk-aways.
Bill Palatucci, senior vice president of the New Jersey parent company of AYA, said the company has "certainly complied with the suspension and will certainly contest it."
"I don't want to argue through the papers," he said. "We're still waiting for a full report from the pathologist."
-
Michelle Sutton
Kristen Chase
Aaron Bacon
Outside magazine, June 1995
What Happened Out Here?
A death in the wilderness raises disturbing questions about boot camps for troubled teens
By Christopher Smith
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a Utah judge raps his gavel on May 22 to begin a preliminary criminal hearing into the death of 16-year-old Aaron Bacon, the key evidence for the prosecution will come from the waifish, longhaired teen himself. A rebellious kid who smoked a little marijuana and brought home too many C's and D's, Bacon was enrolled last winter by his parents, Robert and Sally Bacon of Phoenix, Arizona, in a Utah-based wilderness therapy program called North Star Expeditions. The couple's hope, like that of thousands of parents in the United States who send their kids to the 115 or so such private boot camps--or "Hoods in the Woods" programs, as they're sometimes called--was that North Star would teach their son hard lessons about discipline and survival and that through the experience he'd grow in self-esteem, give up drugs, and return home a healthier and happier teenager.
Instead, after only a few days in the stark and beautiful Escalante River Basin, Bacon felt his life slipping away. He didn't know it, but he'd somehow developed a bleeding ulcer, and as the energy drained slowly from his body, the aspiring poet documented his final days with ever more faint and tortured scrawls in a notebook. They were days spent hiking and camping in the slickrock and scrub-pine backcountry, but they were also days spent in emotional and physical distress as North Star staff allegedly ignored his pleas for medical attention and continued to march him farther from civilization.
"I am in terrible condition here," Bacon wrote ten days before his death. "I feel like I'm losing control of my body."
The journal is heartrending, but exactly what happened and who is to blame are still unclear. In the upcoming proceedings, the state of Utah hopes to prove that North Star's two directors and seven of its employees should be tried on felony charges of abusing and neglecting a medically disabled child. Also, the Bacons have filed a civil suit against North Star, claiming wrongful death and seeking an unspecified sum; that suit is scheduled for trial later this summer.
Bacon is the third teenager to die in this country while participating in so-called wilderness therapy. The two other deaths also occurred in Utah, in 1990. In both cases Utah authorities concluded that neglect by program staff may have occurred, but there have been no criminal convictions. Meanwhile, a growing number of observers are left wondering whether something about these programs--some designed for hardened criminals-to-be, and others, like North Star Expeditions, for basically "good" kids with a few behavior problems--is inherently flawed.
Founded in 1990 by Bill Henry, a career camp counselor, and Lance Jagger, a former air force officer, North Star advertises itself as a tough-love solution to teens' problems. An 11-day "acclimation" period is followed by 52 days in the desert, during which the boys and girls make long hikes between caches of food and occasionally go without food for up to two days at a time. Hikes are supplemented with fervent lectures about getting one's life in order. By the winter of 1993-1994 the Bacons were ready for such radical steps, and after Sally Bacon made a few inquiring calls, Bob Bacon wrote a $13,900 check to the camp. Then one morning Jagger appeared at the Bacon home and took Aaron from his bed. It was the last time the Bacons saw their child alive.
Nevertheless, North Star's Henry, who has no college-level training in teen counseling, maintains that his staff had no way of detecting the ulcer. "The medical examiner said we would not have seen these symptoms," he says, adding that Bacon passed a physical exam on March 1. Indeed, state officials initially cleared North Star of any wrongdoing in Bacon's death. It wasn't until the diaries of Bacon and others in his group were made available to investigators last fall that the question of criminal neglect was raised.
According to affidavits filed in court by prosecutors, based on these journals and sworn testimony of some 50 witnesses, there's reason to believe that Bacon's death could have been prevented. The documents say that on March 11, Bacon, eight other teenagers, and three counselors, Jeff Hohenstein, Sonny Duncan, and Craig Fisher, set out from Escalante, Utah, on a six-week backcountry hike. On the second day Bacon became dizzy and fell. He fell again a few days later, striking his head on a rock. Soon thereafter, he began suffering from nosebleeds and wrote that he constantly felt cold. He told the counselors that he wasn't strong enough to lift his pack, but this, according to Bacon's diary, prompted counselor Brent Brewer to lecture the boy to work harder. As punishment for being uncooperative, Bacon's sleeping bag was taken away. As time went on, Bacon pleaded with his counselors that he needed a doctor, but they responded that he was "faking."
By March 31, Bacon was unable to take a step and had become incontinent. Finally, counselor Mike Hill, who has not been charged in the case, radioed base camp for someone to come get Bacon. A truck arrived and Bacon was helped into the cab. Soon after that, his heart stopped beating.
The ulcer had eaten a hole in Bacon's large intestine, leaking its contents into his abdominal cavity. According to his journals, he'd gone without food, except for prickly pear cactus and pine needle tea, for 11 of his last 20 days. In a month his weight had dropped from 135 pounds to 105. "He looked like a prisoner of war," says Sally Bacon, describing a photograph of Aaron taken two days before his death.
North Star has shut its doors temporarily. But even if the camp and its employees are cleared of charges, it may never lead another hike. The Utah Department of Human Services denies an operating license to any program targeted with significant allegations of abuse or neglect, regardless of criminal conviction, and that irks Henry. "The Bacons knew their boy was a heavy, heavy drug user," he says. "Their son died of natural causes, and now they're pissed off at us."
Meanwhile, the Bacons are crusading for tougher licensing of the multimillion-dollar wilderness therapy industry. Partly in response, 50 or so camps have joined to form a National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camps and have written guidelines for members to follow. Still, things may get worse before they get better. "Besides parents looking for a place to put their kids, you've now got the government looking into government-run boot camps," says the association's founder, Archie Buie, of recent and much-publicized proposals in Congress. "But the whole idea could blow up in its face. As long as people have the urge to punish, some camps are going to fail."
-
I posted some more information
I found an article written about Aaron Bacon and his death at the wilderness program North Star Expeditions. It gives some insight into the wilderness industry and many of it's problems. You must read this article if you want an informed view on the issue of abuse and neglect in troubled teen programs.
Loving Them To Death (http://http://outside.away.com/magazine/1095/10f_deth.html)
In response to this Isabelle,
I looked over your website. I looked at the deaths you have listed many sound like accidents. Accidents DO happen. It seems that you may be against restraints. I know restraints can be dangerous. However, on occasion they are necessary. If they are done incorrectly they can be fatal. So, lets crusade for more money so these programs can teach staff members how to restrain correctly. If AYA gets their license back and if there is NO neglect found, you should REMOVE Caleb from your site. Reporting the truth is very important. It is very important to the integrity of your cause. Thanks for your time.
-Herman
I posted the following
I'm sure Martin Lee Anderson's death would have been ruled an accident had there not been a tape showing his brutal beating. Do note that the first autopsy of Anderson ruled that his death was a result of a rare sickle cell trait. After much outrage a second autopsy reveled that his death was due to asphyxiation.
If you look at all of the reported deaths you will find that each program claimed that it was a tragic accident. I don't buy it, if these counselors could not spot a staph infection why were they leading a wilderness program? What is the level of medical training these staff receive? It seems that a boy who suffered with staph infections would (1) Not be court ordered to a less then sanitary wilderness program (2) Would have known that he had one and complained.
If the staff didn't have the level of training to spot the infection in a kid who had been treated 3 times while in the custody of the state for staph infections, the program and state are to blame because they put a sick kid in the incompetent hands of untrained staff
If the staff did have the level of medical training to spot this infections they are to blame for medical neglect. This is common in troubled teen programs, many survivors have similar stories of being denied proper medical care while in program. It's only after a kid dies that the state takes this kind of abuse seriously.
I'm sorry but after reading the same story again and again it leads me to believe that we have a culture of abuse and neglect in the troubled teen industry. And how could we not when the point is to make these kids suffer to the point of being reformed. How many more deaths will it take before this ends?
If you doubt that we have a problem spend sometime looking into this issue, this very old issue. The truth of it all is absolutely disgusting.......
Link to following information (http://http://www.isaccorp.org/deaths.asp)
Angellika Arndt was just 7 years old when she died at Rice Lake Day Treatment Center in Wisconsin.
In just one month, staff members at the facility had restrained Angellika at least 9 times.
On the day she died, Angellika was placed in a face-down "control hold" for blowing bubbles with her milk.
The coroner ruled her death a homicide.
Willie Durden, age 17, died at the Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender Corrections Center in Citrus County, Florida.
Willie had no pulse when guards found him in his cell.
They did not call for help right away because they thought he was "faking."
An autopsy showed Willie had an enlarged heart.
Alex Harris, age 12, died after being forced to run as punishment at Hope Youth Ranch in Louisiana.
Staff members observed the boy from an air-conditioned truck.
After Alex collapsed, another child picked him up, but dropped Alex when he began vomiting.
Alex died of dehydration and head trauma.
8 staff members have been charged with negligent homicide.
The district attorney has promised them no prison time in exchange for a guilty plea.
13 year-old Travis Parker died after being restrained at Appalachian Wilderness Camp in Cleveland, Georgia.
Travis was held in a face-down restraint by 3 staff members for approximately 90 minutes.
During the restraint, Travis complained of breathing problems and asked for his asthma rescue inhaler.
Staff members refused.
Staff members finally realized something was wrong after Travis went limp and stopped breathing.
According to the autopsy, Travis' heart stopped during the restraint.
His death was ruled a homicide.
The staff members involved have since been charged with murder.
The director of the facility was fired after refusing to take a lie-detector test.
Lakeisha Brown collapsed and died at Alexander Youth Services in Arkansas.
Lakeisha had been complaining of back pain and difficulty breathing for an extended period of time, however nurses at the facility ignored her complaints.
A doctor at the center described Lakeisha's repeated requests for medical help as "manipulative."
An autopsy determined that Lakeisha died due to a blood clot that had traveled to her lungs.
She was just 17 years-old.
Orlena Parker, 15, died at Devereux Cleo Wallace Center, Colorado.
Orlena stopped breathing while she was being physically restrained by 7 staff members.
The El Paso County Coroner listed Orlena's cause of death as "undetermined."
Roberto Reyes, age 15, died at Thayer Learning Center in Missouri.
Roberto was covered with "unexplained" bruises, but the coroner attributed his death to a spider bite.
A state investigation revealed that Roberto was very ill for several days, but received no medical attention.
Investigators also concluded that records from the facility may have been falsified.
Roberto's family filed a wrongful death suit against Thayer Learning Center, but no criminal charges have been filed in connection with his death.
Corey Baines died while in the care of Catherine Freer Wilderness Expeditions in Oregon.
A tree limb fell on his tent as he slept.
Corey was the third child to die at the program in one year.
Another child was severely injured in 2005.
The state of Oregon continues to license the program.
Mikie Garcia, age 12, suffocated to death while being restrained at Star Ranch in Texas.
A grand jury ruled there was no wrongdoing in connection with Mikie's death.
16 year-old Giovanni Aletriz died after being restrained at Summit Quest in Pennsylvania.
The coroner ruled that Giovanni had an enlarged heart and died from "natural" causes.
However, the state Department of Public Welfare placed Summit Quest on a six-month provisional license after an investigation revealed significant health and safety concerns for the children at the facility.
James White, age 17, also died at Summit Quest in Pennsylvania.
The coroner ruled that James, like Giovanni, had an enlarged heart and died from "natural" causes.
If you folks can provide more information or your own personal testimony it would help. I don't believe these folks know very much about the issue, thus Ignorance+Knowledge=outrage
-
that was such an informative post, I copy pasted it to a new thread so we could add more to it without it getting buried in the pages. I hope you don't mind.
THESE ARE PREVENTABLE DEATHS. TOO MANY ACCIDENTS..
NEGLIGENCE... RECKLESSNESS... at a minimum the councelors, owners should be held accountable. I personally think a lot of public pressure should be applied to this case. Otherwise, once again .. no one will be held accountable.
In the criminal law, recklessness (sometimes also termed willful blindness which may have a different meaning in the United States) is one of the four possible classes of mental state constituting mens rea (the Latin for "guilty mind"). To commit an offence of ordinary as opposed to strict liability, the prosecution must be able to prove both a mens rea and an actus reus, i.e., a person cannot be guilty for thoughts alone. There must also be an appropriate intention, knowledge, recklessness, or criminal negligence at the relevant time (see concurrence).
Contents [hide]
1 Definition of terms
2 English law
3 R v Caldwell (1982) 1 AER 961
4 R v G and Another [2003] 1 Cr App R 21
5 See also
6 References
[edit] Definition of terms
Criminal law recognises recklessness as one of the mens rea elements to establish liability. It shows less culpability than intention, but more culpability than criminal negligence. The test of any mens rea element is always based on an assessment of whether the accused had foresight of the prohibited consequences and desired to cause those consequences to occur. The three types of test are:
subjective where the court attempts to establish what the accused was actually thinking at the time the actus reus was caused;
objective where the court imputes mens rea elements on the basis that a reasonable person with the same general knowledge and abilities as the accused would have had those elements, although R v Gemmell and Richards deprecated this in the UK; or
hybrid, i.e. the test is both subjective and objective.
The most culpable mens rea elements will have both foresight and desire on a subjective basis. Recklessness usually arises when an accused is actually aware of the potentially adverse consequences to the planned actions, but has gone ahead anyway, exposing a particular individual or unknown victim to the risk of suffering the foreseen harm but not actually desiring that the victim be hurt. The accused is a social danger because he or she is gambling with the safety of others and the fact that the accused might have taken some steps to try to avoid the injury from occurring is relevant only to mitigate the sentence. Note that gross criminal negligence represents such a serious failure to foresee that in any other person, it would have been recklessness. Hence, the alternative phrase "wilful blindness" acknowledges the link representing either that the accused deliberately engineered a situation in which he or she was ignorant of material facts, or that the failure to foresee represented such a danger to others that it must be treated as though it was reckless.
-
Michelle Sutton
Kristen Chase
Aaron Bacon
Outside magazine, June 1995
What Happened Out Here?
A death in the wilderness raises disturbing questions about boot camps for troubled teens
By Christopher Smith
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a Utah judge raps his gavel on May 22 to begin a preliminary criminal hearing into the death of 16-year-old Aaron Bacon, the key evidence for the prosecution will come from the waifish, longhaired teen himself. A rebellious kid who smoked a little marijuana and brought home too many C's and D's, Bacon was enrolled last winter by his parents, Robert and Sally Bacon of Phoenix, Arizona, in a Utah-based wilderness therapy program called North Star Expeditions. The couple's hope, like that of thousands of parents in the United States who send their kids to the 115 or so such private boot camps--or "Hoods in the Woods" programs, as they're sometimes called--was that North Star would teach their son hard lessons about discipline and survival and that through the experience he'd grow in self-esteem, give up drugs, and return home a healthier and happier teenager.
Instead, after only a few days in the stark and beautiful Escalante River Basin, Bacon felt his life slipping away. He didn't know it, but he'd somehow developed a bleeding ulcer, and as the energy drained slowly from his body, the aspiring poet documented his final days with ever more faint and tortured scrawls in a notebook. They were days spent hiking and camping in the slickrock and scrub-pine backcountry, but they were also days spent in emotional and physical distress as North Star staff allegedly ignored his pleas for medical attention and continued to march him farther from civilization.
"I am in terrible condition here," Bacon wrote ten days before his death. "I feel like I'm losing control of my body."
The journal is heartrending, but exactly what happened and who is to blame are still unclear. In the upcoming proceedings, the state of Utah hopes to prove that North Star's two directors and seven of its employees should be tried on felony charges of abusing and neglecting a medically disabled child. Also, the Bacons have filed a civil suit against North Star, claiming wrongful death and seeking an unspecified sum; that suit is scheduled for trial later this summer.
Bacon is the third teenager to die in this country while participating in so-called wilderness therapy. The two other deaths also occurred in Utah, in 1990. In both cases Utah authorities concluded that neglect by program staff may have occurred, but there have been no criminal convictions. Meanwhile, a growing number of observers are left wondering whether something about these programs--some designed for hardened criminals-to-be, and others, like North Star Expeditions, for basically "good" kids with a few behavior problems--is inherently flawed.
Founded in 1990 by Bill Henry, a career camp counselor, and Lance Jagger, a former air force officer, North Star advertises itself as a tough-love solution to teens' problems. An 11-day "acclimation" period is followed by 52 days in the desert, during which the boys and girls make long hikes between caches of food and occasionally go without food for up to two days at a time. Hikes are supplemented with fervent lectures about getting one's life in order. By the winter of 1993-1994 the Bacons were ready for such radical steps, and after Sally Bacon made a few inquiring calls, Bob Bacon wrote a $13,900 check to the camp. Then one morning Jagger appeared at the Bacon home and took Aaron from his bed. It was the last time the Bacons saw their child alive.
Nevertheless, North Star's Henry, who has no college-level training in teen counseling, maintains that his staff had no way of detecting the ulcer. "The medical examiner said we would not have seen these symptoms," he says, adding that Bacon passed a physical exam on March 1. Indeed, state officials initially cleared North Star of any wrongdoing in Bacon's death. It wasn't until the diaries of Bacon and others in his group were made available to investigators last fall that the question of criminal neglect was raised.
According to affidavits filed in court by prosecutors, based on these journals and sworn testimony of some 50 witnesses, there's reason to believe that Bacon's death could have been prevented. The documents say that on March 11, Bacon, eight other teenagers, and three counselors, Jeff Hohenstein, Sonny Duncan, and Craig Fisher, set out from Escalante, Utah, on a six-week backcountry hike. On the second day Bacon became dizzy and fell. He fell again a few days later, striking his head on a rock. Soon thereafter, he began suffering from nosebleeds and wrote that he constantly felt cold. He told the counselors that he wasn't strong enough to lift his pack, but this, according to Bacon's diary, prompted counselor Brent Brewer to lecture the boy to work harder. As punishment for being uncooperative, Bacon's sleeping bag was taken away. As time went on, Bacon pleaded with his counselors that he needed a doctor, but they responded that he was "faking."
By March 31, Bacon was unable to take a step and had become incontinent. Finally, counselor Mike Hill, who has not been charged in the case, radioed base camp for someone to come get Bacon. A truck arrived and Bacon was helped into the cab. Soon after that, his heart stopped beating.
The ulcer had eaten a hole in Bacon's large intestine, leaking its contents into his abdominal cavity. According to his journals, he'd gone without food, except for prickly pear cactus and pine needle tea, for 11 of his last 20 days. In a month his weight had dropped from 135 pounds to 105. "He looked like a prisoner of war," says Sally Bacon, describing a photograph of Aaron taken two days before his death.
North Star has shut its doors temporarily. But even if the camp and its employees are cleared of charges, it may never lead another hike. The Utah Department of Human Services denies an operating license to any program targeted with significant allegations of abuse or neglect, regardless of criminal conviction, and that irks Henry. "The Bacons knew their boy was a heavy, heavy drug user," he says. "Their son died of natural causes, and now they're pissed off at us."
Meanwhile, the Bacons are crusading for tougher licensing of the multimillion-dollar wilderness therapy industry. Partly in response, 50 or so camps have joined to form a National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camps and have written guidelines for members to follow. Still, things may get worse before they get better. "Besides parents looking for a place to put their kids, you've now got the government looking into government-run boot camps," says the association's founder, Archie Buie, of recent and much-publicized proposals in Congress. "But the whole idea could blow up in its face. As long as people have the urge to punish, some camps are going to fail."
Back to top
I posted some more information
I found an article written about Aaron Bacon and his death at the wilderness program North Star Expeditions. It gives some insight into the wilderness industry and many of it's problems. You must read this article if you want an informed view on the issue of abuse and neglect in troubled teen programs.
Loving Them To Death (http://http://outside.away.com/magazine/1095/10f_deth.html)
In response to this Isabelle,
I looked over your website. I looked at the deaths you have listed many sound like accidents. Accidents DO happen. It seems that you may be against restraints. I know restraints can be dangerous. However, on occasion they are necessary. If they are done incorrectly they can be fatal. So, lets crusade for more money so these programs can teach staff members how to restrain correctly. If AYA gets their license back and if there is NO neglect found, you should REMOVE Caleb from your site. Reporting the truth is very important. It is very important to the integrity of your cause. Thanks for your time.
-Herman
I posted the following
I'm sure Martin Lee Anderson's death would have been ruled an accident had there not been a tape showing his brutal beating. Do note that the first autopsy of Anderson ruled that his death was a result of a rare sickle cell trait. After much outrage a second autopsy reveled that his death was due to asphyxiation.
If you look at all of the reported deaths you will find that each program claimed that it was a tragic accident. I don't buy it, if these counselors could not spot a staph infection why were they leading a wilderness program? What is the level of medical training these staff receive? It seems that a boy who suffered with staph infections would (1) Not be court ordered to a less then sanitary wilderness program (2) Would have known that he had one and complained.
If the staff didn't have the level of training to spot the infection in a kid who had been treated 3 times while in the custody of the state for staph infections, the program and state are to blame because they put a sick kid in the incompetent hands of untrained staff
If the staff did have the level of medical training to spot this infections they are to blame for medical neglect. This is common in troubled teen programs, many survivors have similar stories of being denied proper medical care while in program. It's only after a kid dies that the state takes this kind of abuse seriously.
I'm sorry but after reading the same story again and again it leads me to believe that we have a culture of abuse and neglect in the troubled teen industry. And how could we not when the point is to make these kids suffer to the point of being reformed. How many more deaths will it take before this ends?
If you doubt that we have a problem spend sometime looking into this issue, this very old issue. The truth of it all is absolutely disgusting.......
Link to following information (http://http://www.isaccorp.org/deaths.asp)
Angellika Arndt was just 7 years old when she died at Rice Lake Day Treatment Center in Wisconsin.
In just one month, staff members at the facility had restrained Angellika at least 9 times.
On the day she died, Angellika was placed in a face-down "control hold" for blowing bubbles with her milk.
The coroner ruled her death a homicide.
Willie Durden, age 17, died at the Cypress Creek Juvenile Offender Corrections Center in Citrus County, Florida.
Willie had no pulse when guards found him in his cell.
They did not call for help right away because they thought he was "faking."
An autopsy showed Willie had an enlarged heart.
Alex Harris, age 12, died after being forced to run as punishment at Hope Youth Ranch in Louisiana.
Staff members observed the boy from an air-conditioned truck.
After Alex collapsed, another child picked him up, but dropped Alex when he began vomiting.
Alex died of dehydration and head trauma.
8 staff members have been charged with negligent homicide.
The district attorney has promised them no prison time in exchange for a guilty plea.
13 year-old Travis Parker died after being restrained at Appalachian Wilderness Camp in Cleveland, Georgia.
Travis was held in a face-down restraint by 3 staff members for approximately 90 minutes.
During the restraint, Travis complained of breathing problems and asked for his asthma rescue inhaler.
Staff members refused.
Staff members finally realized something was wrong after Travis went limp and stopped breathing.
According to the autopsy, Travis' heart stopped during the restraint.
His death was ruled a homicide.
The staff members involved have since been charged with murder.
The director of the facility was fired after refusing to take a lie-detector test.
Lakeisha Brown collapsed and died at Alexander Youth Services in Arkansas.
Lakeisha had been complaining of back pain and difficulty breathing for an extended period of time, however nurses at the facility ignored her complaints.
A doctor at the center described Lakeisha's repeated requests for medical help as "manipulative."
An autopsy determined that Lakeisha died due to a blood clot that had traveled to her lungs.
She was just 17 years-old.
Orlena Parker, 15, died at Devereux Cleo Wallace Center, Colorado.
Orlena stopped breathing while she was being physically restrained by 7 staff members.
The El Paso County Coroner listed Orlena's cause of death as "undetermined."
Roberto Reyes, age 15, died at Thayer Learning Center in Missouri.
Roberto was covered with "unexplained" bruises, but the coroner attributed his death to a spider bite.
A state investigation revealed that Roberto was very ill for several days, but received no medical attention.
Investigators also concluded that records from the facility may have been falsified.
Roberto's family filed a wrongful death suit against Thayer Learning Center, but no criminal charges have been filed in connection with his death.
Corey Baines died while in the care of Catherine Freer Wilderness Expeditions in Oregon.
A tree limb fell on his tent as he slept.
Corey was the third child to die at the program in one year.
Another child was severely injured in 2005.
The state of Oregon continues to license the program.
Mikie Garcia, age 12, suffocated to death while being restrained at Star Ranch in Texas.
A grand jury ruled there was no wrongdoing in connection with Mikie's death.
16 year-old Giovanni Aletriz died after being restrained at Summit Quest in Pennsylvania.
The coroner ruled that Giovanni had an enlarged heart and died from "natural" causes.
However, the state Department of Public Welfare placed Summit Quest on a six-month provisional license after an investigation revealed significant health and safety concerns for the children at the facility.
James White, age 17, also died at Summit Quest in Pennsylvania.
The coroner ruled that James, like Giovanni, had an enlarged heart and died from "natural" causes.
If you folks can provide more information or your own personal testimony it would help. I don't believe these folks know very much about the issue, thus Ignorance+Knowledge=outrage
-
oops sorry.. can't edit that.
-
Dr. Rob Kurtzman, the Grand Junction pathologist who performed the autopsy on Caleb Jensen, 15, said testing confirmed that the death was caused by a staph infection.
He said the boy would have had observable signs, but wouldn't elaborate.
Why?
http://www.rickross.com/reference/firstborn/firstborn9.html
Infection death ruled homicide
Denver Post/February 13, 2001
By Nancy Lofholm
Grand Junction -- Amanda Bates' death of complications from diabetes last week has been classified a homicide because the 13-year-old died as a direct result of medical treatment being withheld by her parents.
The determination Monday by the Mesa County coroner, Dr. Rob Kurtzman, opens the door to the possible prosecution of her parents, Randy and Colleen Bates, and other members of General Assembly Church of the First Born, a centuries-old Christian sect that does not believe in medical treatments. A homicide is when a person directly or indirectly causes the death of another person.
Amanda is the second of Randy and Colleen Bates' 12 children to die at home. Gerald Bates died at age 3 months in 1997. His death was caused by sudden infant death syndrome and could not have been prevented with medical care, according to Kurtzman, who also performed the autopsy in that case. Kurtzman said the parents would not have recognized a problem before Gerald died.
On the other hand, Kurtzman said, Amanda Bates' diabetes and the massive infection that resulted could easily have been recognized and treated. Amanda died after someone at her home in Clifton called 911 early on Feb. 5 to report an unattended death when she stopped breathing. Church members had been at her home to pray over her and anoint her with oil - the only care allowed by Church of the First Born.
When paramedics arrived, they were able to get the girl breathing again, and she was kept alive on artificial life support at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. She was airlifted to Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver, where she was declared dead that evening.
The Mesa County Department of Human Services stepped in early last week after Amanda's death and determined the surviving 10 Bates children were not in any immediate danger. Later in the week, after medical examinations, four of the Bates children were found to have strep throat, a condition that can also have serious consequences if not treated. "The children are being taken care of," said Tom Papin, director of the Mesa County Department of Human Services.
As the investigation into Amanda Bates' death continues, Kurtzman and others are hoping get a law passed that would deter parents from withholding medical treatment from their children. A Colorado legislative committee today will discuss a bill that would eliminate a confusing exemption in the child-abuse law. The exemption states that parents or guardians who withhold medical treatment on religious grounds can't be held liable for harm to a child as long as the faith-healing treatments used are recognized by the Internal Revenue Service and by major insurers. Christian Science treatments have that recognition.
Since 1990, similar exemptions have been repealed in five states - Oregon, South Dakota, Hawaii, Maryland and Massachusetts. Child deaths attributed to the withholding of medical treatment have dropped in those states after the change was made.
-
So, Kurtzman, why isn't it just as wrong for a program to deny medical treatment?
How about a "err on the side of caution" law, with strict punishment for programs that deny medical attention due to assuming the kid is "faking"?
The "No Faking Excuse- Err on the Side of Caution" law.
Grand Junction -- Charges have been filed against the parents of a 13-year-old girl who died from a common infection that turned into gangrene after her parents opted to treat her with prayer but not medicine.
Randy and Colleen Bates, members of the General Assembly Church of the First Born, were issued summonses Friday on charges of criminally negligent homicide, reckless manslaughter, reckless child abuse resulting in death, and criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death.
Mesa County District Attorney Frank Daniels filed charges after reading more than 500 pages of investigative reports from the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, viewing videotaped interviews, and reviewing information from Mesa County Coroner Dr. Rob Kurtzman, who ruled Amanda's death a homicide.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/first ... orn13.html (http://www.rickross.com/reference/firstborn/firstborn13.html)
Grand Junction -- The parents of a 13-year-old girl who died because they failed to provide her medical care based on their religious beliefs pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death.
Under terms of the plea agreement, Randy and Colleen Bates won't be sentenced to prison, but they will face lengthy probation and possible jail or work-release time.
The charge was one of four felonies initially filed against the couple and carried a possible prison sentence of up to 32 years. However, under the plea agreement, Daniels is required to recommend probation. Daniels said he hasn't decided yet what he will ask the judge to order when sentencing takes place on Nov. 2.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/first ... orn18.html (http://www.rickross.com/reference/firstborn/firstborn18.html)
A couple whose 13-year-old daughter died from diabetes and gangrene after they refused to allow medical treatment, citing their religious beliefs, were sentenced to 20 years probation.
A judge Thursday spared Colleen and Randy Bates prison time but ordered them to provide medical insurance for their remaining 12 children and have the children see doctors whenever necessary.
Mesa District Court Judge Amanda Bailey also ordered the parents to each do 1,300 hours of community service, 100 hours for each year of their daughter Amanda's life.
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From Mesa County Quarterly Report October—December 2006
click HERE for text version (http://http://www.mesacounty.us/search/Default.aspx?q=cache:QDxFhAjtW_sJ:www.mesacounty.us/mcweb/administration/QuarterlyReport/4th%2520QR%252006.pdf+coroner&access=p&output=xml_no_dtd&site=default_collection&ie=UTF-8&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=www_mesacounty_us&oe=UTF-8)
click HERE for pdf download (http://http://www.mesacounty.us/mcweb/administration/QuarterlyReport/4th%20QR%2006.pdf)
"Assessor Curtis Belcher and Coroner Dr. Robert Kurtzman are both leaving their respective offices because of term limits, after each serving for eight years as a Mesa County elected official. Their hard work and dedicated service has been much appreciated. Newly elected Assessor Barbara Brewer will move into Belcher’s position, while Dr. Kurtzman will continue working with his business partner Dr. Dean Havlik, who is the county’s newly elected Coroner."
* ** **** ** *
From Mesa County main page:
http://coroner.mesacounty.us/ (http://coroner.mesacounty.us/)
Coroner:
Dr. Dean Havlik
Location: 2021 N. 12th ST
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 4235
Grand Junction, CO 81502
Telephone: (970) 248-0204
I could not find an email address...
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Posted on the salt lake city page will be going to post on the other one shortly.
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TSW- great post
I agree, Cathy Sutton is an inspiration. She continues to fearlessly fight to regulate these programs. She is tireless in her pursuit to stop the abuse in these programs.
Thank you Cathy for continuing to fight for the rights of the children being abused by the industry. I encourage everyone to check out her website http://www.michellesuttonmemorial.com/ (http://www.michellesuttonmemorial.com/).
The Story of Michelle Sutton
By Paige BiermaCONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE
March 6, 2002 | Most kids are forcibly sent to boot camps by their parents or government officials, but Michelle Sutton's case was different. In May 1990, the 15-year-old from Pleasanton, Calif., chose to go to the Summit Quest program in Utah, hoping to build her confidence and "get tan and buff," says her mother, Cathy Sutton. "Michelle wanted to go to build her own self-esteem. She had suffered a date rape and wanted to get away from Pleasanton for the summer."
But Michelle soon found conditions unpleasant in the extreme. As early as May 4, she had filled five straight pages of her compulsory journal with the words "I hate this place." That same day, she sat down on her supplies and demanded to be allowed to call her mother. Counselors refused, despite Michelle's reasoning that she'd volunteered for the program and should be able to withdraw.
Michelle may not have realized that this was Summit Quest's first tour ever. Gayle Palmer, who had worked for another controversial "wilderness therapy" program in Utah, had branched off to form her own camp in 1990. Summit Quest charged $13,900 per child for a program nearly identical to the original one, and Palmer promised parents they'd be "thrilled and amazed" at the change in their children. Michelle could not have imagined what she was volunteering for. She collapsed and died of dehydration on May 9, 1990, her fourth day of hiking in the Arizona desert.
Andrea Dawes was Michelle's best friend. She was talked into accompanying Michelle on the Summit Quest program, where she saw counselors accuse Michelle of making up symptoms, even though she'd been throwing up water, falling down, and complaining of blurred vision the day she died. "They were telling all of us that she was just doing this for attention," says Andrea. "She had white stuff all around her mouth -- like cotton mouth real bad, I guess -- from the dehydration, and they would say stuff like, 'Oh, Michelle, you look like you ate marshmallows.'"
"I think that whole time toward the end, she was slowly dying. And that's when I got upset and started crying and stuff, and I couldn't watch," remembers Andrea, who was forced to finish the rest of the 19-week program after Michelle's death. "There was obviously something wrong with her. I don't see how they could have even thought she was faking that."
Michelle collapsed in the late afternoon, after hiking over a mountain. Summit Quest had no radios powerful enough to reach the camp base. Instead, the group set signal fires, and Michelle lay dead for at least 18 hours before a passing aircraft finally spotted the group. The Suttons settled a civil suit against Summit Quest out of court in 1992, but no criminal charges have ever been filed.
State officials refused to renew Palmer's license to operate after Michelle's death. But she simply moved across the border and reopened Summit Quest in Nevada, where authorities soon withdrew a group of teens from her program, citing inadequate medical and psychological care. Palmer violated a juvenile court order by placing the kids back in her program and hid them from state investigators -- an action that led an angry district court judge in Nevada to prohibit Summit Quest from operating in the state.
But Palmer was apparently undaunted. In July 1994, she surfaced yet again in southern Utah, operating a similar program without a license. Utah officials might never have known Palmer was back in business if a 14-year-old girl hadn't wandered into an archaeological dig near Zion National Park, saying she'd run away from a wilderness therapy program. Investigations indicated that the girl was in fact enrolled in Palmer's program, but state authorities could not find the other hikers.
Michelle's death, and that of Aaron Bacon in the North Star Expeditions program four years later, helped convince Utah officials to push through state legislation regulating the wilderness therapy and boot camp industry. Michelle's mother Cathy established the Michelle Sutton Memorial Fund with the settlement from the civil suit. She has devoted the past decade to tracking renegade boot camp operators and their activities, publishing information on the internet, and meeting with state and federal officials to convince them of the need to police privately run boot camps and to prosecute camp directors and counselors when abuses and deaths occur. She is working toward the day when no more camp diaries will come home as posthumous reminders of the teens who wrote them.
-- Paige Bierma, a regular contributor to Consumer Health Interactive, first covered wilderness boot camps for Vibe in March 1995. This piece is adapted from her original Vibe story.
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finally got around to posting on the denver forum. Been a busy few days. This issue isn't finished with. A few random forum posts are just the smallest tip of the ice berg.
What next?
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? contacting our congressmen to let them know these types of BM camps, academy's need more regulations before they can be used as an alternative treatment to the Juvie. The idea is for reform rather than incarceration.. but the system needs to be reformed first. ??
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? contacting our congressmen to let them know these types of BM camps, academy's need more regulations before they can be used as an alternative treatment to the Juvie. The idea is for reform rather than incarceration.. but the system needs to be reformed first. ??
This idea has definite long term potential. I'm thinking more of in the short term and specifically in regards to the matter involving Caleb.
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For some odd reason I can't let go of this incident. Not sure why, but I often find myself reading the various articles over again.
This can't be the end of it.
Any updates?
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Maia Szalavitz| BIO
Another Child Dead: When Will We Wake Up to Tough Love's Toll?
28 Comments | Posted May 15, 2007 | 04:54 PM (EST)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read More: Martin Lee
Although it hasn't yet received much coverage, yet another teenager has died under suspicious circumstances in a "wilderness program" -- this time, a 15-year-old boy who was mandated to a troubled teen program in Colorado by the state of Utah.
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Caleb Jensen joins Martin Lee Anderson, Aaron Bacon, Michelle Sutton, Katie Lank, Erica Harvey, Michael Wiltsie (whose mother later killed herself and her other child), Kristen Chase, Tony Haynes, Ian August, Chase Moody, Ryan Lewis, Nick Contreras and dozens of others [warning: music plays, slow to load] who died needlessly because enforcing "tough love" was considered more important than preserving children's lives and health.
As a neuroscience journalist, I spend a lot of my time reading medical literature and marveling at what we now know about the human brain and how to help people when things go awry. Then, I look at what's actually available to people who seek or are forced into mental health and addiction treatment -- and I want to cry.
There are effective treatments for teen mental health and behavioral problems -- but they don't involve sending children away from their families to be beaten into shape by drill sergeants or exhausted into submission by forced hikes. We do know how to dramatically reduce teen misbehavior -- but it doesn't involve seeing teenagers as lying "manipulators" and ignoring their health complaints as evidence of malingering.
Virtually every death that has occurred in tough teen programs happened for essentially the same reason: the program believed that pain was "good" for kids and saw any complaints as sneaky attempts to avoid this necessary suffering. When such belief is combined with lack of oversight in remote facilities with under-trained staff, the only reason deaths are not more common is that teenagers are generally extremely healthy.
This latest death has followed the pattern I've seen in every prior case that I've covered. First, the program claims that the death is due to natural causes and was "a tragic accident." At the same time, state officials back the program and claim that it is excellent. Then, the truth begins to come out about how medical complaints were ignored and how other teens were maltreated. Only at this point are remaining youth (who have already had the trauma of seeing a peer die, aside from whatever abuse the program dishes out) removed.
If the past is any prologue, soon a history of poorly-trained staff, failures of compassion and lack of oversight will be revealed. Some parents and staff will staunchly defend the program as having been "life-saving" and will denounce those who try to improve conditions as getting in the way of a desperately-needed and healing organization.
It's a shame that the wilderness is being used as a way to abuse kids, as a way to impose harsh punishment in the name of "natural consequences." It's a shame that our mental health system -- and our courts -- don't require that treatment is proven to be safe and effective before it can be forced on people, especially children.
And it's a shame, but kids will continue to die and juvenile recidivism will remain high until we actually regulate, monitor and oversee these programs, ensuring that the treatments which are known to be safe and effective are delivered and punitive tactics known to fail are avoided.
Teen advocates has a video:
http://tinyurl.com/2nkwlg (http://tinyurl.com/2nkwlg)
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Any new information?
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I have a google alert set, but nothing for days.
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:flame:
This should be national news.. I havent heard a word about it on TV.. anyone else?
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Investigation of teen’s death moves to Attorney General’s office
Staff Report
MONTROSE — The investigation into the death of a 15-year-old Utah boy has been moved from the Seventh Judicial District Attorney’s office to the Colorado Attorney General’s office.
Office policy prohibits Attorney General John Suthers from commenting while the investigation is active, but spokesman Nate Strauch confirmed the office was now involved.
Caleb Jensen, died from a staph infection on May 2 while participating in an Alternative Youth Adventures program on Little Red Mountain, near the Mesa County line. Jensen’s infection produced observable symptoms which AYA staff allegedly neglected, the state human services department reported.....
http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2 ... news/4.txt (http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2007/06/08/local_news/4.txt)
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School tied to River Vale hiker's death will allow water bottles
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
FROM STAFF AND NEWS SERVICE REPORTS
The Record - Bergen County
A Utah wilderness-survival school that ran a hike during which a River Vale man died of dehydration last year is allowing campers to carry 32-ounce water bottles during its grueling desert treks.
"It's about time," said Bradford Buschow, father of Dave Buschow, 29, who collapsed and died on the second day of a 28-day expedition in the searing heat of the Utah desert in July 2006.
"We're very happy to see this. It's a positive step forward. It's one of the things we wanted to accomplish."
Participants on the hike on which Dave Buschow died were given a 24-ounce cup and told to drink water only from natural sources, such as streams, canyon pools or underground springs. But guides didn't find any water for about 10 hours.
The U.S. Forest Service, citing his death, made Dixie National Forest partially off limits to Boulder Outdoor Survival School, or BOSS, until it got advice on providing food and water.
The agency lifted the suspension May 25 after the school filed a new operating plan that allows each hiker a 32-ounce bottle for "obtaining and transporting water" during the early phase of the field course and two bottles during later stages.
"They're allowed to carry them and drink as they go," said Andrew Wright, an attorney for BOSS.
BOSS' survival adventure is designed to test physical and mental toughness. Campers find their own food and water and carry few essentials, but the water restrictions were criticized after Buschow's death.
"Forcing dehydration is a foolish thing to do," his father said. "Everybody's limitations, physically and psychologically, are different. Dehydration is a serious thing to fool around with. You have to really be aware of the symptoms and monitor people carefully."
BOSS referred questions to its attorney because of a lawsuit by Buschow's parents, who claim guides were negligent in the hours preceding their son's death.
While drinking from a stream on the morning of his death, Buschow was seen with a bottle and told by instructors to put it away. He became delusional as hours passed in the hot sun and never was told about emergency water carried by guides.
He died with a guide at his side, less than 100 yards from a pool of water.
Buschow's mother, Patricia Herbert, welcomed the new policy on water bottles.
"To me, it's acknowledging that something very wrong happened last year," she said Tuesday. "If he had been able to take sips along the way, that would have made all the difference."
A wilderness-safety consultant, Deb Ajango of Eagle River, Alaska, suggested BOSS allow campers to ask a guide for water if they've "had enough" and believe a "situation has become dangerous."
It was not known if the school had agreed to adopt that recommendation.
"They incorporated some changes. Some they did not," Hamilton said. "They felt they were contrary to the philosophy of the program -- the idea of stretching yourself, so to speak."
Staff Writer Walter Dawkins contributed to this article, which contains material from The Associated Press.
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AYA surrenders license to state after boy's death
By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Daily Press Senior Writer
Published on Tuesday, July 24, 2007
MONTROSE — The Alternative Youth Adventures program, under investigation following the death of a participant, voluntarily surrendered its license to the state.
The surrender did not include an admission of wrongdoing. AYA's parent company, Community Education Centers, Inc., also announced long standing negotiations to sell the Montrose facility to its current director.
The AYA is a wilderness therapy program for at-risk youth. It came under the investigation of the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services, Colorado Attorney General and local district attorney after program participant Caleb Jensen died on an outing.
Jensen, 15, succumbed to a staph infection while camping with a group on Little Red Mountain May 2. The program's licenses for residential childcare and therapeutical childcare were suspended the following week.
"Since May 9, the date that our license to operate was suspended, we have not maintained or accepted any other children into the program. As a result, we have continued to carry expenses and salaries for a program that is no longer receiving revenues," John Clancy, chairman and CEO of CECI wrote in a July 11 letter to the state.
Clancy wrote that quality programs were important and the company has not been able to renew its customer contracts because of AYA's suspended status.
"We wish to keep our reputation intact. In that regard, it was our initial intent to pursue reinstatement of our license, as it is our firm belief that our program and its staff performed exactly as it should have and at all times in full compliance with the regulations that govern it," Clancy's letter stated.
"We are...without admission of wrongdoing of any sort, surrendering our license to operate the AYA Colorado facility."
He said the decision to surrender the license was a business one and that, despite its "noble mission," the AYA program wasn't achieving financial gains. Clancy's letter also said CECI had already decided to sell the Montrose facility to program director Jim Omer when Jensen tragically died.
The surrender does not address any possible criminal cases that could arise from Jensen's death, state officials said.
"It essentially takes care of the administrative side of the issue," Nate Strauch, spokesman for the Colorado Attorney General's office said. "It wouldn't affect any criminal proceedings. It's a favorable outcome for the state."
District Attorney Myrl Serra said he is still investigating and considering whether to pursue charges. "I will make an independent decision when my investigation is complete. It (license surrender) has no effect on how I want to proceed or not," he said.
Bill Palatucci, CECI's senior vice president and general counsel, said he could not comment beyond the confines of Clancy's letter. He previously called Jensen's death a tragedy and said the company did not believe anyone had done anything wrong. :rofl:
Contact Katharhynn Heidelberg via e-mail at [email protected]
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Appears Matt is ill informed of the facts, but raised some good questions.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
End of an Era
I am saddened, though not surprised, to read today that AYA Colorado, my former employer, has closed its doors for good. AYA (Alternative Youth Adventures) provided treatment services to incarcerated teens in the desert and mountains of western Colorado. The Colorado program was the newest in a family of programs that had at one time operated in Montana, Utah and Colorado simultaneously. One by one these programs have proved unsustainable, generally for financial reasons and because state regulations make it very difficult to provide wilderness therapy opportunities to wards of the state.
:question:
What makes the closure of AYA Colorado--the last of AYA's programs--most disheartening is that this action was taken in response to the tragic death of a student in the field. Caleb Jensen was 15 when he died of a bacterial staph infection in the backcountry under the supervision of AYA.
There are questions about whether a student prone to staph infections, as Caleb was, should have been placed in a wilderness setting where, among the cacti, granite and sandstone of Colorado's rugged Uncompaghre Plateau, it is very easy to get pick up scratches and scrapes and difficult to keep them clean. My understanding is that a lot of finger pointing has gone on as to who placed Caleb in harm's way. Was it the state agency that recommended Caleb for AYA's program? Was it the state record keepers who didn't include all Caleb's pertinent health information in his medical file? Was it AYA, for admitting him in the first place and then, once in the field, not attending carefully enough to a condition they weren't aware of?
His death is shocking and inexcusable, regardless of whether blame can or cannot be assigned to AYA. Responsibility for every student comes down to the care facility, and in this case, regardless of whether this student should have been in the program or not, AYA finds itself ultimately responsible. An investigation is underway to determine whether criminal charges should be brought against either the field staff or the program administration.
I sincerely hope that Caleb's death is seen for the tragic accident it was. Nothing will be gained from criminal action against those involved. I do not believe this is a case were justice can be meted out, where society will be safer when those involved are brought to trial or even incarcerated. AYA is done. Public funded wilderness therapy is, by and large, a dinosaur. With all appropriate empathy for the family of Caleb Jensen, and with full acknowledgment that I can't begin to fathom their loss, I fail to see what can be gained from criminal proceedings. Similarly, while the state of Colorado has a responsibility to monitor and regulate youth programs statewide, there is little to suggest that criminal consequences for those involved will help make future conditions safer for wards of the state.
Posted by Matt Plavnick at 12:19 PM
Tags: Alternative Youth Adventures, AYA Colorado, Caleb Jensen
http://plavwriter.blogspot.com:80/2007/ ... f-era.html (http://plavwriter.blogspot.com:80/2007/07/end-of-era.html)
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Indictments against 4 dropped in Utah boy's death
December 30th, 2008 @ 11:04am
MONTROSE, Colo. (AP) -- A hearing is set Jan. 29 for the lone defendant accused in the death of a Utah teen assigned to a Colorado wilderness therapy camp.
Fifteen-year-old Caleb Jensen died from a staphylococcus infection in May 2007 while in an Alternative Youth Adventures program in southern Colorado. Prosecutors allege his disease went untreated despite glaring symptoms.
West Caldwell, N.J.-based Community Education Centers Inc. is AYA's former corporate parent. Attorney Colleen Scissors says there's no basis in grand jury transcripts for the indictment against CEC.
Indictments against AYA, program director James Omer, medical director Keith Hooker and emergency medical technician Ben Askins have been dismissed.
Colorado officials closed the camp two months after Caleb's death.
Information from: The Montrose Daily Press
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5191902 (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5191902)
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Camp death indictments dropped
By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Daily Press Senior Writer
Published/Last Modified on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 4:11 AM MST
MONTROSE — Community Education Centers, Inc., is the last defendant standing in the alleged negligent homicide of Caleb Jensen.
Its bid to obtain certain grand jury information from the courts was denied Monday, but more motions, including whether its attorney can make a probable cause argument, are pending.
Jensen was 15 when he died of a staph infection last year during a wilderness therapy outing run by Alternative Youth Adventures in Montrose County. The state contended AYA, its former parent company, CEC, and staff members failed to respond to Jensen’s evident medical distress and that he died as a result.
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The indictment against AYA program director, James Omer, was formally dismissed Dec. 23 at the request of the district attorney’s office. The DA’s motion stated he could not meet the burden of proof at this time.
According to the Montrose Combined Court, indictments against Ben Askins, camp EMT for AYA, and the AYA organization itself, were dismissed Dec. 16, also on prosecutorial motions, with prejudice.
The indictment against AYA’s doctor, Keith Hooker, was dismissed in November after defense attorneys argued it was defective.
The other defendants also claimed the indictments were defective. Community Education Centers’ attorney said her client was improperly named in the indictment.
Monday, Omer’s attorney praised the decision to drop the charges against his client.
“I don’t understand how it got to this point,” Philip Cherner said. “I’m glad it was dismissed. He (Omer) never met, to my knowledge, Caleb Jensen. He was the onsite manager. He wasn’t up in the hills with them (staff). Our position is, and was, that he never did anything wrong.”
Cherner expressed sentiments similar to Hooker’s attorney, Stephen Dooley, who previously said he could find no basis for indicting his client.
“It was extremely stressful, but (Omer) was able to let us do our work,” Cherner said. “I want to thank him for having the patience to let this play out.”
In a written statement, Cherner also said it was high time the charges were dismissed. “Dismissal of the charges months before the scheduled trial reaffirms Mr. Omer’s innocence. We applaud the district attorney for making this decision despite the grand jury indictment.”
In court Monday, CEC attorney Colleen Scissors said there was no basis within grand jury transcripts to support the indictment against the corporation. Therefore, the basis was either contained in formal conversations between DA Myrl Serra and the grand jurors — called colloquy — or it was nonexistent.
Scissors said the jury had insufficient instruction to make a finding of criminal liability on the part of a corporation, and she further alleged “material misrepresentations and falsehoods” on the part of the DA and his investigator.
“There are some clear improprieties here,” Scissors said, alleging the DA’s investigator deliberately misinformed the jury as to Jensen’s behavioral problems to make them appear simultaneous to the onset of his illness.
In fact, Scissors said, Jensen was a disciplinary problem within days of embarking on the program, not three weeks into it, as the prosecution’s investigator reportedly testified.
She said Jensen was physically and verbally aggressive with staff; refused to hike, laid out in the rain, and urinated on himself well before developing the staph infection.
She also said there was “no evidence” he’d ever apprised staff of his vulnerability to infection, or informed them of any symptoms.
Scissors argued the need for secrecy of grand jury proceedings was outweighed by her client’s need to view, or at least have a judge review, the colloquy transcripts.
Serra refuted allegations of impropriety and asked Herron to keep intact the secrecy of the proceedings as set forth by law.
“The fact is, secrecy for secrecy’s sake is not the rule ... but one of the reasons for secrecy here is this grand jury is still sitting.”
Serra said grand jurors and witnesses operate on the assumption the proceedings will be secret. What the court needed to decide, he said, was whether there had been prosecutorial misconduct.
“Colloquy is not record. The standard is very, very high (for release).”
Serra said if Herron could find evidence of inappropriate conduct, he should turn over the colloquy, but, he added, such proof did not exist.
“This grand jury came back with a finding of probable cause,” he said, pointing out that while he’d dismissed the other defendants, there was a reason he hadn’t also moved to dismiss the case against CEC.
Herron agreed clear evidence of misconduct was required for the release of colloquy.
“I’m stating for the record that doesn’t exist in this case,” he said, also finding he had no legitimate basis to turn the colloquy over to the defense.
A hearing on other motions was set for Jan. 29.
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Copyright © 2008 Montrose Daily Press
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Published/Last Modified on Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:50 AM MST
SALT LAKE CITY ??” A civil case was filed today against Montrose-based Alternative Youth Adventures, Community Education Centers, and other defendants.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants are responsible for the death of Caleb Jensen, 15, who died of a staph infection while attending the camp in 2007.
The suit names the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services, the Utah State Division of Child and Family Services, camp director James Omer; camp EMT Ben Askins and Dr. Keith Hooker, a Utah doctor associated with AYA.
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AYA was a wilderness therapy camp for at-risk youth. Jensen developed a staph infection during an outing in rural Montrose County; both the suit and a criminal complaint filed locally alleged his infection produced visible symptoms that staff failed to treat.
Though Omer, Hooker, Askins and AYA were indicted, the charges have since been dropped, leaving CEC the lone defendant in the criminal case being prosecuted in Montrose.
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Though Omer, Hooker, Askins and AYA were indicted, the charges have since been dropped, leaving CEC the lone defendant in the criminal case being prosecuted in Montrose.
Indictment in camp death dismissed
By Katharhynn Heidelberg
Daily Press Senior Writer
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, January 29, 2009 11:00 PM MST
MONTROSE — The criminal case in Caleb Jensen's death came to a halt Thursday when the final defendant succeeded in having charges dismissed.
New Jersey-based Community Education Centers, Inc. saw the charge of child abuse resulting in death dropped Monday by court order. Its defense then moved for the dismissal of the remaining count of criminally negligent homicide, which was granted Thursday after prosecutors had no response.
Because the dismissal was without prejudice, a new complaint can be filed.
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Community Education Centers was indicted in 2007, along with Montrose-based Alternative Youth Adventures and three individuals, whom the state blamed for Caleb's death at the age of 15.
Caleb succumbed to a staph infection during the AYA wilderness therapy outing in Montrose County. The state contended the infection produced visible signs that went untreated until it was too late. It suspended AYA's license for therapeutic and residential childcare.
The defendants argued the infection was anything but obvious and that Caleb was a disciplinary problem well before the onset of staph-induced delirium. Some of the defendants had limited to no involvement with Caleb, and hence, no way of knowing there was a problem, attorneys argued.
One by one, the indictments were dropped. Until this week, CEC stood as the lone defendant.
"The court conducted a very thorough review of the allegations in this case and correctly concluded that there is no factual basis for finding that CEC or any of CEC's employees engaged in criminal conduct," CEC Public Relations Manager Christopher Greeder said in a prepared statement.
"The court's dismissal of the remaining criminal charges confirms our position that the death of Caleb Jensen was an unfortunate and tragic event."
The decision left Caleb's father reeling. Joel Jensen of Glenwood Springs said he was angry no one would be held accountable.
"Why are they dropping it against the company? Somebody's got to be liable for that," he said.
Jensen, who had a fractured relationship with his son, said he'd only recently processed through the emotions resurrected when the other indictments were dismissed late last year.
"I just got through all the pain," he said. "Nobody's going to do anything? There are no repercussions at all? This is ridiculous. There's got to be something I can do. There's got to be some recourse."
CALL GEORGE MILLER. IF FOR NO OTHER REASON, HE SHOULD BE MADE AWARE.
Jensen said Caleb was placed into the program by a Utah court after he kept violating his probation for shoplifting a shirt. He never imagined his son would die while on the camp outing.
Jensen said he is considering a civil suit.
Caleb's mother, Dawn Woodson, has already filed suit against CEC, AYA, the state of Utah, Dr. Keith Hooker, camp EMT Ben Askins, and the then-owner of AYA, Jim Omer.
Her attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday.
District Attorney Myrl Serra hasn't decided whether to file new charges against CEC.
"We will assess the status of the case, continue with the investigation as we had been, communicate with the victim's family and decide what is in the best interests of Caleb Jensen, his family, the community and justice overall," he said.
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LINK for the above ^^^^ post:
http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2 ... 320838.txt (http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2009/01/30/news/doc49827dd8d89b3365320838.txt)