By AMY HAMILTON
The Daily Sentinel
May 5, 2007
The Colorado Department of Human Services has concerns about Alternative Youth Adventures, a wilderness-based program for at-risk children that oversaw an outing where a 15-year-old Utah boy died Wednesday, according to the agency.
"We have great concern for the kids in the program, and we're monitoring the investigation," said Liz McDonough, a spokeswoman for the state agency.
McDonough said the state has a long-term contract with Alternative Youth Adventures, and 26 Colorado teens currently are enrolled in its program.
"It's not perfect," McDonough said, but she would not elaborate.
Caleb Jensen, 15, died in a remote area outside of Montrose during a "routine outing," according to program officials. Jensen was enrolled in the two-month program by order of the Utah Division of Juvenile Services.
The Mesa County Coroner ruled that Jensen died from natural causes, but a two-county investigation into his death is ongoing, and few details are being released by authorities or Alternative Youth Adventures.
"There was nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a very tragic incident," said Bill Palatucci, a senior vice president of New Jersey-based Community Education Centers Inc., which owns and operates Alternative Youth Adventures.
Alternative Youth Adventures has worked in Montrose since 2000, and Palatucci said the group "enjoys an excellent reputation."
Montrose County Sheriff Rick Dunlap said his deputies occasionally are called to find youths who walk away from the group. The most recent incident was in December, when deputies tracked two youths by helicopter after spotting their footprints in the snow.
In the case of Jensen, Dunlap said his deputies got a call about a group of counselors performing CPR on a boy, but they were not able to revive him.
Three counselors and six youths were at an Alternative Youth Adventures camp in a rugged area about two miles from any road. They took Jensen to a staging area where he could be flown out.
The area on Little Round Mountain straddles the Mesa County line, and Montrose County deputies were asked to step down, Dunlap said.
Dunlap said there was initial confusion over whether the incident fell in Montrose County's or Mesa County's jurisdiction, but that issue is irrelevant.
"The main thing is there's a 15-year-old kid who died, and we have to see what happened," Dunlap said.
Alternative Youth Adventures is a two-month program that focuses on self-esteem and team-building projects for youths ages 12 to 18, Palatucci said.
He said the teens are engaged in a wilderness experience, but they are not assigned to specific projects.
A goal of its Colorado program, according to the group's Web site, is "to provide a healthy, protective environment within which troubled youth will have the opportunity to achieve their full potential through the use of treatment and education services that focus on positive change."
Palatucci said the program, which admits Colorado and Utah teens, has not had any other incidents or deaths.
Amy Hamilton can be reached via e-mail at ahamilton@gjds.com.
