By DAVID GOLDSTEIN
Kansas City Star
October 10, 2007
WASHINGTON | The death of 15-year-old Roberto Reyes at a “boot camp” for troubled teenagers in rural Missouri three years ago drew the attention of Congress on Wednesday.
Thousands of teenagers have possibly been abused and many have died as a result at similar residential disciplinary treatment programs, a federal investigation has found.
The report by the Government Accountability Office addressed problems at several disciplinary programs across the country. Concerns included withholding food, drink and medical care, as well as reckless practices by untrained staff. Its findings, that more than 1,600 employees at treatment centers in 33 states had been linked to incidents of abuse in 2005 alone, were the subject of a House hearing Wednesday.
The GAO echoed some of the findings of a 2005 Kansas City Star investigation, which uncovered several alleged instances of abuse at the Thayer Learning Center in Kidder, Mo., north of Kansas City. The owners have denied any wrongdoing.
The focus of the hearing was also on parents, forever haunted by choices they’d give anything to take back.
“His mother and I will never escape our decision to send our gifted 16-year-old son to his death,” testified Bob Bacon of Arizona, whose son, Aaron, died at a Utah wilderness therapy camp. “We were conned by their fraudulent claims and will go to our graves regretting our gullibility.”
The GAO said that during three weeks in 1994 when Aaron was constantly forced to hike, he complained of severe abdominal pain, lost 20 percent of his body weight and lost control of his bodily functions. He received no medical care.
It also found little oversight. Some states license the centers. Others, such as Missouri, don’t.
“These allegations range from neglect to torture, a word that I don’t use lightly,” said Democratic Rep. George Miller of California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
He said that Congress needed to ensure that children were protected.
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs represents residential treatment centers, but does not oversee them. Executive Director Jan Moss told the committee that its goal was to eliminate the kinds of practices the GAO exposed.
“Clearly we still have a very long way to go,” she said.
GAO investigator Gregory Kutz said the circumstances sounded like “human rights violations in the Third World. Unfortunately, these human rights violations occurred right here.”
The report focused on 10 cases, including that of Reyes, where teenagers died while in the care of a treatment center. Few criminal charges have been filed in any of the deaths.
The family of Roberto Reyes was not at the hearing.
From California, Roberto’s parents had sent him to the Thayer Learning Center after his grades had dropped and he had repeatedly run away.
Roberto died of complications that likely resulted from an insect bite. But he had been ill for days and too sick to exercise. The GAO report said staff at the center tied a 20-pound sandbag around his neck and forbade him from sitting down. He died later that day.
James Thompson, a Kansas City lawyer who represented Victor and Gracia Reyes in their wrongful-death civil lawsuit against Thayer, said neither he nor the Reyeses would comment directly about Thayer. More generically, Thompson said, “I have always felt that this is an area that needs federal government regulation.”
Messages left for Thayer attorneys were not returned. They were not at the hearing.
Another story contained in the GAO report was that of Erica Clark Harvey, 15, who died of heat stroke and dehydration while hiking through the Nevada wilderness in 2002. Her parents had sent the California teenager to an Oregon-based outdoor therapy program because she suffered from depression and thoughts of suicide and abused drugs.
She fell several times during the hike, the last time “head first into rocks and scrub brush (and) was left to lie where she fell for 45 minutes,” her mother, Cynthia Clark Harvey, told the committee.
At the hearing, Paul Lewis said that his 14-year-old son, Ryan, committed suicide six years ago after one week at a West Virginia wilderness therapy program.
Asked what he would say to parents in similar straits, Lewis, of Massachusetts, said: “I wouldn’t let my son out of my sight. To turn your child over to someone else and hope they’re going to love and protect your child was naive on my part. We thought (the program) was an answer to our prayers. It turned out to be a living nightmare.”
The Star’s Steve Rock contributed to this report. To reach David Goldstein, call 202-383-6105 or send e-mail to dgoldstein@mcclatchydc.com.
