Diamond Ranch Academy responds to complaints of child abuse; new cover ups

[Reddit TroubledTeens]

Diamond Ranch Academy is obviously feeling the heat from our advocacy, especially drasurvivors.com. DRA has waged their own campaign that makes them look not only weak, but completely untrustworthy. Everyone involved in exposing them should be proud; our efforts to save kids from abuse are having an effect!

These videos really show DRA's true colors. Notice how carefully they word the questions and cherry pick the answers they want to show. For example, the guy wearing the green shirt shows up at the beginning and the end of the first video, but nothing in the middle.
Students respond to negative comments about Diamond Ranch Academy - Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjNkaC0VIo

This video is even more interesting, they bring the same teens into a group setting and ask them directly about drasurvivors.com: Students respond to negative comments about Diamond Ranch Academy - Part Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCXfZ-o5b18

Check out http://www.therealdrasurvivors.com, clearly a response to http://www.drasurvivors.com. This site is filled with misinformation and outright fabrications.

I'll post more below, also see this thread on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/1uq9qr/well_done_everyone_diamond_ranch_academy_is.

I hope this shows parents what kind of people they are trusting their children to.

[Reddit TroubledTeens]

I have so much to say about all of this, but there are two claims DRA is making that I want to address:

1. DRA claims they are not holding kids in isolation. The reports we are getting from kids recently at DRA contradict that completely. When kids first enter DRA they go through at least two weeks of "O&A"; kids on punishment go to "RFI"; in both they are not allowed to talk to anyone or make eye contact. Even though they are in a group, this is a form of isolation.
• Notice how DRA words the question, at 8:52 of the first video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=CLjNkaC0VIo#t=532) they ask, "so there's not like a room or dark corner they take kids into?" They never directly ask the teens about isolation.
• therealdrasurvivors.com says, "DRA has no seclusion, or “time out” rooms. Students are never punished with isolation." Source: http://www.therealdrasurvivors.com/myth-disciplinary-measures-include-isolation-areas-and-aggressive-restraints; Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/NicjfU9.png
• On all of their dorm blogs they say, "At DRA, we do not employ seclusion techniques or punitive measures to modify behavior." Source: http://diamondranchacademy.com/sandstone/faqs/faqs-general; Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/Rz0ecJN.png
I believe these statements are intentionally misleading.

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2. therealdrasurvivors.com says, "FACT: Students are not strip searched." Source: http://www.therealdrasurvivors.com/myth-students-are-strip-searched-at-dra; screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/lkXnLSs.png.
Survivors in the "I survived Diamond Ranch Academy" facebook group are furious about this. Since it is an open group, here are some of the comments:

• I attended Diamond Ranch Academy for 10 months, within those 10 months I was strip searched over 100 times

• apparently Ricky is denying that they strip search us... Was my O/A the only one that was two weeks of humiliation?

• Hmmmmmm I was told to take my clothes off and had some fucking guy looking at me to make sure that I didn't have anything.......

• What even Who would deny this? The staff get trained on how to strip search us.

• Bullshit. Theyd get us naked for any reason they could.

• Complete lie. For girls we even had to take our bras and shirts off and shake them to prove nothing was there. Pants completely off and do a snap check of our under wear. I can go on but everyone knows they strip searched us.

• I remember being seeing roomates on run watch and having them get wokin up 7-8 times a night to be stripped search by 2 or 3 guys.

• wtf they strip searched me every 2 hours! i wrote a statement to dude he cant deny shit!

[Oscar]

Diamond Ranch Academy fights back

By locating former students and having them tell positive stories about their stay at the boarding school, Diamond Ranch Academy hopes to address the negative press they have received during the last few years.

When they started their operation there were no internet and former students were not able to reach the established newspapers, radios and television-stations. There was no reason for them to care about what former students might have to say about their stay at the school. As long as the parents who paid for the stay were happy about having been relieved so they could use their time on holidays and other personal activities everything was fine.

But then the former students found each other on the Internet. They were able to compare and found out that they all had the same negative experiences. They began to publish their testimonies online. Teenagers who were in risk of ending up at the boarding began to care. Numerous petitions aiming at saving teenagers from the boarding school were only. They gained support from people not only in the United States but also in other countries. The trademark “Diamond Ranch Academy” lost its value. It has been something you threaten your child with when the child is a toddler. “Eat up your food or you will end up at Diamond Ranch Academy pulling carts all day long”.

When a boy died at the ranch it became clear that the remote location of the ranch posed a danger to the students. An entire new concept for the school had to be invented. They built a brand new campus where the focus is on sport rather than wilderness and ranching activities.

But the boarding school still has its problems which needed to be fixed. Another boy lost his life at the boarding school only a few months ago. In the long run the school cannot survive if the negative press continues. So they are now in the offensive.

Other schools and programs have been in this situation. Usually the next step is to change the name. The family foundation school did that in 2013. Now they are named The Allynwood Academy. What will the new name of Diamond Ranch Academy be? This attack on former students and their negative experiences will not be a success. They have to move on accepting that the past cannot be buried.

[Oscar]

Deliberate Poisoning of food by student staff at Diamond Ranch Academy

There was a student who worked in kitchen making food when the staff cook left for the night. He had severe emotional and mental problems. His name was Andrew.

The homeless ate rice with various foods mixed in but the majority of it was rice. There where times where the person who worked in the kitchen would cook the rice in the soup broth of left over food from a previous meal. The Andrew student poured dish sanitizer chemical into the soup then cooked the raw rice in the broth/sanitizer. I was fed this. I was immediately sick and was denied the use of bathroom and water. I ended up having to use my pants for the bathroom and only then was I allowed to go to a toilet. I was never this sick in my life and fainted 2 times walking back to the 100+ degree day that I faced. I never received medical care for this yet the student is on camera doing this. The camera footage is probably deleted along with the files which state the reason Andrew was put into homeless as punishment.

I recall head staff's conversation that they seen him acting strangely in the video and he had stated that the sanitizer accidentally fell in the soup.

This event was clearly documented. Also 13 year olds shouldnt be allowed to touch food or make it at this level of responsibility.

[Pile of Dead Kids]

He had severe emotional and mental problems.

Poisoning everyone at DRA is a sensible act given the circumstances, so I'm not sure why he's still making this statement, although Andrew should have found something more toxic than dish cleaner.

[Oscar]

Now they have plenty of opportunities to go after victim number 3.

Two boys have died under their "care". It should have been enough.

[Oscar]

Secret prisons of teens has issued the following statement:

Who is watching the children at Diamond Ranch Academy - now there is one less

The website drasurvivors are now redirecting to the website of Diamond Ranch Academy which is a so-called residential treatment facility in Hurricane, Utah.

Drasurvivors contained the testimones of a number of former residents who were forced to play students at the facility.

Often children who had committed no crime but disapointing the expectations of their parents when it came to grades, choice of religion, choice of gender in relationships or choice of habits when partying.

Still they endured isolation from family and friends.

Still they endured punishments without access to legal representation.

Still they had no access to commnication which could allow them to access the authorities when they exposed to unjust treatment.

What the website drasurvivors gave them, were the chance to let the public learn of their torment.

It was important because two students never had the chance to tell anyone because they died while they were under the care of the facility.

A boy died from an illness. At least that is what we are supposed to accept base on a report from the local coronorer. It could be right but in cases like this a single report is not enough. Especially after the boot camp scandal in Florida where the papers didn't tell the truth because someone wanted to protect the local jobs at the boot camp.

A boy opted to take his own life rather than subject himself to the harsh treatment at the facility. It could have been prevented. An investigation into the suicide concluded this.

Some might claim that the authorities do supervise. That they do come to the facility and ask to speak with the student without monitoring. But do they listen? Are the local jobs not more important?

Then what about the social services from the communities all over the United States from where the students are sent? It doesn't happen. It really should because the welfare of the children at Diamond Ranch Academy should not be weighed against local jobs.

Something is really wrong at the facility because our contacts at Fornits reports an alarming number of deaths among the former residents at the facility.

We are really concerned because we already have two families who didn't get their son home alive. How many more should be put at risk before the social services all over the United States and United Kingdom who also have sent children to such facilities say stop to this child trafficing across state lines?

The children at Diamond Ranch Academy lost someone who could look after them with the hostile takeover of the drasurvivors website. Others need to take over or we will start counting dead bodies of children again.