It is true - hundreds of people die every year from restraint, especially restraint and forced drugging with dangerous psychotropic agents.
This was taken from an article in the Salt Lake Tribune titled, "Utah Wilderness Therapy Deaths."
Here is a partial list of children who have died as a result of restraint and other abusive measures:
A widely circulated list of "wilderness therapy program" deaths includes the names of more than 30 teens who have died in other states. Research by The Salt Lake Tribune shows some teens were in wilderness programs, while others were in boot camps, therapeutic boarding schools or centers and correction facilities. Teens who died in wilderness therapy programs in other states include the following:
1. Cory Baines, 14, of California, died March 25, 2003, while camping with the Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy program at Waldo Lake in the Willamette National Forest in Oregon when a tree limb fell on the tent he was sleeping in.
2. Charles Moody, 17, of Texas, died Oct. 14, 2002, at On Track of Mason, Texas, of asphyxiation after being restrained.
3. Erica Harvey, 15, of Arizona, died of heat stroke and dehydration May 27, 2002, while with the Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Expeditions after a three-mile hike in the Arc Dome Wilderness in Nevada.
4. Ryan Lewis, 14, of Massachusetts, died Feb. 13, 2001, in the West Virginia-based Alldredge Academy (renamed Ayne Institute in August) after he hanged himself from a tree with a tent cord.
5. William Edward Lee, 15, of Oregon, died Sept. 18, 2000, at Obsidian Trails in Bend, Ore., of an injury to a vertebral artery at the base of his skull after being restrained by counselors.
6. Michael Wiltsie (Ibarra), 12, of Florida, died Feb. 5, 2000, in Camp E-Kel-Etu run by Eckerd Youth Alternatives of Florida from suffocation a day after a 320-pound counselor sat on him as a method of restraint.
7. Dawnne Takeuchi, 18, of California, died June 28, 1995, near Pagosa Springs, Colo., while enrolled in the Tucson, Ariz.-based VisionQuest. Takeuchi died of injuries suffered after being thrown from a supply semi-truck driven by a camp counselor, who was convicted of careless driving.
8.-15. Bernard Reefer, 19, of Pennsylvania; Robert Zimmerman, 17, of Pennsylvania; Charles M. Lucas, 16, of Pennsylvania; James Lamb, 14, of Pennsylvania; Eric D. Schibley, 17, of Arizona; Roger Doyle Erwin, 15, of Arizona; John Moran, 17, of Pennsylvania; and Lyle Foodroy, age unknown, of Colorado.
The teens died Nov. 24, 1980, on an OceanQuest expedition, operated by Tucson-based VisionQuest, when their boat capsized off the coast of Baja California during a storm.
Teens who died in therapeutic boarding schools, boot camps or state-run correctional facilities include the following:
1. Travis Ballard, 15, of Oklahoma, died Sept. 3, 2001, at the Thunderbird Youth Academy in Pryor, Okla., of heat stroke after exercising in hot weather.
2. Valrie Ann Heron, 17, of Alabama, died Aug. 10, 2001, after she plunged to her death from a balcony at Tranquility Bay in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica.
3. Anthony Haynes, 14, died July 1, 2001, in American Buffalo Soldiers Camp near Buckeye, Ariz., after being placed in a tub of water for dehydration treatment. Cause of death listed as dehydration and near-drowning.
4. Bryan Dale Alexander, 18, of Texas, died Jan. 9, 2001, in Tarrant County Community Corrections Center of pneumonia.
5. Brian Adams, age and home state unknown, died March 2000 in a Michigan program.*
6. Adora Grae Stout, 17, of Tennessee, died Jan. 9, 2000, in the Buffalo Mountain Camp (run by Omni Visions Inc. of Tennessee) of cardiac arrest during a camping trip.
7. Gina Score, 14, of South Dakota, died July 21, 1999, in the South Dakota State Training School in Plankinton of heat stroke after being forced to run in warm weather.
8. Chad Andrew Franza, 16, of Florida, died Aug. 17, 1998, in the Polk County Juvenile Boot Camp in Florida, after hanging himself from his boot laces in his cell.
9. Nicholaus Contreraz, 16, of California, died March 2, 1998, in Arizona Boys Ranch in Oracle, Ariz., of untreated infections.
10. Edith Campos, 15, of California, died Feb. 4, 1998, in Desert Hills Center for Youth & Families in Tucson, Ariz., of suffocation after a counselor physically restrained her.
11. Carlos Ruiz, 13, address unknown, died Dec. 16, 1994, in Tucson, Ariz.-based VisionQuest.*
12. Lorenzo Johnson, 17, of Mississippi, drowned in a canal on June 27, 1994, while trying to escape from Arizona Boys Ranch in Oracle, Ariz. ( note from poster:this was the same place where Nic Contreraz died an agonizing and torturous death because staff refused to get him life-saving medical care in 1998 - maybe the authorities should have tried to find out why this boy tried to escape. Problem is the authorities rarely interview the kids and the kids are afraid to say anything - so the cycle of abuse and terror continues until something terrible happens)
13. John Avila, age and address unknown, died July 25, 1994, in Rocky Mountain Academy in Idaho.*
14. Jamie Young, 13, of Tucson, Ariz., died June 2, 1993, in Ramsey Canyon Hospital and Treatment Center in Sierra Vista, Ariz., of heat exhaustion after hiking in Tanque Verde Falls in Arizona.
15. Paul Choy, 16 , of California, died Feb. 4, 1992, in Rite of Passage in Shurz, Nev., of asphyxiation after being restrained by counselors.
16. Mario Cano, 16, of California, died April 27, 1984, in Tucson, Ariz.-based VisionQuest of a blood clot while doing calisthenics.
Obviously most of these deaths would be considered abusive.
Sources: Published newspaper articles; Cathy Sutton, mother of Michelle Sutton, the first to die in a Utah wilderness therapy program;
http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org; http://www.nospank.net; additional reporting by Tribune staff writers Brooke Adams and Elizabeth Neff and Tribune researcher Becky Hodges.
for nothing can keep it right but their own vigilant and distrustful superintendence.
--Thomas Jefferson
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"If you lack wisdom ask of God and it shall be given to you."
[ This Message was edited by: cherish wisdom on 2004-04-28 14:19 ]