Leroy Prinkley - 1988

Sometime I wonder how many lives which could have been spared if the dangers of restraints had been taken serious when we are talking minors in residential treatment.

It is 22 years since Leroy Prinkley lost his life at Western Center due to restraint. I could start to name all the teenagers who have lost their lives due to restraints since, but then I would never be finished.

On a webpage it is states and the aide used a "one-man body" slide that led to face-down restraint. Leroy Prinkley died of cerebral anoxia caused by heart and lung failure due to forceful restraint.

We have not been able to find out if someone has been prosecuted but normally we are talking small fines for taking a life under such circumstance. Are troubled teenagers just worth a couple of cents? Apparently!

References:
Victims in the 1980's (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
In loving memory of all

Carey Dunn - 1988

It is hardly to believe that the very boarding school where she was forced and where she met her death continues to exist today just because there are no federal oversight in the United States.

It all started out in California where welthy parents who had spent their teenage years in the 1960 was suddenly parents and began to be afraid that their children would live the same kind of teenage life with free choices but also a lot of temptations. They sought for a religious safe haven and some believed to have found it at Victory Christian Academy.

The boarding school was an old military station and it needed a lot of repair. To save money the girls was put into work between the prayers and corporal punishment. Work without the necessary training and safety equipment.

A part of the building fell over Carey Dunn and she died. Because it was so-called troubled teenagers the staff was handling, the police investigation did not end up in anyone being sent to prison. Troubled teenagers don't count as others. Instead the staff and owners was told to cross the statelines so California could wash their hands.

Today the boarding school is operating near Jay in Florida. A new name has been taken for marketing purposes. Otherwise it is very much the same curriculum and daily rutines which are offered.

If you want to know more about Victory Christian Academy, you can buy the book Reform at Victory, which have been written by a survivor of this boarding school.

References:
Victims in 1980's (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Victory Christian Academy - Genesis By The Sea (Ripoffreport)
Research on Tough Love, Christian "Reform Schools", The connection between Palmer and Roloff (Girls of Victory Christian Academy News and Updates)

Jimmy Kanda - 1997

You may have heard of a restraint chair. It is a chair with straps they use in prisons or at court to handle disruptive prisoners. Organizations like Amnesty are all over it and calls the use of such chairs abusive. What not so many people know is that the concept of a restraint chair is used in the treatment of minors.

It may look less scary. It is better padded. But the purpose is that the same. The often undermanned staff can use time on more patients earning more profit for the owners.

It did cost the life of 6 year old Jimmy Kanda in 1997.

At the Crow's Nest Family Care he had been left there unattended for hours. We will never him give a testimony to Amnesty or some other human right organization due to his too early death

References:
DESTROYING LIVES The Assault on Children (Mental health abuse website)
Victims in 1990s (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)

Linda Harris - 2005

Today it has been 5 years since Linda Harris died at the Chad Youth Enhancement Center.

People have protested the standard used at youth centers when it comes to the use of restraints. Today we are talking 2010. Sadly this five year anniversary has not brought improvements when it comes to prevent youth from dying at result of manual restraints.

Is it fair to accept that it is an acceptable risk that minors being placed in residential treatment can die as result of their placement? Is it fair that you still can find facilities where the staff has not been trained in both how to avoid that a dispute ends up in a restraint?

Linda Harris died September 18, 2005.

We are standing here 5 years later and have the power to work on minimizing the use of residential treatment, which would also be minimizing the use of restraints which always will include the risk of having a child who ends up death.

References:

COME TO A MASS MARCH IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, ON APRIL 26, 2008 TO PROTEST THE ABUSE OF YOUTH IN JUVENILE DETENTION CENTERS!
Victim liste year 2005 - 2009 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
More Details on Chad Youth Death, Nashville Scene, November 12, 2007 (Reprint from COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE)

Leon Anger - 1984

Time covers almost all tracks when it comes to hiding up a tragedy.

Records show that Leon Anger died at Vision Quest a large firm working to "rebilitate" minors and he was one of the minors who died in the so-called care of Vision Quest.

Another site shortly state:

Leon Anger, Vanango County Pennsylvania, seventeen years old, September 16 1984, runaway/drowning

We don't know if he did run away from the program or it was a cover up.

If we look at the disappearances from CEDU during that period later police investigation has proved that the child murderer had access to CEDU-campuses when the children started to disappear.

Back then there was no Megan-law. There was no legislation so people knew where child offenders were living or more important where they worked.

References:
Victims in the 1980s (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Why are these children dying? (I was just a child....)

Tammy Edmiston - 1982

One of the two deaths at VisionQuest involving a fall from a Wagon train ended in the death of 16 year old Tammy Edmiston. She fell to her death from a bridge outside a town named Latrobe which is possible located in Pennsylvania.

The circumstances surrounding her fall has remained unknown. The death of a so-called troubled girl which still today is considered a burden to the society calls for few resources to the investigation.

We know that her organs were harvested. Her liver came to a 35 year old man. A 9 year old boy benefitted from her heart.

13 years later in 1995 another death occurred when Dawnne Takeuchi fell to her death from a Wagon train. Due to intense pressure a real investigation was made and some extend of foul play were found.

It would be natural to raise the question why the death of Miss Edmiston was not fully charted. Why is investigation into possible abuse considering troubled teenagers really a question of the strength and pressure from the relatives left behind?

While we didn't know Miss Edmiston, we believe in the principiel that every human counts no matter who they were. May we never again experience a death which are left uninvestigated.

References:
Victims - 1980s, (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Liver transplant patient fair, Beaver Country Times - Sep 23, 1982

Matthew Meyers - 2004

It has been six years since 14 year old Matthew Meyers died in a Texas Wilderness program called Lonestar Expeditions. The program did later close during the financial crisis in that decade.

It just one death among so many in wilderness programs. Lonestar Expeditions was at that time owned by one of the large firms who run wilderness programs called Aspen Education Group.

Due to a financial settlement the details of his death is not known but it was not due to restraints.

We also have no knowledge of the medical history he had when he entered the wilderness program but it is generally kwown that some types of medication can be a killer if you take the patient out in a hot environment and fail to supervise their water intake. They can boil to death and it is not enough just to remind them to drink.

The death of Matthew Meyers is in its nature very similar to the deaths of Erica Harvey and Sergey Blashchishen - also in wilderness programs.

The obvious question you have to ask yourself is whether the medical staff will deny a teenager of medication of these types access to the wilderness program when they can earn 450 dollars per day by take the chance.

They took the chance and Matthew Meyers died.

Did his death change the industry? No. Business as usual and it didn't take long before a new child did return to his family in a body bag.

References:
Victims between year 2000 and 2004 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Holy the children Teen advocate USA
Can Wilderness Camps Kill Your Kid? (MomLogic, June 22, 2009)

Lorene Swan Larhette - 1971

She is one the earliest deaths which I have found records of where a wilderness program was involved. The purpose was to built character but instead it was at built-up to a tragedy.

They were caught unprepared in a storm and among the young people who did not make it out of the wilderness was Lorene Larhette.

She was 17 years of age when she died. She could have been a mother, maybe even grandmother today with a large family around her. It was never allowed to happen.

Due to the 39 years which have gone since the tragedy, we have no knowledge of the circumstances leding up to her participation in the course.

Was she a troubled teenager who was forced to attend?

Was she seeking adventure and trying to explore her own limits?

References:
Victims in 1970s (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Survival test ends in tragedy (Rome News Courier, September 8, 1971)

Welcome

In this blog we will write a little about a minor who died on this very date a year or more ago. Every human being is special. When a human life is lost early before we will know what kind of contributions a boy or a girls could have brought to our society if the death had not occured we are talking of a tragedy.

So we believe that it is time to find an article about such a death and describe the circumstances about it.

Welcome, it is not pleasant reading. It is not supposed to.

But hopefully we will learn from it.