As this blog is developing restraints will be listed as the cause of death in many, many cases.
When Jamar Griffiths was restrained October 18, 2004 at Allen Residential Center in Delaware County - New York, it became such a death.
An article from 2009 did show that there are still issues in this area in New York, which have not been dealt with. Whistle-blowers claims that abuse took place as late as last year.
A long and tough road is ahead for the politicians if they have the human surplus to advocate for a change, but just think about how tough the road has been for the teenagers who have been and continues to be in the system.
References:
Victims - 1990s (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
From the archives: State probes allegations of abuse at youth center (3/12/2006), by Jennifer Thompson (The Post-Standard) syracuse.com, August 25, 2009
WHO ARE WE? WHAT ARE WE?ARE WE HUMAN ENOUGH TO STOP AGE-RELATED TORTURE AND MURDER?, By Natasha, Open ED News, November 18, 2007
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Kasey Ryan Warner - 2005
When 13 year old Kasey Ryan Warner downed in a bathtop with only 10 inches of water it was clear for all involved that it was time for guidelines so such a tragedy could not occur again.
For once the politicians did what you could expect from them. They did sit down and wrote a new set of guidelines. Kasey Warner should not have died in vain.
But an article published a year later reveals that the owner of the facility Kasey Warner died in - a certain Viaquest - did not take these new guidelines serious.
The state started to shut some of the group homes down much to the protest of the owner, but what would have been the alternative? Letting it pass and end up with another downed teenager?
References:
Victims 2005 - 2009 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
State Cuts Deal To Close Group Homes (Coral and Opal blog, July 27, 2006)
State deal will close five group homes (THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, July 27, 2006)
For once the politicians did what you could expect from them. They did sit down and wrote a new set of guidelines. Kasey Warner should not have died in vain.
But an article published a year later reveals that the owner of the facility Kasey Warner died in - a certain Viaquest - did not take these new guidelines serious.
The state started to shut some of the group homes down much to the protest of the owner, but what would have been the alternative? Letting it pass and end up with another downed teenager?
References:
Victims 2005 - 2009 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
State Cuts Deal To Close Group Homes (Coral and Opal blog, July 27, 2006)
State deal will close five group homes (THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, July 27, 2006)
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Karlye Anne Newman - 2004
On October 7, 2004 Karlye Anne Newman slipped into a bathroom at Spring Creek Lodge Academy, which was a behavior modification boarding school outside Thompson Falls in Montana and hanged herself in a stall with her sweatshirt.
When she passed she was 16 years of age. Some weeks later she would have turned 17.
How could it go so far? It seems that she saw no other solution she was forced into. Faced with isolation from family and friends, without possibility to complain about possible abuse and under threat to be placed in a tiny isolation chamber called "the hobbit" due its size, she did choose what she saw as the only possible way out.
Could she have run away?
Maybe, but as a TV-station was able to show in a documentary even the local police seemed to be more worried about jobs in the remote community than the well-being of the teenagers in this special boarding school.
The campus was shut down in 2009, but it could very well open under a new name with the same management as it has been seen in other case. The very same setup for tragedy could be re-created.
Montana has no valid regulation of the standards in their boarding schools. The very consultants the politicians have hired are represents for the boarding school industry. Of course it would be odd if they regulated themselves out of the business due to concern of the safety of their students. It will never happen.
It seems that federal regulation is the only answer and it is about to happen if the politicians in Washington can be pushed to pass HR 911.
The world does not need yet another family who is robbed of their daughter like the parents of Newman was.
RIP
References:
Spring Creek's short leash, by John S. Adams, Missoula Independent, June 16, 2005
Spring Creek Lodge Academy, WWASPinfo
MT: Lawuits Mount Against Spring Creek Lodge (2006 Article) (The Coalition for Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports) - blog
Victims_2000 - 4 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
When she passed she was 16 years of age. Some weeks later she would have turned 17.
How could it go so far? It seems that she saw no other solution she was forced into. Faced with isolation from family and friends, without possibility to complain about possible abuse and under threat to be placed in a tiny isolation chamber called "the hobbit" due its size, she did choose what she saw as the only possible way out.
Could she have run away?
Maybe, but as a TV-station was able to show in a documentary even the local police seemed to be more worried about jobs in the remote community than the well-being of the teenagers in this special boarding school.
The campus was shut down in 2009, but it could very well open under a new name with the same management as it has been seen in other case. The very same setup for tragedy could be re-created.
Montana has no valid regulation of the standards in their boarding schools. The very consultants the politicians have hired are represents for the boarding school industry. Of course it would be odd if they regulated themselves out of the business due to concern of the safety of their students. It will never happen.
It seems that federal regulation is the only answer and it is about to happen if the politicians in Washington can be pushed to pass HR 911.
The world does not need yet another family who is robbed of their daughter like the parents of Newman was.
RIP
References:
Spring Creek's short leash, by John S. Adams, Missoula Independent, June 16, 2005
Spring Creek Lodge Academy, WWASPinfo
MT: Lawuits Mount Against Spring Creek Lodge (2006 Article) (The Coalition for Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports) - blog
Victims_2000 - 4 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Jeremy Gaulin - 2002
When you let two teenagers share room at a treatment facility it is important that they match.
The murderer in this case did suffer from Asperger's syndrome. It calls for a very structured days if you want to avoid panic attacks which can develop into assault on staff and other patients.
Poor Mr. Gaulin did suffer from attention deficit disorder which results in a behavior which is unstructured, inability to focus and to keep to a routine.
Mr. Gaulin could unknowingly have provoked the attack by just being himself. It is a stern warning for those residential treatment facilities which are willing to take all kind of problems in. They must see to that patients who have illnesses where they cannot deal with other persons, can be offered a one person room, so they don't start fighting other patients.
It was by no mean any fault by Mr. Gaulin that he was placed in a room where he could risk an attack while dealing with his illness. It was a fault the facility made.
The murderer had a parole hearing in 2009. He was denied parole. Hopefully they continued his treatment in jail, so he knows what he is serving time for.
References:
Victims 2000- 2004 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
WINDOW TEEN FACES SLAY RAP (by William J. Gorta and Leah Haines, New York Post, October 10, 2002)
New York: Upper Nyack: Student Charged In Fatal Plunge (By Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times, October 10, 2002)
The murderer in this case did suffer from Asperger's syndrome. It calls for a very structured days if you want to avoid panic attacks which can develop into assault on staff and other patients.
Poor Mr. Gaulin did suffer from attention deficit disorder which results in a behavior which is unstructured, inability to focus and to keep to a routine.
Mr. Gaulin could unknowingly have provoked the attack by just being himself. It is a stern warning for those residential treatment facilities which are willing to take all kind of problems in. They must see to that patients who have illnesses where they cannot deal with other persons, can be offered a one person room, so they don't start fighting other patients.
It was by no mean any fault by Mr. Gaulin that he was placed in a room where he could risk an attack while dealing with his illness. It was a fault the facility made.
The murderer had a parole hearing in 2009. He was denied parole. Hopefully they continued his treatment in jail, so he knows what he is serving time for.
References:
Victims 2000- 2004 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
WINDOW TEEN FACES SLAY RAP (by William J. Gorta and Leah Haines, New York Post, October 10, 2002)
New York: Upper Nyack: Student Charged In Fatal Plunge (By Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times, October 10, 2002)
Friday, October 1, 2010
Dionte Pickens - 2000
No one knows what took place when 14 year old Dionte Pickens was found hanging from a leather belt in a cell in a facility run by the company Three Springs.
The leather belt was not something detainees had access to under normal circumstances, but the staff in charge was occupied by a video game at the time of the death, so whether someone took it to the cell and murdered Pickens or the leather belt was smuggled in remains a mystery.
10 years has passed and the investigation has not provided any answers to the family left behind in this tragedy.
It was ruled as a suicide, but maybe we will never know the truth.
References:
Victims 2000 - 4 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Juvenile Center faces questions (The Dispatch - September 5 2001)
Questions Raised On Care After Juvenile Kills Himself (Lodi News-Sentinel - Sep 14, 2001)
The leather belt was not something detainees had access to under normal circumstances, but the staff in charge was occupied by a video game at the time of the death, so whether someone took it to the cell and murdered Pickens or the leather belt was smuggled in remains a mystery.
10 years has passed and the investigation has not provided any answers to the family left behind in this tragedy.
It was ruled as a suicide, but maybe we will never know the truth.
References:
Victims 2000 - 4 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)
Juvenile Center faces questions (The Dispatch - September 5 2001)
Questions Raised On Care After Juvenile Kills Himself (Lodi News-Sentinel - Sep 14, 2001)
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