Aaron Wright Bacon - 1994

This is the standard story about a standard wilderness program as they were running in the 1990's.

The original adventure based wilderness programs where teenagers are offered a voluntary adventure experience were long gone by the 1990s.

Why? Because the entire industry was transformed into a business! Profit was prioritized while selling out on the safety of the teenagers who were sent to them.

It started in the 1980's. It was also around that time teenagers started to die in the wilderness programs. It never stopped despite the best efforts of the politicians trying to regulate the wilderness therapy industry. Teenagers return home from wilderness programs in body bags every year.

What made the death of Aaron Bacon different from many others were the days of pain and neglect he had to endure ill out in the wilderness before he died.

A movie was even made because his story just was so cruel that you cannot understand how the employees could let this happen.

It is hard to understand that the laws was constructed in a way which led the wilderness program off with little punishment and almost the entire staff free to work in other wilderness programs.

Did we learn from his death? Every day teenagers are transported to wilderness programs, so the lesson was sadly not learned.



Sources:

• Aaron Bacon remembered
• Victims - 1990s (Fornits Wiki)
• The Myth Of Tough Love (The Sun Magazine)