Naomi Massa Wood - 2020

Naomi Massa Wood was 17 year of age when her life ended while attending one of the Teen Challenge holding facilties which are marketed as a mixure of boarding schools and treatment faclities. Facilities where medication and treatment by professionals are replaced with a prayer based curriculum and the communication and interaction with the surrounding world is restricted.

When the 17 year old student complained of plain not enough effort was made to contact local medical services and at the facility medical trained personnel was not at hand. As result of this institutionalized neglect the girl died. A report was made which ordered changed which seem to happen slowly and in the meantime family members of employees were allowed to play medical professionals.

It was a tragic for the family left behind who had put so much effort into giving this girl a good life. What a terrible loss of lives for the many siblings and also the adoptive parents, who were led to believe that Teen Challenge had something to offer to their daughter.

We can only urge the responsible politicians to look at the legislation so such places become better licensed and subject to supervision by the state.

May Naomi Massa Wood who were given so little time on this earth experience peace where she is now.

Sources

• Roommate of girl who died at Lakeland boarding school says medical requests were not taken seriously (Fox 13 news)
• Faith-based Lakeland Girls Academy draws scrutiny after teen's death (The Ledger)
• A Lakeland boarding school is under investigation after a teen died in their care (Spectrum News 9)
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Logan Volpe - 2015

15-year-old Logan Volpe committed suicide at Concept House in Miami. According to his family the employees knew that there were a risk of suicide. Still under 24 hours after he was sent to the facility, he died.

Was it neglect or just bad craftmanship by the employees of the facility? The management fired the personal on the job of the day of the suicide to protect themself, but there is no sources that can tell whether the facility use people with training in the treatment field or they just hire people for a low salary.

A lawsuit was filed and it would at some point decide whether the facility did such a poor job that they will have to pay. But no money in the world can minimize the terrible loss, this family suffered.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Parents sue over son’s hanging a day into his stay at center (The Miami Herald)
• Child Fatality Summary (The state of Florida)

Omar Paisley - 2003

The life of 17-year-old Omar Paisley could have been saved. All it would take was to grant him an examination in a sickwing. The employees at Miami Dade Regional JDC failed to grant him this and as result of this he died a painful death due to ruptured appendix.

Only two nurses were charged but the failure was within the entire system. Each guard, each superintendent could have made the ruling to demand an examination of this young man. Efforts were made to change the system but the problem was rooted in the number of teenagers sent to detention facilities inside this state. There were simply too few options to juvenile detention.

So teenagers continue to die in the system.

It is not the legacy this young man deserved.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Youth died amid chaos, confusion (Project Nospank - from Miami Herald)
• Nurses indicted in death of teen at Florida facility (CNN)
• Staff disciplined after jailed Florida teen’s death (Miami Herald)

Daniel Jack Matthews - 2003

Daniel Jack Matthews was 17 years of age when his mother called the cops on him. For a number of months he had become violent due to personal issues.

His mother hoped that the arrest would enable her to get help for her child. In a system where the proper placement for him would be evaluation and properly detoxing a treatment center, the system only could offer her a placement in the local detention center where he would enter a youth population consisting of a mix of criminal youth and youth suffering from either addiction or mental issues.

This lead to his tragic death when a fight broke lose between him and another inmate at the understaffed and overbooked facility.

It is a terrible loss for a mother to receive when all she did was to reach out for the only service the society could offer her regarding her sons struggle.

Addiction - in his case according to media reports cold pills and content from spray cans - is an illness. Illness should be treated - not punished.

But that was what the society could offer her. He lost his life. His mother lost her son.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Sent to jail for help, teen killed (St. Petersburg Times)
• Pinellas County teen dies after fight in detention center (The Florida Times-Union)

Laura Hanson - 1998

The 17 year old Laura Hanson choked to her death.

After Hanson got into a fight with her roommate, two employees at a West Palm Beach mental health center entered her room and placed her in a hold. Within 10 minutes, she was limp and unconscious. That evening, she was dead.

Her deaths was one of two deaths at the same center.

It remains unclear based on the articles whether some were held responsible for her death. Restraints back in the late 1999's claimed the lives of many teenagers. All she suffered from was Schizophrenia and it became a deadly illness due to poor instructions, lack of oversight and legislation. It was a real tragedy.

May she find peace where she is now.

Sources:

• Use Of Restraints Can Turn Deadly (SunSentinel)
• Legislators Take Aim At Restraint (Hartford Currant)

Chad Andrew Franza - 1998

16 year old Chad Andrew Franza was found hanging in his cell at the olk County Juvenile Boot Camp.

He was sent there for minor arrests and became depressed according to his family.

The staff didn't notice. Their job was just to keep him locked up.

Sad that this young man didn't get a chance to better himself and grow up by having been sentenced to community service instead right away when he broke the law the first time, so he could have re-thinked the path he was on before it was too late.

May he rest in peace.


Sources:

• Teen assigned to juvenile boot camp found in apparent suicide (Associated Press)
• Family Says Teen Was Unhappy at Boot Camp (Lakeland Ledger)

Paige Elizabeth Lunsford - 2013

Paige Elizabeth Lunsford was a severe autistic girl aged only 14 when she was transferred to Carlton Palms Educational Center because her old group home could not handle this girl who was unable to speak due to her illness.

Ten days she lasted before she died after having been strapped down to a bed. She wore soft helmet, face mask and arm splints to prevent her from injuring herself.

She was vomiting. Still they didn't take her to a hospital where she could be treated. Instead they strapped her to a bed. Five days and night took it before she died. It was not a nice way to go.

The facility is now being investigated. It was far from the first incident involving Carlton Palms Educational Center.

But for Paige Elizabeth Lunsford it was the last. She died aged only 14.

May she find peace where she is now.



Sources:

• Teen's death, abuse complaints, arrests bring state pressure on Carlton Palms (Orlando Sentinel)
• Bound to bed: a girl’s agonizing death (Miami Herald)

Daniel Huerta - 2011

Big Cypress Wilderness Institute was given the responsibility to look after 17 year old Daniel Huerta. The Florida based firm did not do a very good job because he downed as result of an accident involving a driver who shouldn't be driving clients.

He was failed by the system. Someone needs to take responsibility. Otherwise such a tragedy would happen again.

May he find peace where he is now.


Sources:

• Family sues wilderness camp over son’s death (NBC 2)
• Daniel Huerta Killed in Car Accident Near Naples, Florida (Florida injury attorneys blog)
• Special report: Driver in Collier 'Swamp Boys' fatal crash had undetected record (Naples news)
• Victims 2010 - (Fornits Wiki)

Thomas Varnadoe - 1934

Thomas Varnadoe was convicted of trespassing and as result of this he was sent to Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. The death certificate says pneumonia, but sadly the death certificates issued in Florida connected to the juvenile prison system have seen to have been falsified so we cannot be sure of how he died.

Trespassing is not supposed to carry a death sentence. However it was what this conviction resulted in for this boy who was 13 years old at the time.

It was sad and a tragedy for his family.

May he find peace where he is now.


Source:
Remains of 2 more boys identified at shuttered Florida reformatory (CNN)

Earl Wilson - 1944

Earl Wilson, who was 12 years old in 1944 was suspected to have been killed by other boys. He was buried in an unmarked grave at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida together with many other boys, who is yet to be identified. We would have like to post this entry on the date of his date, but sadly none cared to put even his death down on record.

It is always a tragedy when such a young life is cut short. As the facility functioned as a prison, he must have been convicted of some crime. But surely not a crime which should have resulted in a death sentence. A death sentence was however what he got when he was sent to this poorly regulated facility where none seemed to have been hired to counsel these boys back to a normal productive life. The focus was punishment and revenge on the behalf of the society.

It is very sad for this family. We can only hope that he has found peace where he is now.



Source:
Researchers Identify Two Sets of Boys Remains at Notorious Dozier School (NBC News)

George Owen Smith - 1940

This is an odd post for this blog. Normally a post appears on the yearday the child died, but we don't know what date poor 14 year old George Owen Smith died.

We also don't know how George Owen Smith died.

All we know is that he was found in an unmarked grave at the now closed Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

Think about his family for all those years didn't know where to go with their grief over losing a son and a brother. His mother was denied this for her entire life.

Of course he committed a crime and deserved some kind of punishment. But not even in Florida they have a death penalty for stealing a car.

The questions are:

• How did he die?
• Why were his body hidden from his family?

According to survivors a lot of boys were beaten almost to their deaths at the so-called white house. Maybe the guards went too far in their introduction ceremony to the reform school and buried the boy to hide their crime? It is most likely the explanation.

Now the family can meet around a marked grave as his body has been relocated to the family grave. Unfortunately not everyone in his family lived to see this day. They died before the truth about his destiny was learned.

Maybe the spirit of George Owen Smith will now find peace.

More than 50 bodies found on the campus of the reform school still are unidentified. We can only hope that they also will identified so they can be reunited with their families.

Sources:

• Boy's remains identified from shuttered Florida reform school (CBS News)
• Factsheet about the reform school (Fornits Wiki)
• 94 (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

Dillon Taylor Peak - 2006

His mother was driving to the camp where Dillon Taylor Peak was held when she received a phone call where she was informed that her son had fallen ill. He was scheduled to be released later that day but he never made it home. He died at the hospital only days later having never gained consciousness.

The investigation showed that he had been hospitalized before during his time at the wilderness camp and that the employees had failed to follow guidelines. It was a fatal mistake which cut his life short to only 14 years.

May he find peace where he is now.


Sources:

• Teenager's camp death scrutinized (Tamba Bay Times)
• I'm Not Going Away, Would You? (Ezine articles)
• Victims 2005-9 (Fornits Wiki)

Martin Lee Anderson - 2006

A video camera was basically what brought his family such justice after they so unnecessary lost him to a cruel justice system. He was riding a car which didn't belong to him. There shouldn't be death penalty for car theft but in Florida it became the result as he was bullied and kicked to death.

The state tried to put an autospy report on the table showing that he died from an unrelated illness but it was clear for everyone that the report was doctored.

The guards was prosecuted but escaped through a loop hole. The state did however shut all the boot camps down. Boot camps has never proven their value dealing with the youths problems, so it was about time such a costly system was shut down.

The state decided that families of children in the system shouldn't be allowed the same chance to find the truth because video's are now banned from being shared with the public.

Several children have lost their lives in Florida's justice system since and they died away from the cameras in almost 100 percent secrecy.

14 years was all he was allowed in this life.

May he rest in peace.

Sources:

• Victims 2005-9 Fornits Wiki
• Martin Anderson death controversy Wikipedia
• Martin Lee Anderson: A life cut short Project Nospank, February, 2006

Alex Cullinane - 2006

13 year old Alex Cullinane was sent on a hiking trip with a small unlicensed Cristian Military School known as Back to Basics Christian Military Academy.

During this trip he began to experience stomach pains. He wouldn't drink despite high temperatures. The problems were written of by the employees as not so serious but in the end young Mr. Cullinane died.

He was only one of many children in residential care who died because employees decided to play doctors themselves instead of taking the child in their care to a hospital where he could have been examined and possible cured.

A life cut short because the employees wouldn't start their car and transport him a few miles speaks of a tragedy of an high level.

He was robbed of his potential and the military Academy disappeared out of sight making it hard for the prosecution to investigate and bring people to justice.

May he rest in piece.

Sources:
In Memory of Alex Cullinane (COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE)
The datasheet of the program on Fornits Wiki