Thomas B Mapes - 1994

It is not known why this 17 year old boy was sent to this facility. However due to "trauma to the neck" he didn't leave it. He died due to the actions of the guards. The state decided not to get their hands dirty anymore and let private firms run it instead. It led to chaos and sexual misconduct against some of the boys there.

Nothing was learned by his tragic death. In fact everybody wrote off responsability and settle with sending some money to his family who lost a son.

It seems unfair for the system to ignore struggling teenagers but it is like the state of Kansas seems to operate.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Parents to get $185,000 for son's death at YCAT (CJ Online archive)
• Youth detention center in 'chaos' (CJ Online)

Shinaul McGraw - 1994

12 year old Shinaul McGraw basically cooked to death. On a hot day the employees wrapped him in blankets. He was Shinaul suffering from Cornelia de Lange syndrome and hardly had any language.

So we was not able to tell the employees how hot he felt. The employees should have monitored him. Instead they just let him to die slowly.

It is not clear what the outcome of the investigation became. However it is clear that some kind of adjustment of the treatment approach should have been implemented. 12 years were all he was given. It was too short a time for any child.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Disabled Boy May Have Died Of Heatstroke -- Independent Investigations Continue (Seattle Times)
• Questions surround death of boy. (Seattle Times)

Isabel Jamison - 1994

Isabel Jamison was sent to Bellefaire to get help. Unfortunately it was not what she got. An employee took advantage of her and the result was a severe depression which sent her to a more restricted department inside the residential treatment facility. She was punished for being a victim.

She got medication for her depression but the employees failed to monitor whether she got them on a regulare basis. She stored them until she had enough to overdose from the medication.

This poor girl was failed in so many ways that it is hard to write about. Her family might have believed that they made a good choice by opting for treatment but the reality is that she got hell.

May she rest in peace.

Sources:

• Cleveland Academy of trial attorneys - september newsletter
• Bellefaire JCB residential treatment center experiences (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)

Jonathan Avila - 1994

We will not know what young Mr. Avila told his parents when they left him at the Rocky Mountain Academy in 1994, but it not difficult to understand that his parents would remember his final sentence forever.

Did he tell her that he loved them or did he threaten to do himself in?

Will they forever blame themselves why they didn't see the signals of a possible suicide attempt coming up.

When people walk the campus today they can still see the marks of the rope he used to hang himself from if they know where to look. It is left as part memory off but also warning against the consequences of being left there.

We do not know the circumstances that brought young Mr. Avila to the facility, but we do know that they were not suited to handle teenagers with emotional problems so huge that they could end up with suicide attempts.

Maybe the facility oversold themselves or the family pushed too their son too far when they forced him to participate in a program they could not in anyway fully understand what would include.

This tragedy should be a lesson to parents. You are not in control when you leave your child at the mercy of professionals in any program. Maybe they will succeed, maybe they will not. In this case they did not and it did cost young Mr. Avila his life.

Yet another young man did not reach adulthood and to live his life as he would have hopes for.

May he rest in peace.

Sources:
BOY HANGS HIMSELF IN DORMITORY, The Spokesman-Review - July 19, 1994
Victims in the 1990s, Fornits Wiki

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)

Carlos Ruiz - 1994

A 13-year-old Carlos Ruiz died as result from a fall about 80 feet down a slope in the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The sources we have been able to locate provide us with very little information. We have not been able to learn what led to his fall. Was the equipment mailfunctioning? Were the instructors educated to deal with kids in the harsh terrain? We don't know.

All we learned is that therapy in the wilderness claimed another life that day.

May he rest in peace.

Source:

• Datasheet about the program on Fornits Wiki
• ucson boy, 13, dies after 80-foot fall during VisionQuest outing in Catalinas (Arizona Daily Star, December 17, 1994)

Jamar Griffiths - 1994

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