Philip Williams Jr. - 1982

15 years was all that Philip Williams Jr. was allowed on this earth. The circumstances of his death remains not fully investigated because the authorities in Maine saw no interest in investigating the death of an expensive kid in foster care. Placed in foster care at age 9 after a tragedy in the family which removed both his parents from his life the authorities at some point decided that he needed some beating and sent him to Elan School where he was placed in a so-called therapeutic boxing ring where other students were allowed to box him until his mental spirit would be broken so the counselors could turn around in his mind like it was a pot of stew.

He suffered from headaches when he was put in the ring and the beatings didn't add any good to his condition. He was left in an office after his beating when his conditions worsened and he was driven to the hospital by counselors. There they found his condition to be serious and the doctors asked family members to turn off the machine for him to die as there was nothing they could do.

Was it the beatings or the brain aneurysm as it is stated in his records which claimed his life? We will never know because the management of the school had political ties to the very top of the system. No investigation was done. No examination was done. An expensive kid in the system was gone and the system liked the outcome.

His family has tried to seek justice but now where the school is closed the system tries to shut them down.

May Philip Williams Jr. find peace where he is now. May his family also find peace which might be done if the authorities release all the information they have.

Sources:

• PROFILE / 426934 (popvox)
• His family asks: What really happened to Phil at the Elan School? (Maine Sun Journal)
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)
• Victim list - 1980s (Fornits Wiki)

Brad Glickman - 1990

15 year old Brad Glickman was on the run from Elan School in Maine when he was shot by a resident in a small town. He seemed to have some kind of connection to the daughter in the house of his killer and it is not clear what exactly happened shortly after midnight that many years ago.

However what is clear is that Elan School wasn't a pleasant place for any teenager to be. Nothing productive could come from such a place and it is close to a scandal that it wasn't closed back then.

Of course now where it is close the public learn what official fought very hard to keep away from the public. That the teenagers were beaten in almost bizarre therapeutic processes like the boxing ring. The use of isolation were widespread and the top management like the founder were without any education in the field they operated in.

Brad Glickman couldn't stand it and he ran. Unfortunately his life were cut short during his escape.

Elan School was created to warehouse difficult children the system couldn't find places for. Children expensive for the system and for it to exist many closed their eyes.

Brad Glickman didn't deserve his destiny.

May he find peace where he is now.

Sources:

• Roy O'Hara guilty of manslaugther (Sun Journal)
• The day 'Officer Smiley' helped a boy escape from the Elan School (Sun Journal)

Dawn Marie Birnbaum - 1993

Dawn Marie Birnbaum was labeled as a troubled girl. She had entered the system and was a ward of the state. Whenever the social services become a part of a story it will of course to some degree become a tragedy. It is not only something you see in the United States. It is the same in every country.

She was sent to Elan School. It was not a place for minors. Many teenagers took terrible beatings in the so-called therapeutic boxing ring.

Of course some tried to escape and with a history of many escapes the employees should have taken into consideration that she would try to escape yet another time and she did when she had the chance.

Unfortunately she met a murderer while she was trying to travel back home and it became her death.

17 years and brutally removed from this world.

It is not to believe but sadly it is the fact.

Elan School closed years later but not a minute too soon.

Sources:

• Dawn Marie Birnbaum memorial
• Victims - 1990s (Fornits Wiki)
• A Stranger in Town - The FBI files (Internet Movice Database)