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N.C. report finds wilderness camp failed to ensure boy was breathing before he died

A state inspection report offers new details on the hours leading up to a 12-year-old’s death at Trails Carolina, a camp for troubled adolescents.

Staff at a North Carolina wilderness therapy camp failed to check that a 12-year-old boy was breathing during his first night at the facility, a state report released Tuesday found.

The boy, who has been identified in law enforcement records only by his initials, CJH, was found unresponsive around 7:45 a.m. on Feb. 3 at Trails Carolina, a camp for troubled adolescents in the western part of the state.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Man, I want to run one of these “troubled teen facilities” the Christians send their kids to to scare them straight or whatever, and then give “how to pretend to fit in until you’re 18 and can escape” lessons along with “where to go, who to contact, how to support yourself once you have escaped” lessons. From the outside it looks like a good old fashioned Christian brainwashing center, we can even show you video of kids studying the bible, because they do, to learn how to fake being devout. But we’re actually about deprogramming and escaping.

Or, I wonder if passing this idea around and making it into an urban legend that some of them are like that would be enough to take the wind out of at least some of their sails.

TheMightyCanuck ,
@TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works avatar

Zip tied (probably against his will) in one of these… If he was even slightly claustrophobic it would be panic inducing.

The owners of this place need to be put against the wall. https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/05fa2503-3380-4de7-87fd-9cb57201fae6.jpeg

Passerby6497 ,

What in the actual fuck?

stoly ,

Founded in 2008, Trails Carolina is a for-profit wilderness camp that treats children with diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, as well as those struggling with depression or unruly behavior.

Excuse me? You are sending your children with MEDICAL CONDITIONS to be scared straight by a FOR PROFIT company? How is giving them over to abusers going to help them?

Sam_Bass ,

Preying on ignorance is one of the largest activities in american society

Passerby6497 ,

Because they see the medical condition as a problem, and depending on the parents may not even acknowledge that it is a medical condition. So many of these types of parents see their kid as a burden that will lower their social standing by being weird.

PrettyFlyForAFatGuy ,

it’s cheaper than real treatment i guess.

You guys should get socialized healthcare

force ,

ya think???

RIPandTERROR ,
@RIPandTERROR@sh.itjust.works avatar

I was sent to one of these with a hyper religious flavor

afraid_of_zombies ,

Me as well. Still got the physical scars from it. But hey the rest of my life whenever someone talks about how great Christianity is or Jesus I get to smirk at their innocence. So not s total lost.

stoly ,

Please tell me you have never spoken with your parents since.

RIPandTERROR ,
@RIPandTERROR@sh.itjust.works avatar

Kind of. I broke contact in 2020. Now I’m about 6 months into transition and got a bit of hair work done, so I actually sent them one message today for the first time. No text. https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/fe44c63e-a978-4d49-914b-d7d773dac09c.jpeg

stoly ,

Wow, that was a very brave thing. I don’t know you but am proud of you for that. I am glad that you are getting to be your real self. Best of luck, and don’t put up with bullshit.

PrincessTardigrade ,

Your hair looks awesome btw!! I hope you are living your best life <3

Rai ,

You look amazing!

vaultdweller013 ,

Ya know you look good, but your hair reminds me of one of my cousins circa 2004 and all I got to say is dont play with lighter fluid near a bonfire if ya want to keep said hair.

RIPandTERROR ,
@RIPandTERROR@sh.itjust.works avatar

I do want to keep it XD ty for the advice.

KillerTofu , (edited )

Elan School illuminated a lot for me about the troubled teen industry.

Elan.school is the web series of someone’s life account of the industry.

Chip_Rat ,

Netflix just greenlit a Mae Martin series that sounds like it’s about the same thing.

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

I’m going to leave this here (it’s worth reading):

businessinsider.com/paris-hilton-abducted-by-stra…

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

In case anyone wasn’t aware, the ‘trouble’ many of these ‘troubled adolescents’ get themselves into is having a boyfriend or girlfriend that’s the same gender they are. Or, worse, saying their gender is not the one assigned to them at birth!

Album ,
@Album@lemmy.ca avatar

Founded in 2008, Trails Carolina is a for-profit wilderness camp that treats children with diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, as well as those struggling with depression or unruly behavior.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I was not talking about this specific camp, but just because that’s their claim doesn’t mean it’s true.

Also, why do they have depression? Why is their behavior supposedly unruly?

MehBlah ,

Camps where they futility try to discipline those disorders out of the kids. I checked on one for my son one time and after reading through the lines and lines of bullshit they threw at me decided it was a bad idea. That camp got shut down in 2012 after losing a lawsuit with one of their victims.

Zorsith ,
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

or they didn’t sit there and quietly accept abuse

or tried to run away and got caught (and/or were found out before they even had a chance)

Or their parents don’t like their friend group (not uncommon amongst the more hardline religious families)

There’s probably plenty more I’ve forgotten since leaving reddit. The whole system is fucked and the “camps” shouldn’t be legal.

The OTHER fun one is what I recall being referred to as “gooning”, where the parents arrange for the kid to be picked up in the middle of the night, put in a vehicle, and driven to the camp. SOMEHOW that is legal and not human trafficking.

Nurse_Robot ,

I could be wrong here… But I’m 99% sure that’s not what gooning is…

optissima ,
@optissima@lemmy.world avatar

You aren’t wrong.

Passerby6497 ,

Actually, @Zorsith both right and wrong. Gooning is also a form of kidnapping.

optissima ,
@optissima@lemmy.world avatar

Well I’ll be [gooned]

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

Gooning is something unrelated. The term you’re looking for is called “kidnapping”.

Zorsith , (edited )
@Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I’m aware of that definition. But it was also a term used on reddit by r/troubledteens for this specific circumstance. Going off the phrase “hired goons”

Passerby6497 ,

The term you’re looking for is called “kidnapping”.

Which can also be called gooning.

wjrii , (edited )

Often it’s those, and they’re heartbreaking. Sometimes it’s “just” het-cis relationships the parents don’t like. Sometimes it’s “Drinking While Evangelical” or other garden variety youthful rebellion. Sometimes it’s depression. Sometimes it’s just literally wicked stepparents. The overriding connection is always that they don’t need to be there and even if they have issues (and to be clear being LGBTQ+ is not a behavioral problem), the so-called solution will be much worse than the problem.

theconversation.com/the-program-netflix-show-expo…

elan.school/rude-awakening/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeFWCzLNCmY

screenrant.com/the-program-netflix-documentary-de… (get your adblockers up for Screen Rant)

cybervseas ,

Folks, read that link there to elan.school. It’s heart wrenching.

vaultdweller013 ,

No thanks ive already watched a documentary on it and dont feel like bouncing between impotent bezerk furry and helplessness.

Rai ,

elan.school is a fucking trip.

Kedly ,

I read up to when he finally got released back when that was current, and havent caught up since

BubbleMonkey , (edited )

At your recommendation (with your post being 9 hours old - the thing is really long) I read the whole thing start to finish, and just finished. It’s been a hard (emotionally) read and I’ve had a headache since I started it, but it was worth it, and I’m glad the dude is doing at least passably well in life, all things considered.

And at the end when he mentions he was sent in 98 at just past 16… I was sent to a military boarding school at almost 14 in 00, essentially for having adhd, mild autism, and a single parent who swung between negligence and authoritarianism, and I’m just really lucky my mom found one of the less bad places. A legitimate school that was only a bit abusive (but really not a super appropriate environment for most children either way). Because I could have met that person in hell if things had played out a bit differently. And that’s a really sobering thought. I’m glad I didn’t have it until the end.

cybervseas ,

First, here’s a small story: I had to read Elie Wiesel’s Night in high school. I got a lot out of reading it over two weeks or so in AP English. I gave my copy to Mom, who’s a big reader, and warned her to take her time as it’s painful to read. The next morning she tells me “I read the whole thing last night, then I couldn’t sleep, and now I can’t stop crying.” Mom, I warned you 😓

Even with my very sheltered life, or perhaps because of it, I have found I need to space these kinds of stories out so that I don’t get overwhelmed. I think elan.school it took me 3 weeks to get caught up and then he finished the series over just a few weeks.

I’m sorry you went through so much as a kid, yourself. You and Joe are both around the same age as me, too. I hope reading elan.school helps you in some way with your own journey. I’m glad you found it worth the investment of your time.

stoly ,

If you read the article, depression, ADHD, and autism are also reasons children get sent there for some reason.

EmpathicVagrant ,

I’ve been told countless times how my depression is akshually a demonic possession

stoly ,

So make a list of those people and never put any trust in them. They are people you can be polite to and not invest any time in.

ArcaneSlime ,

“Nuh uh, God gave it to me so there!”

Complete with face scrunch and tongue stick-out bonus points awarded for best mocking mleeeh noise

Binthinkin ,

For some parents the cure to bad parenting is sending your kids off to a death camp.

They need to make these retreats for parents imo.

stoly ,

I will make two points here:

  1. Rarely, but some children just come out wrong. There are plenty of people who lived a regular, normal life and spawned a serial killer.
  2. Sending a child to these sorts of camps is sort of like someone being surprised that they are being fired. If someone is surprised they are being fired, then management failed along the way and missed all the opportunities to address whatever the issue was. Same here–these are going to be terrible parents who could have worked on the problem over the past 15 years who then give up and want someone else to fix the problem for them.
dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

What the actual fuck? There is so much to unpack from this article. I googled a bivy; it’s basically an enclosed sleeping bag. Before bivys, they would put a tarp over the zipped-up sleeping bag. Why? What’s the point in enclosing a child on their first night? Maybe to break their spirit? Show them you mean business? I can’t think of anything positive that could come from doing that to them.

And the “counselors”… they should be equally held liable. They heard things they were unsure of, but never thought to go check them out? That’s negligence.

I’m pissed. Beyond pissed. Everyone in that organization needs to go to jail. I pray that NC does the right thing and closes this torture factory down.

rtxn ,

Every “camp for troubled youth” I’ve ever heard of turned out to be a fucking concentration camp for kids full of physical, mental, and sexual torture and religious indoctrination. I wonder if this one also kidnaps kids in the middle of the night.

The entire idea should be made illegal.

Ranvier , (edited )

Caroline Svarre, whose parents paid to have her transported by two strangers in the middle of the night to Trails Carolina when she was 14, said she was “in shock” her first day.

Yup, also one that does the middle of the night kidnaps for maximum trauma infliction.

Shockingly, the treatment guidelines for panic disorder also don’t inlude zipping people into small bags all night:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478076/

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6354045/

They should be shut down permanently, and those responsible for these policies held criminally liable.

afraid_of_zombies ,

Hey! Mine didn’t sexually torture me.

slurpeesoforion ,

That part of the state is known for deep religion. Think venomous snakes and arsenic Sundays.

girlfreddy ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

He wasn’t just in the bivy.

He had been required to sleep in a tubelike tent, known as a bivy, enclosed by a solid plastic sheet.

Asphyxia anyone???

Wiz ,

“If they survive, they’re a witch.”

chiliedogg ,

And since the zipper was broken, they secured him in it with zip-ties.

And when they noticed his shallow breathing, they didn’t check on him because they couldn’t see through the bivy and were too fucking lazy to untie him to see if he was okay.

That’s not manslaughter. That’s depraved-indifference murder.

DancingBear ,

This sounds like a bivy style tent… a bivy sack is just a waterproof layer your can put your sleeping bag inside of to stay warm and dry.

A bivy tent is kind of just a smaller one person tent that is not usually big enough to sit up in like a regular two man style tent.

That said, it sounds like on the past they used the tarps as a waterproof layer but switched to the bivy tents.

One weird thing is they put alarms on the zippers of the tent to go off if anyone tried to get out of their tent which seems odd to me.

Obviously he suffocated so it’s some kind of equipment failure, but in general bivy tents and bivy sacks are really good lightweight gear that can shelter you from the elements. If you don’t have one you generally need a tarp or a regular tent to protect from rain or other water leaking in from the ground.

I just mean to say their doesn’t sound like anything nefarious in just letting kids sleep in a bivy sack or bivy tent. Locking them in though seems kind of weird. If adults are sleeping nearby you would hear any zippers in the middle of the night etc.

dohpaz42 ,
@dohpaz42@lemmy.world avatar

Thank you for the explanation and differentiation. That makes me feel slightly better.

DancingBear ,

I want a bivy sack or a bivy style tent myself but they are a little out of my budget at the moment.

Locking the kids in the sack or the tent is the questionable action in my opinion.

TropicalDingdong ,

just a regular bivy set up wrong, or gotten into wrong like if you really misunderstood the instructions and went head first could create those conditions.

More likely guess would be hypothermia from it being set up wrong.

It’s also not entirely clear to me this was a proper bivy. plenty of camps like this just throw the poor tortured child a tarp and tell them to figure it out. That’s why my guess goes to hypothermia.

TropicalDingdong ,

So I’ve worked at out door facilities (none that did this kind of work) and have had colleagues that worked these kinds of camps.

Basically, you get thrown a minimum of supplies and told figure it out. Not usually a tent but a tarp you are expected to construct into a tent. I knew of one outfit in Utah where kids would get sent in the middle of the winter. I consider it abuse, but if their parents sign the waivers… keep in mind that children are a form of property (for most intents and purposes).

I refused to ever work those kinds of camps and threw shade at my friends who did.

stoly ,

Yes, people like this consider their children to be chattel. It’s why you should ignore anything that someone who uses the words “parental rights” says.

feedum_sneedson ,

Shade - now that’s praxis!

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