[Vision2020] Death at a Teen Boot Camp

[Scott Dredge]

Here we go again with another death at a teen boot
camp.  I really despise these places.  I have a half
sister who was placed in one these facilities for a
full year (2003-2004) by her dysfunctional mother.  I
spent that time period attending various parent
support group meetings and associated introspection
seminars attempting to get any information about "the
program" and trying desperately to contact my sister. 
One of things that frustrated me more that anything
else, was how most of these parents bought into the
crap that they were fed to them by those running the
camps about how these so-called "defiant" teens were
"liars and manipulators...that's why they're in [the
boot camps]".  God forbid that any of them are ever
abused or raped as they would just be dismissed liars
and manipulators.  In my opinion, these places should
be over-regulated by local, state, and federal
authorities and no minor should be allowed to be
shipped off to one of these places in the Carribean or
Mexico - or anywhere outside of US jurisdiction.

-Scott

Parents Sue Over Son's Boot Camp Death

Sun Feb 6, 6:38 PM ET
	
U.S. National - AP

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The parents of a 15-year-old boy who
died while attending a boot camp for troubled teens
have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the
facility.

Roberto Reyes of Santa Rosa, Calif., died in November
of a spider or insect bite, less than a week after
enrolling at the Thayer Learning Center Boot Camp and
Boarding School, about 60 miles north of Kansas City.

The lawsuit contends the boot camp failed to treat the
bite quickly enough, resulting in the teen's death.
The lawsuit also claims the boy was dragged, beaten,
placed in solitary confinement and "forced to lay in
his own excrement for extended periods of time."

No charges have been filed, but a division of the
Missouri Department of Social Services is conducting
an investigation. A panel of state and county
officials said in December that "earlier medical
treatment" would have prevented Reyes' death.

An attorney for the boot camp, Ed Proctor, did not
return a call seeking comment Saturday. Proctor
previously told The Kansas City Star that "every child
at Thayer has immediate access to medical care at any
time."

The boot camp, which has about 100 teenagers enrolled,
employs no medical staff but contracts with a
physician.