CCHR acknowledges media as inadvertent watchdogs that can influence legislators to enact protections against increasing incidents of sexual and restraint abuse of teens in psychiatric facilities

By Jan Eastgate
President CCHR International
April 19, 2021

Children and adolescents continue to suffer the consequences of poorly run and abusive psychiatric and behavioral centers and hospitals, despite a year of massive exposure of restraint deaths, resident sexual assaults and other abuse. It’s a scathing indictment of the failure to protect them, despite health agencies being put on notice for more than 20 years about the assault of “troubled youths” and who, today, remain at risk. Several states—Utah, Oregon and Michigan—are acting to protect children against restraints but that leaves 94% of the states potentially leaving “troubled youths” in danger.

In April this year, the families of 17 former residents of the “Troubled Teen” facility, KidsPeace Mesabi Academy in Buhl, Minnesota received a portion of a $1.5 million settlement agreement. The lawsuit against KidsPeace had resolved in 2019 but had been shielded from the public view until a media outlet, APM Reports, took the steps to obtain an outline of the settlement. This revealed the families ended up with only $500,000 to share equally between them.[1]

In May 2016, APM Reports had published a series of stories highlighting problems at the facility, including alleged abuse, institutional neglect, and a lack of government oversight. The state of Minnesota also froze new admissions to Mesabi Academy.

Between 2009 and 2016, the facility had received 64 complaints regarding staff, care and the treatment of children housed at the center. Internal and external investigations were carried out there in 2016 following reports of three boys being sexually abused. St. Louis County confirmed that the center had not reported several allegations of sexual abuse to the authorities over the years.[2]

While KidsPeace officials maintained that there was no wrongdoing at the facility, subsequent government investigations found five instances of mistreatment of residents at Mesabi in 2015 and 2016, including a staff member allowing boys as young as 12 to participate in a “fight club” and an employee breaking a resident’s clavicle. [3]

The Academy closed its doors in July 2016.[4]

CCHR had had KidsPeace behavioral centers in its sights from the early 1990s to around 2008, when it then became aware of abuses in Universal Health Services (UHS) behavioral facilities that were so egregious and frequent, that it mounted a campaign to also expose these.

Taxpayer dollars expended through Medicaid and Medicare on treatment in all behavioral “Troubled Teen” facilities requires close monitoring. Too often, abuses only come to light when media investigate and keep the issue in the limelight. Inadvertently, they become the watchdog or the monitor that mental health agencies fail to be. Such public disclosure usually prompts government response if only to protect its own reputation. The government action is only as good as the information and advice provided it and when it relies on its mental health division advisors, information is often skewed.

Independent organizations that can inspect these facilities and report, as well as groups like CCHR that document hundreds of abuse cases every year, can obtain information that represents the consumer and family and doesn’t try to “normalize” horrific abuse. For example, in 2000, at a KidsPeace youth behavioral facility, a 10-year-old boy was allegedly assaulted by an older resident. The company’s response to the lawyer for the child claimed, the sexual contacts were “consensual.”[5] A 10-year-old!

It further explained: “KidsPeace does not consider any sexual incident while a child is in our care to be appropriate, but that regrettably, it has not always been possible to prevent such incidents…. KidsPeace staff make every effort to prevent any sexual incidents from occurring among clients, but that despite their best efforts, they do occasionally occur.”[6]

We’ve often seen this before. In October 2017, a 13-year-old girl at Timberlawn Behavioral Health in Texas, a psychiatric hospital owned by for-profit Universal Health Services (UHS) was allegedly raped. The girl’s father told The Dallas Morning News that his daughter had been raped by a 17-year-old patient and warned, “This can’t happen to anyone else. The place needs to be shut down.” What was Timberlawn’s response to the outcry over this and other sexual assault allegations? James Miller, Timberlawn’s chief executive, stated: “We believe our rate of serious incidents associated with the patient population treated at Timberlawn is within industry norm.”[7] [Emphasis added]

Then there was the abuse of children and teens at Charter private psychiatric hospitals and another chain, National Medical Enterprises’ (NME) psychiatric division in the 1990s. CCHR was in the forefront of exposing this at the time, providing evidence to legislators, law enforcement agencies, and the FBI, that eventually raided the company and hospitals. NME dumped its psychiatric division in 1993-94, after paying over $379 million in criminal and civil fines to the Federal government. [8]

Just prior to this, I had met with executives of NME to explain CCHR’s concerns.  Attending the meeting in its Santa Monica offices was a former officer of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) who had been hired to advise NME on improving conditions in its psychiatric hospitals. He insisted he’d inspected them and found standard care and conditions vastly improved. I responded, “But that’s the point. You would review it by what you consider is a standard of care. I could walk through the same facility and talk to the patients for several hours and come out with enough evidence to warrant an investigation and its closure.”

Nearly a year ago, 16-year-old Cornelius Frederick, an African American foster care youth, lay unconscious on the floor of the cafeteria at Lakeside Academy, a residential treatment center for at-risk youth in Kalamazoo, Michigan, owned by Sequel Youth and Family Services. After he threw a sandwich on the floor, seven male staff members held him on the floor for more than 10 minutes, putting weight on his legs and torso, while he gasped for air, saying: “I can’t breathe.” Cornelius died two days later. As NBC News reported, “The fatal restraint ultimately led to a re-evaluation of the care children receive in these facilities in Michigan and increased scrutiny of the for-profit behavioral health company that ran Lakeside.”[9] Frederick was a ward of the state, after his mother died when she was 32 years old and his father was unable to care for him.[10]

In 2016, the state of Michigan documented 321 restraints at Lakeside. The next year there were 495. The next, 595. And in 2019: 796 restraints – an average of more than two per day, and more than twice as many as just four years before.  Since 2018, the state of Michigan investigated more than a dozen complaints about Lakeside Academy. Other states, including California, also had investigations. In 2019, Sequel received nearly $9 million from the state of Michigan to operate its two facilities there.[11]

Sequel, at least, fired 10 employees of Lakeside Academy, including the three facing criminal charges over the restraint death.[12] But that does not go far enough. In a statement provided to APM Reports, Sequel said it had provided care and support to thousands of young people in its facilities, but noted, “Our successes do not excuse our failures.”[13]

Cornelius’ family’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, was blunt: “Unless you shine a light on insects and maggots, they proliferate. Certainly, this type of behavior is not human. It can only be akin to a subhuman-type species that would inflict this behavior on children.”[14]

In December 2020, NBC’s Hannah Rappleye, Tyler Kingkade and Kate Snow detailed the abuses in Sequel facilities in a story headlined “A profitable ‘death trap’: Sequel youth facilities raked in millions while accused of abusing children: Sequel Youth & Family Services collected hundreds of millions in tax dollars to care for vulnerable children, despite abuse and negligence allegations.” Their investigation was based on more than 10,000 pages of records from 14 states and interviews with former Sequel residents, their parents and attorneys, probation officers and watchdog groups.

This largely concentrated upon Alabama where Sequel is headquartered. The Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program had visited Sequel facilities where children informed them of how staff encouraged them to kill themselves and made vulgar comments; one child said staff members “make fun of my name, which upsets me because it is my dad’s name and he passed away.” The group’s report included photographic proof of the Dickensian conditions that the state’s most vulnerable children were forced to live in: broken doors, missing floor tiles, blood smeared on the walls and thin mattresses laid on top of concrete platforms.[15]

Yet as NBC reported, Sequel, a company with locations in 20 states that turned a $25 million profit in 2016, markets itself as a national leader in providing specialized care for at-risk youth. [16]

In April 2021, NBC ran a one-hour show, “Children That Pay” that further addressed Sequel’s operations and abuses in Alabama. The facilities were paid $28 million through Medicaid in the last three years and government contracts worth $68 million since 2016.[17]

Michigan, where Cornelius Frederick died, now plans to ban restraint use in youth facilities in all but the most extreme circumstances.[18] Utah recently amended their law to do the same.

But in Alabama, Sequel is business as usual. The state has not ended its relationship with Sequel, asserting unannounced visits were done and “most, if not all deficiencies had been addressed.” [19]

However, every week, there is exposure of abuses in both for-profit and non-profit psychiatric centers and Medicaid and Medicare dollars are being wasted on abuse, not treatment.

No Peace at KidsPeace

At its peak in 2006, KidsPeace, a charitable organization, was a $170 million-a-year organization that served 5,000 youths in 10 states. But in 2007 a detailed review of KidsPeace operations prompted a state Department of Public Welfare to determine that KidsPeace counselors were too frequently using force in restraining out-of-control youths. The review led the state to temporarily halt all new admissions to its Orefield campus programs. In May 2013, facing $249 million in debt, KidsPeace filed for bankruptcy. It had debts to 30 creditors.[20]

It emerged a year later having restructured the company.[21] Its 2018-19 Annual report said that in 2018, KidsPeace provided treatment to 9,865 children and teens, largely aged from 0-20. Total revenue was $126 million.[22]

One of the first cases at KidsPeace behavioral youth centers that CCHR documented was in May 1993, when 12-year-old Jason Tallman died the day after being restrained by staff at an Orefield, Pennsylvania KidsPeace treatment center. Like Cornelius Frederick, Jason pleaded that he could not breathe when a 215-pound counselor sat on his back pinning him down for 27 minutes. Jason never regained consciousness and died the next day. The boy had only been at the center for less than a day, created a disturbance and was restrained after he threatened to run away. An autopsy stated the cause of death was caused by “a torso compressed during prolonged period of restraint.”[23]

The counselor who was involved in that restraint, was kept in KidsPeace employment during criminal charges against him and a trial, although he was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter.[24] However, on 4 August 2003, the same counselor was convicted and sentenced to 3 to 6 years in state prison for molesting a teenage boy whom he had purportedly befriended in 1994. This took place while he was employed by KidsPeace and while under criminal investigation for the death of Jason Tallman.[25]

In 1996, KidsPeace agreed to a $1 million out of court settlement with the Tallman family.[26]

Maine case workers heard about Jason’s death and became concerned with the safety of the wards of the state they had sent to KidsPeace for psychiatric or behavioral treatment. After interviewing 16 children, Maine caseworkers learned that children had been pushed to the floor, their hands shoved behind their wastes and legs pinned behind their back as staff sat or lay on them. One Maine child suffered a broken arm and another had a broken clavicle during a restraint. A third child had a chin scar from rug burns and other children reported their limbs felt like they were ripping while restrained. Concerned for their safety, Maine pulled its children out of KidsPeace in Pennsylvania.[27]

Five years after Jason’s death, another teen, aged 14, died from “compression asphyxia” in a facility when he was physically restrained by counselors.[28] On December 11, 1998, Mark Draheim died while he resided at a treatment facility in Pennsylvania operated by KidsPeace. The county prosecutor decided not to file charges against the counselors because the teen’s death was ruled an accident. Mark’s mother, Marcia, sued and under the settlement, which was agreed upon in May 2006, she receives $30,000 a year over the next 30 years, for a total of $1.4 million.[29] Just weeks before his death, the parents reported that their son had complained of being sexually abused while at KidsPeace and were trying to get him removed from the facility. An autopsy confirmed evidence of sexual assault.[30]

KidsPeace medical records reported rectal injuries from the rapes as early as 1996.A KidsPeace employee (Draheim’s caseworker) discouraged the criminal prosecution of the adult responsible for the sexual abuse, describing Draheim as a “willing participant.”[31]  

Other cases include: 

• July 1999: A 12-year-old boy filed a lawsuit against KidsPeace National Centers for Kids in Crisis in Allentown, PA for failing to prevent a 13-year-old from raping him less than a month after he arrived. The boy’s name was withheld because of his age.[32] 

• September 8, 2000: A former counselor of KidsPeace, Jeff Wimmer, filed a lawsuit alleging he was let go from KidsPeace Schnecksville, PA in retaliation for reporting an assault by a teenage patient to police.  According to Mr. Wimmer, he alleged KidsPeace officials were upset with him because it resulted in a loss of money for them when the teenager was subsequently transferred to a youth detention facility.  In December 2000, a court ruled that the lawsuit had merit and could proceed.[33]

• 2000: Daniel Rosencrans was 10 years old and alleged that while at KidsPeace facility in Romulus, New York he was sexually assaulted twice by an older resident. Astoundingly, KidsPeace legal counsel said the center felt the incidents had been “consensual” and, furthermore, “KidsPeace does not consider any sexual incident while a child is in our care to be appropriate, but that regrettably, it has not always been possible to prevent such incidents…KidsPeace staff make every effort to prevent any sexual incidents from occurring among clients, but that despite their best efforts, they do occasionally occur.[34] 

• April 4, 2001: Beverly Taylor of Willingboro, New Jersey filed a lawsuit against KidsPeace in PA alleging that when her daughter, approximately 14-years-old at the time, was at the facility in 1998 she was physically assaulted and injured when another patient hit her. During the assault one of the staff who was present restrained the daughter and, in the process, fractured her knee. Roughly a month later a boy who was also a patient of the program entered the daughter’s room and raped her.[35] 

• July 20, 2001: KidsPeace patient, 17-year-old Kaj Christian Schaller, was criminally convicted of sexually assaulting another 18-year-old patient in his room at the KidsPeace Athlete’s Center in August 2000. The Athlete’s Center is located on the Orefield Pennsylvania KidsPeace campus.[36]

• February 21, 2002: Chloe Cohen, 16, was an “exquisitely sensitive teenager, a generous spirit who gave dollar bills to Manhattan panhandlers and channeled her creativity through sketching portraits and writing verse,” Newsday But school officials believed she was increasingly prone to emotional meltdowns. In January 2002, Chloe was sent to a KidsPeace residential treatment center in North Whitehall, Pa., which cost as much as $180,000 a year. Six weeks later, she was dead. Minutes after she went to her room to take a shower, KidsPeace workers said, she tied a bathrobe belt around her neck and they found her body hanging from the metal railing on her bunk bed. Her death was ruled a suicide by the Lehigh County medical examiner.[37]

• November 2003: Ryan Beers, who was criminally charged with indecent sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl at KidsPeace was allowed to enter the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program—a diversion program. Under terms of the program, Beers was not prosecuted and the charges were dropped after a period of probation. Although Beers had to admit his guilt, the program allowed him to say he was not convicted.[38] 

• 2004: KidsPeace paid a $1.9 million settlement after the U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia determined it overcharged Medicaid for counseling. Federal authorities determined KidsPeace could not be reimbursed for paying counselors to ride the bus with clients. KidsPeace had argued they were necessary to keep order.[39]

• 2005: A DC teenager, who was raped by a counselor at a Pennsylvania clinic owned by KidsPeace in 2005, filed a federal lawsuit in June 2008, suing Washington DC and KidsPeace Corporation for personal injury. The girl, who was a former ward of the city, was sent to the KidsPeace clinic despite reports of previous abuse incidents at the Pennsylvania site. KidsPeace counselor, Jerry McChristian, admitted to raping the girl, and pled guilty to institutional rape in 2006.[40]

• 2004: Lynne Harrison said her 14-year-old daughter was at the Kids Peace facility in New England located in Ellsworth, Maine and that her daughter and other children were being abused.[41]

• May 2008: Katherine Rice, 16, a KidsPeace resident died after overdosing on methadone. Another girl, also 16, was still recovering at Lehigh Valley Hospital. KidsPeace officials said the methadone was apparently stolen from a counselor who was driving the teens to an appointment. The counselor was legally prescribed methadone for relief of chronic pain from a back injury, according to press reports. The girls were found unconscious at about 8 a.m. on April 17 at the Saylorsburg facility. “We’re extremely careful to keep at-risk youngsters safe,” a KidsPeace spokesperson said. While at least two suffocation deaths have occurred at KidsPeace in the past, the spokesperson characterized them as not representative of the full picture of the organization.[42]

• 2007: Seven youths suffered broken bones while being restrained at a KidsPeace residential treatment facility in North Whitehall Township, PA. The state released a report that showed staff members were forcibly restraining out-of-control youths several times a day—a rate state officials found alarming. Police responded to KidsPeace roughly three times a week, doubling the calls of the previous year. There had been 2,900 restraints in past year. Between July 2006 and July 2007, police made 159 trips to the main KidsPeace campus in North Whitehall Township, including 120 for reported harassments, assaults or sexual assaults. That nearly doubled the 80 responses of a year earlier.[43]

• June 2008: A monitor appointed by the US Congress reported that children at a Florida KidsPeace clinic were being treated like “garbage.” DC officials only found out about the abuse through media reports. In 2007, schools’ Chancellor Michelle Rhee found that several children under KidsPeace’s care had suffered broken arms while under “therapeutic restraint.”[44]

• 2018: The U.S. scandal of migrant children being housed in psychiatric centers included KidsPeace. There were questions then on why they were sent there, when there had been allegations that residents had been sexually abused.[45] In June, media reported that KidsPeace had recently been cited by Pennsylvania regulators for its shelters’ failure to include crucial information in children’s medical records (such as attempted suicide), inappropriate monitoring of phone calls and mail to and from children and inadequate abuse training. KidsPeace said in a statement that it strictly adheres to state laws.[46]

• September 2019: A 23-year-old former employee and mental health care technician was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl at a KidsPeace facility in Lehigh County, PA. Kharee Greene was charged with one count of institutional sexual assault. Greene was sent to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of 10 percent of $25,000 bail. Pennsylvania State Police received a report on July 11 of possible child abuse at the KidsPeace facility. The incident was alleged to have occurred on June 26. State police said Greene sexually assaulted the victim, and troopers collected surveillance video as part of the investigation. In March 2021, The Morning Call reported Greene could serve more than two years in a state prison after pleading guilty to one count of institutional sexual assault of a female resident. He will also be a registered sex offender for 15 years.[47]

• According to Trapani Law Firm, which shows it has “KidsPeace sex abuse” personal injury lawyers, in 2019, an employee was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy. He allegedly forced the boy to perform sex acts and exposed him to pornography.[48] 

• 2019: The Pennsylvania State Police at Bethlehem say they have been particularly busy in North Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, of late, with many calls for assistance originating from KidsPeace Orchard Hills campus. Police said officers responded in November 2019 to a report of 13 runaways, although it was later determined that eight juveniles had actually run away. KidsPeace Director of Communications Robert Martin said: “State regulations prevent us from physically restraining children from leaving the facility without permission unless they have a specific safety plan in place that indicates they are in danger of hurting themselves or others if in the community–and in those cases only as a measure of last resort.”[49]

It’s a comment on any behavioral facility and, potentially treatment failures, that so many teens want to abscond—or “need” to be restrained.

Since 2015, CCHR has brought incidents of youth psychiatric abuse, especially restraint deaths and sexual assault in behavioral facilities to the attention of all state legislators several times over. Time and time again, legislators have spoken about this but this needs to translate into nationwide legislative protections.

“A lot of what happens in facilities stays hidden in facilities,” said Jessica Feierman, senior managing director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.[50] CCHR urges families of victims of psychiatric abuse in KidsPeace and other behavioral facilities to report this to CCHR.

CCHR has worked for more than 50 years to achieve more than 190 laws that protect against psychiatric abuse, which a United Nations Special Rapporteur acknowledged. But there is a dire need for health agencies to step up to the plate now because Federal regulations were put in place to restrict restraint use over 20 years ago, and yet today we see an egregious escalation of the same child abuse in the mental health system.

References:

[1] Tom Scheck, “Former residents of troubled youth facility receive settlement money,” APM Reports, 2 Apr. 2021,

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2021/04/02/former-residents-mesabi-academy-youth-facility-receive-settlement-money

[2] Aura Bogado, et al., “Migrant children coming to the US are being sent to shelters with histories of child abuse allegations,” The World, 20 June 2018, https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-20/migrant-children-coming-us-are-being-sent-shelters-histories-child-abuse

[3] Op. cit., Tom Scheck, APM Reports, 2 Apr. 2021

[4] Op. cit., Aura Bogado, et al., The World, 20 June 2018

[5] Correspondence from Law Offices of Erik H. Langeland, P.C. 12 Jan. 2004 and correspondence from KidsPeace Legal Affairs Kathryn Wohlsen Mayer, 12 Jan. 2004

[6] Ibid.

[7] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/10/30/child-abuse-allegations-in-the-behavioral-psychiatric-industry-universal-health-services-uhs/ citing: Sue Ambrose, “Dallas police investigating sexual assault of 13-year-old girl at Timberlawn hospital,” The Dallas Morning News, 13 Oct. 2017, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/10/12/13-year-old-girl-sexually-assaulted-timberlawn-psychiatric-hospital-dallas; Sue Ambrose, “Father of girl, 13, says she was raped at Timberlawn by teen male patient,” The Dallas Morning News, 18 Oct. 2017, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/10/13/father-girl-13-says-raped-timberlawn-teenmale-patient; Sarah Mervosh and Sue Ambrose “Raped, fondled, flashed: What female patients say happened to them at Timberlawn psych hospital,” The Dallas Morning News, 25 Oct. 2017, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/investigations/2017/10/26/timberlawn-history-sexual-assault-reports-13-year-olds-case-surfaced

[8] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/10/13/paris-hilton-continues-to-speak-out-about-child-abuse-in-universal-health-services/ citing: http://articles.latimes.com/1997/jul/31/business/fi-18047; http://www.moriarty.com/Mass_Action_Case_Results/National_Medical_Enterprises/

[9] Hannah Rappleye, “Michigan to ban restraints in youth facilities after Cornelius Frederick’s death,” NBC News, 2 Apr. 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/michigan-ban-restraints-youth-facilities-after-cornelius-frederick-s-death-n1262756

[10] Britni de la Cretaz, “16-Year-Old Cornelius Fredericks Died At Lakeside Academy. He’s Not Their First Resident To Face Abuse,” Refinery29, 25 June 2020, https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/06/9884578/cornelius-fredericks-black-teen-lakeside-death-charges

[11] Dustin Dwyer, “‘It’s still not right.’ An investigation into Lakeside Academy,” Michigan Radio, 24 Sept. 2020, https://www.michiganradio.org/post/its-still-not-right-investigation-lakeside-academy

[12] Tyler Kincade, “Video shows fatal restraint of Cornelius Frederick, 16, in Michigan foster facility,” NBC News, 7 July 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-fatal-restraint-cornelius-fredericks-16-michigan-foster-facility-n1233122

[13] Op. cit., Michigan Radio, 24 Sept. 2020

[14] Op. cit., Tyler Kincade, NBC News, 7 July 2020

[15] Hannah Rappleye, Tyler Kingkade and Kate, “A profitable ‘death trap’: Sequel youth facilities raked in millions while accused of abusing children,” NBC News, 16 Dec. 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/profitable-death-trap-sequel-youth-facilities-raked-millions-while-accused-n1251319

[16] Ibid.

[17] “Alabama Sequel facilities spotlighted in critical NBC report,” AL.com, 2 Apr. 2021, https://www.al.com/news/2021/04/alabama-sequel-facilities-spotlighted-in-critical-nbc-report.html

[18] Op. cit., Hannah Rappleye, NBC News, 2 Apr. 2021

[19] Op. cit., Hannah Rappleye, Tyler Kingkade and Kate, NBC News, 16 Dec. 2020

[20] Matt Assad, “KidsPeace files for bankruptcy,” Pocono Record, 22 May 2013, https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20130522/NEWS90/130529930

[21] Nick Falsone, “KidsPeace emerges from bankruptcy, ‘putting financial hardships in the past,’” LehighValleyLive.com, 1 Aug. 2014, https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/2014/08/kidspeace_emerges_from_chapter.html

[22] “2019 Outcomes and Annual Report,” KidsPeace, , kidspeace.org

[23] Debbie Garlicki, “KidsPeace Death Will Go To A Jury, Judge Decides,” Morning Call (Allentown, PA), 25 May 1995; “Counselor Charged in Suffocation,” The Legal Intelligencer, 19 Nov. 1993; “KidsPeace Reaches Settlement In 1993 Death of Restrained Boy…,” Morning Call, 22 May 1996; https://autismmemorial.wordpress.com/1993/05/13/jason-tallman/

[24] Debbie Garlicki, “KidsPeace Worker Acquitted in Death,” Morning Call, 30 June 1995

[25] Dalondo Moultrie, “Molester sentenced to 3-6 years in prison; Victim says he will never be the same after the assaults by Quakertown man,” Morning Call, 5 Aug. 2003; Paul Carpenter, “The monster is finally going where he belongs,” Morning Call, 15 Aug. 2003

[26] Ibid.; Op. cit., Morning Call, 22 May 1996

[27] State of Maine Department of Human Services Report 22 Dec. 1993, RE: KidsPeace.

[28] Dave Reynolds, “Mom Settles With Facility Over Son’s Restraint Death,” Minnesota Department of Administration, 3 Aug. 2006, https://mn.gov/mnddc//news/inclusion-daily/2006/08/080306painstabuse.htm

[29] Ibid.

[30] Keith Herbert, “Lawyer Says KidsPeace Boy Was Raped…” Morning Call, 16 Dec. 1998

[31] Lawsuit complaint filed by Marcia Draheim vs. KidsPeace National Center For Kids In Crisis, Inc. et. al.

[32] David Voreacos, “Totowa Boy Sues Treatment Home Over Rape Charges Facility Liable in Attack,” The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) 30 July 1999

[33] Christine Schiavo, “Former Youth Counselor Sues KidsPeace Over His Dismissal…,” Morning Call, 17 Oct. 2000; Debbie Garlicki, “Judge: Ex-Counselor Can Proceed with Suit…” Morning Call (Allentown, PA), 5 Dec. 2000

[34] Op. cit., Correspondence from Erik H. Langeland, P.C. and Kathryn Wohlsen Mayer, 12 Jan. 2004

[35] Christine Schiavo, “Parent of Ex-KidsPeace Client Sued Facility**Woman Alleges Daughter was Raped at the Center for Troubled Youth in North Whitehall Twp.” Morning Call, April 20, 2001.

[36] Christine Schiavo, “Boy, 17, Convicted of KidsPeace Sexual Assault**He Attacked Man, 18, at the North Whitehall Center for Troubled Youths,” Morning Call, 20 July 2001

[37] Lauren Terrazzano, “Troubled Kids, Far From Home, Probing care, oversight at treatment centers,” Newsday, 22 Sept. 2002, https://www.bridges4kids.org/articles/2002/10-02/Newsday9-22-02.html

[38] “Man won’t be tried on sex assault charges; Upper Nazareth Twp. Resident in KidsPeace incident goes to rehab.,” Morning Call, 5 Nov. 2003

[39] “Crisis brings KidsPeace to a crossroads: High number of restraints, spike in police calls bring state probe. Can the 125-year-old agency survive?” The Morning Call, 16 Dec. 2007, https://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/news/2007/12/16/3166272.htm

[40] “Teenager Files $10 Million Personal Injury Lawsuit Against Washington DC For Rape in Clinic,” Lebowitz & Mzhen Law Firm, 19 June 2008, https://www.washingtondcinjurylawyerblog.com/teenager_files_10_million_pers/

[41] Lynne Harrison Correspondence with CCHR, 6 Apr. 2004 and Statement on File from Autumn Harrison

[42] Dan Berrett, “KidsPeace conducting own investigation into death of 16-year-old,” Pocono Record, 6 May 2008, https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20080506/News/805060320

[43] Op. cit., The Morning Call, 16 Dec. 2007

[44] Op. cit., Lebowitz & Mzhen Law Firm, 19 June 2008

[45] Op. cit.,Aura Bogado, et al., The World, 20 June 2018

[46] “In court documents, immigrant children allege abuse, assaults, forced drugs at Virginia facility,” WQAD 8 ABC News, 22 June 2018, https://www.wqad.com/article/news/local/drone/8-in-the-air/in-court-documents-immigrant-children-allege-abuse-assaults-forced-drugs-at-virginia-facility/526-1daf2ed5-8c6b-4d49-b053-d42e0b980c84

[47] “Employee accused of sexually assaulting child at KidsPeace,” LeighValleyLive.com, 23 Sept. 2019, https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/lehigh-county/2019/09/employee-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-child-at-kidspeace.html; Laurie Mason Schroeder, “Former KidsPeace employee pleads guilty to sexually assaulting 15-year-old resident,” The Morning Call, 16 Mar. 2021, https://www.mcall.com/news/police/mc-nws-kidspeace-employee-pleads-guilty-sex-assault-20210316-7ooi24bqwbaxxfqmntaqefu4wu-story.html

[48] “KidsPeace Child Sexual Abuse,” Trapani Law Firm, https://ltlaw.com/kidspeace-child-sexual-abuse/

[49] Josh Popichak, “Cops Say Kids Keep Running Away from KidsPeace; Facility Responds,” Saucon Source, 20 Nov. 2019, https://sauconsource.com/2019/11/20/cops-say-kids-keep-running-away-from-kidspeace-facility-responds/

[50] Op. cit., Tom Scheck, APM Reports, 2 Apr. 2021