image caption: Used by The Insiderafter 4 students of Turn About Ranch ran away.
Introduction
There has been hundreds, thousands of child abuse cases in America. Ranging from parents, next door neighbors, and kinship parents to teachers, instructors, and care givers. Yet lately a new range of abusers have surfaced, the teen behavioral rehabilitation centers. Thousands of teens are standing up against these proclaimed prisons. One of them, and today's story is about the abuse imposed by Turn About Ranch was an Utah Rehabilitation Center for troubled teens. Adding to the stories, traumas, and undeniable reasons to the American movement #breakingcodesilence. These stories from Turn About Ranch empowering American Pop culture to take a stand for teens, and a stand against privatized teen behavioral rehabilitation programs.
Background
Today we will be reading about four teens from Turn About Ranch, all between 15 to 16 years of age. Their names being, Josh, Alex, Kaye, and Elizabeth. Turn About Ranch is a Utah teen rehabilitation center supposedly meant for delinquent and juvenile teens such as Josh and Kaye, yet their curriculum restricts self expression, rewarding only those who improve hastily and punishing those who lag behind using methods involving chemicals, and public humiliation. No due process or choice is given to the students of Turn About Ranch, they can be forcibly institutionalized with just a signature from a guardian with little reason or without consulting their child. This "curriculum" causing years of trauma, lasting scars, and leaving their students in a worse condition then they came.
The Crime
Kaye
On November 1st, 2006, Kaye, 16 years old at the time, was forcibly removed from her home by Turn About Ranch after her mother and step father enrolled her into their curriculum. This causing her maternal aunts to act, slipping Kaye emancipation papers to sign on a Sunday in the ranch's Baptist Church. This causing a emancipation trial, claiming abuse from Turn About Ranch and abuse from her mother and step father. This emancipation being more intended though, to give Kaye the due process she deserved before her forced institution at Turn About Ranch, citing her good grades and clear juvenile record to support that she did not, nor needs to be, placed in Turn About Ranch's curriculum.
Elizabeth Verney
Early 2012, Elizabeth Verney and her mother sued Turn About Ranch and their parent company, Aspen Education Group, for child abuse which occurred back in 2005. In court Elizabeth told stories of the torture she endured in Turn About Ranch, claiming she was subjected to sleep deprivation, denied vegetarian food and forced her to eat prepared meat. Being threatened to be force fed through a tube if she did not comply. Turn About Ranch claimed to have forced physical labor and excessive exercise in their extreme Utah temperatures, as well as cleaning dishes in bleach until her knuckles bled, the scars still being visible to this day. Any threat of her to runaway was met with an equal threat of suffocation or strangulation leading to often break downs, which in result Turn About Ranch forced Elizabeth into "stress positions" taking the stress off her mind, and onto her joints claims Elizabeth. Though despite all of Elizabeth and her mother's efforts, in December of the same year the judge cleared Turn About Ranch of any wrong doing, not from lack of evidence or a incoherent or chronological story, but due to the two year statute of limitations that applies to claims involving a health care provider.
Josh and Alex
Josh and Alex are both British delinquents sent to Turn About Ranch, providing insight on their rules inside the Ranch. Josh, 15 years old, prone to bits of rage, smoking pot, and occasionally attacking his father. Alex, also 15 years old, often underage drinking, smoking pot, and smashing or throwing household objects during arguments with her mother. Both the type of delinquent teens Turn About Ranch intends to "Turn into decent human beings" claims their article by The Guardian. Though an examination of their rules might make evident that Turn About Ranch suppresses these tendencies rather then allowing their students to cope, and improve upon them. Some of those rules are; wake up at 6:30 am, lights out at 8:30 pm, allowing for what would be 10 hours of sleep for the average adult, but as seen by the BBC the average teenager begins to produce melatonin at 1 am, melatoinin being the vitamin that allows you to sleep at night. These teens could be getting as little as 5 hours of sleep. No free time is allowed at Turn About Ranch states their own Executive Director, Max Stewart who also drill sergeant and served in the military police. Permission must be granted before any change outside what is instructed could continue, this being even a change of clothes, hairstyle, shoes, sleeping cot, or a number of things. The teens are banned from make-up, hair products, all girls' hair must be in a pony tail and boys must be cleanly shaven and parental contact is strictly limited. If any behavior gets worse punishment can be imposed, including earlier wake up time causing even more sleep deprivation, chores, or exercises. These teens are being forced to work whilst sleep deprivation by a drill sergeant trained to deal with adults, not hormonal teens with altering sleep cycles, their physical self expression is being extremely limited and mandated, and any malfeasance that may be caused by these conditions may only cause them to get worse.
Justice
While the trials against Turn About Ranch are not very fruitful, they are adding to the social media storm over taking modern outlets such as Instagram and twitter named #breakingcodesilence. Where teens all over the US are speaking out against the troubled teen rehabilitation industry, including those from Turn About Ranch. Allocating for more government involvement and restrictions to be introduced into the industry, and to raise awareness for the survivors for the troubled teen industry.