M.S's statement to HEAL-online

A person sent this statement to a human rights organization in the United States named HEAL-online about her stay in a wilderness program in Utah. All rights to this story belongs to the Author, who is known by organization:

I am 26 years old and was held prisoner at Aspen Achievement Academy for 2 and a half months in the winter of 1994. I had no idea that this program was still operating, as I had heard while at another program that a child had died there, but apparently that is not the case.

While at Aspen, I was forcibly deprived of food and made to hike long distances for the first 72 hours of my stay. At one point, I threw myself in a ditch and tried to cut my wrists with a mildly sharp rock that I found, during which time I was laughed at by my "counselors."

Also, during this period I was suffering from extreme heroin and cocaine withdrawal, that had left me at a weight of only 130 lbs, and was never allowed to see a doctor, or provided with any medical treatment for my extreme pain and nausea; I collapsed almost unconscious on the second day, and was dragged by my "pack" strap for almost a mile, while being constantly derided by my "counselors." We were made to carry packs weighing up to 100lbs, which were made of only a camping tarp tied together with a seatbelt strap. After my two months without drugs, I had gained no weight whatsoever due to the lack of nourishing food.

The horror that I and my fellow captives suffered over that hellish period is more deserving of a treatment by Solzhenitsyn than by me, but for the sake of brevity I will tell anyone thinking of sending their child to this program to consider that I still, 10 years later have nightmares of Aspen, and what they put us through. My childhood effectively ended that day in my fifteenth year, when I arrived at Aspen Achievement Academy.

Aspen Achievement Academy continues to be in operation despite the fact that teenagers have lost their lives in this particular wilderness program.

References:
The original statement
Datasheet over the program on the wiki database of Fornits

Brenham Banner-Press on the death at the Five Oaks Achievement Center

All rights belongs to the Brenham Banner-Press, which published this article on August 19, 2010:

Teen who collapsed at residential treatment facility dies

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is continuing its investigation into the death of a 17-year-old girl at a residential treatment facility in Austin County.

The department confirmed Wednesday that Shanice Nibbs, who collapsed about a month ago at Five Oaks Achievement Center in New Ulm, had died.

Nibbs collapsed July 16 while on a nature walk at center. On Wednesday, agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins issued a news release notifying the media that the teen died last Friday.

Reporters for the Houston Chronicle and Texas Tribune first contacted DFPS officials two weeks ago about the girl’s collapse. At the time, the girl was alive in the intensive care unit at Texas Children’s Hospital, and the agency gave no details, saying the incident was being investigated, according to the Chronicle.

An official with the governor’s office confirmed that the agency notified it immediately of the incident and that it was aware that the agency had suspended all placements at the facility until an investigation was completed, the newspaper said.

An official with the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, which conducted an autopsy, said the girl died of complications of hypothermia.

Again, no other details were released.

The Brenham school district renewed a one-year contract in July with Five Oaks to educate Brenham students who suffer from severe disabilities, continuing a relationship the district has had with the facility for almost a decade.

The current principal of the roughly three-dozen bed facility is Jim Bruce, the Brenham school district’s former assistant superintendent.

References:
Link til original article