In late capitalist America, troubled teens are an industry ...

[mickthinks]

... monetising parental fears and fantasies, and commodifying child abuse:

Orifiginally posted by The BBC
[Cynthia Clark Harvey's] daughter Erica was just 15 when she died of heatstroke and dehydration on her first full day in a wilderness programme in Nevada in 2002.

Cynthia remembers her daughter as a bright, thoughtful and athletic young girl who had always done well academically until she began suffering from mental health problems aged 14. Her struggles led her to become suicidal and begin experimenting with illegal drugs. When Erica was admitted to hospital and excluded from school, the family felt frightened and out of their depth. ...

The programme her family chose was well-known and accredited. They felt reassured Erica was in safe hands and would grow from the experience. After weeks of deliberation and planning, they travelled to Nevada under the guise of a family trip with her younger sister. When the deception was revealed, Erica became scared and angry and refused to get out of the car. After a turbulent hours-long group therapy session with other families, she and the other children were taken away.

This was the last time Cynthia and her husband ever saw their daughter alive. By the time they got back home to Arizona the following evening, there was already a message waiting on their answering phone telling them to call. They were told Erica had an accident and staff were performing CPR.

"I don't remember the time frame, but at that point she probably had been dead already for quite some time," Cynthia says.

She learned Erica had been pushed to keep hiking as her condition worsened throughout the day. She later testified to Congress about how her daughter's distress had been mistaken for teenage belligerence by staff. Even after Erica fell off the trail into brush and rocks, she did not receive medical help for almost an hour.

The remote location of the trek and a series of blunders in calling help to their location meant it took hours more for an emergency helicopter to arrive and take her to hospital where she was officially declared dead, long past the point her life could have been saved.

show spoiler

This is not breaking news. Ensign Steve posted the story here in 2013

[Ari]

Oh man I remember the 90s talk show ‘tough love’ craze where grown ass men dressed in military costumes would scream at children because they were wearing slightly different clothes, or my favorite was ‘talking back’. Is your child out of control, screaming at you and disobeying? Show them it’s acceptable so long as the person they’re yelling at is smaller than them.

While not exactly the same, I stumbled upon this and found it interesting, One gay person’s story of how his family was indoctrinated into the Johovah Witness. CW: Talk about suicide.

Leaving Jehovah's Witnesses (Gay EXJW) - YouTube

[Pan Narrans]

After weeks of deliberation and planning, they travelled to Nevada under the guise of a family trip with her younger sister. When the deception was revealed, (...)

What in the nine layer of Baator makes people thing this is a good idea?

Our child is in trouble. Let's lie to them and drop them off with a couple of randos. I bet that works.

[fragment]

That was my immediate reaction, but then I read that residential treatment was recommended by a psychiatrist and that the programme was "well-known and accredited" so there's a thing in this story about predation on people's misplaced trust of authorities.

Cynthia remembers her daughter as a bright, thoughtful and athletic young girl who had always done well academically until she began suffering from mental health problems aged 14. Her struggles led her to become suicidal and begin experimenting with illegal drugs.

Christ this reads like the behaviour of a child victim of sexual assault.

[Pan Narrans]

True. But there's still the violation of the child's trust, and the people 'treating' them were still complete strangers from the child's point of view. I guess they don't need no stinkin' intake meetings.

Christ this reads like the behaviour of a child victim of sexual assault.

[Oxymaroon]

You think maybe this whole society is dysfunctional?
If so, how can anyone tell whether a child is? I mean, in relation to what standard?