A Wyoming ranch accused of abusing children and forcing them to perform manual labor lost its license earlier this year after state officials documented a litany of safety and sanitary violations. But the ranch found a way to stay open and will no longer need a license to care for children, a development that has alarmed youth rights advocates.
The Wyoming Department of Family Services in June revoked the group home license from Triangle Cross Ranch, a facility that claims it can help transform teenage boys from misbehaving rebels into “thoughtful, respectful, and responsible young men” for a $5,800 monthly fee.
The facility, which typically has five or fewer boys enrolled at a time, will now operate without a license because the owner said last month he was appointed guardian of the youth living there, a department spokesman said. The spokesman said the owner provided copies of the paperwork, which was filed in Wyoming.
And state officials will no longer conduct regular welfare inspections going forward due to another licensing exemption for ranches or farms that do not offer services to children who are homeless, delinquent or have an intellectual disability, according to the department’s rules.
“It’s incredibly troubling that they would have decided to go this route after losing their license to be a child caring facility,” said Donna Sheen, founder and director of the Wyoming Children’s Law Center, a nonprofit. She noted that the Department of Family Services will now need a specific allegation or complaint in order to investigate the ranch.
In a brief phone call, Gerald Schneider, the ranch’s owner, confirmed that the program is now known as Sunlight Mountain Boys Ranch. The website under the new moniker is nearly identical to the Triangle Cross Ranch website, uses the same email and phone number, and lists the same staff members, but it does not mention its previous name or the lack of licensure. Schneider declined to answer additional questions and hung up, and the ranch did not respond to an email seeking comment.
On its website, the ranch advertises it can treat children with Reactive Attachment Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, those with learning disabilities and boys struggling with porn consumption and drug abuse. It says it does so by providing “an authentic cowboy experience.”
Schneider’s facility is part of what’s often called the troubled teen industry, a constellation of ranches, wilderness camps, boarding schools and jail-like facilities that promise parents they can provide therapy and other services to help youth struggling at home with addiction, depression or erratic behavior. If the programs do not take U.S. government funding — like Triangle Cross Ranch — they are not subject to federal oversight or regulations, instead leaving the states to keep watch.
An NBC News investigation last year found that the ranch and Trinity Teen Solutions, a facility for girls run by the same family, had operated in rural Wyoming for years despite repeated complaints from youth of cruel and humiliating treatment. State inspectors documented numerous red flags at Triangle Cross Ranch, including misrepresenting its services, punishing boys for speaking with state officials and complaining about their treatment, and making children physically restrain each other.
Trinity Teen Solutions voluntarily closed in September, three weeks after the NBC News investigation was published, asserting at the time that negative information about its business online had made it impossible to recruit new children to be enrolled. It disputed allegations of abuse and cruel treatment from former residents.
“The troubled teen industry is an unregulated, unmitigated disaster,” said Brice Timmons, an attorney for former residents who sued Triangle Cross Ranch and Trinity Teen Solutions. “It’s a constant game of whack-a-mole as a company changes names, an operation moves across state lines, or a license is changed from a residential treatment center to a boarding school. The same handful of people continue to abuse America’s children for profit, and Congress should act to put an end to it.”
Andrew Scavuzzo, who sued Triangle Cross Ranch over abuse he alleged took place at the ranch in 2012, said he’d been branded with a hot iron when he was a boy at the facility. He said he also had to haul dead animal carcasses, was forced by staff to huff gasoline and that boys had to box each other as punishment.
Triangle Cross Ranch disputed Scavuzzo’s account in court filings. The suit was dismissed this year following an out-of-court settlement.
In a March letter, the Wyoming Department of Family Services noted that Triangle Cross Ranch accumulated 45 rule violations between 2015 and 2022, and state officials cataloged 35 new violations this year.
State inspectors found exposed feces inside the ranch’s buildings on seven occasions since March, and broken glass and trash scattered in the yard during multiple visits, according to department records.
In April, a department official observed broken windows, and doors and lights that did not work during an inspection of the ranch. There was also a dead calf that had been lying in the yard for three days and the inspector witnessed a dog eating it. Youth were left alone while a staff member napped, inspection files show. Officials also noted that weapons, such as a large knife, and tobacco products were left lying unattended at the ranch.
The state found that one boy had to be taken to a hospital for self-harming after the ranch failed to give him his medication for 26 days. The ranch refused to take the boy back because he was too high risk, so he was sent to another group home, records show.
Inspectors found that Schneider, the ranch owner, had also moved the children to Montana earlier this year to hide them from state officials.
“After several misleading conversations about the whereabouts of the youth,” the inspection files state, Schneider revealed he’d rented a house in Belfry, Montana, and taken an unspecified number of children there. Schneider had previously told state officials “the youth were on vacation to misdirect the Licensing Authority away from knowing he rented a house in Montana and the youth were residing in it,” and that he did so because “they were afraid of DFS, in that they are going to shut them down,” the records state.
At the last inspection of the ranch in July, the state found additional violations, including an adult living in the children’s bunk house, lack of background checks, and one of two youth residing there without any bedding. Again, there was feces on the floor.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
