756. Renewed Hope Ranch

Whenever a child and a counselor is alone in a room at a facility like Renewed Hope Ranch, there should be some video security not only to protect the child but also the professional reputation of the counselor. It seems that a staff member at Renewed Hope Ranch in Enoch either forgot that or turned off the security system with purpose.

Now the police is investigating which is the only way because they are the only one who can determine whether criminal activity took place.

If there was a purpose by shutting off the video security it is safe to say that it could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• Lawsuit, warrant allege abuse at southern Utah ranch for troubled girls (Deseret News)
• Lawsuit, warrant allege abuse at southern Utah ranch for troubled girls (KSL News)

755. Mount Carmel Industrial School

Mount Carmel Industrial School was located in Moate in Ireland.

It was a place where the local child welfare authorities could outsource their responsibilities to. Adults who survived the ordeal being placed there as children speak of beatings and sexual abuse. Some children seem to have disappeared. The paperwork was sparse and properly some of it has disappeared.

It could not have been fun to be there as a child. Where the oversight, the state should have taken care off were, is also uncertain. None seem to have taken care.

Sources:

• Offaly man speaks out about sickening abuse suffered in local residential home (Offaly Express)
• “I want to know who those babies were, how they ended up in that room in Mount Carmel and what ever became of them.” (Irish Mirror)
• Woman was victim of abuse since childhood (The Irish Times)
• ‘The State doesn’t care’ – Brave survivor of childhood sexual and physical abuse at industrial school (The Irish Independent)
• Mount Carmel Orphanage (Connie Roberts Poem)
• Darkest parts of Ireland’s history captured in exhibition (The Irish Examiner)
• An Irish poet in America recalls the dark secrets of her youth (Irish Central)

754. The Sisters of Nazareth group homes

The Sisters of Nazareth ran group homes in Scotland at a number of cities like Aberdeen, Cardonald, Lasswade and Kilmarnock. Recent reports found evidence of abuse of children conducted in the years between 1933 to 1984.

While the present management has issued a statement where they apologise wholeheartedly and unreservedly to those who suffered any form of mistreatment, the question remain why there were no oversight of the group homes that actually worked.

It could not have been fun to be at those places where the daily life included:

• force feeding
• beatings with belts, canes, sticks, broom handles, hairbrushes and crucifixes
• persistent sexual abuse of boys and girls at all four homes, with one nun facilitating the abuse of a girl by men including priests
• children who wet their beds being beaten, given cold baths or forced to wear their wet sheets

Sources:

• Children were abused at homes run by nuns, Scottish inquiry finds (The Guardian)
• Children were subject to sexual abuse of ‘utmost depravity’ at home run by Sisters of Nazareth religious order, inquiry finds (The Daily Mail)
• Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry: Nazareth Houses were ‘places of fear’ (BBC)

753. T.M. Landry College Preparatory

Sometime the price of higher education seems to be too high. According to various articles the environment at the school is marked by fear. The leader of the school was sentenced for simple battery and ordered to undergo a court-ordered anger management program. Currently the FBI is investigating the school.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• What the T.M. Landry Prep scandal reveals about race, stereotypes and inequality in American education (NBC News)
• F.B.I. Is Said to Be Investigating College Admissions Practices at T.M. Landry (New York Times)

752. Woodlands care home (for children)

Woodlands care home was located on Dereham Road in Norwich. It housed children of different age. Among the employees were Joseph Douglas Hewitt who in 1995 was convicted of sexual assault and rape involving six children. Strangely none seem to ask who were responsible for the oversight of the care home and why they failed the children.

Based on articles in the media it is safe to conclude that it could not have been fun to be a child at the care home.

Sources:

• Convicted rapist who ran Norwich children’s care home denies allegations from five more victims (Eastern Daily Express)
• Children would be taken for ‘beatings’ in care home, rape trial hears (Eastern Daily Express)