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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Instead of sending multiple people to jail for abusing kids, officials will turn a blind eye to abuse it knows will happen.
Abuse is normalized in the “troubled teen” industry and it’s absolutely infuriating.
It’s more that the republicans in the statehouse have limited the power of state agencies to protect kids, because conservatives see children as property, not people.
So the state agencies are screaming to the heavens about this shit, and are barred from acting due to laws that they must obey or else they can’t help any kids.
According to the article, the owner has been granted custody of the children so there’s no license for child care is required. It doesn’t mean that agencies like CPS can’t intervene, though.
That means the parents were complicit and gave(signed) away their parental rights away… how fucking heinous
Parents probably got tired of fucking them, or they aged out and only wanted toddlers. Whatever the case, when I see a Republican on the street—I usually think they’ve probably fucked a kid.
Yeah and its not any better in cps.
Because you think they take too many kids or because you think they don’t remove enough kids from bad situations?
Conservatives should not be permitted to be around children. Period.
As soon as I saw the name I was like “yeah that sounds about par for the course” if it’s conservative and or religious based and involves children you can guarantee some kids are being abused.
The people who are always screeching “think of the children!” Sure do love abusing kids
You had me at “Conservatives should not be permitted to be around”
conservatives should not be
Is sufficient enough
conservatives should not
Sorry, had to
$6k/month? Who the fuck is sending their kids there for that kind of money and then not even paying attention to what happens to them?
The word ‘Trinity’ gave it away … conservative CHRISTIANS
Christ on a cracker. For six grand I’ll raise their kid. The kid can keep a thousand a month for having shitty parents, and I can make sure there aren’t any dead animals laying in the yard.
The TTI is extremely coercive and misleading to parents and kids alike. Typically, parents get placed into a pipeline that convinces them into believing that they need to be extra harsh to their kids to get them to behave. The parents are usually states away, so they can’t check the conditions regularly. Even if they lived close, they aren’t allowed to see their children whenever they want because it will “interrupt the reeducation”. Parents are victims of the TTI as well as the kids
The MAGA crowd.
People who have money and don’t care for their children. 6k a month and you can just pretend like you don’t know anything if something goes wrong.
I don’t think they don’t care. I think they’re under the belief system that strict rules, harsh punishment, and hard work make a person a good and productive member of society. They think they’re doing what’s best for their kids and showing tough love. It’s similar to people who send their kids to conversion torture thinking it’s better to be traumatized than lgbt. Or at least that’s the vibes I’ve had ever since I read Joe nobody’s description of the Elan school
Good god fearing christians that know gard work builds character.
Hard right Christians with children who do not conform.
Sounds like the real traffickers/groomers. What the actual fuck.
Multiple studies have shown abuse and corporal punishment are the least effective tools to modify youth behavior. In fact children who are abused like this are more likely to do drugs, have trouble in school, perform risky behaviors, and ultimately become abusers themselves.
The myth of ‘that’s how I was raised and look at me’ perpetuates this bullshit. If these people were legitimate they would have nothing to hide. But this has less to do with helping troubled youth and more to do with satisfying their need to dominate and abuse someone that is helpless. It’s the same neurological disfunction that leads to serial killers.
I’d expect no less from a state full of Yellowstone cosplaying child abusers that hide behind a bible while spewing vacuous rhetoric that never holds up to scrutiny.
Okay. Time to call CPS and report child abuse again. And this time lock them up for abusing their own kids,
Also the parents that signed their kids away.
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Since they moved the kids across state lines at one point, doesn’t that mean the FBI could get involved? Sounds like trafficking to me
Good point! They do have a tip hotline,
It’d be a shame if someone kept calling CPS on them…
So. Gay people like me can’t say that we exist because we have to think about the kids.
Meanwhile, ranchers can employee children, abuse them, hide them from state officials, and deprive kids of medication. Oh and when discovered that they’re doin it, they’re told to not do it anymore and then remove all oversight.
This isn’t helping my already dangerous levels of depression. “Protecc the kids!” Then fucking protect them!
Weird. I didn’t know there were so many drag queens in Wyoming.
Oh wait. It’s the Republicans again, isn’t it?
It’s always been about attacking marginalized communities. If that means stepping on and abusing the community with the least voice for your political, personal and sexual benefit, so be it.
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Sounds like it being ran by hexbear
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Holes sounds like a paradise compared to this place, really. No feces in the living quarters, everyone had a bed, and the only people who were really physically punished were the staff. I’m trying to think of the worst thing in Holes, and it was probably the implication of being left to die in the sun? Or maybe shot. I think there was a point where one of the staff members started carrying a gun, right?
If you’re here claiming only Democrats fuck kids, we know instantly you’re a paid shill. Pedophilia is a bipartisan issue.
We’re moving back to the good old days of Rockefeller and Carnegie. I wonder when they’ll shoot down some laborers for not working. Gotta get Timmy to free the stuck gears and hope he keeps his hands.
Literally Elan
Republicans who fuck children? You don’t say…