CONTENT WARNING: This story mentions abuse.
In May 2020, at the age of 17, Naomi Wood died at the hands of the Lakeland Girls Academy, which is part of the Christian non-profit organization Global Teen Challenge. Located in Lakeland, Florida, the Lakeland Girls Academy described its mission as providing help to girls struggling with low self-esteem, rebellion, depression, anger, and defiance.
The academy has since been shut down, according to the Lakeland Ledger.
The Ledger reported that girls were restricted from taking any medications related to anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Consequently, the girls were forced to stop taking these types of medications immediately after entering the program, which can cause antidepressant withdrawal.
About a month before Wood’s death, she began experiencing stomach pains. The staff provided her with Pepto Bismol 20 times, according to News Channel 8.
Despite Wood’s consistent efforts to seek medical attention by submitting numerous requests to see a doctor, directly appealing to a counselor, and having other residents request on her behalf, Wood never received any medical attention. These stomach issues were so severe that they led to her death on May 19, 2020.
If her needs weren’t dismissed, it’s possible she would still be here today.
This multi-billion dollar “troubled teen” industry, is the place where parents send their misbehaved or traumatized children. The sector consists of several various treatment programs like the Lakeland Girls Academy. Other programs include boot camps, behavior modification facilities, wilderness therapy, and gay conversion, according to the National Youth Rights Association.
Parents are frequently convinced that their children need this treatment and are persuaded not to believe their children if they say anything negative about the program. Little do the parents know, they’re actually sending their children to a significantly unregulated facility with no escape.
It’s also been shown that these programs are not effective. The National Youth Rights Association states that these programs consequentially increase recidivism, the tendency of a criminal to re-offend, by 8%. In contrast, counseling decreases recidivism by 13%.
The therapy provided ranges across different camps, but they typically include food and sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, physical abuse, strenuous labor, and humiliation, according to the National Youth Rights Association. The “troubled teen” industry continues to profit $1.2 billion a year despite the numerous deaths reported in the industry.
Unfortunately, Wood became a part of this statistic, with the Central Florida teen dying a mere couple of years ago due to the industry’s lack of care.
Wood’s story is one of many. The horror stories of abuse that survivors have encountered at these programs are endless. It is clear that this industry is dangerous and needs to end. No children should be killed or die due to lack of care at so-called “therapy.”