Over the last decade, wilderness therapy has improved its clinical sophistication and treatment modality. What once was referred to by critics as “hell camps” (Smith 1996) and connotated with numerous incidents where youth were either injured or died as a result of boot camp endeavors has since developed into a healthcare program backed with a growth of balance in the wild: challenges and nurturing, structure and safety, and humility in learning what’s inside and outside of one’s control. In selecting a topic to educatedly ramble on for a decent degree of pages, I dedicated countless hours and multiple migraines to selecting an issue that not only I could learn more about, but that our community (whether immediate or all around) could pick
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“I love you. Don’t be afraid. It’s for the best,” her eyes cry. The men rush the boy out, drive to the airport, and fly him to Escalante, Utah. Over the next month, Sally calls to see how Aaron’s doing. She’s discouraged to hear he’s belligerent and a whiner. The other kids resent him. On March 30, she’s informed that Aaron’s attitude is so bad he’ll probably have to repeat the program. Twenty-four hours later, Aaron is found dead. According to the autopsy, his gastrointestinal tract had leaked through two holes in his small intestine and spread a massive infection throughout his body. North Star explains it all happened so suddenly, heroic efforts were useless and ineffective. Preliminary reports from the sheriff’s office seemed to confirm North Star’s contention: Aaron Bacon’s death was an unavoidable accident (Krakauer 1995). Later that winter, Lance Jaggar and several other North Star employees charged with felony child abuse and neglect in Aaron Bacon’s death, will stand trial. Though Aaron wasn’t the first adolescent death during the advent of wilderness therapy, the horror of his last days (detailed in a personal journal) stirred up a storm of media attention throughout the 1990s. It generated unprecedented concerns about the multimillion-dollar wilderness therapy
“I love you. Don’t be afraid. It’s for the best,” her eyes cry. The men rush the boy out, drive to the airport, and fly him to Escalante, Utah. Over the next month, Sally calls to see how Aaron’s doing. She’s discouraged to hear he’s belligerent and a whiner. The other kids resent him. On March 30, she’s informed that Aaron’s attitude is so bad he’ll probably have to repeat the program. Twenty-four hours later, Aaron is found dead. According to the autopsy, his gastrointestinal tract had leaked through two holes in his small intestine and spread a massive infection throughout his body. North Star explains it all happened so suddenly, heroic efforts were useless and ineffective. Preliminary reports from the sheriff’s office seemed to confirm North Star’s contention: Aaron Bacon’s death was an unavoidable accident (Krakauer 1995). Later that winter, Lance Jaggar and several other North Star employees charged with felony child abuse and neglect in Aaron Bacon’s death, will stand trial. Though Aaron wasn’t the first adolescent death during the advent of wilderness therapy, the horror of his last days (detailed in a personal journal) stirred up a storm of media attention throughout the 1990s. It generated unprecedented concerns about the multimillion-dollar wilderness therapy