“Before anyone calls a child’s distress a ‘mental illness,’ insist on a full medical workup for untreated physical conditions that can look like psychiatric symptoms.” – Jan Eastgate, President, CCHR International

As reports grow of psychiatric drug harms and hospital staff prosecuted for sexually abusing children, parents need facts—not hospital marketing

By Jan Eastgate
President, CCHR International
September 18, 2026

CCHR urges parents and caregivers to use FightForKids.org if anyone recommends prescription psychotropic drugs, or psychiatric hospitalization to confine a child. CCHR’s FightForKids campaign helped produce the federal Prohibition on Mandatory Medication Amendment: schools cannot force a parent to give a child a psychiatric drug as a condition of attending class. CCHR’s work with state lawmakers produced similar parental-rights laws in 10 states. Some of those laws also bar child-protective agencies from removing a child solely because parents refuse a psychotropic drug. The Parents Know Your Rights page covers how “diagnoses” are made without confirmatory medical testing, documented drug side effects, questions to ask before labeling or medicating a child, and seek non-drug medical and educational options for attention, learning, mood, and behavior problems.

Do Not Hire a “Goon Squad” to Kidnap Your Child

Parents need to be warned against companies that forcibly transport “troubled” teens to residential treatment facilities and wilderness camps. Distressed families pay $2,000–$4,000—sometimes plus a consultant fee up to $10,000—to have children taken from bed at night and driven across state lines, even when the child is of consenting age, and locked in abusive programs thousands of miles from home.[1] The practice is known as “gooning.”

About 40,000 children, including some from Canada, are held in U.S. behavioral facilities.[2] The U.S. behavioral market was valued at $92.14 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $132.46 billion by 2032.[3] One study put youth treatment spending at approximately $12 billion.[4] By 2015, 82% of residential facilities still used seclusion and restraints. At least 145 children died of preventable causes in residential centers over three decades; at least 62 died from asphyxiation or restraint injury.[5]

Parents who hire “goon” transport are handing a child to an unregulated industry that has used opposite-sex strangers, restraints, and strip searches, and that feeds programs later charged with child sexual abuse. An Arizona Law Review article states that some secure-transport companies have employed people with criminal records, including sexual-abuse crimes.[6]

In August 2022, Julio Sandoval of Safe, Sound, Secure Youth Ministries in Missouri and the mother of a California teenager were indicted by a federal grand jury. The indictment alleged that workers for Sandoval’s company handcuffed the teenager at a store in Fresno and drove him to Agape Boarding School in Stockton, Missouri. The boy allegedly remained restrained for the entire 27-hour ride. Sandoval and the mother were accused of violating a restraining order the boy had obtained against her. [7]

The danger is not limited to hired “goon” squads. Facilities themselves also put patients alone in vans with staff. Those transports are a separate practice from gooning, but they show the same risk can apply when children are moved between hospitals, rehabs, and residential programs.

On September 14, 2026, a woman filed a lawsuit against Summit BHC Meadville, LLC, doing business as French Creek Recovery Center, alleging that a facility driver sexually assaulted her while transporting her from Niagara Falls Psychiatric Center in New York to the Pennsylvania inpatient drug-and-alcohol facility in June 2025. The complaint alleges the driver sexually assaulted her inside the facility van after parking in a secluded area; that another female patient reported being sexually assaulted by the same driver within days; and that Pennsylvania State Police investigated. The suit accuses French Creek of negligent hiring, supervision, and retention, alleging the facility knew or should have known of warning signs. It further claims French Creek’s chief executive officer was shown sexually explicit messages sent by the driver and that interior van-camera footage of the alleged assault was allowed to be overwritten before it could be preserved. [8]  The plaintiff is an adult. The alleged facts—an unsupervised patient locked in a van with a facility driver—are the same conditions parents face when a hospital or program moves a child.

Hospitalization is not a safe default. A CCHR white paper this year cited research that up to 45% of inpatient psychiatric patients reported sexual violence during admission.[9] The Joint Commission reported a 77% rise in hospital assault incidents over two years, nearly half sexual.[10]

What Families Should Demand Before a Locked Door Closes

A law firm advising families on Universal Health Services (UHS) hospitals in Illinois described litigation involving more than 100 former minor patients, some as young as eight, alleging sexual, physical, and emotional abuse—including children forced to perform sex acts on other minors. A state investigation found at least 10 children sexually assaulted at one Illinois psychiatric hospital over three years; some incidents were not properly reported. The firm’s advice is basic and urgent: document injuries and records, ask who supervised the unit and who changed the drugs.[11] CCHR adds to report abuse to the police.

Why a UHS Hospital CEO Arrest is Not “Just Personal”

On August 29, 2026, Randall J. Mackendrick, then CEO of UHS’s Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents in St. Clairsville, Ohio, was charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor, disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile, and possessing criminal tools. UHS said that, to its present knowledge, the alleged conduct occurred outside the facility and was a “personal matter unrelated to any current or former patients.”[12]

That does not resolve the concern about the children inside Fox Run. It is a locked facility for children as young as five. The CEO controls hiring, staffing, incident reporting, and whether police are called.

The Marshall Project’s review of Fox Run (2020–2025) found 52 assault calls and 17 sexual-assault calls already known to local police, some involving alleged staff violence. In March 2022, an 11-year-old forcibly sodomized a 9-year-old after other youths barricaded a door; an officer found staff unclear on sexual-assault procedures. State inspectors later found the hospital mishandled a separate sexual-misconduct complaint.[13] That record is why “personal matter” is not a sufficient limit on the inquiry. Peer assaults and delayed reports happened on units executives were paid to supervise.

The same company has a documented problem with staff sexual crimes and weak background checks.[14] In a CCHR sample of UHS cases, at least eight staff were convicted of sexual crimes against patients and four more were charged. Civil payouts are mostly sealed. The clearest public figures are jury awards of $180 million (Pavilion, Illinois—later reduced and settled) and about $360 million (Cumberland, Virginia—on appeal), the latter involving alleged abuse by a facility medical director.[15]

A parallel CEO case is Jacob Cuellar, former CEO of UHS Laurel Ridge in San Antonio, who resigned in June 2024 after arrest for continuous sexual abuse of an 11-year-old who was not a Laurel Ridge patient—although alleged over two years while he was CEO. He awaits trial.[16] He had worked there since 2012 despite a 1999 pornography-related conviction. In May 2025, he was also indicted in Durham County, N.C., on six child-sex counts from 2001–2008.[17] In May 2026, a Laurel Ridge former employee sued him and the hospital for alleged groping at a 2024 staff training.[18]

A Criminal Pattern, Not Isolated “Bad Apples”

UHS / Related Facilities:

Convictions, charges, and lawsuits show the same pattern across UHS-owned hospitals: staff sexual crimes against patients, weak screening, and delayed reports. These are examples, not a complete national tally.

• June 2026: Nurse Fernando Ortiz-Marrero, University Behavioral Health Center (Orlando), was sentenced to 10 years for sexual assault of a 16-year-old Baker Act (involuntarily detained) patient in a bathroom. Another staffer reported him.[19] He was also charged with misconduct of a psychotherapist.[20]

• June 2026: Suit filed against Heartland Behavioral Health Services (Missouri) and UHS alleging staff sexual abuse of multiple children across years, including a 10-year-old in 2025.[21]

• 2026: Foundations Behavioral Health (Pennsylvania) employee Dwayne Leon Shepherd Jr. pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of children, simple assault, and abuse of a care-dependent person, and he was sentenced to three years of probation for assaulting a juvenile.[22] Civil lawsuits have also alleged sexual abuse at that facility.[23]

• December 2025: Former Hartgrove Behavioral Health Hospital (Illinois) counselor Edmund Rivers was charged with five felony counts of criminal sexual assault for repeatedly sexually assaulting minor patients, some as young as seven; prosecutors called him a serial perpetrator. Hundreds of former patients have filed lawsuits alleging sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at Hartgrove and other youth facilities. An attorney said, “One staffer walked in and witnessed the sexual abuse of children, laughed, closed the door and never followed up.”[24]

• February 6, 2020: Provo Canyon Behavioral School (Utah) staff member Gabriel Michael Lima was charged with first-degree felony sodomy on a 12-year-old child and second-degree felony enticing a minor after the girl told police that, days after she left the facility in September 2019, he sent her genital photos and later drove her to a park and forced a sex act.[25]  He was convicted in June 2021 and is listed on the Utah Sex Offender Registry.[26] In July 2026, Utah revoked the license of Provo Canyon School’s Springville campus while the Provo campus remained under sanctions.[27]

• February-September 2017: Alana Chasky, 35, a teacher’s aide at a Behavioral Education Services-owned private school, a UHS subsidiary (Florida), was charged with felony lewd and lascivious battery on a patient between the ages of 12 and 16 and with distributing obscene material.[28]

• 2016: A family filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Laurel Ridge psychiatric hospital (Texas), alleging the center failed to protect their daughter, who was sexually assaulted by one of its counselors, Alexander Williams. Williams was criminally charged over the assault.[29]

• 2013: Ernest Parker, 55, a mental health technician at Milton Girls Juvenile Residential facility (Florida), was charged with sexually abusing at least six girls and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.[30]

Acadia Healthcare—Another Giant Behavioral Hospital Chain

More than 80 Acadia facilities (32%) in over 20 states have been under federal or state investigation; more than 500 patient complaints have been logged since 2022.[31] In 2023, Acadia paid $400 million to settle three sexual-abuse cases involving an eight-year-old at the closed Desert Hills facility in New Mexico.[32]

• 2016: PARK ROYAL HOSPITAL (Florida) hired Benjamin Bland without checking his credentials and put him over the care of patients despite having been twice arrested in the previous six years, fired from a job over accusations of sexual harassment and theft, and his admission to having choked a woman. Park Royal allowed him access to nearly a dozen mentally disturbed women who alleged he sexually assaulted them within the hospital’s walls in 2013. Bland was charged, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to five years in state prison.[33] 

• 2017: VILLAGE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH (Louisville, Kentucky) employee Laken Brooke Bailey pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a 17-year-old, unlawful sexual contact, and two counts of delivery of a controlled substance.[34]

• 2017-2018: Disability Rights Ohio investigated Acadia’s OHIO HOSPITAL FOR PSYCHIATRY in Franklin County, Ohio, and substantiated allegations of sexual and physical abuse and unsafe seclusion. Investigators reported that a male nurse locked a female patient in a room, sexually assaulted her during admission, and later forced her to take medications that were not ordered for her.[35]

• 2018: At TIMBERLINE KNOLLS RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT CENTER in Illinois, at least four residents said therapist Michael Jacksa sexually assaulted them. The facility waited more than three weeks to call police and did so only after patients complained to the state’s substance-abuse agency. By 2021, the charges against him had risen to 62 counts, and he is required to register as a sex offender.[36]

• 2024: Two former residents sued Timberline Knolls, alleging that aide Erik Hampton—who was hired despite an earlier criminal record that included domestic-violence and gun charges—had raped them. In March 2024, Hampton had allegedly pulled the 18-year-old resident into a room without cameras, forced his hands up her shirt, and grabbed her breasts. Later that spring, she alleged in the lawsuit and a police report that he led her into an office and tried to force his hands into her underwear. Soon after, J.P. was admitted to a nearby psychiatric hospital after reporting suicidal thoughts. When that hospital released her a few days later, she said Hampton was waiting in the parking lot, drove her to his duplex about an hour from Timberline Knolls, and raped her repeatedly. Another former patient sued the facility in August 2024, stating that the facility had failed to protect her from being raped by Hampton.[37]

• May 2025: A Cedar Chest Hospital (Texas) staffer was charged with sexual assault of a child.[38]

What Parents Should Do Now

Psychiatric hospitalization and psychotropic drugs are not risk-free. Before anyone calls a child’s distress a “mental illness,” insist on a full medical workup for untreated physical conditions that can look like psychiatric symptoms. Prefer educational and medical solutions to first-line psychiatric drugs. Read every warning label and do not accept “the school requires it” or “the hospital will decide.”

Use your legal rights. Federal law already bars schools from forcing a psychiatric drug as a condition of attending class. In 10 states, similar parental-rights laws apply; some also stop child-protective agencies from removing a child solely because parents refuse a psychotropic drug. Review CCHR’s FightForKids.org and Parents Know Your Rights page before a meeting with a school, doctor, or facility.

Do not hire a transport company to snatch a child at night and ship them across state lines to a residential program. Those extractions have left children traumatized, and the destination facilities are the same industry with documented sexual assaults, restraints, and deaths.

If your child is already inside: keep demanding their release and, if refused, obtain an attorney and report this to local police, seeking their assistance to extract your child safely. While this is being done, visit often and unannounced when allowed; document bruises, sudden drug changes, missed school, and anything the child says about bathrooms, night staff, or other patients; photograph injuries; keep a log of who was on duty.

Especially if you suspect sexual or physical abuse, call police and the state licensing agency the same day. Do not wait for the hospital’s “investigation.” Staff in several of these cases walked in, closed the door, or delayed reporting for weeks.

If abuse already happened, preserve records, get independent medical and legal help, and file with police, the state inspector, and—if federal funds paid the stay—Health and Human Services and the state Medicaid agency and/or any private insurance company providing coverage. Provide CCHR with a copy and seek their assistance as needed.

For Legislators, CCHR recommends:

• National public reporting of restraints, seclusion, injuries, deaths, staffing, and ownership
• Automatic license suspension or closure after credible findings of serious harm
• Criminal and civil liability for executives and clinicians when abuse is systemic
• An end to seclusion and mechanical restraint
• Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS OIG) investigations of marketing and billing incentives that fill these beds.

A psychiatric “diagnosis” is not a lab finding. It is a checklist of behaviors, voted into a manual, then used to justify mind-altering drugs and locked wards. Parents must be told what those drugs can do to a developing brain, what can happen behind a locked door, and that they have the legal right to refuse.

Parents cannot rely on the facility to police itself. Get the facts first. FightForKids.org

[1] https://www.cchrint.org/2024/07/12/abducting-troubled-teens-to-psychiatric-facilities/#_edn1; Evelyn Tsisin, “The Trouble Teen Industry’s Troubling Lack of Oversight,” The Regulatory Review, 27 June 2023, https://www.theregreview.org/2023/06/27/tsisin-the-troubled-teen-industrys-troubling-lack-of-oversight/; Rob Danzman, “Insider’s Guide: How to Pay for A Therapeutic Wilderness Program,” 23 Oct. 2013, https://robdanzman.com/insiders-guide-how-to-pay-for-a-therapeutic-wilderness-program/

[2] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/01/05/troubled-teens-targeted-for-risky-behavioral-treatment/; “Canadians Faced Shocking Abuse at U.S. ‘Troubled Teen’ Boarding Schools: Paris Hilton exposed the controversial ‘treatment’ programs that have also traumatized Canadian teenagers,” Huffington Post, 22 Nov. 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/boarding-school-abuse-canadians_ca_5fb53599c5b6f00bd84c6ef7

[3] https://www.cchrint.org/2024/09/13/family-estrangement-used-to-detain-and-abuse-children-in-psych-hospitals/; “U.S. Behavioral Health Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis…,” Fortune Business Insights, 5 Sept. 2024, https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/u-s-behavioral-health-market-105298

[4] https://www.cchrint.org/2024/09/13/family-estrangement-used-to-detain-and-abuse-children-in-psych-hospitals/’ Roland Sturm, Jeanne S. Ringel, et al., “Mental Health Care for Youth: Who Gets It? How Much Does It Cost? Who Pays? Where Does the Money Go?” RAND, 2001, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4541.html

[5] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/01/05/troubled-teens-targeted-for-risky-behavioral-treatment/; Sharon Green-Hennessy, Kevin D Hennessy, “Predictors of Seclusion or Restraint Use Within Residential Treatment Centers for Children and Adolescents,” Psychiatric Quarterly, Dec. 2015, Vol. 86, Issue 4, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25733324/; Annie Waldman, “Kids Get Hurt at Residential Schools While States Look On,” ProPublica, 15 Dec. 2015, https://www.propublica.org/article/kids-get-hurt-at-residential-schools-while-states-look-on

[6] Ellie Anderson, “We Can Do This the Easy Way or the Hard Way: Involuntary Youth Transport and the Lack of Oversight,” Arizona Law Review, 12 May 2026, https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/arizlrev/article/10717/galley/9283/download/

[7] “Fresno Case Illustrates Issue of ‘Gooning,’ Forcibly Transporting Kids to Treatment,” GV Wire, 27 Sept. 2022, https://gvwire.com/2022/09/27/fresno-case-illustrates-issue-of-gooning-forcibly-transporting-kids-to-treatment/

[8] Maria Smith, “Lawsuit Filed Against French Creek Recovery Center, Alleging Sexual Assault During Patient Transport,” Andreozzi + Foot, 17 Sept. 2026, https://www.victimscivilattorneys.com/news/french-creek-recovery-center-lawsuit/

[9] https://www.cchrint.org/2026/01/16/cchr-white-paper-urges-government-crackdown-on-troubled-teen-and-for-profit-psychiatric-facilities/; Holly Betterly, et al., “Sexual assault in the inpatient psychiatric setting,” General Hospital Psychiatry, Vol. 82, May–June 2023, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0163834323000270

[10] https://www.cchrint.org/2026/01/16/cchr-white-paper-urges-government-crackdown-on-troubled-teen-and-for-profit-psychiatric-facilities/; Gretchen Morgenson, “Lean staffing, lax hiring, training flaws: Why sexual assaults at hospitals are up,” NBC News, 18 Nov. 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/lean-staffing-lax-hiring-training-flaws-assaults-hospitals-are-rcna171055

[11] TorHoerman Law, What Families Should Know About Abuse in a Psychiatric Hospital, Washington Daily News, 10 Sept. 2026 https://www.thewashingtondailynews.com/sponsored-content/what-families-should-know-about-abuse-in-a-psychiatric-hospital-7ee6d169; “GGH Files Lawsuit Against Hartgrove hospital and Universal health Services in Behalf of 100 Youth,” 13 Dec. 2024, https://gghlaw.com/press-releases/sggh-files-lawsuit-against-hartgrove-hospital-and-universal-health-services-in-behalf-of-100-youth/

[12] “Fox Run CEO Arrested in Sex Sting, The Marshall Project,” 10 Sept. 2026, https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/09/10/fox-run-ceo-arrested-underage-sex-sting

[13] “It Was Supposed to Be a Haven for Troubled Teens. They Risked Everything to Escape,”The Marshall Project, 30 Jul. 2026, https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/07/30/fox-run-youth-residential-treatment-runaways

[14] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/10/30/child-abuse-allegations-in-the-behavioral-psychiatric-industry-universal-health-services-uhs/; “Warehouses of Neglect: How Taxpayers Are Funding Systematic Abuse in Youth Residential Treatment Facilities,” Senate Committee on Finance Staff Report, US Senate, 12 June, 2024, https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/rtf_report_warehouses_of_neglect.pdf

[15] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/10/30/child-abuse-allegations-in-the-behavioral-psychiatric-industry-universal-health-services-uhs/; Art Levine, “Troubled Teen Industry Rocked by Lawsuits, Sexual Assault Charges,” MindSite News, 31 Dec. 2025, https://mindsitenews.org/2025/12/31/troubled-teen-industry-rocked-by-lawsuits-sexual-assault-charges/; Reed Williams, “Sexual abuse alleged in $127 million lawsuit against children’s hospital in New Kent County,” Richmond Dispatch News, 20 Oct. 2020, https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/sexual-abuse-alleged-in-127-million-lawsuit-against-childrens-hospital-in-new-kent-county/article_48f551ed-0c7f-5736-aac6-5c05562faca6.html; Vernon Freeman, Jr., “Children’s doctor accused of sexual abuse on temporary leave of absence,” WTVR-CBS 6, 10 Feb. 2020, https://www.wtvr.com/news/problem-solvers/problem-solvers-investigations/childrens-doctor-accused-of-sexual-abuse-placed-on-temporary-leave-of-absence

[16] Katrina Webber, “Report: Girl made outcry 2 years ago that led to sex charges against Laurel Ridge’s ex-CEO Jacob Cuellar, 45, charged with continuous sex assault of a child,” KSAT News, 14 June 2024, https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2024/06/14/report-girl-made-outcry-2-years-ago-that-led-to-sex-charges-against-laurel-ridges-ex-ceo

[17] Nate Kotisso, Katrina Webber, “Ex-Laurel Ridge Treatment Center CEO faces 6 child sex charges in North Carolina, records indicate, KSAT News, 10 June 2025, https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/06/11/ex-laurel-ridge-treatment-center-ceo-faces-6-child-sex-charges-in-north-carolina-records-indicate/

[18] Katrina Webber. “Lawsuit filed against former Laurel Ridge Treatment CEO for sexual harassment,” KSAT News, 14 May 2026, https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/05/15/lawsuit-filed-against-former-laurel-ridge-treatment-ceo-for-sexual-harassment

[19] Chris Raines, “Nurse sentenced in sexual assault of 16-year-old patient,” News 6, 27 June 2026, https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2026/06/27/nurse-sentenced-in-sexual-assault-of-16-year-old-patient

[20] Madilyn Destefano, Hayley Combleholme, “Orlando nurse arrested for sexual battery of an underage patient,” NBC 2 WESH News, 16 July 2025, https://www.wesh.com/article/florida-nurse-arrested-sexual-battery-underage-patient/65428946

[21] Nicole Benoist, “Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Filed Against Heartland Behavioral Health Services and Universal Health Services in Missouri,” OnderLaw, 25 June 2026, https://www.einpresswire.com/article/921672697/child-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-filed-against-heartland-behavioral-health-services-and-universal-health-services-in-missouri

[22] “Former behavioral health worker gets probation for assaulting care-dependent juvenile at New Britain Borough facility,” Northern Penn Now, 8 July 2026, https://northpennnow.com/news/former-behavioral-health-worker-gets-probation-for-assaulting-care-dependent-juvenile-at-new-britain-borough-facility/

[23] “Were You Sexually Abused in a Pennysylvania Juvenile Detention or Youth Residential Treatment Center?” Levy Konigsberg LLP, https://www.levylaw.com/foundations-behavioral-health-sexual-abuse-lawsuits/

[24] “Troubled Teen Industry Rocked by Lawsuits, Sexual Assault Charges,” MindSite News, 31 Dec. 2025, https://mindsitenews.org/2025/12/31/troubled-teen-industry-rocked-by-lawsuits-sexual-assault-charges/

[25] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/10/30/child-abuse-allegations-in-the-behavioral-psychiatric-industry-universal-health-services-uhs/; Jessica Miller, “Staffer at Utah youth hospital accused of forcing sex on 12-year-old former patient,” The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Feb 2020, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/02/06/staffer-utah-youth/; Pat Reavy, “Charges: Staffer at Utah behavior hospital charged with sexually abusing girl,” Deseret News, 6 Feb 2020, https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/2/6/21126482/charges-staffer-at-utah-behavior-hospital-charged-with-sexually-abusing-girl

[26] Registered sex offenders in zip code 84780, City-Data, https://www.city-data.com/soz/soz-84780.html

[27] Amelia Hobson, “DHHS revokes license of Provo Canyon School’s Springville campus amid lawsuit over misconduct, neglect,” ABC4 Utah, 6 July 2026, https://www.abc4.com/news/wasatch-front/provo-canyon-springville-campus-license-revoked

[28] https://www.cchrint.org/2024/04/19/cchr-condemns-mental-health-industry-putting-children-at-risk-of-sexual-assault/; Jacquelyn Gray, “Ex-teacher’s aide accused of sexually assaulting troubled special needs student,” Crime Online, 18 Oct. 2017, http://www.crimeonline.com/2017/10/18/ex-teachers-aide-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-troubled-special-needs-student/; “Palm Bay Teacher’s Aide Charged with Molesting Student,” Brevard Times, 17 Oct. 2017, http://news.brevardtimes.com/2017/10/palm-bay-teachers-aide-charged-with.html; Lamaur Stancil, “Former Palm Bay private school teacher’s aide charged with lewd battery,: Florida Today, 17 Dec. 2017, https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/crime/2017/10/17/former-palm-bay-private-school-teachers-aide-charged-lewd-battery/772255001/

[29] Sharon Ko, “Family of teen victim files $1.5 million lawsuit against Laurel Ridge,” KENS5, 28 Jan. 2016, https://www.kens5.com/article/news/family-of-teen-victim-files-15-million-lawsuit-against-laurel-ridge/273-65505311

[30] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/10/30/child-abuse-allegations-in-the-behavioral-psychiatric-industry-universal-health-services-uhs/; Michael Scott Davidson, “Former Miltona health tech found guilty of sex abuse,” Pensacola New Journal, 7 Mar. 2014, http://www.pnj.com/story/crime/2014/03/08/former-miltona-health-tech-found-guilty-of-sex-abuse/6189365/l Tom McLaughlin, “Parker sentenced for sexual molestation,” NFW Daily News, 16 Apr. 2014, https://www.nwfdailynews.com/story/news/2014/04/16/1-306369/33968343007/

[31] LawFold ran “Acadia Healthcare Lawsuit 2026: Settlement and Filing Guide.” https://lawfold.com/acadia-healthcare-lawsuit/

[32] Rylee Wilson, “Acadia Healthcare pays $400M to settle sexual abuse cases,” Becker’s Behavioral Health, 1 Nov. 2023, https://www.beckersbehavioralhealth.com/behavioral-health-news/acadia-healthcare-pays-400m-to-settle-sexual-abuse-cases

[33] Jacob Carpenter, “How a Fort Myers mental hospital missed warning signs about employee who sexually assaulted patients,” Naples Daily News, 7 Nov 2015, https://pre-employment.com/2015/12/01/fort-myers-mental-hospital-missed-warning-signs-employee-sexually-assaulted-patients/; Frank Gluck, “Park Royal Hospital sexual abuse lawsuit settled,” Naples Daily News, 20 June 2016, https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2016/06/20/park-royal-hospital-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-settled/86180108/

[34] “Acadia Healthcare: More Info on Sex Lawsuit Against The Village; Former Employees Talk About Negligence,” Psychcrime.org, 19 Apr 2022, https://psychcrime.org/news/index.php?vd=3538&t=Acadia+Healthcare%3A+More+Info+on+Sex+Lawsuit+Against+The+Village%3B+Former+Employees+Talk+About+Negligence; Ashley Depew, “What police, private investigations reveal about the Village Behavioral Health,” Daily Times, 12 Apr. 2022, https://www.thedailytimes.com/news/what-police-private-investigations-reveal-about-the-village-behavioral-health/article_2ae89da8-bad5-5be6-ac87-71ada5cc79fb.html 

[35] “DRO Report: Problems at the Ohio Hospital for Psychiatry,” Disability Rights Ohio, https://www.disabilityrightsohio.org/dro_report_problems_at_ohp

[36] Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas, “Suicides and Rape at a Prized Mental Health Center,” The New York Times, 22 Apr. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/acadia-timberline-knolls-suicide-rape.html; Megan De Mar, Mikayla Price, “Patient at Chicago area mental health facility repeatedly raped by employee, lawsuit says,” CBS News, 2 Sept. 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/mental-health-facility-rape-lawsuit/; Andrea Earnest, “More Charges Filed Against Former Timberline Knolls Counselor,” Patch, 3 Mar. 2021. https://patch.com/illinois/lemont/more-charges-filed-against-former-timberline-knolls-counselor-pd

[37] Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas, “Suicides and Rape at a Prized Mental Health Center,” The New York Times, 22 Apr. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/business/acadia-timberline-knolls-suicide-rape.html

[38] Roland Richter, “Former coach charged with sex assault of a child,” Fox 44 News, 23 May 2025, https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/bell-county/former-coach-charged-with-sex-assault-of-a-child