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St. Joe News Press
Teen's death brings abuse
allegations
March 14, 2005
By Ray Scherer
Mothers of two former students at
the Thayer Learning Center near Kidder, Mo., vow to support shutting
down the military-style boot camp for teen-agers.
Thayer has been at the center of
controversy since opening its doors in 2002. A California couple,
Gracia and Victor Reyes, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Buchanan
County in early February, claiming their son, 15-year-old Roberto
Reyes, didn't receive medical care in a timely manner last fall.
Roberto died less than a week after enrolling at Thayer, with a
state child fatality review panel initially ruling his death
resulted from a brown recluse spider bite.
State officials continue to
investigate circumstances around Roberto's death, with a report by a
state legal team in the Missouri Department of Social Services still
pending.
Thayer officials said they have
been cooperating with the state in the investigations, but have so
far declined to speak about the Reyes' lawsuit or other complaints.
The fact that someone died while in
the facility's care has served to deepen the cause of parents who
assert their children were mistreated at Thayer.
Many people around the country,
such as Joanie Nations of Henderson, Texas, decided the school was
the last resort to instill discipline in her 13-year-old son,
Anthony. She enrolled him in Thayer last summer to the tune of
$47,000 in tuition.
"I thought I was seeing it all, but
it turned out I probably wasn't," Ms. Nations said of her personal
research into the center's offerings. "I knew it would be tough,
because it was a boot camp. I didn't do it for anything but love for
him. Now there's a dead child."
A red flag came up when a Thayer
official told her Anthony was suffering from what was labeled a
minor ear infection. But the supervisor failed to follow up on
informing Ms. Nations of the treatment.
She received a phone call later
from St. Joseph resident Tim Rocha, who was working at the center at
the time. Mr. Rocha had earlier told the News-Press the story of his
own brief work experience at Thayer.
"You need to go and get your boy,"
she recalled Mr. Rocha saying in the conversation.
Initially disbelieving, she
eventually convinced herself to make the 11-hour drive to rural
Caldwell County to bring Anthony back home.
On the return trip to Texas, he
told her the ear infection was more serious than what she was told,
and that officials didn't remove him from the facility's daily
regimen of exercise.
"He never got a moment to rest,"
Ms. Nations said.
The bloody drainage from his ear
soaked his pillow, and he was kept from using the restroom on other
than assigned breaks despite drinking a large amount of water as
ordered by camp leaders.
Ms. Nations said she's convinced
that Thayer has other motives besides rehabilitating troubled
youths. She is in the process of securing a publisher for a book she
wrote on her son's experience and to express concern for students'
welfare.
"They need to be shut and the
people that run it need to be jailed," she said. "They're in it for
the money."
Another mother, Karen VanZant of
Seattle, also took it upon herself to learn more about Thayer after
her ex-husband told her that he had enrolled their 16-year-old
daughter, Sarah, in the camp last summer.
"The more poking around I did, the
more panic-stricken I got," Ms. VanZant said. "I was so frightened
for my daughter that I asked my mother to drive down there. She was
held at bay by a security guard."
When Ms. VanZant finally received a
phone call from Sarah, months after not talking to her, the reports
on Thayer were glowing. Sarah called Thayer co-founder Willa Bundy
"the most wonderful person in the world," she said in recalling her
daughter's words.
Willa Bundy owns the school along
with her husband, John.
A former Thayer teacher, Connie
Szczepanik of St. Joseph, said she witnessed abuse at the center
last spring and was fired after receiving notes from a student that
were to be passed on to the family. She hopes that the facility will
be forced to shut down and that officials face prosecution.
"It was misrepresented to me
completely," Ms. Szczepanik said of her before-and-after impressions
of Thayer. "It was extremely negative. That poor young man had to
die to bring it (abuses) to the surface. I hope somebody gets
something done, finally."
., vow to support shutting down the
military-style boot camp for teen-agers.
Thayer has been at the center of
controversy since opening its doors in 2002. A California couple,
Gracia and Victor Reyes, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Buchanan
County in early February, claiming their son, 15-year-old Roberto
Reyes, didn't receive medical care in a timely manner last fall.
Roberto died less than a week after enrolling at Thayer, with a
state child fatality review panel initially ruling his death
resulted from a brown recluse spider bite.
State officials continue to
investigate circumstances around Roberto's death, with a report by a
state legal team in the Missouri Department of Social Services still
pending.
Thayer officials said they have
been cooperating with the state in the investigations, but have so
far declined to speak about the Reyes' lawsuit or other complaints.
The fact that someone died while in
the facility's care has served to deepen the cause of parents who
assert their children were mistreated at Thayer.
Many people around the country,
such as Joanie Nations of Henderson, Texas, decided the school was
the last resort to instill discipline in her 13-year-old son,
Anthony. She enrolled him in Thayer last summer to the tune of
$47,000 in tuition.
"I thought I was seeing it all, but
it turned out I probably wasn't," Ms. Nations said of her personal
research into the center's offerings. "I knew it would be tough,
because it was a boot camp. I didn't do it for anything but love for
him. Now there's a dead child."
A red flag came up when a Thayer
official told her Anthony was suffering from what was labeled a
minor ear infection. But the supervisor failed to follow up on
informing Ms. Nations of the treatment.
She received a phone call later
from St. Joseph resident Tim Rocha, who was working at the center at
the time. Mr. Rocha had earlier told the News-Press the story of his
own brief work experience at Thayer.
"You need to go and get your boy,"
she recalled Mr. Rocha saying in the conversation.
Initially disbelieving, she
eventually convinced herself to make the 11-hour drive to rural
Caldwell County to bring Anthony back home.
On the return trip to Texas, he
told her the ear infection was more serious than what she was told,
and that officials didn't remove him from the facility's daily
regimen of exercise.
"He never got a moment to rest,"
Ms. Nations said.
The bloody drainage from his ear
soaked his pillow, and he was kept from using the restroom on other
than assigned breaks despite drinking a large amount of water as
ordered by camp leaders.
Ms. Nations said she's convinced
that Thayer has other motives besides rehabilitating troubled
youths. She is in the process of securing a publisher for a book she
wrote on her son's experience and to express concern for students'
welfare.
"They need to be shut and the
people that run it need to be jailed," she said. "They're in it for
the money."
Another mother, Karen VanZant of
Seattle, also took it upon herself to learn more about Thayer after
her ex-husband told her that he had enrolled their 16-year-old
daughter, Sarah, in the camp last summer.
"The more poking around I did, the
more panic-stricken I got," Ms. VanZant said. "I was so frightened
for my daughter that I asked my mother to drive down there. She was
held at bay by a security guard."
When Ms. VanZant finally received a
phone call from Sarah, months after not talking to her, the reports
on Thayer were glowing. Sarah called Thayer co-founder Willa Bundy
"the most wonderful person in the world," she said in recalling her
daughter's words.
Willa Bundy owns the school along
with her husband, John.
A former Thayer teacher, Connie
Szczepanik of St. Joseph, said she witnessed abuse at the center
last spring and was fired after receiving notes from a student that
were to be passed on to the family. She hopes that the facility will
be forced to shut down and that officials face prosecution.
"It was misrepresented to me
completely," Ms. Szczepanik said of her before-and-after impressions
of Thayer. "It was extremely negative. That poor young man had to
die to bring it (abuses) to the surface. I hope somebody gets
something done, finally."
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