Diamond Ranch Academy

Not to be confused with Diamond Ranch High School in Pomona, California
The football field at Diamond Ranch Academy

The Diamond Ranch Academy is a residential treatment center and therapeutic boarding school in Hurricane, Utah. It serves adolescents with various issues, including ADHD predominantly inattentive,[1] using what they call the "Real Life Transition Program", which includes a peer participant judicial system which uses citations, fines, and an appeal process,[2] with an emphasis on the participants solving real life problems. It enrolls young people between 12 and 18 years of age.

Diamond Ranch Academy was founded in Boise, Idaho, in 1999 by Rob and Sherri Dias and later moved to southern Utah, where it occupied a 200-acre (81 ha) ranch.[3][4][5] Enrollees aged 12 to 17 were housed in age- and gender-specific groups on four separate areas of the ranch.[3][4][5] Students who had reached the age of 18 before completing the program were housed in a fifth area.[5] In 2012, a new campus was opened at a site about 5 miles (8.0 km) from Hurricane.[6]

The academy's motto is "Healing Families, One Youth at a Time." Its education programs are accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission, and its courses generally last between eight and twelve months. Activities include various sports, including interscholastic competition, as well as caring for farm animals.[5]

In 2013, there were news media reports that Paris Jackson, daughter of singer Michael Jackson, was being placed at Diamond Ranch Academy.[7][8][9]


April 21, 2015, an article appeared in America Al Jazzera in which Spirit Angel-Conley, a former resident of Diamond Ranch, related the following incident.

Conley remembered that one day as the girls in the program passed the boy’s side of the facility, one of the boys mooned them. Late that night, staff woke the girls and made them single out the boy who did it. After he was caught, a staff member immediately began hitting him, dragging him out of the building. She remembered his shoes still lying in the hallway.

"All you could hear is this kid screaming,” she said. [10]

On 9-09-15, Chad Ryan Huntsman, a Diamond Ranch Academy Science teacher, was arrested for 10 counts of exploitation of a minor.[11]


References

  1. ↑ Diamond Ranch Academy
  2. ↑ The Real Life Transition Program
  3. 1 2 DIAMOND RANCH ACADEMY New Perspectives, Woodbury Reports website, July 30, 2004
  4. 1 2 Diamond Ranch Academy Tuition, Financing & Tax Deductions
  5. 1 2 3 4 Judith E. Bessette, Visit Report: Diamond Ranch Academy, Woodbury Reports website, April 28, 2010
  6. ↑ https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2012/11/28/morgan-diamond-ranch-academy-teen-treatment-facility-opens-new-hurricane-campus/
  7. ↑ Mohan, Keerthi (July 8, 2013). "Paris Jackson To Be Enrolled In Utah’s Diamond Ranch Academy, A School For Troubled Teens, After She Checks Out Of Hospital Following Suicide Bid". International Business Times.
  8. ↑ Toomey, Alyssa; Machado, Baker (July 9, 2013). "Paris Jackson's Potential Treatment Facility: An Inside Look at Diamond Ranch". E! Online.
  9. ↑ "Paris Jackson 'doing better' but will likely remain at boarding school for troubled teens 'for years'". The Daily Mail. November 26, 2013.
  10. ↑ http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/21/abuse-utah-residential-youth-treatment-facilities.html
  11. ↑ http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/local/cedar-city/2015/09/08/dra-science-teacher-faces-child-sexual-abuseexploitation-charges/71912420/

External links


Coordinates: 37°09′35″N 113°23′04″W / 37.15972°N 113.38444°W / 37.15972; -113.38444

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