Ranch for Kids director wants to reopen

PHIL DRAKE   | Great Falls Tribune

The executive director of a program for troubled adolescents in northwest Montana that was shut down by the state Tuesday says he wants to reopen and added the decision to pull the youths from the program will traumatize them.

“My overall reaction is that no problems were solved yesterday,” William Sutley of the Ranch for Kids told the Tribune on Wednesday in a telephone interview.

“No problems were solved, not for the parents, not for the kids, not for us, not for the state,” he said, noting the state added insult to injury by taking them out of a safe environment where their needs were met.

Sutley said he was meeting with staff Tuesday at the Rexford-based facility when he was told he was needed in the front office. It was there he was given an emergency protective order by law enforcement and his license was suspended immediately.

The state Department of Public Health and Human Services, Department of Justice and Lincoln County law enforcement removed 27 children ages 11-17 due to what officials said were allegations of egregious, chronic and persistent child abuse and neglect of youth. The children are in DPHHS custody.

The investigation is continuing.

DPHHS spokesman Jon Ebelt said Wednesday officials have been able to make contact with virtually all of the parents.

"Some of the children have already been reunited with their parents, and we anticipate more in the coming days," he said in an email. "We are also working to assist parents to identify safe, trauma-informed alternative placement." 

Ebelt said the owner/s of Ranch for Kids have the right to request a hearing to determine whether the license should remain suspended.  A written request must be submitted within 10 days.

Sutley said he will go through the legal process to get the temporary restriction on the license removed. 

"Hopefully we will satisfy any concerns," he said. "We're not going anywhere as Ranch for Kids. You can take a wrecking ball to this building and destroy it. You can destroy my business. But you're never going to destroy the human spirit."

Sutley said this has forced the ranch to look inward and evaluate what happened. 

"We have to unwind this ball of yarn that has been created here," he said, adding the verdict has already been issued. "Nobody wanted the truth here."

He said he was not concerned about criminal charges.

"Why would I be worried? Were there criminal acts done? If there weren't criminal acts done why should I be worried about criminal charges being filed?" Sutley said. "If what they wrote on that piece of paper is true, I should be arrested."  

The Ranch for Kids, just east of Eureka, offers a treatment program for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Reactive Attachment Disorder. Its website says it primarily provides services to adopted children from Russia.

Sutley said they paid $6,000 to the state for re-licensure at end of June.

"They certainly took our money," he said.

The Ranch for Kids Project was founded in 1994 by Sutley's mother, Joyce E. Sterkel, after spending two years in Russia and seeing orphaned Russian children, according to the ranch's website. In 1998, she adopted a Russian child who was having problems, the ranch's website states. Her success with the child prompted other parents to ask her for help.

It moved to its Rexford location in 2003/2004, the website says.

The allegations include physical and psychological abuse and assaults of children by staff, officials with the Department of Public Health and Human Services said. This included children being hit, kicked, body slammed and spit on by staff in addition to staff inflicting persistent psychological abuse on children and staff using excessive discipline, such as 15-20 mile walks on remote forest service roads in harsh conditions, with improper or no shoes, withholding food, shooting a nail gun at a student, and prolonged isolation.

Other allegations include children not receiving medical attention when critically needed, medications not properly administered, stored or regulated. Also, runaways are not reported in a consistent or timely manner to law enforcement, even in harsh winter conditions.

DPHHS says the allegations of abuse has escalated in both frequency and severity in recent months.

Sutley denies there was any abuse.

“We’re here to provide a place for hope and healing for hurting kids,” he said. “When you don’t provide for basic needs, when you don’t provide for safety needs, you will never build trust in a relationship. And we are all about connections and relationships. Doing things that would be abusive and neglectful to kids is everything we are against.”

“We are spiritually,  passionately against that experience and that treatment for these kids.”

He said the ranch understands better than most clinicians this particular population of kids and their issues.

“If something is not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, what is it?” Sutley said.

He said the accusations of abuse were “patently lies” and said people are treated with dignity, accountability and respect. He also said the building has 16 cameras, 24-hour surveillance.

Sutley said he is not a licensed clinician.

“I am not a licensed anything,” he said, adding there are two schools of thought out there: theory and experience.

“I have more experience with this population of kids than any other clinician on the planet,” Sutley said, adding he has been doing this for 15 years.

He said he uses various principles, such as the the Mandt System, which he said builds trust in relationships and helps parents de-escalate conflicts in the home.

“Unfortunately, society has boxes, and there is no model for what we do,” Sutley said. 

He said his team of about 15 understands the disorder and is trained in working in a specific area.

“If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, then your whole world is a nail,” Sutley said. “The state of Montana is ill-equipped and inexperienced to work with this population. Our experience comes from living it.” 

DPHHS officials said a new state law transferred authority of the Private Alternative Adolescent Residential and Outdoor Program to DPHHS as of July 1. Prior to July 1, they did not have licensing authority over these programs. 

The Missoulian had done a series that brought the new laws about.

Phil Drake is our eye on the state capitol. For tips, suggestions or comment, he can be reached at 406-231-9021 or pdrake@greatfallstribune.com. To support his work, subscribe today and get a special offer.